Caleb was anything but a patient man. Especially when his pregnant, kind, playful woman didn't want anything to do with him.
He squeezed his eyes shut, sinking down on the bed, her note loosely dangling between his fingertips. Again, he asked, "Where are you?"
"Caleb … "
"Maddie, I swear, if you aren't back by tonight, I will fucking lose it."
Another sigh. "The baby's fine, okay? You don't have to worry about her."
His chest squeezed. She thought that the only reason he wanted her back was because of the baby. Did she really think that he cared so little for her?
Friends with benefits, his mind taunted. Remember?
He felt like he'd swallowed a mouthful of sand. And maybe a mouthful of crow too.
"Maddie," he started, voice surprisingly even. "Come back home. Please."
"Caleb, I won't," she said, irritation starting to creep into her tone. Caleb was pleased to hear it. Anything was better than the monotonous, empty ring of her words.
Anger and frustration made him say, "Is this my punishment? For what I said?"
Maddie almost choked on her laugh and for once, Caleb hated to hear it. It sounded harsh and biting, nothing like the laugh Caleb could listen to for hours. "If anything, this is my punishment, Caleb, for falling in love with you in the first place. I knew that this would happen. I can't say that I'm not surprised."
The words hurt more than Caleb expected. Squeezing his eyes shut, he rasped, "Where are you? We need to talk."
"I don't want to see you right now," she told him, sounding on the verge of tears and Caleb clenched his fists. "Just give me time, okay? I'll see you in a couple weeks."
A couple weeks? Caleb instantly rejected her words. A couple weeks without seeing her seemed like a lifetime and he wouldn't have it.
"No, I-"
She cut him off. "I need to go. Bye, Caleb."
She hung up. He stared down at the phone in his hand and barely refrained himself from chucking it across the room.
Two weeks? No fucking way. He looked at the date on his phone and saw that it was Friday. Even though he was tempted to drive into the city right now and wander around her campus looking for her, Caleb knew that the chances were slim that he'd actually find her. But tomorrow … tomorrow was when she interned at the museum. He knew when she started and when she ended. When she finished tomorrow afternoon, he'd be there and he'd convince her that this was foolish, that she needed to come home, that he didn't want them living apart for even another night.
It seemed so long since he'd last held her, tracing the freckles on her soft skin as she drifted off to sleep. All because of three little words and Caleb's inability to accept them. He'd pushed her away, denied himself the comforts of their bed, the comforts of her, and now … he was fucking miserable. What had it even been for?
He glanced back down at the note, still pinched between his fingertips. No. He refused to simply wait around until Maddie made a decision about their future. He needed to talk to her, to be near her. The rising panic in his chest wouldn't disappear until he was.
He'd give her today, no matter how much he would agonize over it.
Tomorrow was another story.
FORTY-THREE
When Maddie stepped foot outside the de Young museum in Golden Gate Park after her shift, she was not in the best mood. Her ankles were swollen from being on her feet for most of the day, she barely got any sleep last night, and her eyes were still a little swollen from all the crying she'd been doing. In short, she felt like a complete mess. A sad, mopey, pregnant mess.
To make her day even better, not even a minute out of the museum, she saw Caleb. He was standing several yards away, arms crossed over his chest, as he scanned the crowds. It was a Saturday and the museum was usually pretty busy. Families, couples, and students milled around the entrance, either leaving or just entering, and it took a little while for Caleb's eyes to meet hers. When they did, Maddie almost-almost-did an about face to retrace her steps back inside. She didn't want to do this right now. She just wanted to go back to her mom's house. She wanted to hole up in her childhood bedroom, eat copious amounts of pistachio ice-cream, and then sleep the rest of the afternoon and evening away.
She ignored that her treacherous heart gave a little stutter at the sight of him. She ignored that she immediately reached up to straighten her hair before she frowned and gripped the material of her new maternity dress. She ignored the way her eyes devoured the sight of him, watching him uncross his arms and start towards her, a gleam of determination in those dark eyes. She even ignored the way women around him stopped to blatantly check him out, ogling everything from his lips, to the shifting muscles in his arms, to his firm backside, cupped perfectly in his dark jeans.