I sat at an uncomfortable table that came up nearly to my neck. To my dismay, many of the businessmen were taller than me. I resisted a long sigh as the board member droned on. I drummed my fingers on the cool surface and took to looking at everyone in the office. I was, unfortunately, the youngest of all the people in the room today.

“So, Mr. Tyler, what do you think of the merging?” an older voice asked. I raised my tired eyes and shook my head. So far I didn’t like what I was hearing and I was planning on letting them know that straight up.

“No. I don’t like what I’m hearing from you. You’re basically saying for me to take on your company even though in the long run it’ll ruin me slowly over the years. I have to pay for your cost to merge and then nothing will come in return for nearly five years.” I stood up, placing my hands palm down on the table. I knew my green eyes were flashing by now for the looks some of the men gave me. A couple scooted backwards as I flashed a lethal looking grin.

“Why.. Mr. Tyler this offer will help you later in five years!” the board member sputtered. I snorted and tilted my head sideways. One of my pet peeves was when people stuttered while giving a proposal. I sat back down, fuming and my words became livid.

“Look,” I said standing up, already more angrily than anyone could imagine. “This proposal is over. I am saying NO to my company merging with yours. I will receive nothing out of this and this is why I’m saying no.” I glared towards the businessmen before walking out of the small room. I heard their excited little murmurs and one came after me.

“Wait, Mr. Tyler!” the persistent voice said, catching up with my long strides. I glanced darkly over my shoulder towards the pair of dark brown eyes that rose to meet mine.

“What do you want?”

oOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo
(Back in the States)

“What are you trying to pull, Jeff?” Mistie asked, still glaring towards him. Jeff adverted his eyes towards the floor as he tried to form the words in his mind. Truth is told it was his child and he wanted to see the baby before Mistie decided to run again.

“Why can’t I see her Mistie? Why are you dead set on me not seeing my child?” Jeff’s voice rose and Mistie gave a frightened look. A nurse came into the small room and gathered the tiny baby up into her tiny looking arms. The nurse walked past him and he glanced over to see a tiny mop of black hair and pale blue eyes.

“What’s her name at least?” Jeff asked, knowing that he had to surrender. Mistie snorted, letting him know she was getting tired of this. Jeff gave her a pleading look and she took a long sigh.

“Her name is Marie.” Mistie said finally, turning her face away from Jeff’s. He nodded and slipped back out of the room, leaving the yellow roses on the nearest chair.

oOoOoOoOoOoO

Jeff stood on their front porch steps, staring down towards the phone he was holding right at the moment. A slow drizzle of rain was starting to fall but he completely ignored the grey droplets. His hands were pale and white from gripping the plastic for so long and so hard. Before him the line of green trees blurred together, their greens and gold mixing. But it wasn’t really mattering to Jeff who sat there with his head lowered. Tears pooled at the corners of his sad eyes and he leaned his neck back a little.

“Why me?” he whispered, glancing towards the darkening sky. Only the roar of distant thunder gave him a heavy reply and he hung his head again. His phone vibrated and he glanced down towards it but didn’t answer it. It vibrated once telling him he had a text message and he stuffed the phone into the leather jacket he was wearing.

‘You left me for a guy, Jeff!” Mistie’s voice rang shrilly through his sullen thoughts and he cringed. He hated how her voice sounded when she was angry and the anger was directed towards him. The only thing he was mad about was that she kept telling him he couldn’t even hold his daughter. They had agreed less than seven months ago that he’d start paying child support and be the one to hold and give their baby half of her or his name. But he should have known that Mistie wouldn’t hold true and want on to say that they never agreed to that.

“Fuck this,” He mumbled, standing up in the now pouring rain and hurried up the last four porch steps. The rain fell harder as he struggled with his wet jeans to find the tiny gold key to the door. Clank, clank, clank went the drops of water against the metal cover, leaving angry dents in its wake. He sighed in discomfort when he brought his hand out of his back pocket and still found no key. He sat down in a puddle and groaned as he felt it slowly pooling into his clothing.

“This is fucking great.” he mumbled again, pressing his forehead to his knees in a pathetic attempt to hide himself from the rain. His hair plastered itself to his face and several times he reached up to brush back the strands that strayed into his eyes.

---

The stars shone brightly at night but not bright enough like at home. From here I can’t go out into our front yard and lay in the itchy grass for hours with Jeff. Here it was just concrete, concrete and even more concrete. It bothered me to be in this place but there wasn’t really much I could do about it.

I sighed as I put down my cell phone; Jeff hadn’t been answering for the past couple of hours and it was slightly bugging me. But I simply shrugged it off while putting down the tiny headset. The apartment was strangely quick to my sensitive ears. I moved to sit down in the lazy boy chair and kicked up my feet, but the feelings my gut were giving me weren’t very pleasant. There was something about these strong feelings that had me on the edge.

I reached a little ways and felt the phone with my fingertips and tipped it towards me. It tipped enough and I grabbed it up gently. I flipped it open to find Jeff was calling me.

“Hello?” I asked quietly, wondering if something was wrong.

“Hey Ryan, it’s me.. How are you doing?” I noted that his voice sounded shaky, or a little strained even.

“I’m fine but my question to you is how are you doing?” I asked, concerned and hoping that he hadn’t gone out drinking.

“I am.. Good.” He replied, his reply off and sounding forced to my ears. I took a deep mental sigh and reclined the chair back.

“I certainly hope so. Have you gone to see Mistie?” I asked, knowing what his answer would be. I heard him sigh in the background and fumble with something. “Are you OK?” I asked, raising an eyebrow for fun.

“Umm.. I just got inside after sitting outside on our front porch steps for three hours.. I lost the key and found it in an unlikely spot.” I had to snort at his answer.

“Where- up your ass?” I asked in a joking tone.

“Yeah, that’s where. That’s where you left it after we screwed a couple nights ago.” his tone was darker now. “No, I stuffed it into my pocket and forgotten to sew up that tiny hole and it slipped into the hole.” Jeff replied angrily almost.

“Ok, sorry about making that comment Jeff. What’s gotten into you?” I asked, changing the TV channel. Jeff snorted his approval and the phone went dead in my ears.

“What the fuck?” I said, staring at the phone.

---

---

Jeff stared at the person who stood in the doorway to their kitchen. A pair of golden eyes met his and for a moment he could see sparks flashing. Blonde hair hung down in two braids and in the background he could faintly hear a tiny wail. His mouth slowly fell open at the sight of Mistie.

“Mistie!” he said in disbelief. She gazed up towards him, her golden eyes looking like something frozen in time. Her lips were pressed into a thin line, her hands resting at her hips.

“Just like you to leave the front door open.” she replied, glancing towards the floor. Jeff watched as she pulled a chair away and sat down in it. Then she turned her gaze towards him and gave a sly smile.

“We’re going to do things my way now and I don’t think it’s a good idea for you to disagree with me.” she said coyly, watching his reaction.