Phone home

"His name is Brock, Brock Shelk and he is a portrait of perfection, June will send you a photo this evening.  Back to that later, what the hell is going on Bianca?  Tyler called, he says you've dissapeared.  I had nothing to tell him, I've tried calling and texting but your voice mail is full, I've had no reply. For God's sake I thought you were dead, and then you call out of nowhere today from a Texas area code, all non chalant. What the hell?! Where are you?!" Shane half shouted into the phone, his intensity gaining momentum with every word.
She told him that she just couldn't see herself as a Holt and had left Tyler and come to Austin to begin a new life and a fresh start.  Bianca told her father her intentions were work and attend school there, she told him the truth about how Austin was dear to her heart as a result of their family trip during her childhood. She made no mention of the cancer or the pregnancy.  

The temptation to answer Tylers calls had been so great that Bianca had tossed her old phone from the car in a moment of hysteria.  At that time Tyler didn't know she had left and he was heading back home from the bar exam in Jackson.  She had sent him a text before she left, but it said little more than that she was leaving.  Two days after landing  in texas she had purchased a new phone and plan and through the beauty of cloud services was able to retrieve her contacts. 

She hadn't called Shane before, although she had wanted too, but with baby Brock coming and Bianca's own confusion and volatile emotions, she knew she needed time to figure things out and settle in before she could speak to her father, he knew her too well, or he could have exposed her to Tyler while she was still in limbo trying to find her way in Texas, she just wasn't prepared to handle any of it.

"Bianca, I don't even know you anymore.  How could you do something so compulsive, and in the process leave all the people who love you wondering if you are alive or dead?"

"Well, it's not like we have been speaking regularly anyway dad.  I felt like things ended on a high note with us when last we spoke and I just wasn't eager to worry you.  I didn't know Tyler would call you before I did."

"Before you did Bianca?! Are you kidding?!  You left two months ago, we aren't talking about a few days here, we are talking about months! Do you have any idea what June and I have been thinking."

"I'm very so you were worried, but listen it's all over now, you have my number and I am fine.  I will be calling more often, I just had to get my head on right before I called you, admittedly I was freaking out a little but I'm ...better now," Bianca  smiled  to herself remembering her conversation with Alice earlier that afternoon and all of the comfort it had brought to her,  "better" had become great word "I recall a conversation several months ago when you reminded me I was an adult, making adult decisions dad."

"Making adult decisions and wrecklessly running away aren't really the same thing, Bianca. I just can't wrap my head around this."

"You don't have to wrap your head around anything! I'm fine, better than fine, I have a good job, a nice apartment and I'm happy, I love it here.  Austin is gorgeous and it's the perfect setting for my new beginning."

"I had no idea you were such a loner, Bianca. My God, I...I'm so confused." Shane sounded genuinely confused and exhausted.

"I'm the baby keeping you up at night?"

"Yes, it's more difficult for June though.  She insists on breastfeeding and it's not really going very well. It's a frustrating and exhausting ordeal for all of us, Brock included."

"Well good for June. Breastfeeding is the best thing you can do for your baby...i hear, just be encouraging and it will all pan out.  As soon as I can get a few days off I would like to visit." Bianca said this without thinking.  She would have very much enjoyed seeing her father and the baby, even June, but she was very obviously pregnant. "But, new job you know how that is", she quickly changed the subject.

"Yes, let's hear some more about this great job."

"Well, I'm not setting any world's on fire, but it's a government job, 9 to 5. After a few months I'll have benefits, the pay is comfortably descent.  I'm a secretary to the assistant director for the Texas water development board.  I really lucked out, it was the first interview I went on, and my boss and I just clicked." Bianca was proud of her job, she had been very lucky to land it, and although she had only been there a couple of weeks it seemed to be a perfect fit for her.

"Fantastic. Well that brings me some relief.  You have managed all of this on your savings? Relocation is expensive, we're you living in your car?" Shane's inquiry caught Bianca off guard, although it really shouldn't have, it was a pretty reasonable question she just didn't know how to explain it.

"Yep, my savings...and I took some of Tyler's too,  I'm not proud of that, I also sold my engagement ring..."

"Bianca what did Tyler do to you.  I mean your stealing money to run away and selling engagement rings that should have been returned to him, it's not adding up."

Bianca felt panicked, this was precisely why she hadn't called him yet, and she probably should have spent more time figuring out what she was going to say to him, she thought she was confident enough to wing it, but she was mistaken. She had no choice but to play the annoyed child card and end this inquisition. "Arrg, your making me crazy, I didn't call so you could tell me what a bitch I am. i told you I'm not proud of it. No he didn't do anything except be the child of that Wretched family, I guess I felt he owed me for all of the insanity I dealt with from his mother. In hindsight it wasn't the most ethical move, but it's done and it was all necessary.  I love you. Give June and the baby a big hug and get me that picture over asap, I've got lots of laundry to do so I'm going to get to it." Bianca held her breath hopeful that the call could end now, and end well.

" Ok stranger. I love you, I'm really worried about you but I'm going to have a little faith in you and hope you haven't completely lost your mind. Please keep in touch."

"I will dad, oh and about Tyler, I don't want him to know anything about where I am or what I'm doing, trust me it's best that way. Okay, just if he calls you tell him I'm fine and happy and that I want him to be too and let that be the end of it, please?"

"How I'm the appropriate person to provide closure to your ex fiancé is beyond me, but yes fine, if he calls again I will tell him."

Bianca said goodbye and hung up the phone.  She pressed her back against the wall and slid slowly down to the foor. She maneuver a sealed envelope from her back pocket.  It contained her ultrasound photo, and the sex of her baby. She been sure she even wanted to know at the time of the scan earlier that day, but after hearing a birth plan begin to unfold she was beginning to wonder.  She had still been half guarded about becoming too attached to this baby, but today's appointment felt so hopeful. " No," Bianca sighed. Not yet." She rose to her feet and slipped the envelope into her kitchen drawer.  She didn't know what she was waiting for, but something told her it wasn't the right time to satisfy her curiosity. A moment later her phone buzzed, it was the picture of baby Brock, her father holding him. Brock was beautiful and Shane as handsome as ever staring down at him through his infamous tortoise shell glasses.  Bianca immediately loved him.