He doesn’t knock.

John’s entire body surged with a sense of satisfaction and primal pride. He had done something extraordinary, something he had long believed impossible. He had gotten a woman—an incredibly stunning woman—pregnant.

A thrill raced through him as he absorbed the gravity of his accomplishment. With unparalleled beauty, Melissa now carried his child, a gift he never thought he could bestow. He felt his muscles tighten with excitement, wanting nothing more than to rush to the door, bang on it, and take the woman he had come to care for in his arms. It would be simple. Three knocks, and she would know his answer. He would whisk her off to the bed, hold her against him, and feel the whispered promise of their unborn child pulsing between them. The thought made his heart race.

He took a step toward the door, full of intention, when he suddenly stopped dead in his tracks. What was he doing? How could he be so impulsive? His mind clicked back to the reasons they had drawn the line in the first place. It was his agreement with Melissa, and with William indirectly, to try for a child, to give her the gift of new life. Yes, he had admired her beauty, enjoyed her company, even perhaps loved her in some quiet, secret way, but it had all revolved around that singular promise. He had crossed the line with her to fulfill his word, and now that it was done, now that she was pregnant, now that they had succeeded beyond expectation, what reason did he have to breach that boundary outside of his marriage anymore? He stood, riddled with indecision. The emotional tug of wanting Melissa battled against his sense of obligation to the silent, intrinsic code he lived by.

But then he thought of Jennifer—of his wife. She would be fine. She always understood. He could hear her voice in his mind, giving him permission, encouraging him even, since she intended to pursue something similar with her father after he had gotten her pregnant, too. She, unlike him, went after exactly what she wanted. No lines. No boundaries. No hesitation. Who was he not to follow suit? But could he do it? Despite his complicated feelings for Melissa, John felt an inexplicable moral weight pressing down on him.

He inhaled deeply, the air heavy with both perfume and the pregnant pause of unfulfilled desire. The rational side of him doused his initial fervor with a flood of logic. Did he want to cross that line again now that he had already given her what she wanted most? Now that she was expecting and the stakes were even higher? The deliberation was dizzying, but he stumbled upon the answer that had been waiting there all along, sitting quietly in the recesses of his conscience. No, he didn’t want to cross the line. Not really. And even if Melissa said she understood, did he? It was possible to care for her very much and yet not do this. It was possible to want her and still choose not to knock.

Feeling both resolution and a strange emptiness, he slowly turned away from the door. His shoulders sunk, releasing the tension that had built up there, and he moved toward the spare bed. He lay down, stretching his limbs across the mattress, and tucked himself in, forcing his eyes shut like a man willing himself to sleep through a hurricane.

A silent ten minutes passed, and he didn’t move. He lay like that, body still, breath steady, doing his best impersonation of a man sound asleep.

Eleven minutes later, Melissa came out of the bathroom wearing a robe securely fit to her body, and wiping a tear for her face as she whispers, “John, you might be the best man on the earth. I can’t say this enough. My daughter is the luckiest woman in the world, and I would do anything to be her, so I could have a man like you…” She pauses as she wide another tear away “I promise I will love our child more than I have loved anything else in the world, because I think that how much I love you.” John was about to turn around to say something, but by the time he had turned around, Melissa had already tucked herself into the master bed and was facing away.

The rest of the night was silent, and Melissa left the room long before John got up leaving a note for him on the table.

Dear John…

My love… My true love. You are the most amazing man on the earth. I only wish I was younger and met you first and before my daughter did. I would give anything for that to be the case. She doesn’t deserve you, but I can’t honestly think of any woman that does deserve such am amazing man like you.

IF you ever need anything, just call, I will run across the world to give it to you. For when you showed your moral strength I by not knocking I fell harder for you than any woman has fell for a man, but it also broke my heart harder than any woman ever has had their heart broken because the same qualities that make me love you so much, means you heart belongs to my daughter and I can’t have it.

So, I will take my leave… feel free to use the room for the weekend.

John didn’t know how to take that, but he didn’t leave the room for the rest of the weekend.

At the drop off he noticed Melissa standing in front of William’s car screaming at her husband and also at a fully dressed Jennifer.

This was odd for two reasons. First this was the first time he had ever seen William outside his car at the drop off point. He didn’t even leave his care when Jennifer could barely walk after having a train run on her by all those men, and secondly this was the first time he had seen Jennifer fully dressed at the drop off point.

He would have placed more thought into this if it wasn’t for this bring the first-time seeing Melissa since he found out she was pregnant with his child. As a result, her eyes were locked on her flat stomach that was hidden behind her dress.

Despite not being able to hear what see was saying John just sat there watching her yelled as he thought ‘that the mother of my unborn child… wow.’ After five minutes Jennifer finally got into his car, a putty voice said “I hear you got mom pregnant. Dad got me pregnant too.”

It was like a punch to the gut hearing that William so easily did what he was so proud making him feel even less of a man, but John tried to stay focus for his wife’s shake “I fought that what you wanted. So why are you upset?”

She slammed her arms together “Because mom says that since I got what I wanted I shouldn’t come back!” That exactly what John wanted, despite caring for Melissa he wants to be as far away from the nightmare of knowing his wife is getting pleasured by another man in ways that he could never do.