I ran up the stairs of my apartment building yearning to change into my pajamas and finally relax with a hot cup of coffee. I finally reached my door walking in and attempting to hang my keys on the hook and completely missing letting them crash to the floor.

" I hate this fucking shit hole!" I grumbled, actually seeing the breathe as it left my mouth. i made my way over to the radiator that decided to stop working sometime throughout the day. I kicked it repeatedly until it purred back to life slowly heating my artic studio apartment. I changed into my pajamas and started a pot of coffee. I lit a cigarette and reached down to pick up my keys off the floor, tossing them onto a nearby table. Mid toss I caught the red flashing light of my answering machine alerting me of a new message. I slowly exhaled the toxic smoke from my lips as I contemplated listening to the message. No one ever called me besides work, and I had just left there so I had a sneaking suspicion it was the private investigator that had called me before. My hand seemed to have a mind of its own reaching out hitting the play button.

" Hello Lexa, this is nancy Simmons again. I'm sorry to keep calling but I would really like to hear from you concerning the situation I discussed before. If you could please give me a call back" the woman said.

the machine beeped as the message ended. as much as the idea of possibly finding my family excited me it equally terrified me.

" for god sakes Lexa, stop being such a whimp" I huffed, grabbing my phone and typing in Nancy's number. I puffed away nervously on my cigarette as I waited for an answer. I felt slightly relieved when it just continued ringing, I was just about to hang up when the other end picked up.

" Good afternoon, nancy Simmons office" a youthful voice sang on the other end. I took a deep breathe and fought myself from backing out.

" Hi, my name is Lexa santos. I got a message from nancy and I was just returning the call" I squeaked nervously.

" Of course one moment while I connect you" she said, classical music filled the silence as I waited for nancy to pick up.

" Lexa, thank you so much for returning my call!" She said, I could hear the relief in her voice.

" now I know this is probably alittle weird for you but we have a lot to talk about and I really want to help you as well as your possible birth parents"

i put out my cigarette and instantly lit up another one attempting to somehow calm my nerves.

" so how does all of this work exactly?" I asked just wanting to cut to the chase before I backed out of this whole thing.

" Well what we would do is fly you out here to California and have a paternity test done. And of course the family would fund the whole thing" she stated. I took a moment to fully run this through my mind. She must have understood what I was doing because she not once broke the silence. I figured to throw caution to the wind and see what happens and besides this could kinda be like a vacation which I could definitely use.

" Ok so when can we do this?" I asked, hearing a relieved sigh come from nancy.

" Well let me see what I can do here" she said in a thoughtful tone. I could hear her clicking away on her keyboard.

" Ah! Well looks like they have a flight leaving New York tomorrow morning at eight a.m. If that works for you we will send a car out to take you to the airport and your plane tickets will be waiting for you there" she blurted out. I had talked to my boss about my whole situation before so I know if I needed some time off she would understand and I didn't want to wait and give myself time to chicken out. So the sooner the better.
I let nancy know that would work and after I called my boss and let her know what was going on. Like I figured she was very understanding and wished me luck. I yanked a suitcase from the top shelf of my closet and began packing. I have never flown before or even been out of New York so my nerves were shot. I knew I wasn't going to be sleeping tonight. So I curled up on my couch and decided to have a movie marathon and wait for morning to come and see where this journey takes me.