Baby & Bump (The This & That Series) (19 page)

             
He flinched. “Ouch.”

             
“Yeah. Right back atcha.” I started to pace. “I’m not here for anything. I don’t want anything from you. I don’t
need
anything from you. In fact, you’re the last person on God’s green earth that I would ever come to for anything. Do you understand that?”

             
He nodded, his mouth pulled into a line.

             
I faced him, and put my hands to my stomach. I’d worn my work clothes, so I had my white chef’s jacket on over a pair of ripped jeans. There were streaks of raspberry ganache on the jacket, and I’d pulled my hair back with a leopard print hairclip while I was making meringues that morning. This sweet ensemble was accentuated by the fact that I’d been hurling for days, and my skin had taken on a sallow yellow color.

To say I looked like hell would’ve been an understatement.

“Nate, I’m pregnant.” The words came out an octave lower than my usual voice, and then bounced around the office like a ping-pong ball.

Nate’s eyes went from my face, to my stomach, then back to my face, then down to my stomach again. He didn’t say anything. In fact, he didn’t move at all. He sat frozen on the edge of his des
k, with one hand over his mouth.

I’m sure he
meant to make me feel like he was contemplating my announcement. But I knew better. He was crapping his pants. Right there in his corner office, in his three hundred dollar slacks.

T
hree minutes of painfully awkward silence passed. “Well, say something, for hell’s sake.”

His face was as white as the stack of documents on his desk. “It’
s… it’s not mine.”

I folded my arms across my chest. “Oh? Is that so? How do you figure?”

“Because we used a condom.” He wiped a line of sweat off of his upper lip. “I remember.”

I bit the insides of my cheeks so hard they throbbed. I didn’t come to fight with Nate. I only came to do the right thing.

“No, Nate. We didn’t,” I said with metered patience. “You asked if I had any, and when I said no, you announced that you’d be careful. But like always, Nate, you were sloppy.” Anger pressed down on me, tightening my skin.

He bounced off of the edge of his desk. “I wasn’t sloppy!
You
were sloppy! How dare you blame this all on me!”

I pointed my finger at him. “You came to my apartment for a booty call!”

“Well you were the one who was trashed alone at home!” His face was turning purple.

“You woke up the next morning and vomited in kitchen sink!”

“You told me you were on the pill!”

“No, I told you I
wished
I was on the pill!”

He dr
agged his hands down his face. “Well, you—”

“All right, stop!” I
backed away from my ex husband. He was safer that way. “It was both of our faults. We both know it. We both caused this. Now we have to deal with it.”

He raked his hand through his
hair. “Hilary and I are engaged now. The wedding is in Hawaii this August.”

Sympathy washed over me, dampening
my anger.

I mean, Nate was a douch
e bag, there was no denying that. But, like I said, we’d both caused this, and he and Hilary had been temporarily broken up at the time. Nate hadn’t meant for this to happen. Neither of us had.

“
Listen,” I said. “I don’t need anything from you. I just felt like you needed to know. That’s it. I just wanted you to know. To give you the chance to deal with it in your own way, I guess.”

“Oh, no.” Nate shook his head, and he straightened back up. “
I’m
not dealing with anything. This is on you, Lexie. Hilary cannot find out about this, do you understand me?”

“Why would I tell her?” I snarled at him, all of my sympathy fizzling away. “I don’t even know the woman. The only thing I know about Hilary is that she has terrible judgment in men.”

Nate’s nostrils flared. “You’re getting an abortion, right? You’re taking care of this mess, correct?”

It felt like he’d punched me in the gut. I’d expected him to be a total ass, but
to ask me to get rid of our baby? Unthinkable. “Yes. I’m taking care of this mess, Nate.”

His eyes softened. “You’re not keeping it, are you?”

“I…” I gulped. “This may be my only shot. I want to keep it.”

He grimaced. “I won’t own up to it. If you tell anybody, I’ll lie.”

I nearly laughed. Nate was so clueless. His reputation had been flushed down the toilet long before that drunken night. “There’s a whole series of daytime talk shows devoted to proving who baby daddies are. If I wanted to, I could call Maury Povitch and get a DNA test. But your rep is safe, Nate. This baby is mine. Mine alone.”

He turned away from me, and rested his hands on his desk. “Then I guess we don’t have anything more to talk about, do we?”

I shuddered at the memory of my ugly conversation with Nate. I didn’t want to think about that day ever again.

“So who’s the blonde?” Candace’s voice shook me out of my thoughts.

             
I looked at the wall of windows across the room, and shifted lower in my seat. I couldn’t run into Nate here. Not tonight. “I don’t know. Probably Hilary.”

             
“I’ll take the filet. Medium. Thank you.” Candace said to the waiter, who was jotting down her order, while still staring at Marisol.

             
When she stopped talking, his eyes flicked to me. “And for you, ma’am?”

             
I wrapped my arms around my stomach self-consciously. Aw, hell. I’d become a
ma’am
overnight while Marisol was getting undressed inside our waiter’s mind. “I’ll take the crab soufflé and a pear salad, please.”

             
He moved on to the next person and Candace leaned close to my ear. “So who’s Hilary?”

             
I lowered in my seat another inch or two. If Nate walked past the glass wall to go to the restrooms, I was a sitting duck. There I would be, in all my pregnant glory.

             
“Hilary is his fiancée. They’re getting married in Hawaii this summer.”

             
Candace snorted, and slapped her hand down on the table. “Hey, Marisol.” When our gorgeous friend looked our way, she said, “Did you hear that good ol’ Nate The Great is taking the vows again?”

             
“Oh for the love of all things holy.” Marisol offered us an exaggerated eye roll, and rested her head on Fletcher’s shoulder. My stomach pitched. “Is he marrying the girl with the nose ring?”

             
I shook my head. “Um, no.”

             
“Is it the one with the twin sister?” One of Candace’s eyebrows rose high on her face.

             
Marisol leaned forward, but kept her arm across Fletcher’s lap. “Holy Hannah, is it your divorce lawyer?”

             
Fletcher’s eyes met mine. “Who’s Nate?”

             
“My ex husband.” I held his eye contact and didn’t look away.

             
“He slept with his divorce attorney?” Fletcher’s frown deepened.

             
“Oh, no, no, no.” Marisol waggled a finger in his face. “He slept with
Lexie’s
divorce attorney.”

             
“And their landlord.” Candace took a sip of her drink. “Don’t forget her.”

             
I cringed. I’d forgotten about that one. Mother of all things beautiful, I’d procreated with
such
a bastard. Sweat pricked underneath my arms, and I shifted in my chair. Would it kill the waiter to crack a window, for Pete’s sake?

             
“To Lexie’s taste in men!” Marisol held up her glass and laughed.

             
Fletcher frowned. “Lexie, I had no idea…I’m so sorry.”

             
Marisol nudged him. “Ugh. Don’t be such a downer. This is a party, remember?”

             
“You’re making fun of your friend.” Fletcher scowled at Marisol. “Your
pregnant
friend, whose husband, by the sound of it, was a chronic cheater. It’s not
nice
, Marisol.”

             
My throat tightened, and the baby shifted in my belly. Fletcher was standing up for me. I wanted to stand up on the table and dance, but refrained. That wasn’t how one stayed incognito in a glass paneled banquet room. Fletcher’s gaze left Marisol’s and he smiled, bringing those gorgeous eye crinkles back.

Suddenly I had to use the bathroom. Bad.

              Candace’s eyes were wide. “Whoa. I didn’t think about that. I’m sorry, Lex. Are you all right?”

             
Nodding, I pushed my chair back. “I’m fine. I just need to use the restroom.”

             
Marisol pursed her lips and pouted for a few beats. “I think my boyfriend needs a drink. Waiter!”

             
The young waiter popped up out of nowhere, just as I slipped out of the room. Slinking right up against the wall like some sort of knocked up cat burglar, I sidled my way towards the restrooms—praying that I wouldn’t run into Nate, or his…

             
“Oh! Excuse me!”

             
Too late.

I’d walked headfirst into Hilary as she came out of the restroom, in all of her thin, blonde glory.

              “Sorry,” I mumbled, trying to duck past her.

             
“Hey, wait.” She touched my arm. “Aren’t you Lexie?”

             
I looked up and offered her a feeble smile. “Guilty.”

             
“I thought so.” Hilary held out her hand. “We’ve never met formally, but I’m Hilary Paxton. Nate’s fiancée.”

             
I took her hand and shook it. My heart was hammering inside of my chest so hard it was difficult to hear what she was saying. “It’s nice to meet you. Congratulations.”

             
“Thank you.” She beamed. “And apparently I should be congratulating you, too.”

             
My throat sealed shut. I had no words.

And just when I thought that I was going to have to feign stomach problems to get out of the conversation, the door to the men’s room swung open, and Nate emerged.

              “Holy shit,” he hissed, stopping in his tracks right in front of us. His eyes were the size of serving plates, and they bounced between his fiancée and my swollen stomach.

             
“Nate, don’t be rude.” Hilary swatted at his arm. “I was just telling Lexie congratulations. Did you know she was expecting?”

             
Nate’s glare was positively lethal. He stared at me like I was a bug that needed to be squashed. Hard. “Nope. Congratulations, Lex.”

             
“Thanks.” I was going to throw up. Now I was sure of it.

             
“Better you than me,” Hilary laughed, pressing a hand to her ridiculously flat middle. “I admire you. Pregnancy and motherhood. Whew! What a challenge. Good job.”

             
“That’s right, honey.” Nate laughed, but no humor met his eyes. He looked repulsed by me. The feeling was mutual. “Come on, we’ve got to go. Everyone’s waiting.”

             
“Right,” Hilary chirped. “Well, it was lovely to meet you, Lexie.”

             
“You, too,” I said.

             
“Goodbye now.” Nate practically pushed his fiancé in the opposite direction.

I watched as they s
talked away, and used the back of my hand to wipe away some of the sweat that was now covering, well,
all
of my skin.

             
This was a mistake. I couldn’t do this. Seeing Marisol and Fletcher together, then seeing Nate with his fiancée, I felt like I’d been completely drained of all my energy. I didn’t care about my pear salad, or even about Marisol’s birthday anymore. I wanted to go home. I wanted my sweats. I wanted Chinese takeout. And I wanted the solitude of my little apartment. Stat.

             
Charging past the private room, I made a beeline for the exit, gasping in relief when I went through the door and the cool night air hit my skin. I already felt better.

             
“Where are you going?”

             
I heard the click, click, click of heels following me across the parking lot, and when I turned, I was surprised to see Candace
and
Marisol following me.