He's quiet for a long moment.
"What do you want from me?" he asks finally.
"I don't know." The admission feels like defeat. "I don't know what I want anymore."
"Do you want me to leave you alone? To stop trying?"
"Maybe. I don't know."
"Emma—"
"I think I need to look for another job."
The words detonate betweenus like a bomb.
Donovan goes very still, gray eyes turning to slits. "What?"
"I can't work here anymore. Not like this. Not pregnant with your baby while trying to prove I’m supposed to be here, that I'm not sleeping my way to the top. It's destroying me."
"You're not sleeping your way anywhere. You earned this position—"
"Did I? Or did you hire me because we slept together in Miami and you felt guilty?"
"What?! That's not—Emma, you know that's not goddamned true."
"Do I?" I'm crying now, which is humiliating but unstoppable. "Because from where I'm standing, it looks like I got pregnant by my boss and now I'm trapped in a job where everyone thinks I'm a cliché."
"No one thinks that."
"Carmen warned me about office romances. About power dynamics. She told me to be careful." I laugh bitterly. "And I ignored her because I thought—Idon't even know what I thought. That this was different? That you were different?"
"I am different—"
"Are you? Because yesterday, watching you with that woman, all I could think was that she fits your life in ways I never will. She was…polished and successful and age-appropriate and not pregnant with your accidental baby."
"Emma, stop." Donovan's voice is rough. "Vanessa is my past. You're my—"
"Your what? Your employee? Your problem? The woman carrying your child that you're not sure you want?"
"I never said I didn't want this baby—"
"You didn't have to say it. I saw your face on that terrace. The panic. The fear. The way you looked at me like I'd just ruined your life."
"That's not fair."
"Life isn't fair, Donovan. Life is being twenty-six and pregnant and in love with a man who I'm pretty sure is going to let me down."
The confession is past my lips before I can grab it and stuff it back.
In love.
I just said I'm in love with him.
Donovan stares at me. "You love me?"
"I shouldn't have said that. Forget I said that."
"I can't forget it." He steps closer, and the room seems to narrow around him. "Emma, if you love me—"
