“You know I do.”
“I know!But your love keeps hurting her and the rest of my family.”
“What do you want me to do?Stop loving her?I can’t.She’s pregnant with my child.You want me to leave her?We both know that’s not going to happen.”
“Man, I don’t know what to do with this.”
An hour later, we still don’t know what to do.He’s still furious with me and not so happy with Cat either.We manage to come to an agreement to not make this any harder for Cat and stressing her out even more than she already is.We both know what it’s going to be like when she tells the rest of her family about us.
Cat
I couldn’t stop walking aroundthe whole time Chris was in Nick’s office.I didn’t know what was going on, except hearing a few raised voices.I was relieved when Chris came out and both their faces were intact and no blood was to be seen.It went way better than I thought.I was hoping their friendship would keep them from going at each other.I was hoping; I wasn’t sure.
We sit down in the living room, my legs curled under me, facing Chris.
“I’m scared to tell them.”
“Don’t be.I’m not saying it’s going to be easy, but I’ll be there if you want, and Nick will be there with you.”
I run a finger over my brow.“I’m more scared at him being there than the actual telling them part.You know Nick has a temper at times, but he’s good at keeping it in check.I also noticed since we’ve been together that if the situation involves me, it kicks his temper up a notch.”
“He’s always been that way; you just never noticed that—among other things.I think you should find somewhere neutral to tell them and think about doing it without Nick.”
“I don’t know where neutral ground is to them.I tried to convince Nick to let me tell them by myself, but he’s not going for that.He made it clear we’re going to tell them together.He and Jay, together in the same room?No good can come of that.One of them is going to end up in the ER in critical condition.”
“You’re right about that.”
“Chris, you’re not supposed to agree with me, you’re supposed to try to make me feel better.”
He pats my knee with his big hand and smiles more to himself than me.“Don’t worry, I’m going to be there to help contain the situation.I won’t let them kill each other.I will, however, let Jay get a few jabs in.That would make me feel a lot better.”
I can’t believe him.I lean over and pinch him on the leg as hard as I can.“You better not let that happen!”
“Ouch, Cat!Take it easy, I’m not going to let that happen,” he says disgruntled, rubbing his thigh.
“You better not.I thought you two talked.You didn’t seem too angry when you came out, what did you talk about?”I rest my head in my hand, my elbow on the back of the couch.
“Don’t worry about it, we talked.”He swipes his hand over the back of his head and mutters under his breath, “I still can’t wrap my head around this, both of my sisters pregnant for this fucker!”
I let out a sigh and look down.I know this is hard for him.His little sister and his best friend.He’s stuck between us and my family, especially Kate.
“Kate’s going to be devastated.She’s starting to get back on track, but this is going to set her back.You got everything she wanted: the baby, the man—”
I raise my head and look at him.“And the love of the man.He really does love me.”
“I know.I guess you can’t change what’s obviously meant to be, as hard as you may try.”
“Ain’t that the truth,” I say.
“Why haven’t you called Jay back?”
“I wasn’t ready yet, but I will.Vanessa calls once in a while and she lets me talk to Sasha.Vanessa manages to slip in his name during our conversations, but I don’t ask about him.”
“You’re family; you should reach out to him.”
“We’ll talk soon enough.”I don’t want to talk about Jay.God knows what he’s going to call me this time when he finds out I’m pregnant.He’ll probably tar and feather me for the trollop I am.
“Sophie says hi.”
