“So are you.You expect me to be honest with you at all times, but you’re not honest with me, you’re lying.I expect to hear from you the bullshit she told me…you spent the night with her in a hotel room.You fucked her, didn’t you?”
“Nothing happened!What did you want me to do?She had nowhere else to stay.”
“Please!”I throw my hands in the air.“She looks like a fucking survivor.I’m sure she would have worked it out.”
He walks away from me frustrated, hands in his pocket.Good, I want him to be as frustrated and angry as I am.
“She kissed me and I pushed her away and told her I was with you.That’s it—what else did you want me to do?”
“You’re an intelligent man with lots of game, but I’m going to humor you, I’m going to tell you what you should have done.You should have put her ass out and left her down in the lobby.You should have told her skanky ass ‘I am happily living with my pregnant girlfriend and she wouldn’t go for this shit.’If you didn’t know, now you do.That’s what you do the next time when posed with a situation like that!Maybe I should have listened to my damn mother.”
That last comment gets his attention more than anything else I’ve said, his trigger word being my mother.He grabs my arm when I try to walk past him to the door, firmly applying pressure, but not enough to hurt me.
“Where are you going?”he says between clenched teeth.
“I’m leaving.I’ve had enough of this shit.”
“You’re not leaving out of here like this.I’m going to get you a cab, and we’ll talk about this when I get home.Cat, make sure you’re at home when I get there.Ourhome.”
He should know me well enough to know I’m not going to be there.“I don’t take orders from a man who would put his lying lips to that woman while with me.”
“I’ve put my lips to many women, including your sister, and you didn’t have a problem with me before.”
“What!Fuck you!”I yank my arm free and back up.“I can’t believe you would throw that in my face.”The tears I was doing so well at holding in break free.I wipe my hand across my face and practically spit at him.“After everything, you’ve got some fucking nerve.”
He closes his eyes with a look of regret and grits his teeth, pulling me to him as tears stream down my face.I’m so weak I just stand there in his arms, my head throbbing.He brushes my hair back and searches my eyes.
“Cat, I didn’t mean that.I’m sorry, I was angry and it was uncalled for.You have to believe me, it happened like I said.She kissed me, I pushed her away.That is all that happened.I told her I loved you and I was committed to you.I didn’t tell you because I didn’t want this to happen—you and I fighting over something that’s a non-issue.You and this baby are my life, and I wouldn’t do anything to jeopardize what we have, what we’re building.Please, Cat, you have to believe me.”
I wipe my eyes and look at him blankly, listening to his words and pleas.I believe him, but that still doesn’t change what happened and that he lied to me over and over again.His lies made me feel like a total and complete idiot in front of that bitch.To have her come in here and tell me things I should have known about the man I’m living with, sleeping with, the father of my baby.I couldn’t even say anything to her with that smug complacent look on her face.I move away from him wordlessly, turning to the window and letting the sun washing over me.
“I’m ready to leave while my dignity is somewhat still intact.Or is there something else you want to tell me?Is she having your baby too?”
“Absolutely not,” he says, sounding offended.“I’m not saying it’s the same, but when you hooked up with Matt in the back of a club, you weren’t going to tell me.”
“Are you fucking kidding me?”I can’t turn around to look at him, I can’t.
“I’m just saying, I was trying to protect you.”
He’s using that as an excuse for what he did?He needs to pull his head out of his ass because that’s where it is.The one time I do something and he keeps throwing it in my face—we weren’t even together.He’s not getting a pass on this.“No, you don’t get to use that to justify what you did, you are so out of line on so many levels it’s unbelievable.”
I hear the door close behind me when he leaves the room.
Minutes later, he comes back in and walks me down to the cab.It’s funny, I hardly ever saw people in his building.But now I feel like people are watching me, heads turning, glancing at us as he walks me through the halls and we get on the elevator.We must have really been loud.If they didn’t know before, I’m sure they’re going to know now who I am.
He opens the car door for me, I sit back in the seat, and he gives the driver our address.I look straight ahead; I haven’t said a word since we left his office.He leans in the window, his hand against my stomach, and the baby responds.
“Cat, I’m sorry, I should have told you, but I was afraid this would happen.I’ll see you when I get home.”
I don’t say anything.He steps back and the cab pulls off.I turn my head to see him striding back into his office so fast I barely get a glimpse of him.
Nick
I’m beyond furious when Igo looking for Paige.When I don’t see her in her office, I ask her secretary where the hell she is, scaring her half to death.Which I didn’t mean to do, but I’m so goddamn angry I feel like knocking over everything in my way.I see her down the hall talking to another associate, smiling at him and batting her eyes.Talking sweetly to him like a praying mantis luring him in with her lies, the treacherous wench.
I take her by the arm startling her out of her conversation.“I need to talk to you now.”
“Nick, I’m in the middle of an important conversation.”
