After the plates were cleared away, Harris clinked his coffee cup.
"I know you are wondering why you are all here. Stacy and I have some great news."
Oh no,Allie thought.
Stacy stood up, rubbing her belly. "We're pregnant!" she squealed.
"No," Jack said, clearly horrified.
"I cannot believe you!" Allie yelled at Stacy, standing up and smacking her hands on the table.
"Careful," Stacy said, clutching her slightly rounded tummy. "The baby!"
"I am so sorry," Allie said to Carter’s family. "I should have… I don't know."
She sat back down, at a loss. Carter didn't look at her. He seemed just as stunned as the rest of his family.
"It's not your fault, dear," Nancy said.
"She was my friend and my roommate."
"Harris is a horny old man," Walter said. "He has terrible judgment, and it's become worse as he's aged."
"Hey! I'm standing right here, you know!" Harris complained.
"Maybe we can still convince him not to marry her," Grant mused, ignoring his grandfather.
It was tense when Allie and Carter drove back from the Holbrook estate. Once again, they had cut their visit short.
Carter seemed uncharacteristically cold, Allie thought as she sat next to him in the dark. When the car dropped them off at her building, the paparazzi were outside. Carter gave a strained smile and posed with Allie, then they went into the building.
"I don't understand why you have to live here," he grumbled as she unlocked the door. "Also, who in the hell is calling the paparazzi? They're everywhere. They're worse than the subway rats."
He watched her unpack her travel bag.
"You should buy some new clothes," he said abruptly.
"My clothes are fine," she said.
Carter pulled up the latest tabloid photo of her, shoved the phone in her face, and said, "You look a bit dour."
"Dour? I'm dressed professionally."
"I'm just saying since this whole… thing… is partially my fault, if you wanted to buy some nicer clothes—"
"I don't—"
Carter plowed on. "If you want better clothes, I'll pay for it."
"I don't need you to pay for my clothes!" she seethed.
"I can give you money for utilities as well," he said.
"No."
"I'm over here all the time—"
"I'm not like Stacy!" she shouted at him. "I don't just trap men for their money."
