“Yes it is! I’m homeless. Fergus is homeless.”
“You can come live with me,” I cajoled.
“Why in the hell would I do that? Besides,” she demanded, “aren’t you moving your baby momma in with you?”
I winced and looked around. “Keep it down. Look, I made a mistake. I thought you were cheating on me, but clearly you weren’t. I’m sorry. I’m going to clear up this thing with Camilla, and you and I can go back to how we were.”
Ivy was staring at me, a hurt expression on her face. “You thought I was cheating on you?”
“I lost my mind a little bit,” I admitted. “Obviously, you would never do anything like that.”
“Yeah, obviously,” Ivy said. She was quiet. The silence was worse than the screaming.
“Just… there’s a lot going on in my life right now,” I said in a rush. “And you are the best thing to happen to me and exactly what I need.”
“So,” Ivy said, too calmly, “this was… what? You wanted me kicked out of my house so I could play nanny to the spawn of the cheating liar you knocked up? No thanks. I can be overworked and miserable from the comfort of my own home. Oh wait, no, I can’t.”
“I wasn’t going to let it happen,” I pleaded, “but then your mother said—”
“Ah, there it is!” Ivy shook her head. “You know what? I’m done.”
“With your mom?” I asked hopefully.
“With my mom, with weddings, with this city, but especially you, Evan Harrington.” Ivy took a deep breath. “I could be trashy and tell you I hope Camilla makes you miserable, but I know she will, so have a nice life. You don’t deserve it.”
I leaned against my car and banged my head on it as she walked away.
“How could I let this happen?” I groaned. “Ivy’s the best thing to ever happen to me, and I ruined it. No, I didn’t just ruin it. I nuked it from orbit.”
“How can you still be hung up on her?” a shrill voice called. Camilla was half hanging out of the open window of a limo. “I’m the mother of your child.”
“Are you though? It could be anyone’s,” I told her.
“What are you implying?”
“I’m not implying,” I shot back. “You slept with half the wedding party. Excuse me for being skeptical.”
“I’m going to take you to the cleaners,” she spat.
“Until I get a paternity test, you’re not seeing a dime from me,” I shot back.
I handed my keys over to the valet with instructions to wash the chocolate and marshmallow smears off the car, then went up to my penthouse to pace in front of the window. I missed Ivy. I missed Fergus. I missed her tiny apartment, and I hated myself for ruining the best thing in my life.
“I have to get her back,” I said to my reflection. But I had personally arranged to have her kicked out of her home, and there was no coming back from that. Ivy would never trust me again. She would always hate me. There would be no winning her back. I rested my forehead against the glass.
“But you still need to make it right.”
* * *
Greg was stillin his office bright and early the next morning.
“Did you even sleep?” I asked him.
“Of course I slept,” he retorted. “If you want to look at someone who hasn’t slept and hasn’t even changed his clothes, look no further.”
He pointed to Archer, who was yawning and chewing on a bagel. He held it out to me. “Wanna bite?”
“No, he doesn’t,” his co-founder, Mike, said, shoving Archer’s hand away.
