If I could get myself to go through with it.
Hiding my pregnancy from Bryce until the wedding was feeling like less and less of an option.
34.Bryce
“Areyou sure you can’t come?” I asked Jude as I lounged on the couch in his office toward the end of the day. He was packing papers into a briefcase, getting ready for his next trip.
“And skip an interview with Jimmy Fallon? To meet your girlfriend?”
“She will be my wife,” I said, a little too defensively.
Jude held up his hands in surrender. “Sorry, didn’t know it was that serious.”
I glared at him, sitting up on the couch. “We’re getting married in two months!” I argued.
“Which means I’ll have forever to get to know her once you say I do.” He locked the clips on his briefcase and dropped it on his desk. Leaning over, he pressed his hands flat on the glass, looking at me. “I’m sorry, I’d like to pretend all this isn’t happening. I know you’ve always been Prince Charming, but I can barely keep up with work and these stupid family dinners.”
“Why don’t you just tell your parents you’re too busy?” I asked. It seemed crazy that he met with them every week, even though he was stretched so thin as the company’s CEO.
He rolled his eyes before dropping onto the couch beside me. “You try telling my parents anything other than ‘Yes, sir’, or ‘Of course, mother.’“
Jude’s family was so much different than mine. Even though he still had both of his parents and grew up filthy rich, I felt bad for him sometimes. There were some things money couldn’t buy.
“Maybe we can schedule a time so you can meet her one-on-one,” I offered.
“We’ll meet at the gala, won’t we?” he offered. “That’s not too far away.”
“Yeah,” I said quietly, even though it was just a week out from the wedding.
“The guys will tell me all about her,” Jude reassured me. Then he smirked. “And how she’s too good for you.”
I rolled my eyes at him. “Get out of here. Save your jokes for TV.”
“Will do.” He stood and grabbed his briefcase, and I followed him out of the office. Owen, his assistant, had a lower desk than Maya’s, and I could see mail spread about it. That’s when I noticed an envelope with Maya’s stamp on it. I wondered briefly what she was mailing between our two offices.
“Where are you meeting them?” Jude asked me, heading toward the back elevators in the hallway.
“The Greenhouse,” I said.
Jude chuckled. “Aaric loves that place. Too bad you can’t get a steak that’s not made of mushrooms there.”
I shrugged. “Remember when we used to pre-game before going to the bars in college? Now I just pre-game with meat.”
Jude gave me a mischievous wink.
I shoved him, chuckling despite myself. “On your way, Jude.”
He stepped into the elevator and leaned forward to press the button for the ground floor. “Have fun—take a wheatgrass shot for me.”
“I’ll save you one,” I tossed back. “Or three.”
“Please don’t,” he chuckled, just before the elevator doors closed.
Without him, the hallway felt a little colder, and my nerves started to creep back.
Soon, my best friends—or most of them—would be meeting my future wife. Would they like her? Would she like them? Would this relationship work if she didn’t?
I hoped we could figure it out. Besides, the guys were all likable enough, and Jada? Talking to her was incredibly easy.
