Page 1 of Triplet Babies for my Ex's Best Friend

CHAPTER ONE

Addy

“Huh?”

There’s no way I heard that right.

Not a chance in hell.

“Bryce? What did you just say?”

“Addy,” he repeats, with a slight edge to his words as he backs off. “I really can’t do this.”

I freeze, my heart skipping once, before it kicks hard into overdrive, too fast for me to process anything he’s saying. The noise of the bustling airport fades into the background, and all I hear is my heartbeat in my ears.

Wait, what?

“Yeah… I really can’t do this. It’s too much, too serious, I just…”

I blink at him, still trying to make sense of it. People are staring. I can feel the quiet curiosity of strangers sensing a public unraveling. A woman in a business suit stands a few feet away, glancing at us over her shoulder as she sips overpriced coffee, waiting for the punchline.

I open my mouth, but no words come out. I just stare at him.

This can’t be real.

“What do you mean?” I manage. “You’re leaving me? Here?Now? In the middle of Milwaukee Mitchell International goddamn airport?”

“I met someone else,” he gasps out. “Someone more… stable. I think she’s the one I need to be with. I don’t think this is something I can do.”

Stable?Stable?

I feel my blood boil, the heat rising in my face, in my neck. The alcohol from the wine I had earlier spins in my stomach, mixing with anger.

“Stable?” I laugh as I smooth down my dress. “You’ve got to be kidding me, Bryce. You askedmeto move with you. You begged me to leave everything behind. My job, my friends, my apartment. All of it, forus. For you. And now you’re… what? Dumping me? Just as we’re about to get on a flight?”

“Addy, it’s not like that?—”

“No?” I say, stepping forward as people continue to glance over, some of them even stopping, pretending not to listen, but obviously soaking it in. Great. An audience. “Then what's it like, huh? You told me we were going to start a life together. And now you’re just leaving me for someone else. Just like that?”

A nearby businessman clears his throat, like he's uncomfortable with our scene. I feel my cheeks burn with humiliation, but it only makes me angrier.

“I need someone who’s moresuitable, Addy,” he says decisively now. “You’re amazing, but you’re just too much. I need someone who won’t make everything a drama.”

Too much? I’m too much? For him?

I let out a short, bitter laugh. “You want me to just sit here and take this while you walk away to your new perfect life? You're unbelievable.”

“I’m sorry,” he says, his hands going into his pockets. “But I need peace. And you, Addy, you bring too much noise. But you should still go. I mean, it’s near your sister, right?”

I stare at him as if the words are foreign. It’s not peace he’s after. It’s an easy way out.

“You’re such a coward,” I spit, the venom in my words poisonous. “I bet you don’t even care how this is destroying me, do you?”

His face tightens, but he doesn’t argue. Instead, he just looks resigned.

I stare at him, the finality of it sinking in.

It feels like the floor beneath me is crumbling. Like I’m sinking into the cold airport tiles, even though I’m somehow still standing.