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He stared at her for a long moment. ‘All right,’ he finally said, and Harriet let out a huge sigh of relief.
When they arrived at the airport, Harriet found a pharmacy and asked for the morning-after pill. But, as it turned out, the rules in Italy were different from some other parts of the world. You couldn’t just buy one over the counter; you had to have a doctor’s prescription to get the pill. She was told that the public health clinic in Milan would give her a prescription, but it wouldn’t be open till the following morning, and there was often a several-hours wait to be seen.
Harriet decided fate was telling her something and they boarded their flight without said pill.
‘But what if you are pregnant?’ Alex asked, face grim.
‘I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it. But you don’t have to worry, Alex. If I am pregnant, then I’ll take care of it.’
‘What do you mean by that?’
‘I mean I’ll take care of it,’ she snapped. ‘Now, if you don’t mind, I don’t want to talk about it any more.’
Chapter Twenty-four
ALEX WENT TO work extra early that Monday morning, mostly because he’d been awake for hours. Sleep had been elusive during the two and a half weeks since his return from Italy, something he wasn’t used to. It had been especially elusive last night, knowing that Harriet had made a doctor’s appointment for first thing this morning to find out if she was pregnant. She’d refused to use one of the home testing kits you can buy over the counter—despite being a few days late—claiming they weren’t always accurate and she needed to be sure. She’d also refused to do other things, like talk to him more than strictly necessary. She wouldn’t even have coffee with him.
The past two weeks at work had been sheer hell.
The moment Alex let himself into the office, the cat sauntered over to him, purring as he wound himself around his ankles.
‘At least you still love me,’ Alex muttered.
Not that Harriet had ever loved him. But she had liked him. And desired him. Now she couldn’t seem to stand the sight of him, which really wasn’t fair, in Alex’s humble opinion. It wasn’t his fault that the damned condom broke.
‘Come on, Romany,’ he said with a weary sigh. ‘Let’s go get you some food.’
That done, he made himself a mug of black coffee before taking it into his office and slumping down behind his desk. As he sat there, sipping slowly, he tried to work out exactly why Harriet was so angry with him. And she was. She tried to hide her antagonism towards him, but it had been there, in her body language, right from the time they’d had the disastrous news about the morning-after pill. Harriet had even looked perversely pleased when he’d informed her that the only seats left on the first available flight home were first class. Alex had soon twigged that this was because she would have her own space and not have to sit next to him. Or talk to him. From the moment they’d arrived back, she’d cut him dead, saying it was over between them and taking a taxi home.
Every day since, Alex had tried to work out what he would do and how he would feel if she was pregnant.
Clearly, Harriet had no intention of keeping the baby if she was. Her savage ‘I’ll take care of it’ had indicated exactly what she would do. Alex knew that if he’d accidentally impregnated any other girl he’d been involved with over the years, he would not have objected to this course of action.
But you didn’t love any of those girls. You love Harriet, he accepted at long last. If she is going to have your baby, you will want her to keep it.
Shock at this astonishing realisation propelled Alex forward in his chair, some coffee sloshing onto his tie and shirt front. Swearing, he banged the mug down on his desk and stood up, reefing his clothes off before the coffee burned his skin. Fortunately, there was a brand-new shirt and tie in the bottom drawer of his desk, courtesy of his brilliant PA, who thought of every eventuality before it had even happened.
What in God’s name would he do without her? Alex’s heart lurched at the very real possibility that Harriet would soon exit from his life altogether. She hadn’t said anything yet, but he could feel it. She meant to move on, and there was absolutely nothing he could do to stop her. As time ticked away, he began to hope that she wasn’t pregnant. Maybe then things might settle back to normal.
Not a very logical thought.
The next two and a half hours were agony. He couldn’t think about work. Instead, he tried filling in the time till Harriet arrived by ringing his father and then Sarah. His father didn’t want to talk. He was off to his morning exercise class, his perky voice actually irritating Alex, which was perverse. Sarah couldn’t talk, either. She had to drive the kids to school, then go on to work, saying she would talk to him later. He contemplated calling Jeremy and confiding the situation to him. But it would be the middle of the night in London and no doubt Jeremy would not be alone.
