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“I’m going to be late,” she said, tight-lipped. “Can we please do this some other time. Like when I don’t have to be at work?”
“Don’t worry about work,” Curtis ground out. She made a production of studying his expensive leather shoes so that she didn’t have to look at his face, but at that, her eyes whipped up. “I’ve already called and explained that you’ll be there at ten, not at eight. Your new boss was happy to oblige, considering, ironically enough, I happen to hire his agency for some of our accounting.”
Lexi managed to keep her jaw tethered to the bottom of her face. “You what?” She spluttered. “You- how do you know where I’m working? How do you know where I live?”
“I made a few calls. I’m sorry to say that with money, anything is possible.”
“Yeah.” She pressed down on her keys until they were painful in her palm again. Better to feel the pain than any of the other stuff she couldn’t control. Just because Curtis’ face was completely neutral, giving nothing away, didn’t mean she wasn’t feeling every single emotion on earth on a grand scale. “I know that. I called you entitled, remember? I meant that to encompass a lot of things.”
“You weren’t going to tell me?”
That did it. Her purse slid off her shoulder and hit the parking lot with a dull thud. Her stomach and her heart followed suit. “I- what?” Her mouth was suddenly bone dry and it was hard to get even those basic words out.
“You weren’t going to tell me. That you’re pregnant.”
“How the hell did you know that?” she seethed, half in awe, half in the early stages of rage. “Oh. Let me guess. You had some really creepy guy follow me around and find out every single detail about my life.”
“Several actually.” Curtis’ lips didn’t even twitch with amusement. His words were flat and toneless. “I know it’s true because you never would have left like that. You wouldn’t have moved, changed your number, and tried to vanish without a trace out of my life if it wasn’t true. As soon as I read it, I knew that’s what it was.”
There was no point in denying anything. Lexi wished she’d had a backup plan. An escape route and a bug out bag packed for when her cover was blown. “I- if- you- you hate kids!” She blurted. Might as well just get straight down to the point. “You hate children. You treated your own niece and nephew like they had the plague. You made it perfectly clear that you never wanted them. I was doing you a favor. It was a surprise. I swear it was. I never planned for this to happen. I knew if I told you that you’d be pissed off. I knew how you’d react. I knew you’d hate this baby and you’d hate me. You’d think I was just another woman in the long list of women who have tried to use you for money. You’d think that I planned it, saying I was on the pill when I wasn’t or that I botched it on purpose. I know you, Curtis James, and I know that you don’t want any part of this, so I was trying to do the right thing and not make you a part of it. I was trying to spare our baby from you. No child needs to know that its father hates it. Doesn’t want it. Doesn’t love it. This baby might have been a surprise, but it wasn’t an accident. I’m having it. I already love it. I’m going to be the best mother and now that you know, I’m not asking you for anything except that you leave now and leave me alone. This is hard enough as is without you… without you…”
“Without me what?”
It was ridiculous that she was on the verge of tears and Curtis stood there, calm and cool as a fucking cucumber. Or maybe a really hunky, beefy squash. Whatever. He was unflappable and that pissed her off even more.
“Without you… showing up here,” Lexi finally finished. She waved her hand down the length of him. “Looking like this. I- I didn’t leave because I don’t feel anything for you. I left because I knew this would never work. I left to protect this child. I left because I had to. I didn’t plan for it to happen and I- this has been really hard, even if you can’t imagine it.”
“Oh, I can imagine it.”
That took her by surprise, and she spoke before she could think better of it. “Excuse me?”
Curtis uncrossed his arms and his suit ruffled with the movement. His eyes burned into her like he freaking had superpower x-ray vision. “You think it wasn’t hard for me? To be left like that? I’m not sure why you’ve always wanted to believe that I’m this thing that doesn’t have feelings. I do have a heart. A heart that you just left off really wounded. I was worried sick. I thought something had happened to you. I was confused as hell. It hurt, Lexi. You wouldn’t tell me what was going on. It hurt to think I meant nothing to you. That I was easy to leave. We both agreed, after that weekend, at least it was an unspoken thing, that it meant something. That we meant something to each other. I thought maybe you did just toy with me and when you got sick of me you threw me away with zero remorse. I felt stupid. So fucking stupid. Cheated, even if it was irrational to think that. I hated that you had the ability to get to me and hurt me the way you did. I thought I knew you. And then I found out. I found out about this and I knew why you’d done it. I knew it wasn’t anything I’d done at all. It had nothing to do with me.”
