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“She had my baby, Chap, and she didn’t tell me.”
I may not have wanted to feel bad for him, but what had been done to him was wrong. “I’m sorry she kept that from you. You didn’t deserve that.”
“I was… so mad at you.” That piqued my interest. Slowly, I made my way into the living room as he continued. “I hated that you’d taken away my ability to make things right with you. When I told you, I wasn’t trying to embarrass you. I genuinely thought I was doing the right thing by coming clean before we said our vows. Then you left and I realized just how much I loved you. How much of my life you’d embedded yourself in.”
I sat next to him as he continued. “So when I saw Lay at the bar, it felt therapeutic for us to be able to talk about you with someone who would understand. Jerry didn’t give a damn how either of us felt. All he cared about was you. It was nice hearing someone say they were upset at you for leaving because I was too. And maybe I didn’t have a right, but I was. I wanted the chance to do right by you and you took that from me, so I drank.” Nova chuckled as he sat up. His legs spread and hands dangled between them. “A lot. I won’t lie and say I didn’t know what I was doing because I did, for the most part. I don’t remember the whole thing and I don’t remember not wearing a condom, but I do remember the start of us having sex. I regretted that shit immediately. Allegra is beautiful, but I’ve never been attracted to her in that way. It was a one-time thing whether you believe that or not. I have no romantic desire to be with her, Chapel, I swear.”
“I’m not the one you need to convince; your fiancée is.”
“I broke up with Tiffany.”
Wasn’t expecting that. “What? Why?”
He squeezed the back of his neck. “You were right; I was staying with her as punishment for what I did to you. I told you I didn’t love her and she’s not the kind of woman I want to be with for the rest of my life. Finding out about my child, and especially it being a daughter, makes me want to do better by the women in my life. I don’t want her growing up and choosing a man like me.”
He sounded like my father, and for Ava’s sake, I was glad Nova was coming to this conclusion while she was still so young. Nova had more than enough time to get his shit together before she’d be able to pick up on his actions, motives, and the way he treated women.
“It’s good that you want to be a good example for her. Have you… talked to Allegra yet?”
“Yeah. I talked to her yesterday. I’m going to see Ava this evening.”
I remained silent. Envy was creeping in. I was supposed to be the woman he married and gave babies, not Tiffany or Allegra. That was my pride. My ego. My heart knew Nova and I were better off with other people. For me, that person was Jeremiah. Still. I couldn’t deny the hurt I felt knowing my best friend had my ex’s baby.
I hated feeling that. I hated how it caused anger to boil inside of me. My eyes blinked rapidly. Weren’t they tired of crying over this man already?
“About work,” I said, pausing to clear my throat of the emotion piling up, making it hard to speak. “I don’t want to see you and Allegra, but I can’t deny you all are just as much the heart of WCSF as I am. If you want to continue to work there, you can, but you’ll need to work on the same floor as your associates. I need time to process this, and I don’t know how long it will take. Regardless, I’m not putting myself in the position to have to see either of you every day.”
“That’s fair. I can work from home more too for a while. If you feel like you’ll never truly be comfortable with me working there, I’ll leave and start my own financial firm. Whatever is best for you.”
I nodded, unsure what to say to that. It didn’t feel right to thank him for his kindness when we were in this mess because of him.
“What about Tiffany?” he continued.
“She’s not valuable enough for me to keep her on. I don’t want her to come back. Once she signs off on her severance package, I’ll have you send her payment and draw up her letter of recommendation.”
“I’ll uh… I’ll take care of the payment personally. Don’t worry about taking it out of the company account.”
With a nod, I stood. “Can you go now?”
Finally, he stood and made his way over to the door. While there, he asked, “Do you think you’ll ever feel comfortable with me again? I meant it when I said I wanted you back as my friend.”
“Nova, being your friend is not even the last thing on my mind right now. I think you need to focus on being a father more than anything else at the moment.”
“I could accept losing you to Jeremiah because he’s better for you, but the thought of losing you because of my actions…” His phone vibrated and I was glad for the distraction. “This is the office. I gotta go.”
Nova made a quick exit, leaving me with more to think about than was in my head and heart before he arrived. I was proud of myself for doing what was best for my business and all parties involved instead of being completely selfish and seeing to my own needs.
Not being on the same floor as him and Allegra would probably be the only way I could handle working with them still. Hopefully, Allegra would agree. If she didn’t, I had no problem reaching out to Lei Fifer and seeing if she’d mind being her replacement.
Her replacement.
I never thought I’d get to this point with Allegra.
No matter what issues we’ve had in the past, the thought of her sleeping with Nova and having his baby would have always been foreign to me. Even if I found a way to justify it and say they were drunk, there had to have been a deep seed of desire within both of them to take it there. Men may have slept with whoever they could, but women slept with who they wanted. Nova could say he’d never thought of her in that way, but I knew my girl. She wouldn’t have had sex with Nova unless she really wanted to…
24
That Evening
