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“ An employee can only drink apple juice at the moment, and I want them to be more comfortable at work.”
She clears her throat. “Of course, I’ll get on that right away. And your meetings later this afternoon, were you wanting to do those through video call from your home?”
“What were they again?”
“You have one at two with the contractors and another at three-thirty with another real estate agent.”
I’m dreading both meetings. The last thing I want to do is think about work right now when I should be at Dominic’s making sure Casey is okay. After finding out that Casey was pregnant, I made the rash decision to work on two new casinos at once, thinking if I overworked myself, it could make me forget about the idea of having a baby.
That worked out well for me. “Uh, yeah, that’s fine,” I finally answer. Now, I’m going to overwork myself while trying to make sure I’m there for Casey if she even allows me to do that. This is going to be fun.
There’s nothing I can do to change the way things are going at work, but at least I can do something about Casey and our baby.
Chapter Nine
Casey
WhenIgetintothe break room to put my lunch and juice into the fridge, I’m stunned at the plethora of small apple juice bottles sitting on the bottom shelf in two neat rows.
Hannah walks into the room and I point at the bottles. “Are all these yours?”
She leans over, casting her eyes over them and shakes her head. “Not mine, apple juice isn’t really my thing.”
It’s odd that one of the only things that doesn’t make me puke my guts up is stocked in here, but I choose to shut the door and ignore it. I’m sure there’s a logical explanation. They’re probably for all the other employees and I’m just being hopeful.
Is it stupid of me to hope that Emmett is starting to care about my wellbeing?
The memory of the way he took control of me at Dominic’s floods through my head and I shiver from it. His hands felt like they belonged there, but that could also be because my hormones are all out of control. Every time I see the man I’m ready to combust.
I paste a bright smile on my face and head out to the casino floor and grab my notepad, ready to jot down everyone’s order. My cheeks are hot, no doubt flooded bright pink, and I clear my throat as I approach the first guest. “Sir, would you like a drink?”
He grunts in response and waves me away, giving all his attention to the slot machine in front of him with money signs shining brightly in his eyes. It’s something I’ve become used to – there are people who enjoy a nice cold drink while they gamble their life savings away, and others who’d rather not be bothered. I know better than to come back to this guy, at least for another hour if he’s still here.
A middle-aged couple is sitting at another slot machine, hooting at it as it chimes with whatever amount they won, and I walk up to them with another bright smile. I’m surprised my face hasn’t permanently frozen this way.
“Looks like a good time for some drinks,” I say with a chuckle. “What’s your poison?”
I jot their drink orders down, stopping at other guests along the way, and breathlessly walk up to the bar to hand Hannah the drink orders.
This is another perk of being pregnant – I’m constantly out of breath from even the shortest distances. I lean against the bar and catch my breath, giving Hannah plenty of time to get the drinks ready for me.
“All ready to go,” she says, placing the tray in front of me with a smile. “You okay?”
The only people who know about my pregnancy as of now are Dominic and Emmett, and I’m trying my best to keep it that way as long as possible. Granted, once I start showing there’s not going to be much left to hide and who knows how much longer that will take. According to everything I’ve researched, everyone’s bodies are different – I could start showing as soon as five months, or as late as seven months.
So, I just have to wait it out.
I’d love to tell Hannah everything, it seems like we are becoming close enough friends, but I’m not sure if I can trust her yet. I guess this is the perks of having a really close friend who goes behind your back with the man you were set to marry. Speaking of, Micahel’s still trying to get hold of me, begging me to come back and talk things through.
I have to laugh, honestly. He keeps leaving me messages that say their moments didn’t mean anything, that he loves me, and it’s made me so tempted to throw this pregnancy in his face. I’d love nothing more than to set this perfect world he’s conjured up for us into flames, ruin every chance he thinks he still has with me, but telling Michael would mean opening up the door to telling Dominic who the real father is.
That has been tougher to handle than I like, since he’s hell bent on trying to get me to find the baby’s father. I’m not sure how many more times I can tell him the guy I had a one-night stand with isn’t the dad type before I finally burst out with the truth – that his one and only best friend knocked me up.
“Casey?” Hannah asks, cocking her head to the side. “You going to take those drinks before they get watered down?”
I shake my head and chuckle nervously. “Yeah, uh, sorry.”
This situation with Emmett has me feeling things I hate. He never paid any attention to me before, but now he’s showing up with soup when I’m sick and the fridge in the break room is stocked with apple juice – something he knew I needed after being there when Dominic brought it home.
