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That makes me giggle. “Maybe.”
“Seriously?”
“A man who’s as generously endowed as you are—allegedly—shouldn’t worry too much about locker-room chat.”
“Jesus.”
“Don’t act like you’re not pleased.”
“I’m thrilled. And a tad embarrassed.”
“No you’re not,” I scoff.
“Well, it’s better than hearing you’re all laughing because it’s so small, but yeah, it’s a little mortifying.”
“Well, then, maybe you need to keep it in your pants a bit more, and we wouldn’t have so much to talk about.”
He drops his gaze to his glass and swirls the whisky over the ice. “I probably deserved that,” he says before taking a sip.
I close my eyes for a moment before turning toward him a little. The last thing I meant to do was hurt his feelings. He’s still my best friend when it comes to it.
“No, I apologize. That came out sharper than I meant. You’re a gorgeous guy. Good looking, funny, and warm-hearted. Women are going to clamber over each other to get you. And why shouldn’t you make the most of that?”
He holds my gaze for a long while. I lean my head on a hand and study his light-gray eyes. I’ve been in love with this guy since the moment I met him. It was at a party, halfway through our first year at university. He turned up with Mack, who I’d met through some extra-curricular computer science lecture I’d attended. Mack introduced us, and as I felt as if I’d been hit between the eyes with a cricket ball. Even back then, Huxley was tall and gorgeous, but it was his manner that won me over—he was funny, warm, and attentive, and right from the start I knew he liked me. We went on a couple of dates—the first to the cinema, and for the second he took me to dinner. Both times we parted with a long, passionate kiss. I wanted to ask him to come up to my room, but I was still a virgin, and shy, and not quite ready for that final step. But the third date, I told myself, that was when it would happen. And I already knew it was going to be amazing.
Unfortunately, though, the third date never materialized. Huxley mysteriously disappeared for two weeks, and I didn’t hear from him. Even Mack and Victoria didn’t know where he was.
And then one day he reappeared. I was in the library, studying, and I looked up from my laptop to see him standing there, leaning against one of the bookcases, his hands in his pockets, watching me. I felt my face light up, but he didn’t smile back.
Heart racing, I packed up my stuff, and we walked over to the coffee shop. He bought me a latte and sat me down, and then he told me what had happened. A girl he’d slept with a few months ago, Brandy Rowland, had told him she was two months pregnant, and he was the father.
It had happened before we’d started dating, which was something, I guess. But even so, it shocked me deeply.
I sat there stiffly, my heart banging on my ribs. “You fucking idiot. Why didn’t you use a condom?”
“I did. No contraception is one hundred percent perfect. Shit happens, unfortunately.” He seemed very calm about it. But then he’d had a couple of weeks to work off his frustration.
“Are you getting back with her?” I asked.
He shook his head. “It was a one-night stand. Neither of us wants a relationship. But obviously I have to take responsibility.”
Of course he did. I’d never met a more honorable guy. There was no alternate universe in which he refused to accept he was the father.
But it still stung. Maybe because they’d had a one-night stand, and I’d held out for the third date. Surely it was better that I hadn’t slept with him? But as I sat there, looking into his gorgeous eyes, I’d felt my heart splintering like a log split with an ax.
“Right,” I said.
“Things are going to be difficult,” he said. “Her parents are very strict, and she’s absolutely terrified of telling them. So we’re going to say we’re an item for now. I’ll have to see a lot more of her, and I want to be there when she has the baby. I don’t want her to have to go through it on her own. I fucked up, and I have to pay the price for that.”
I nodded, swallowing hard.
“I’m so sorry,” he said.
I knew then that he was saying we were over. We hadn’t even got off the starting blocks, and we were done.
“One day,” he said, “when the baby’s born, and things have settled down, I’ll ask you out again. But I don’t expect you to wait for me.”
“That’s good of you.” Disappointed and hurt, I got to my feet.
