Kerri sighed. “You could just come to Hong Kong and avoid the situation altogether.”
“How does that solve anything?”
“One, Alex will have to leave you alone. I can’t imagine him following you all the way to Hong Kong. He’s got a company to run.”
Natalie nodded although Kerri couldn’t see her. That made sense.
“Unless you want him to not leave you alone.” Kerri hummed a little tune, a sign that she was thinking. “Do you?”
“Yes. No. I don’t know.”
That wasn’t entirely true. Since their first dinner, she’d been fascinated by his confidence and intensity and that bit of devil-may-care attitude he had. And now…
“Huh. Not like you to waver. Anyway, moving on while you think about that—two, you can discreetly either get rid of the baby or give it up for adoption or something here. Since it’s halfway around the world, I doubt the medi
a would follow you. Unless your dad decides to run for president, that is.
“Three, we can hang out all the time. Think of all the fun things we can do.
“Four, you’ll be away from your god-awful family.”
Natalie opened and closed her mouth. “How…why would you think that I’d want to be away from my family?”
Kerri snorted. “Come on. How many years have we known each other? You told me enough for me to know what’s really going on. Most likely you’ll let your family walk all over you out of some weird sense of duty. Like I always say, you gotta take care of yourself first. Besides, you can start fresh here. Annnnnnnnd…” Kerri paused dramatically. “You-know-who’s going to get canned.”
“What? Seriously? No way!”
“Oh yeah. Some ethics violation or other. Seems good ol’ Jack touched something he shouldn’t have.”
“I can’t believe that. I mean, he seemed okay when we were dating.”
“What can I tell you? I guess getting promoted to VP gave him just a liiiittle too much power. His new nickname around here is Jack-in-the-Box.”
Natalie shook her head, laughing despite herself. “Thank God I had the good sense to get away from him when I did.”
“Oh, the touching isn’t all of it. Come on out and I’ll tell you the rest.”
“Tease.”
“Always. Hey, look, I know it’s a big decision. Just think about it, okay?”
Natalie said she would. But more urgent than mulling over a possible move was figuring out how she was going to face Alex tomorrow. She couldn’t believe she’d been so rash. This was one of the biggest reasons why she shouldn’t have gotten involved with the CEO of her company in the first place.
The wrong timing. The stupid condom. And everything else. She breathed in deeply.
It won’t happen to me.
Yeah… Famous last words.
Chapter Eleven
THE NEXT MORNING at DDE, Natalie glanced at Alex’s office on her way back from the bathroom and paused. The door was closed, and it didn’t look like he was in yet. She glanced at her watch. Nine forty-five. Shouldn’t he be there by now? It was the third time she’d gone past his office since nine. A few of her coworkers were giving her looks.
Ethan walked by with a couple of manila folders stuffed full of documents. “Looking for Alex?”
She nodded. What was the point of denying it? She bet the entire office knew.
“He’s not coming in today. He’s probably on his flight to Hong Kong right now.”