I stared at him, my mouth agape.
“An abortion?” I said in disbelief.
“I’m not having you and some bastard child fuck things up for Samira and me.”
Apparently, his six-foot Amazonian girlfriend had forgiven him.
I glanced at the money and my blood boiled. I stomped over to where he had thrown it down, and scooping it up, I threw it at him. “How dare you come here and try to tell me what to do. Who the fuck do you think you are?”
“You’re pregnant and I don’t want it.”
“Good, because it’s not yours!” I yelled at him.
Something drew my attention away from my loser ex-boyfriend. I looked up, and to my horror saw Caleb standing in the doorway.
For a moment, he looked at me, a look of confusion on his face. But when he realized there was a guy standing in my apartment acting like an asshole, he charged in.
“Everything okay, Honey?” he asked, and even though it was me he was talking to, his bright eyes were sharp and firmly fixed on Charlie.
“Who the fuck are you?” Charlie barked.
Caleb glared at him darkly. “I’m the guy who’s going to throw you on your ass if you don’t back away from her.”
Charlie scoffed and turned back to me. “I don’t want this baby.”
I stood very still. My cheeks burned. I didn’t want it to come out this way but I wanted Charlie gone and this was a surefire way to make that happen.
“Like I said, it’s not your baby.”
But of course Charlie was too arrogant to think it wasn’t his baby. He balked. “I don’t believe you.”
I glared at him. “That’s your problem, not mine. But I assure you, Charlie, the baby isn’t yours.”
A weird look crossed his face. Like he could hardly believe I had been with anyone else. That I hadn’t been here pining over him, crushed and heartbroken because we had broken up. But the look was just a flicker and it was gone.
“You expect me to believe you’ve been with another guy? And you’re having his baby?”
“That’s exactly what I’m saying, Charlie. Now you need to leave and don’t bother coming back.”
Charlie stared at me, his brown eyes gleaming with dark irritation.
“Fucking slut,” he muttered.
I didn’t have a chance to say anything because Caleb grabbed him by the collar and shoved him out the door.
“You heard the lady . . . you need to leave. And if you call her a name one more time, I swear to God . . .”
Charlie ignored him and gave me a murderous look through the doorway. “I should’ve gotten rid of you years ago.”
Before Caleb could do anything more to Charlie, I crossed the room and slammed the front door shut. It shuddered and then stilled, leaving Caleb and me standing there in a weird silence. Outside, a dog started to bark and I heard Charlie skid out of the driveway and roar down the street in his Mercedes.
It was Caleb who broke the silence.
“You’re pregnant?”
I closed my eyes and nodded. I couldn’t believe this was how he was finding out.
“With him?”
I had my eyes shut but I could tell he was looking at me. I shook my head and heard the hiss of his inhale.
“Is it mine?”
My throat felt like sandpaper, and my heartbeat was loud in my ears. He shouldn’t be finding out this way, and it was all my fault that he was. If I had just kept my legs closed and stopped having sex with him, this wouldn’t be happening.
“I’m so sorry,” I whispered. When I opened my eyes, I grimaced at him. “I’m so, so sorry.”
His brows pulled together. “Why are you sorry?”
“Because you shouldn’t be finding out like this. I tried telling you sooner. But…”
“But?”
“I got distracted by all the sex.”
His lips flickered, but then stilled. “Are you sure that you’re pregnant?”
I sighed and crossed the room to the couch. I pulled the DO WHAT YOU LOVE EVERY DAY cushion to my chest and hugged it.
“The night I met you I had walked in on my boyfriend getting a blowjob off another woman. Turns out it was his girlfriend of five years and I was the other woman.” I picked at the stitching on the cushion, unable to meet his eyes. “I went out that night to . . . I don’t know, get over him by getting under someone else, I guess. It sounds crazy when I actually say it out loud, but I was upset. And then I met you . . .”
I exhaled deeply and looked up.
“Two days before I saw you at the clubhouse, I had an ultrasound. I needed to know who was the father. The ultrasound was conclusive. The dates aligned. You’re the father, Caleb, not Charlie.”
Caleb nodded and sat down across from me. He leaned forward and played with the big silver rings on his fingers absentmindedly.