I sat up straighter and then leaned across the table. “Ally is anything but trashy. And I’m pretty sure that baby is mine, not ours.” I waved my hand between the two of us, and she shook her head.
“Well, actually, that’s what I wanted to talk to you about. I’ve been thinking a lot.” She tapped her fingers on the table as she paused. I had a feeling I knew what was coming, but I really didn’t want to hear her say the actual words. Those words would change everything. “I want to be a part of our baby’s life, Nick. I’m not giving her up.”
I sucked in a deep breath, blowing it out slowly as she silently stared back at me. I knew it. The little comments that she had been making were my first clue, and then she started accumulating things, like outfits and tiny shoes.
“We can either raise her together, Nick, or we can come up with some kind of arrangement. I know you’re in a relationship, but...” She let her sentence hang as I slammed my hand down on the table and squeezed my eyes shut. How could this be happening?
Why couldn’t she just—no, I couldn’t think that way. I had to put my feelings aside, and think about my daughter. She was the most important thing in this whole situation. She deserved the best. And if having two parents raising her together was the best, then that’s what I was going to have to do, even if it ripped me apart from the inside out and left me a shell of a person. That’s what I was going to have to do. Now, I just had to figure out how to destroy the perfect world that Ally and I lived in together, because the us that there was supposed to be…could be no more.
Chapter 24
Ally
I slammed my car door shut, and jumped when I turned around and saw Nick standing there. I hadn’t heard from him all day, other than a short text earlier to let me know that he was hung over and planned on sleeping it off. “Jeez, way to scare the hell out of me. Aren’t you supposed to be heading into work right about now?”
He shook his head, and backed up when I took a step closer to him. “Did you end up calling in? Because no offense, but you still look a little…well, you look like shit.”
And he did.
His normally tan skin was a couple shades paler, he had deep bags under his eyes, and he looked like he was sweating slightly. I reached forward, pressing my hand to his forehead to see if maybe he was coming down with something, mixed with his hangover of course. He brushed my hand away, and then shoved his hands into his pockets.
“Listen, Ally. We need to talk.”
“Ok-ay,” I dragged out. “Well, do you want to come up? Maybe I can make you some soup or something because you don’t look that great.”
“No.” He shook his head sharply, his eyes dropping down to stare at the ground. “Things aren’t working out, Ally.”
I swallowed over the lump in my throat that had suddenly formed. My ears really weren’t hearing right because it almost sounded like he was trying to break up with me or something. That wasn’t possible, it couldn’t be possible. We were happy. Perfectly happy, I thought.
“What do you mean, Nick? Things aren’t working out at work or something, because that’s not a—”
He held up a hand, cutting me off. “No, things between us aren’t going to work out. I have some shit going on right now, and I think it’s better if we just end things.” He scrubbed a hand over his face roughly, and I leaned back against my car as my whole body began to shake. I couldn’t believe what he was saying, I just couldn’t.
“Nick, whatever it is, we can get through it together. I know something’s been bothering you lately, why can’t you just tell me what it is? I promise, we can take care of whatever it is together. Just don’t do this to us. Please,” I added, hating that I sounded almost pathetic, but how could things just be over, just like that with us?
A single tear rolled down my cheek, and I know he saw it. A pained look crossed his face before he squeezed his eyes shut, shook his head, and then reopened them. For the first time since meeting him, his blue eyes looked almost…emotionless. “No, Ally. I’m sorry, but I can’t.” I opened my mouth to argue with him, but he interrupted me. “Look, Ally…I’m…I’m getting back together with Kara,” he said in a flat tone, and my world seemed to be pulled out from underneath me.
My gut told me something was going on between them when I had seen that message on his phone that day. I just didn’t want to believe it. I would have never imagined that Nick was the kind of guy to do something like this to me. I guess I trusted the wrong instinct.