Page 13 of Oops, I'm Having My Best Friend’s Baby!

“Man, I’m happy for you,” Jason said, sounding so genuine that Kai couldn’t find the words to refute him.

“Well, thank you,” he said and hated himself immediately because there was no way of walking back from that gracefully, was there?

“Listen,” said Jason, steamrolling ahead before Kai had any chance of trying to fix this. “Like I said, if you had just told me you couldn’t do the meeting because you were proposing, then it would have been no problem to reschedule. And man, you must have been so nervous. I can’t blame you for getting the jitters and coming off a little flaky. So how about we let bygones be bygones and start fresh? Get that merger up and going again and pick up where we left off.”

The panic in Kai’s chest stilled and, because he was absolutely one hundred percent out of his depth and a complete idiot, he made a split-second decision to go along with an opportunity he never thought he’d get again.

“That would be amazing, Jason. Honestly.”

Not honestly, though. He wasn’t being honest at all. But it was like he was possessed, standing outside of his body and watching it say and do things that he had absolutely no control over, the sensible part of him quietly panicking in the background, watching the carnage like a slow-motion train wreck.

“Awesome,” Jason said, his happy-go-lucky voice at complete odds with the panic swirling in Kai’s gut. “And hey, I wasn’t exactly that congenial myself on the phone the other day. I got all offended over nothing and that’s not cool, you know?”

“I don’t blame you,” said Kai, grimacing because why did Jason have to be such a nice guy on top of it all? Kai felt like he was getting rock salt rubbed into a massive wound.

“No, man, I gotta own up to it. But like I said, it’s all water under the bridge now. In fact, I have a proposition for you.”

“Oh?” Kai said, frozen in his desk chair.

“My wife Jess and I are planning to go out for a week on our yacht just to get away for a while, you know?”

“I sure do.” He didn’t, but apparently the truth didn’t matter anymore.

“Why don’t you come with us, man? Jess suggested you bring your fiancée along, too. That way we can all get to know each other better and talk about some business on the boat instead of being stuck in an office. Good food, fresh air, and the big, wide ocean? What do you say?”

“That sounds amazing,” Kai said, feeling like a robot that had gotten its wiring mixed up.

“Awesome!” Jason exclaimed, sounding genuinely thrilled. “Man, Jess will be so excited. She passes on her congratulations to you and your bride-to-be as well.”

“Well, tell her thank you. That’s very kind.”

“Will do, man, will do.”

They hung up with Jason promising to email through all the necessary details, and Kai waited for the consequences of his actions to come up behind him and knock him down flat.

Oh God. Oh God, what had he gotten himself into? It took a full ten minutes of sitting at his desk to unthaw enough to stand up, inform Matilda that he would be out of reach for the rest of the day, then head down to the garage and start his car, ready to head to Amy’s apartment. Because if Kai was about to beg and grovel for her assistance to get out of this mess, he was going to have to do it in person.

Kai had always loved Amy’s little apartment, and it had been far too long since he’d been there. The thought made him sad at how far they had drifted away from each other for a while there. But Amy welcomed him in, not all that surprised to see him turning up in the middle of a random workday, barely paying him any attention as she continued to eat half a sandwich. As he took a seat at her counter, she pattered around her kitchen in bare feet, wearing her usual jeans and a tank top, her short hair scruffy and sticking out all over the place as always.

Kai didn’t even say anything when she opened the door to find him standing there. She’d taken one look at his face and the slump of his shoulders and let him in, leading him through to the kitchen and sliding a can of beer across the counter to him. Kai nursed it in both of his hands, not even sure if he could stomach a drink right now, while Amy cracked open a can for herself after finishing her sandwich.

“So?” she asked eventually when he still couldn’t figure out how to even begin telling her what happened. “Why have you shown up at my door looking like someone slashed your car tires?”

“Uh… I have maybe, really badly, screwed up?”

Amy raised an eyebrow, taking a sip of her beer before answering.

“Are you sure you want to come to me for advice?” she asked. “Or is this something you should be talking to your fancy lawyers about?”

“Well, no, because the screwup involves some very important people thinking you’re my fiancée.”

He grimaced, both internally and externally, and waited for her reaction, but she just looked kind of puzzled as she stood there with her beer in hand.

“Wait, what?” she asked, the information finally seeming to click into her brain. “What do you mean important people think that I’m your fiancée?”

“Have you been on social media at all today?”

“Not for anything important. Only to watch cat videos.”

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