Page 38 of Oops, I'm Having My Best Friend’s Baby!

CHAPTER 14

KAI

Kai had been at his desk since six a.m., catching up on his week-long absence with a laser-beam focus powered by the strongest black coffee he could conceivably get his hands on. As a result, his heart felt like it was about to jump out from behind his ribcage and he was already halfway done with the behemoth to-do list that he’d been chipping away at. Then Matilda walked in to get her day started and he realized three hours had passed. In all that time he didn’t think he’d actually blinked, and his eyes felt both dry and sticky.

“Are you all right?” Matilda asked, letting herself in and taking the two empty coffee cups off of his desk like she was hiding criminal evidence.

“Is it obvious?”

“You look like you need a vacation to recover from your vacation.”

Kai laughed dryly and rubbed his face. “Just wanted to get into it straight away,” he said, which wasn’t a lie. “Lots to catch up on, you know.”

“All right…” Matilda said, sounding like she didn’t believe him for a second. “You want more coffee, I assume?”

“Please.”

She left him alone in his office, and for the first time that morning, without his eyes glued to his computer screen, he had space to think. He winced. Because that was why he was here so early, working so hard, so he didn’t have a second free in order to think. Right now, thinking hurt.

The fight with Amy on the dock came washing back over him in vivid detail. He swore he could recall every eyelash, every hair on her head; it was seared into his memory in high definition. It was a mistake, what he’d done. That had become more and more apparent with every passing day. The sinking, sticky feeling of guilt was getting stronger, too, in direct correlation with his realization of how badly he’d hurt his friend. That was if she even wanted to be his friend anymore…

He’d tried calling Amy the day after the fight, to apologize properly, but she hadn’t picked up. When he’d texted the apology instead, the message was seen but left without a response. The more he thought about it, though, really thought about it, the more he knew that he didn’t deserve a response. She had straight-up said to him, said to his face, that she didn’t want his help, that she wanted to do it all alone. She’d said what she’d wanted. She’d even explained why, so there wasn’t even the slimmest of chances that Kai had misinterpreted what she had said. And Kai had completely ignored her. He’d just assumed that he knew best, that he knew better than she did what was good for her. Over a decade of friendship and instead of listening to Amy, instead of following one simple request to do nothing, he’d taken her trust and thrown it in front of a speeding train, and then he’d had the audacity to be surprised when it was crushed.

Because God forbid he get to know someone at such a deep level and let that actually hit home. No, he had to ignore her pleas to let her grow on her own. He had to bring it all back down to success and money because those weren’t personal; those were distant things that he had control over.

Well, he had success now, but he didn’t have Amy. Was it worth it? He let his head fall into his hands, rubbing his eyes with the heels of his hands. The answer was pretty obvious.

At the end of the first week back to normal life, he had a lunch meeting planned with Jason to go back over their plans, to tighten things up and move forward. Kai was dreading it, but not because he thought it would go badly. In fact, he knew it was going to go well; that’s what had guilt and anxiety swirling in his gut like a witch’s evil potion.

Because it was the fact that the vacation on the yacht had worked. Jason and Kai’s working relationship had never been better, and that was what really rubbed salt into the wound. The whole plan to pretend to be engaged had done exactly what Kai had hoped it would, not only smoothed over the whole debacle with canceling their previous meeting, but it had also planted seeds for a real, lasting friendship between the two men. The whole thing couldn’t have gone any better.

So now here he was, sitting down in a two-Michelin-star restaurant in the middle of San Diego, notes and contracts prepped and ready to go. And instead of relief or satisfaction or even just a sliver of happiness, Kai was getting buffeted around by constant waves of guilt. It was all thanks to Amy. Every moment of success he now had with Jason as a business partner was directly thanks to Amy’s willingness to play pretend, to act like they were a happy couple, to be ridiculous, to jump in feet first… It was all because of her that he was where he was now. And to think he’d been arrogant enough to be certain that she was the one in desperate need of his help in order to succeed. The universe certainly did have a cruel way of making sure that he learned his lesson.

He had avoided pursuing anything more with Amy for years all because he didn’t want to risk losing her. Well, he’d lost her anyway, in the very same twenty-four-hour period where they had reached toward something more. It was almost poetic, and definitely impressive, how fast he’d managed to mess it all up.

Thankfully, before he could sink too far down into depression, staring into his wine glass like it held all the answers, Jason arrived in a flurry of energy, documents, and loud greetings.

“Hey, man, sorry to skip the niceties,” he said, sitting down across from Kai. “But now it’s time to get to business? Don’t you agree?”

Kai couldn’t have agreed more. Talking business was the only thing keeping him sane right now.

They ate lunch, not really focusing on the food or the drinks as they talked over the contracts to create a legally standing relationship between their two companies. At least Kai wasn’t focused on the food. He knew full well that it was one of the best restaurants in the city, but every bite felt like it turned to ash on his tongue.

If he let his thoughts wander too far along that particular track, he would start thinking about how all he wanted was to eat burgers in an empty parking lot with Amy by his side. However, it didn’t look like he was going to be able to do that any time soon. Or ever again.

An hour passed and the meeting went spectacularly well. Jason was practically glowing as it wrapped up and they stood to leave.

“I’m excited, man,” he said, with that blinding white smile. “I’m super glad this all worked out. Great things are coming. I know it.”

“Yeah,” Kai said, utterly exhausted from keeping a fake smile on his face the whole time. “Onwards and upwards and all that.”

“Say hi to Amy for me,” Jason said with a parting wave as he left the restaurant.

Kai wished he could say “hi” to Amy. He really did.

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