Page 4 of I Won't Be In On Monday

"That sounds like a fun Saturday."

"Yeah, it's okay." I lower my voice as I exit the building. "If I'm honest, Lila, I want a boyfriend. I want love. I want more inmy life, and I don't know that I'm going to get it looking like Mrs. Doubtfire's older sister."

She bursts out laughing then. "Juniper, you are a beautiful woman. You do not look like Mrs. Doubtfire."

"Thank you, Lila. I love you, and you are a great friend, but you're the only one who sees my beauty, other than my dad."

"Skye does, as well,” she says.

“You, Skye, and my dad," I say. "I just want a guy to notice me. I just want to go on a date. Shit, I'm fed up with being a virgin. I want a love story. I want an orgasm,” I say loudly, glad I’m in the elevator alone.

"Every guy's not going to give you an orgasm, trust me. But I'm confident that we can get you looking so beautiful that you can have any guy you want."

"I mean, I love you for saying that, but I sincerely doubt that I'll be able to get any guy I want even after the makeover, but a hot and sweet guy would be nice."

"I feel that. Let's talk about it more when I get to the bar. Okay?"

"Sounds good," I say. "See you soon, Lila."

"See you soon, Juniper."

We hang up, and I smile as I make my way down the street. I pass two Wall Street-looking guys who are talking loudly about trying to get some tonight. I try to make eye contact with the one closer to me so I can show him my disapproval, but he doesn't even glance my way. "Invisible," I mutter under my breath and take a deep breath. Sometimes, it really sucks, but other times, it feels like a blessing.

Chapter Two

Remington

My world is literally crashing down around me, and I don't know what to do. If aliens suddenly appeared in my office, I wouldn’t be shocked. Such is the undeniable and almost unbelievable world I currently find myself in. An acrid smell of burned buttery popcorn fills the air, and I remind myself to tell HR to ban staff from making popcorn in the office.

“That’s not going to fix your issues,” I mutter, as if giving myself a pep talk is going to help extricate me from the deep, dark trench I now find myself in.

I'm attempting to pretend that everything in my life is the same, but it’s not really working. Even though I had Juniper send flowers to multiple random women, the joy was no longer there. I’d even felt that my teasing and joking around with her had felt off. Everything that has been constant in my life is changing, and there’s nothing I can do to stop it.

I open the email fromDNA TESTS FOR ALLone more time and stare at the screen. The results were in. I was the father.

I am the father.

Fuck.

I am a father.

A daddy.

My sperm went swimming and jumped into a rocket.

"How on earth did this happen?" I mutter to myself as I shake my head. Quick flashes of hot sex cross my mind, and I groan. Okay, so I knew how it happened.

“I’m a dad.” I sound out the foreign words and shudder. “I’m a dad to a seven-year-old girl. A seven-year-old. I don’t even know anything about kids, and I certainly don't know how to be a dad to a seven-year-old who can talk, walk, eat, spit, and tell me that they hate me all at the same time." I take a deep breath and reach for my phone and call Kingston. I’m not sure who else to unburden myself on. The gravity of the situation is hitting me like a ton of bricks.

“Hey, what’s going on?” He sounds casual, like he doesn't realize my world is ending.

“Everything and nothing.”

"Remy, what's going on? You okay?" he asks. “You sound weird.”

"Not much going on here. Just in the office, doing some work and going through some emails."

"Good, good. You want to tell me about a case, or what?"

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