Page 139 of Fierce-Hyde

“No,” he said. “I don’t. Are you going to let me explain anything to you?”

“Oh, I expect it,” she said, crossing her arms.

They drove to her apartment in silence. It was fine for her because she didn’t want to fight in the car.

But the minute they were in her place, he slammed the door and turned to her. “I dated Hilary in high school. Our senior year. We dated for a few months. That’s it.”

“And she got pregnant?” she asked.

“She did,” he said. “But I had no idea. She didn’t either. She was late, but we didn’t think anything of it. I wore condoms. I was her first. We’d only had sex a few times. She got her period a few weeks late. She was in a lot of pain and it wasn’t normal for her. Her mother brought her to the hospital.”

“She lost the baby?”

“Yes. It was one of those things where the fetus was outside the uterus or something. I don’t remember. I was barely eighteen. She was seventeen. She had to have surgery, but they’d told her they didn’t think there’d be any long-term damage. No one knew but our parents. Unless she told someone. I sure the hell didn’t.”

“What happened then?”

“We split up shortly after. I ended things with her and went to college. She hated me. I knew that. I get it. She was going through something hard and part of me felt like shit and the other part was relieved. I don’t know what I would have done if she was pregnant and had the child.”

“What does that mean?” she asked, putting her hands on her hips. If lasers could come out of her eyes, he’d be incinerated.

Considering everything she’d gone through with her father, she didn’t want to think she’d be with any man who would do that.

“It means I saw my life changing. My plans on going to college are gone. Everything. I never thought I’d marry or be with Hilary, but I sure the hell wouldn’t abandon my child and I can see it in your eyes. That you’re judging me I’d do that like your father.”

She couldn’t argue that because it popped into her mind.

Back to jumping to assumptions again.

It’s like the two of them did this all the time.

“I don’t know why you couldn’t have told me this,” she argued. “You know everything about my life.”

“I doubt I know everything,” he said sarcastically. “I just told you no one knew but us and our parents. I’m not sure what caused her to do what she just did.”

“Obviously she’s bitter that what happened caused her to not have kids. I might feel the same way.”

“You know what, Tori? That’s not helping me any. I had no control over any of that. We were protected. She got pregnant and didn’t even know herself. She had complications. Don’t make me feel even more like shit about the things in my past. It feels like I’m never going to be enough for you. Are we always going to come back to this?”

“Don’t put this on me,” she shouted. “Don’t blame me because you didn’t keep it in your pants and had consequences.”

“There is no talking to you,” he said. “I thought for sure that after everything you’ve gone through in the past month, that you’d understand.”

“Meaning what?”

“That people make mistakes, but this wasn’t oneImade. Again, no control. You know what it’s like to have no control in life.”

“That’s right,” she said. “But I would have told you something like that if it were me.”

“Because it might affect us having kids,” he said. “But what happened to Hilary doesn’t affectus.”

“The fact you think that makes it worse,” she said.

He turned and walked out of her apartment and she let him go.

She went to the couch and flopped down and burst into tears.

Why did it feel as if they never got away from fighting like this?

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