Page 71 of Imperfections Seduced
She puts her knees under her on the couch and puts her hand over the top of the couch. “Like you did? You were holding back your feelings for her because of your friendship with Chris. You spent a lot of years thinking of her as a little sister, watching her grow up from when she was a little girl into a young woman with a rocking body. You had a lot of conflicting feelings about the relationship you had with Cat and Chris. Matt didn’t have that problem. He didn’t have the same emotional attachments, his conscience was free and clear to let himself be with her.”
She’s right about that; no matter how much I wanted her, my conscience was killing me for even thinking about her that way.
“I don’t want you orchestrating any more meetings between them. He’s not good for her. I know things about Matt that you don’t.”
“No more meetings with Matt. But I can’t stop her from hanging out with him if she wants to.”
“You can’t, but I don’t need you making this more difficult than it already is.” I walk back into the living room and sit back down.
“I wasn’t expecting you to be this calm after you called me and ordered me over here. What’s changed since yesterday? Maybe you weren’t as angry as I thought you were.”
“Oh, believe me, I was angry after I found out what happened with Matt in that club and Cat leaving like that. After I called you, I worked out for two hours before I could calm down.”
“What happened with Matt and Cat?”
“I’m sure you already know, Ava. If you don’t want me to get worked up again, let’s not talk about it. That’s something for Cat and I to talk about when I can talk about it without seeing red.”
She holds her hands up to me. “You don’t have to tell me twice. I’m going to leave that talk to you and Cat.”
I need to talk to someone about what happened today, and Ava’s the only one I can talk to. “Ava, I’m going to trust that you won’t tell Cat what I’m about to say.”
“Okay.” She looks wary.
“I mean it, Ava. She already has enough reasons not to be with me.”
“I know she does. To be honest, Nick, if I were her, I wouldn’t give your ass a second thought. Imagine, you haveall this stuff to deal with before you even start the relationship.”
“I know. You don’t need to remind me. I was at the doctor’s office today with Kate.”
“Really, how did that go?”
“I saw the baby and heard the heartbeat. Hearing and seeing this little thing made it real. I realized this child could very well be mine.”
“Yours and Kate’s.”
“I can’t deny that anymore.”
“So you’re saying that you think this baby is yours?”
“I’m saying, before, it wasn’t real to me, it was in the abstract. I couldn’t touch it, I couldn’t see it, I couldn’t hear it. Today, for the first time since Kate told me she was pregnant, it wasn’t something we just talked about. I could see it, and I could hear it. Seeing that little thing on the monitor and hearing that heartbeat changed things. It made me feel something that I didn’t feel before I stepped into that exam room.”
“That’s a problem now, isn’t it?”
“Yes, it is. One more thing to hurt Cat, pulling her away from me.”
“Cat stands to lose a lot more than you if you convince her you two can be in a relationship. People are going to be angry and hurt, there’s no way to avoid it. If you’re not going to be one hundred and fifty percent in, leave it alone. I don’t want her to get hurt any more than she already is.”
“Neither do I.”
“But you do know there is no possible way for her not to be hurt? You just admitted to me there’s a high probability this child could be yours. You do plan to tell Cat about this revelation you’ve had? I’m not going to lie to her for you.”
“I’m not asking you to lie for me. You know I wouldn’t do that.”
“I was hoping this baby was someone else’s.”
“So was I. We took the paternity test today.”
“You did?”
