Page 33 of His Perfect Woman

“Why did you propose this whole arrangement if you had real feelings for her? Why not just tell her how you feel and skip all the games?” she persisted.

I dropped my head, wishing I could be anywhere but here just now, being interrogated by my little sister. I felt everything inside me breaking down. She wasn’t going to let up until I caved and I was running out of steam to keep up the facade.

“It’s embarrassing,” I confessed reluctantly. “She deserves a real man, someone who isn’t afraid to stand up and fight for what he wants. But I’ve always been too scared of losing her to risk making things weird between us. I guess I thought this way would be easier. Now there’s a part of her I’ll always have, even if it isn’t exactly what I wanted.”

“You’re toying with her whole life, Lucas. And now, not just hers...but a child’s, too. Your child. My niece or nephew. All because you’re too full of yourself to be vulnerable.”

I was quiet for a long time, not needing her to tell me any of this, of course. I didn’t need her help; I’d been beating myself up over it all enough on my own.

“I can’t be sure,” she continued, “but I think she might feel the same way. That’s why I came to talk to you. You and Victoria are two peas in a pod, alright. And you both seem to suck at sharing very important pieces of information and expressing your feelings.”

“What makes you think she feels the same way?”

“It was the look she had on her face when Jada told us how you felt.”

“Told us!? Wait. When Jada was blabbing about love...Victoria was there? She heard her saying all of this!? And does this mean Victoria told both of you she was pregnant!?” I flew into a panic, pacing around the office.

“Victoria let it slip about the baby by accident, and Jada had the good sense neither of you seem to have—which is that if you both have real feelings for each other...it changes everything about this arrangement.”

“Oh, great.” I blew out a sarcastic laugh. “So, in one brunch, Jada ran her mouth off about things that weren’t her business to tell, and Victoria told you both the one thing that she should have told me before anyone else. Jeez, what were you all drinking!? Some kind of fucking truth serum!?”

“Whatever Jada had to say was based on stuff she found when we were kids,” she defended, jumping to her feet to square off with me. “Everything else was speculation. Like what I thought I saw in Victoria’s eyes when she heard the news. There’s only one way to know for sure, Lucas. You have to talk to her.”

“If it was that easy, I would have done it by now,” I huffed.

She reached out and rested her hand on my arm. “I didn’t say it would be easy, Lucas. But it’s necessary. You can’t move forward with this wedding or anything else until you two talk and make sure you’re on the same page. Someone’s going to get hurt otherwise. And with a baby coming into the mix, you can’t afford to take that risk.”

She withdrew her hand and left in silence. I had to give it to her: if Camille was more worried about our personal lives than the company, then this really was imperative. I knew that, of course, but talking about it—out loud—cast a whole new sense of dread over everything.

I had already decided the time had come once, and I guessed this was my price to pay for not manning up then. Now time had run out.

My sisters knew I was going to be a father, and if Victoria didn’t already have some idea about how I really felt about her before...she sure did now. The biggest question was...how did she feel about it? Happy? Relieved? Disgusted?

I fired off a text, short and simple: We need to talk. There was no backing down now, and I figured there was no use in trying to act like I didn’t know she was pregnant. Without waiting for a reply, I headed out of the office for her apartment, stopping on the way for chocolates and flowers. Every talk with a woman goes better if you show up with chocolates and flowers. I knew that much, at least.

Victoria answered her door in a huff. Black makeup was smudged under her eyes and it looked like she had been crying; her face was pale with blotchy cheeks.

“You feeling okay?” I asked, offering up my peace tokens.

“Fine,” she snipped, slamming the door behind me. “What do you want to talk about?”

“Camille told me.” My eyes lit up at her. I wanted to skip all the other stuff and just be happy about the pregnancy for a moment. “This is wonderful, Vic. You’re going to have our baby.”

“I should have known she’d tell you,” she said spitefully, shaking her head. “Half of you can’t keep your mouths shut, the other half neglect to mention the most important things.”

“I wish you had told me before her.”

She glared back at me incredulously. “Oh, you’re one to talk! So then why did I have to hear all that from Jada?!”

I played dumb. “Hear what from Jada?”

“Enough, Lucas!” She crossed her arms tightly over her chest. “Are you...are you in...do you have feelings for me? Like, real feelings?”

I exhaled. “Yes.”

“For how long?”

“From the moment I first saw you.”

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