Page 34 of The Hot Mess

I sighed with relief, imagining how easy it would have been for him to come barging into Jada’s apartment when he knew I was there. We were closer to getting caught than I knew this whole time.

“Then maybe this will be good news after all,” I told him. “Because I’ve decided to accept your job offer. You knowing about me and your sister was the last thing holding me back.”

His brows twitched and his expression grew gravely serious. “You and my sister?”

“It’s not just some fling,” I assured him. “Maybe it was at first. When you and Joshua confronted me about it, I wanted to try and break things off. But that’s when I started to realize I just couldn’t.”

A strange smile spread across his face and he stood from his desk, circling around to the front of it. “So…you didn’t come here to confess about all the traveling you’ve been doing with your side consulting gigs. You came here to confess…”

My heart dropped as I realized the error I had made. A horrible, horrible mistake—and such a rookie one too. I confessed to the real crime, thinking I had been caught, when Lucas only knew about my other, much lesser, offense.

“You’re sleeping with my sister?” he growled.

“Not just sleeping with her,” I tried to explain. “I have feelings for her. Real feelings. I want to see where things go. But I couldn’t keep it a secret from you anymore. And I needed to know how it might affect the offer you extended to me.”

Once again, he smiled. But this time it turned into a laugh. However, it was obvious that none of this was funny to him. These were laughs and smiles of rage. Pure rage.

“You needed to know how it might affect the offer I extended to you?” he scoffed. “I call you in here and give you the offer of a lifetime. I gave you a top tier position and raised the salary far beyond what I would pay anyone else. I bumped out my own brother to offer his spot to you instead, because all of that still wasn’t good enough. On top of that, you wanted time to think about it, which I gave you. And what did you do with that time? You started sleeping with my sister behind my backandkept traveling all over the place taking more consulting gigs. As if you were so far above our puny little salary and corner office. Do you have any idea how that makes me feel? I gave you an inch, and you kept taking mile after mile. You might as well have just spit in my face! At least things would have been more clear then!”

“Lucas, I didn’t mean—It’s not—I’m sorry, I…”

His office door flew open. Joshua appeared, quickly rushing in and slamming the door shut behind him. “What’s going on here? I could hear you shouting all the way down the hall.”

“You tell him,” Lucas barked.

“Tell me what?”

I straightened and cleared my throat. “Joshua. I, well, your sister and I. We’re—we’re seeing each other.”

“Impossible,” he laughed. “Camille loves Mark.”

“Not Camille.”

HIs eyes grew wide as it sank in. “My little sister? My baby sister?”

“She’s hardly a baby,” I defended. “She’s twenty-five years old.”

“Don’t tell me how old my own sister is, Jack! I know how old she is! The question is, what are you doing going anywhere near her? Didn’t we warn you about this!?”

“You did,” I nodded. “I was just hoping if I came clean, and explained my intentions, which are good and honorable, that maybe you’d reconsider how you felt about it.”

They both laughed this time with the same scary, anger-fueled cackle that quickly faded into scowls.

“That’ll be all, Jack,” Lucas snapped. “Leave now or I call security.”

“But wait,” I argued. “What about…”

“I revoke my offer,” he said sternly. “And if I catch you anywhere near my sister ever again, I’ll use all the connections I have to make sure no one ever hires you for the rest of your life. So unless you want to be living off of your inheritance alongside your sister, I suggest you get the hell out of my office and get back on a plane to go far away from here.”

18

Jada

If I hadn’t taken the pregnancy test and confirmed my condition when I did, there still would have been no doubt in my mind about what was going on with me soon after. Over the next few days I was hit with a slew of symptoms from sore breasts to nausea and fatigue.

I was taking a much needed morning off to sleep in. But even after twelve hours of sleep, I was struggling to pull myself out of bed. I laid there listlessly, thinking about how the past month my mind was devoured by sexual fantasies about Jack. When he wasn’t with me fulfilling them, I’d lie in bed and dream about the next time we’d be together.

Now my thoughts were consumed with uncertainties about what would happen with us. What would happen with me? How would my body change? It was safe to assume Jack wasn’t going to step up to the plate with me and the baby. Who else would want me as a single mother?

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