Page 57 of Baby By my Best Friend's Daddy

“What?”

I lifted my head. “Brad caught us in bed.”

“No, I heard you the first time. Let me be clearer. What… thefuck?”

“Yeah,” I groaned. “Landon has a bad habit of leaving his door open. That’s how all this started, and, apparently, I’m not the only person to let myself in. Brad came to see Landon about work this morning, Landon’s door was open, and he found us in bed together.”

“Were you…” Celine’s voice trailed off.

I shook my head. “We were just sleeping, but that’s not the point. Fuck, Celine, he wasn’t supposed to find out this way. It was just last night that Landon told me he wanted to be official and not hide our relationship anymore. Well, the cat’s out of the bag now.”

“What did Brad say?” Celine asked.

She brought the cup of hazelnut coffee to me, put it down in front of me, and walked back to the coffee machine to make her coffee.

“He lost his shit, obviously,” I said. I let the coffee cool while I told her everything that had happened, from Landon telling me that he loved me and wanted to make us official, to us waking up to Brad losing his mind over us being together and Landon kicking me out.

“I feel lower than low,” I admitted. “Landon asked me to leave as if I was the one in the wrong.”

“Don’t you think he just wanted to talk to Brad alone? It’s a big thing to talk through, you know. You’re not only Brad’s age, dating his dad who’s… how much older is he than you are?”

“Twenty years,” I said with a sigh. “Twenty-two, to be exact.”

“Right. You’re twenty-two years younger than him. We’re in a modern age, and everything goes nowadays, but that’s still a bitter pill to swallow. Since you’re Brad’s friend and all… I think I understand where Landon might have come from.”

I tilted my head backward and closed my eyes.

“You’re supposed to be on my side.”

“I am on your side,” Celine said. “What happened after?”

I told her the rest of the story: Brad arriving to still be my date at the fundraiser like the good friend I thought he was, and what a dick he’d turned out to be.

Celine gasped in all the right places.

“I never liked the guy,” she scoffed. “He’s always been full of shit and weird.”

I shook my head with a rueful smile.

“After all our years being friends… I guess I didn’t expect him to be the one to cut me down. He made it so clear that I’m not one of you, that I’m middle class, nothing more than a nurse, and ascandal.”

“What a fucking asshole. You’re fine. I mean,Ilike you.”

Celine came to the table, her cup of coffee ready. She sat down opposite me.

“Do you want something to eat with that?” she asked.

I shook my head. “I feel so sick, I could throw up right here, right now.”

“Yeah?” Celine frowned. “God, you’re a lucky bitch. When I’m worked up, I eat, and it all goes to my ass.”

I giggled despite how shitty I felt. “You’re so skinny, you have nothing to complain about.”

She shrugged. “It’s called self-control when all I want to do is comfort-eat, but trust me, I wish I just threw up when I was upset. It would make my life so much easier.”

I shook my head, my smile fading. My stomach turned.

“I don’t usually get sick when I’m upset, but everything with Landon is different.”

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