Page 27 of Forever Flirting

“Oh no…” she whispered, froze, and met his devastated eyes. “D-Daddy?”

“Oh nooo…” he repeated, horrified.

Everything snapped together in her mind in that moment.

The reason Mallory didn’t want to talk about the mysterious man and always referred to him as the ‘sperm donor’, the ‘royal jerk’, or ‘two-pump-chump’…

Her mysterious Alex… was Caleb’s biological father?

This meant that her Alex had slept with Mallory in the back of her car, the very same night that Everly had met him.

“I’m gonna be sick,” she whispered, laying a hand over her stomach as he walked towards her – and she backed away, feeling completely devastated and horrified. “This can’t be happening…”

“Everly, please…” Alex whispered, his lips were bloodless and pale, his eyes burning from his skull as he stared at her. “Oh my gosh, no. Please, don’t think the worst… please? I need to talk to you, and I promise it’s not what you are thinking.”

“I’m betting it’s exactly what I’m thinking,” she began, hating the way she was feeling right now. “How could you? How could you do this?”

“I wanted it to be you,” he balked, his voice shaking.

“You wantedmeto have your kid?” she choked out, laughing almost in hysterics. “And Mallory – oh my gosh… she’s known this whole time? Every time I’ve talked about ‘Alex from the club’… it was you? I’m going to be sooo sick…”

“Everly, please,” he whispered, his voice thick with tears as he scrambled to block her path, to keep her from darting back inside her office. “Please don’t run from me again.”

“Why? Are you going to have sex with another one of my friends?”

“I deserved that,” he said hoarsely. “You’re right – but please? Please don’t do this. Let’s talk.”

“I don’t think we need to.”

“Please…” he begged openly, blocking her path again. “I’ve thought of only you ever since that night – tell me you’ve thought of me? That you haven’t wondered or wished things were different? I know I screwed up, but please don’t cut me off again. Just hear me out, and then if you want me to go away – I will.”

“I’ve got to think…” she stammered, pressing a shaking hand to her forehead, “I can’t believe this.”

“Coffee,” Alex said quickly. “Please, just agree to have coffee with me. It’s not a date, and there will be plenty of people around us. I just want to talk to you and get to know you.”

“I don’t know if I want to know you anymore,” she whispered painfully, looking at him, meeting his eyes, and hating the fact that she was about to cry from that bitter truth that hung between them. “I feel like I’ve been stabbed in the chest right now…”

“Everly,” he whispered hoarsely, his eyes glistening with unshed tears as he pleaded with her. “Please,pleasejust meet me. Let’s talk. One meeting, that’s all I’m asking.”

Everly stared at him, feeling such avid betrayal and pain, knowing that she had no hold over him – but the fact that he’d slept with Mallory and had a child with her?

No, that betrayal came from Mallory as well. She wasn’t justifying anything with him, and was highly disgusted with his actions… but her ‘friend’ was culpable, too.

“Let me think about it.”

“Fair enough,” he said quickly. “Can I get your name and number so I can reach out to you in the…”

Alex stopped talking and was staring at something behind her, his face paling even further, nearly white as a sheet under his tan.

“Oh, no, no, no…” he whispered, before turning back towards her.

“What’s wrong?” she asked simply, looking at the doorway and thinking there was something horrifically wrong behind her. No, it was just her plain office doors with the white lettering on the glass.

“Everly…Briscoe?”

“Yes.”

“Dr. Everly… Briscoe,” Alex repeated, looking at her with such a distinct unease that was making her curious. “You’re… not…. you can’t be.”

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