Page 27 of Faking with the Bad Boy Billionaire

"I needed to keep my mind off of other things." Steven would not even look her in the eyes. He kept staring and rearranging further down the bar from her.

She grumbled something under her breath and followed his path for another three or four minutes before turning to him. "Okay, you have not brought it up, but I will ask anyway. Is this about the woman and the child in the stroller?" Steven felt his shoulders tighten up. He knew she caught the movement when she started chuckling. "So, it is yours!"

"Lucas is mine." Steven was finally saying the words to someone other than Josie, and he was feeling a little weird about it. The admission to having fathered a child was something he never thought he would do.

"Who is the woman?" Stacey had barely recognized her, but she thought it was the woman he was spotted out and about with online from an event when he went missing for a week a while back.

"That is Josie." Steven felt her name leave his lips, and it did not taste as sweet as he remembered. He missed the sweetness that came along with it. Just her name held a lot of weight within his history.

"As in, the Josie, the Josie who you fell in love with and ghosted you?" Stacey was shocked. He could see it on her face. He had told her stories about what they went through as kids, and he told her how he felt when he realized he fell for her. She watched how he reacted after he left and things fell apart.

"She ghosted me when she saw me here with Mace." Steven sneered out her name. "I screwed up. I just gave up. I didn't tell her Mace was still around. I don't keep her around; she just is, but I still did not tell her. The history there… it's not a good one." The history between Josie and Mace was too much to get into, but he knew something happened that neither told him about after prom.

Stacey walked around him, moving swiftly for the shot glasses. She set them on the bar and poured a shot into each one. The dark amber liquid was calling to him. He needed to take the bite off the rejection that he had endured from the person he loved. The shot burned going down, but he opted for a second one right away.

"You know what I think?" Stacey tilted her head, studying him.

"I bet you think many things, Stacey. I also bet they are inappropriate to say out loud in polite company." Steven smirked at her. Over the past year and a half, they had become closer. It was not like he was trying to replace Josie, but Stacey sensed he needed a friend, which was how she was. She never wanted to see anyone alone.

"True," she pointed at him, "but also not the point." Her second shot made her make a face of disgust, and Steven laughed. "I think that you always thought that no matter what, she would forgive you, then you said things you regretted immediately. However, you absolutely suck at admitting you are wrong at the moment. You would rather walk away feeling like you have the upper hand, even when you don't, than admit you messed up in the moment."

"If you were anyone else, I would fire you." Steven felt himself turning red. He had been called out by yet another friend. He had been called out by the only person other than Josie who could have made him think about things he never wanted to think about.

"But I'm not, so you won't." Stacey smiled and hopped up to sit on the bar, swinging her legs back and forth. "You just don't like that I am right."

"Can we change topics now?" Steven walked away to the other end of the bar.

"Sure. How are you going to fix it?"

"I went over this morning." Steven looked down, pretending to adjust things everywhere.

"I take it that went about as spectacularly as yesterday." Stacey's sarcastic ways drove Steven to the brink of yelling at her. "What are you going to do now?"

"She threw me out. Twice." Steven leaned on a table on his elbows. "I sent flowers with an inside… not joke really… a memory."

"You're hoping she will run right back into your arms like all is forgiven?" Stacey laughed mercilessly at him.

"Yeah." Steven huffed out. "Kind of."

"You are absolutely hopeless." Stacey was sure of herself, but Steven knew the truth. Josie and he had a more profound connection than just any other friend in his life. They were meant to hold on to each other. They were the types of friends who would forgive each other for anything. The entire situation was just a more significant issue than anything they had ever had to work through in their long friendship. They were no longer just friends, though. They were parents.

Josie had kept that fact from him, and while he wanted to try, he was unsure they could work through this just like any other disagreement. He was going to try to remind her of how they worked through things, but he was also worried that she would shut it down. Not because of his words. No, he was afraid because if she shut it down, their entire friendship would be blown to hell. It would be different for them if she reached out after his gesture. He knew the new reality was possible, but he was unaccepting.

"I am not hopeless, Stacey." Steven pulled out a chair and dropped into it. He did not want to tell her he felt that way, but he did. He felt it, amongst other many other things. "I am worried. I might lose my best friend, my kid, and someone I love all at one time." The admission was heavy in the air. He wanted to put his fist through a wall but did not want to take the time to repair anything he broke before the dry run.

Stacey sighed and moved to join him, "I don't think there is any way possible for you to lose her now. You have a kid together. I do think there is a break that could happen between you both. You said some harsh things to her, and she said some harsh things to you. Sometimes, we have to accept the reality of the outcome when it happens. There is never a right answer either."

"So, I just let things run their course?" Steven felt bewilderment run through his mind.

"Basically. If you push too hard, Steven… she just won't return to you. At least not in the way you want her to." Stacey squeezed his arm tightly and stood up from the table. "I will be back in an hour for the dry run. I need you to be changed out of that," she pointed at his jeans and t-shirt, "and into your usual suit ensemble."

"Yes, boss." Steven saluted her as she walked toward the back door.

"Oh, I like the sound of that." Stacey winked at him over her shoulder. Steven got up and began to get ready, even though the dry run was the last thing he wanted to do. He just wanted to go back to the day before and stop himself from saying such stupid things.

Chapter seventeen

Josephine

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