Total pages in book: 28
Estimated words: 25833 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 129(@200wpm)___ 103(@250wpm)___ 86(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 25833 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 129(@200wpm)___ 103(@250wpm)___ 86(@300wpm)
“What the hell are you doing, Lucy?” he immediately snaps.
“What are you doing, Zack?” I reply. “I just got home, I’ve barely settled in, and you’re proposing?”
“That’s the whole point!” he says. “I thought it would be cool. A surprise, ya know?”
“Yeah, well it’s not, okay? It’s not.”
Zack frowns, puts his hands on his hips, and begins to pace. “Okay, so I’ll give you some time. How much do you need?—”
You have to tell him, Lucy. You have to.
My palms are sweating. This is not how I wanted to arrive back home in the United States. But I have no choice now.
“Listen, Zack, I’m sorry, but I don’t think I need time. I think…I just don’t think you and I are going to work out.”
Zack’s frown turns into a glare. “Excuse me?”
“Let’s face it, Zack. We’re only dating because my mom thought we’d be a good match and your mom is her friend.”
“This is bullshit, Lucy!”
“We don’t even like each other, Zack!” His face is getting red. He’s not a guy used to being rejected or losing or not getting his way. “We just look good on paper. I’m sure there’s another girl you could date that you’d actually like, and not just go out with because your mom approves of her.”
“Lucy. There has to be more to this,” Zack says. “Did your trip to the Philippines change you?”
There’s no getting around it. I’m going to have to tell him.
“Well, yes.” I nod. “But there’s something else, Zack.” I take a deep breath. “Zack, I’m pre–”
My phone vibrates in my pocket. Who would be texting me right now?
I reach in, take it out, and am shocked by what I see.
Jason: Hey, babe. Whatcha up to?
6
LUCY
I’m halfway to Jason’s house in Greenwich and have only sent one text back confirming he was there, and have been ignoring the rest – as well as all his phone calls. The way I look at it, is he was pretty shoddy about getting in touch with me before I left for my trip, and then I didn’t have any texts waiting for me when I touched down in the country, so that says a lot about him.
And on top of that, he got me pregnant. So right now, as far as I’m concerned, he’s in full-blown asshole mode, and I’m not going to waste time getting into a text discussion (or argument) with him. I’m just going to drive to his house and confront him.
I took my car and left Zack back at the house with my parents. When I looked in the rearview mirror, he was talking to my mom and showing her the ring he’d bought me (that his parents helped buy, I’m sure). She seemed way more into it than I was.
The whole thing just made me feel sick. What a bizarre setup. Like an old-school arranged marriage between two families or something.
A thousand emotions are whirling through me when I pull up at Jason’s gate. There’s a fancy touchpad that I press. Instantly, his voice comes out of a little speaker. “Come on in.”
The gate slides open, and I pull up the drive as memories of that night come flooding back to me. No matter how hard I try to fight it, the memories trigger positive emotions that I just can’t fight off, making it difficult to maintain the aggressive, tiger-woman vibe I came here with.
Keep it together, I remind myself as I pull up right to the front door and park beside some kind of fancy red sports car. I don’t see the Rolls or Frank, which means we must be alone. Thank God.
Jason opens the door as I’m coming up the steps.
“There she is!” He smiles, spreading his arms wide, either for a hug or for one of those power-gestures men sometimes do. Either way, I ignore it and brush right past him and stride inside like I own the place.
Once I’m a few feet past him in the foyer, I spin around to face him.
“What the hell have you done?”
“What do you mean?”
“Don’t play dumb, jerk face! I’m fucking pregnant!”
Jason cocks his head to the side. His eyes narrow. “Are you sure?”
“Am I sure?” I scoff. “No, I’m not sure. I’m just a girl, and it’s been four months, and I’m not sure by now. I’m just missing periods because I have been using my special superhero, abilities to skip periods! Yes, I’m sure!”
I lift my shirt and show him my baby bump, and I could swear that for a brief second, the tiniest of smiles comes over his face.
“Did you–?” I point a finger and take a step closer to him. “Did you just smile?”
“It’s not like that,” he replies, shaking his head. “You’re just…you look sexy, that’s all. Can you blame me for that?”
“Um, I can blame you for knocking me up when you told me you got the snip!”