“What happened?” Gray asked quietly.
“I uh—well, in the butcher shop the other day, I got sick,” I said. “Like, really sick. And Dr. Luke was in there. You know, the town doctor? And he asked me when I was due. I had no idea what he was talking about, but he insisted I was pregnant. I told him it wasn’t possible, I was on regular birth control. The pill, you know?”
“I do. That’s what you told me,” he said calmly.
“But I couldn’t shake what he said, so I ran to the pharmacy and got those tests. I went to the gas station and got your oil, then took the tests. And they were all positive,
Gray. All four of them. I mean, what are the chances they’re all wrong? That’s possible, right?”
I looked back up into his eyes, but saw only a stoic wall staring back at me.
“Gray?” I asked.
“How far along are you?” he asked plainly.
“Well, according to two of those tests, I’m not more than seven or eight weeks. Dr. Luke said I couldn’t be any more than two months in.”
“Did your lack of a period not tip you off to this?”
The tone of his voice made me feel as if I’d been slapped. As if I was some dumb child he was chastising.
“No, it didn’t,” I said flatly. “I’ve never been regular. It’s why I went on birth control in the first place. To regulate my periods.”
He stared at me for a long moment before kicking the pregnancy tests towards me. He turned on his heels, shaking his head. Like he couldn’t believe me. Or didn’t. He walked away from me as the tests sat at my feet, staring up at me with the reality of my life.
“Do you not believe me?” I asked.
I followed him into the kitchen and found a breathtaking bouquet of flowers sitting on the kitchen table. But Gray refused to answer my question. I didn’t like this silence. I didn’t like how he was walking away from me. I stopped when I saw the two bottles of wine as more guilt pooled in my gut.
I couldn’t even indulge in the surprise he’d gotten for me.
“Please tell me what you’re thinking,” I said, as I stood at the kitchen archway.
I watched him pause, his back to me, as his eyes glanced over at the flowers. His stare danced around them, taking in their beauty before breathing in their scent deeply. Then, in a sudden movement, his arm pushed out and shoved the vase of flowers off the table. They fell to the ground and shattered, splaying glass and stems and petals and water all over the place. I jumped, my hands coming to my mouth as he whipped around on his feet.
His eyes were on fire with an anger that made him unrecognizable.
“Was this your plan the entire time?” he asked.
“What?” I asked breathlessly.
“Was your plan to fuck the billionaire and get pregnant?”
“What in the world are you talking about?”
“I’ve never seen you take a damn pill, Michelle. So tell me, were you really on birth control? Or was it all a lie to trap me?”
“I take my pill whenever I get up in the morning.”
“So you don’t take it regularly. You know, like you’re instructed to do.”
“I take it every morning,” I said, enunciating every syllable.
“Look me in my eyes and tell me this wasn’t your plan,” he said.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about!” I exclaimed.
“Tell me that you didn’t try to get pregnant with me as soon as you figured out I had money, Michelle!”