“I'm surprised you're here, Lexi,” Andrew said flatly, sitting in the chair opposite the couch rather than beside me like he had the previous time.
That was probably for the best. A little space between us would do some good. I couldn't deny how attracted I was to him still, and it didn't help that it had been a really long time since I'd hooked up with anyone. Since before Emma was born.
I rolled my eyes at him, though. “I'm surprised you even remember who I am,” I told him. “You've probably slept with a dozen girls since you and I hooked up.”
It was flattering, in a sense, to know that no matter how rude he'd been to me the morning after we'd slept together, I must have made some sort of an impression on him. I doubted he remembered the names of all of his conquests. I doubted he even knew the names of all of his conquests.
Andrew snorted. “A hundred girls, more like,” he said. He paused, though, looking away from me for a moment, his eyes cloudy. “I remember more than you would expect.” Then, he shook his head. “You said you were on the pill.”
“I was,” I told him. “But no birth control method is a hundred percent. The pill can only do so much. Now, if you'd been wearing a condom as well, maybe you wouldn't have fathered a child.”
“You told me it was okay if I didn't want to wear a condom,” he accused.
“I said I was on the pill; I didn't say that I was ready for children!” I snapped.
“Well, I figured that if you found out you were pregnant, you'd take care of it,” Andrew said, flapping his hands at me.
“That's our baby you're talking about,” I reminded him.
“Says you,” he said, shrugging. “For all I know, you've slept with a hundred guys since you and I were together. There's no reason to believe that it's my kid.”
I stared at him for a minute. “Unbelievable,” I muttered.
This was worse than I'd even expected it to be. I'd expected that he'd want no part in the kid's life. I'd expected that it would be a fight to get him to shell out any money in child support. But I hadn't expected him to deny any sort of wrongdoing.
“As far as I'm concerned, that child could be anyone's,” Andrew said flatly, folding his arms over his chest again.
“A paternity test wouldn't be very difficult,” I muttered. “And yes, I am that sure that she's yours.”
“How old is she, even?” Andrew asked. “She's too young to have been mine.”
&nb
sp; “She just turned three,” I told him. “She acts older, but she's only three.” I smiled at him. “She's really smart. Persuasive, too. I'm sure she gets that from her father. She likes to color and play make-believe, and she's incredibly good at making friends.”
I didn't really know why I was telling all of this to him. I was sure he couldn't care less about the girl. And I still didn't really want him to know anything about her. Emma was my daughter, and I didn't want him to have any part in her life. But maybe if he was able to think of her as a child, as our child, he'd be more likely to help us out.
I should have known better than to think I could humanize her to the king of ice, though.
“If this is just some ploy of yours to squeeze money from me, I hope you realize that I could have this tied up in legal proceedings for years to come,” Andrew threatened. “I can stall. I can get my lawyers on it, and you won't see a dime from me for all of that time. I don't like people trying to take advantage of me.”
I stared at him for a long moment, and then, before I even knew what I was doing, I crossed the space between us and slapped him hard across the face. “How dare you,” I hissed, scowling down at him. “Taking advantage of you? Is that really what you think I'm doing? I've been working my ass off trying to raise our child without any help from you, and you refuse to even consider that you might have some responsibility to her.” I took a deep, shaky breath, but before I could continue, Andrew butted in.
“You keep insisting that she's our child, but you haven't given me any proof of that! I don't run a charity, and I'm not going to give handouts to every woman who comes here claiming that I've gotten them pregnant. Not that that's ever happened before. It was easy enough to get you to go to bed with me, so why should I assume that you keep your legs closed for other people?”
I glowered at him. “Want to know how I know it's your child? Because unlike you, I don't sleep around with hundreds of people. In fact, I haven't slept with anyone since you and I slept together. And before that, well. Let's just say that all the evidence is there. You're the one who got me pregnant.”
It was silent in the room.
“This righteous indignation is refreshing,” he told me, surprising me. “I don't think I've ever been slapped by a woman before.”
“You deserved it,” I muttered petulantly, but the so-called righteous indignation was quickly disappearing, replaced by tears. “You don't know how hard it's been.”
Andrew rolled his eyes. “You should have known it was going to be difficult before you had the kid,” he said. “Why didn't you put her up for adoption if you didn't think that you could handle it? Or better yet, you could have gotten an abortion and saved yourself all the trouble.”
“I didn't realize how hard things were going to be,” I told him. “And I'm not just talking about Emma.” I took a deep breath, knowing that I had to tell him the rest of it, to explain why I had really come. “I was fired from my job at Albright.”
“Because you were pregnant?” Andrew asked, raising an eyebrow at me. “That's not legal.”