Renée sneered at me. “You're not a dad. You might have fathered a child, but you're not the kind of guy to stick around while the kid grows up. You're not the kind of guy to help her with her homework or plan birthday parties or any of that.”
“I'm not,” I agreed. “But I'm trying to be.”
“Why is she here all the time anyway?” Renée asked, pouting. “She was here even when you weren't here.”
“She happens to be living here at the moment,” I said. “It's a long story, but she doesn't have anywhere else to go. It's just temporary.”
I thought Renée was going to explode. “She's living here?” she snapped. “I, your girlfriend, am only allowed to come over a couple nights a week at the most, and she's living here? What the hell!”
I rubbed at my temples, feeling a migraine start to form behind my eyes. “Like I said, it's a long story. It's all an unusual situation, but I didn't know what else to do. It's not as though I've ever had to deal with this situation before.”
“I can't believe this,” Renée said. “I don't even k
now where to begin: with the fact that you lied to me, or the fact that that good-for-nothing, gold-digging whore is living here with you. Or the fact that you never seem to be able to find time for me, and yet today, you had no problem blowing off work to spend a whole day with her and her little brat!”
“Let's not resort to name-calling,” I suggested icily. I was livid at the fact that she would call Lexi a good-for-nothing, gold-digging whore. I was even more upset by her calling Emma a brat, especially after she had scared the poor kid out in the hallway. But I was trying my best not to yell at her. I didn't want Emma to possibly overhear. I knew the place was reasonably soundproof, but all the same, I didn't want to stoop to that level.
“Some defense that is,” Renée snarled. “You've been putting off dating me all week so that you can hang out with them, and you aren't sorry at all. Not yet, anyway. But you will be. I should dump you. I deserve better than this, and you know it. I could really make you sorry.”
It was her threatening to break up with me that did it. I started laughing. “You're right, we should break up,” I said, enjoying that brief look of horror that I saw flash in her eyes.
“You're not serious,” she said, tossing her head and letting her hair swirl down behind her.
“I'm totally serious,” I said, narrowing my eyes at her. “Renée, I'm done with you.”
“You're going to choose some one-night stand over me, the woman who you've been dating for months?” Renée scoffed. “Come on. She clearly wasn't worth hanging on to three years ago. Why would you want to have her back in your life now? Sure, she had a kid, and she says the kid is yours. But who knows what the real story is. And even if that is your kid, you don't have any responsibility towards it. Just pay your child support check every month, and no one will complain. She definitely doesn't have to be living here!”
“She's a guest in my house,” I said simply, shrugging.
“She isn't welcome here,” Renée sniffed.
“You're not welcome here,” I corrected. “I'm not in love with you, Renée. I never was in love with you, and I don't think I ever will be in love with you. I wanted to be in love with you, but to be honest, at the moment, I'm having a hard time remembering why. You're selfish, and you're jealous, and you're a bitch. I don't want to see you anymore. I'm done with you.”
In retrospect, giving her a drink was a stupid decision to make. The next thing I knew, she had thrown it in my face and slammed the glass down on the wooden coffee table with enough force to shatter the glass.
“Do you really think you can get away with choosing that bitch over me?” Renée asked, apparently still not finished with the theatrics, even as I sputtered and wiped the alcohol off my face with the hand towel from behind the bar.
“I'm not choosing any woman over any other woman,” I told her, trying to be reasonable, despite the fact that she had very nearly just blinded me with her gin and tonic. “I've decided that I need to take a break from dating for a while. I'm so tied up with work at the moment, and then there's everything with Emma to think about, as well. I still need to get my head wrapped around all of these changes. I'm not choosing Lexi over you. I'm just choosing not to be in a relationship with anyone at this time.”
Renée laughed, sounding almost manic. “And how long do you think you can make that last, Andrew?” she snapped. “You never were the celibate type. Bet it takes you one week before you come crawling back to me, begging me to get you off. But I'm not going to let you do that. Once you break up with me, you are never going to get a minute of my time, ever again. Do you understand me?”
“I understand you,” I said quietly. I felt a pang at that. I really did want to somehow make things work with her. In some way. I was definitely attracted to her, and I liked her spirit. I liked that she knew what she wanted from life and wasn't willing to put up with any bullshit.
But I wasn't going to try to make things work with her over making things work with Lexi and Emma.
“You're going to regret this,” she told me, still lingering. “I'll make sure you pay for this.”
At that, I felt the last bit of attraction that I had for her seep out of me. I stared coldly at her. “You come from a wealthy family,” I acknowledged. “But you know that I have far more power and money than you do. Don't try anything stupid.”
Renée glared at me and then finally stomped off, leaving the house blessedly silent.
For a moment, I just stood there, wondering if I should be upset. But as I'd told her, I had never loved her. I hadn't wanted to lose her, but I really only felt numb to the thought of never seeing her again.
I glanced towards the coffee table, where the remnants of her glass glittered in the overhead lights. I'd need to clean that up before Emma came downstairs. I wouldn't want her to get hurt.
Mindlessly, I moved towards the table, using the towel from before to sweep the fragments into the small trash can from behind the bar.
“Andrew?” Lexi said from the doorway, her voice quiet but pitched to carry. “Are you all right?”