Chapter 12
ALEX
Alex walked toward the park, his stomach grumbling, thoughts of a kebab from the stand the only thing keeping him going.
The last few weeks had been an absolute garbage fire, and nothing he did seemed to help at all.
He was exhausted, functioning on barely two hours of sleep, and unable to form coherent thoughts.
He couldn’t take a break, though. There was too much work to do.
He was also still reeling from the fact that Grace had stolen the laptop that held the entire codebase for the update.
The theft had meant weeks of catching up, with weeks more still to do, but that wasn’t even the worst part.
The worst part was that he’d trusted Grace.
He’d cared about her. Even though he’d said they couldn’t let their night together happen again, he’d thought about her every day, every hour, and wished repeatedly that he’d said no such thing.
And then, Grace had taken the laptop. When he’d come in to find it missing, he’d been panicked. He’d rushed home to see if he’d somehow left it there by mistake, and when he’d returned to the office, Autumn had told him that Grace was the thief and that she’d been fired.
Alex hadn’t believed her. Not until Autumn had shown him the log where Grace had signed the laptop out but not back in. She’d explained that Grace denied everything, wouldn’t give the laptop back, and wouldn’t explain what had happened. Autumn had had no choice but to fire her.
Slowly, Alex had come to realize that what had happened with his college roommate was repeating itself now.
Someone he’d trusted, cared about, and worked with had betrayed him.
Maybe Grace had taken the laptop out of spite, angry that Alex had said they shouldn’t be romantically involved.
That didn’t seem like her style, though.
More likely, she’d joined MatchupNow with the plan to steal the laptop from the beginning, and she’d flirted with Alex while knowing she was about to betray him.
That thought stung.
Grace had tried to call a few times, but Alex ignored her. He was still too hurt, too betrayed. And whatever she had to say, he didn’t want to hear it. He couldn’t stand to hear empty apologies—or, worse, confirmation that she’d used him.
That didn’t mean that he didn’t think about her, though. Sometimes he wondered if he could have said or done something to convince her not to take it. Sometimes, he wondered if this was all his fault.
“You’re up, man,” someone said. Alex jerked out of his thoughts, blinking, to see that he’d somehow made it to the front of the kebab-stand line. He placed his regular order and stepped to the side to wait—and that’s when he saw her.
Grace was sitting on a park bench next to the cart, eating a falafel wrap.
She wore a pair of leggings and a tank top, nothing like the formal office wear he’d seen her in before.
Maybe she hadn’t found a new job yet—or maybe she didn’t need one thanks to the money she’d gotten from selling his codebase.
He hadn’t seen it pop up anywhere yet, but she’d definitely either sold it or was about to.
A mix of warmth and anger flooded Alex. He wasn’t sure if he should talk to her or try to slip away without her seeing him. The decision was made for him, though, when Grace spotted him. Her green eyes widened, and she stood, throwing her wrapper away.
“Grace,” he said. His tone was as neutral as he could keep it. “Fancy meeting you here.”
“I’m leaving.” Grace made to move past him, and something drew his gaze to her midsection. Beneath the tight tank top was a small but unmistakable bump.
“Are you…” Alex could barely bring himself to say the words. He stepped in front of her, holding up a hand as though he could pause this interaction long enough to figure out what was happening.
“Pregnant?” Grace finished. Her tone was cold. “Yes, I am.”
“I had no idea. How far along are you?”
“Almost three months,” Grace said. “And before you start trying to count back on your fingers, yes, it’s yours.”
“Kebab wrap for Alex,” the stand owner said.
Alex blinked and, somehow, moving like a zombie, managed to collect the wrap.
He couldn’t process what Grace was saying.
Only when he had the wrap in his hand did he realize that he should have ignored the order and kept talking to her.
When he looked back, Grace was walking away, and he chased after her.
“Hey! Where are you going?”
“Home. Goodbye.”
“Stop.” Alex moved in front of her and crossed his arms. “You just told me you’re pregnant with our baby. You can’t run off before we talk about it.”
“Good point.” Grace gave a sardonic smile. “But maybe I could just fire you if I start to get uncomfortable.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I’m talking about how you slept with me, got me pregnant, and then fired me when I was inconvenient!” Grace snapped.
“You weren’t fired because of that,” Alex managed.
He was approaching speechlessness, and he felt like he was in one of those fun houses where the mirrors reflected distorted versions of reality.
He was the one who should be angry with her—she’d stolen his codebase.
Worse, she hadn’t told him he was going to be a father.
Yet somehow, she was the one angry at him.
“You were fired for stealing the laptop with the update codebase on it.”
“I didn’t do that,” Grace said. “I told Autumn, and I tried to tell you, that I never took that laptop. I wouldn’t. I signed it back in when I was done.”
“The sign-in logs disagree,” Alex replied. Then he shook his head. “This isn’t what matters right now. What I need to know is, why didn’t you tell me you were pregnant?”
“Because you fired me without cause!” Grace’s voice rose, and passersby looked at them with interest. “And because I don’t expect anything from you.
I’m going to raise this baby on my own. I’m sure you’re relieved to hear that—you didn’t want anything to do with me after we slept together, so I’m sure you don’t want anything to do with our baby, either. ”
“Grace, you have this all wrong,” Alex managed. “Come on. Let’s find someplace quiet where we can sit down and talk this through.”
Grace folded her arms. “You orchestrated my firing. You didn’t even have the decency to tell me yourself.
And now I’m unemployable right when I’m about to become a mother, meaning my financial situation is more dire than ever.
I wanted to talk to you before, but you wouldn’t talk to me then. And I can’t talk to you now.”
And with that, she brushed past Alex and hurried down the street, not looking back. Alex didn’t follow. She needed space, and Alex did, too. He’d just found out the biggest news of his life in the worst way possible.
He managed to find his way back to a bench in the park, where he slumped into a seated position. His mind was whirling. He wasn’t sure what was more surprising: that Grace blamed him for her getting fired after she’d either lost or stolen the laptop, or that Grace was pregnant with his baby.
No, there was no competition. The baby news was definitely more surprising.
Alex had never imagined he’d become a father.
He cared about family, and he loved spending time with his two young nieces, but he didn’t have time to date or fall in love, much less to raise a child.
Yet now, whether he wanted to or not, he was going to be a dad.
He needed to step up, put everything else aside (including his shock and anger), and try to do this right.
Or maybe not. Maybe Grace wasn’t going to let him near the child, and he’d never have a chance.
Just like that, clarity came to him. He couldn’t waste his time analyzing why Grace was so angry or why she’d kept the baby from him. He just needed to convince her to let him be a father to their child.
It was going to be difficult, since she was clearly furious with him and he was none too happy with her, but the baby had to take precedence over everything else. He could help that little one have a good life, better than the one he’d had.
He had to try.