The Girl Next Door - Emma Hart Page 0,33
She went home because she was feeling shit.
ME: She had a rough night. It’s a long story. I’ll tell her to text you when she wakes up.
TORI: Thanks. I should have left with her last night but she said she was just tired and a little nauseous.
Yeah, well, she could add herself to the list of people who were on a guilt trip. She’d have to wait for her ticket.
“What’s this? Hotel Connors? Do I have to pay extra for the breakfast?”
I craned my neck back to see Ivy as she walked into the kitchen, rubbing her eye just like she had been last night. “Morning, Sleeping Beauty. How are you feeling?”
“Like I’ve been hit with a freight train.” She picked up a smoothie and examined the label. “Where did this all come from?”
I got up and joined her in the kitchen. “It’s my way of apologizing for last night,” I said, motioning to it all. “And I didn’t know what you might want to eat. Or if you’d want to eat at all.”
She picked up the protein shake. “I assume that’s what this is for?”
I offered a weak smile and shrugged. “Yep. I’m sorry I wasn’t there for you last night. My phone died.”
“It’s fine.” She looked down and busied herself reading the labels on all the pastries. “You don’t need to be at my beck and call every second of the day, Kai.”
“I know, but you should at least be able to get hold of me if you need to. Especially like last night. What if you’d needed to go to the ER and I wasn’t here?”
“I was fine. Anna called my doctor and she said that it’s okay unless I go twenty-four hours without being able to keep water down, then I need to go. But I can keep water down now, so I guess I just ate something that didn’t agree with me.” She shrugged a shoulder and opened a plain croissant. She tore a little off the top and put it in her mouth, chewing it thoughtfully for a moment.
“Ivy—”
“Leave it.”
“I just—"
She put the pastry down and looked at me. “I know you’re sorry, Kai,” she said softly, finally looking at me. “I heard your apology last night.”
Shit.
I rubbed my hand down my face.
I suppose I didn’t have to worry about telling her how I felt anymore.
“So I guess you’re not the only one who has to apologize,” she said, turning and opening a cupboard.
“What do you mean?”
Ivy continued searching my cupboards. “The other day, after the doctor’s appointment. You brought up us dating for real and I brushed you off. I’m sorry.” She stood up and brandished a frying pan. “Do you want eggs?”
Talk about whiplash.
“You don’t have to apologize for that. I understand why you brushed it off. Besides, if you knew how I felt, I know you wouldn’t have said it like that.” I handed her some oil for the pan. “What were you planning on cooking?”
“That doesn’t matter. Do you know that I spent two hours arguing with my sister and our friends on Thursday night? I insisted that there was nothing going on between us, and now I have to admit that I was wrong. And you should know that I’m never going to live it down.” She flashed a look over her shoulder. “And I was going to make cheesy scrambled eggs with sausage and bacon on the side. If you’re hungry. But if I don’t eat in the next twenty minutes, I’m going to collapse into a starving pool of crying pregnant lady.”
I took everything she needed for breakfast over to the counter where she was standing, including grabbing cheese, butter, and milk from the fridge for the eggs and another pan to fry the sausage and bacon. “Ivy, I said that last night for completely selfish reasons. I needed to get it off my chest, and I was going to tell you how I felt this morning if you didn’t yell at me. I understand how you feel about us dating just because of the baby.” I opened the bacon. “I’ll cook the bacon and sausage.”
She retrieved a jug from the cupboard and opened the egg carton. “Honestly, I don’t know how I feel. Do I think we’d date if I wasn’t pregnant? Probably not. But that doesn’t mean I’m necessarily against the idea, I just don’t want us to be together because we feel like we should be.”
“Ah, as opposed to the fake marriage you cooked