and then throws the crackers down and runs to the bathroom. This time, I take off with her, and I reach out and hold her hair back.
I squat next to her and rub her back. “Can you go away?” she croaks.
“No,” I say. “Never again.” She looks at me and shakes her head and slowly gets up, walking to the sink and leaning down to take a couple of sips of water and rinse out her mouth.
I walk out with her and grab a can of ginger ale, bringing it to her. “I never slept with her.” I say the five words that I’ve been repeating in my head since she walked out of my house. Her eyes look at me with tears, but I don’t stop. “It was all a lie.”
“What?” she asks, getting up now and walking away from me.
“I fucked up because I believed something that wasn’t true,” I tell her. “Honestly, that is what it comes down to.” She looks at me, shaking her head.
“You broke my heart on purpose.” She holds her chest, and I want to kick my own ass.
“It was a misunderstanding,” I tell her. “Jennifer told me that you were taking a job in New York at that party.” Looking at her, I say, “It was a misunderstanding.”
“It was a misunderstanding? You had a naked fucking woman in your bed and a condom wrapper on the table by the bed,” she points out, a sob escaping from her. “Why?”
“’Cause I’m a fucking insecure asshole who thought you were using him because he’s an actor in Hollywood,” I tell her, getting up and running my hands through my hair. “So I paid her to come home with me. I’m not proud of my actions.”
“Not proud of your actions? Are you kidding me?” she says, throwing up her hand and walking to the door. “Get out.”
“Erin, we need to talk about us,” I tell her, walking to her.
“There is no us.” She shakes her head. “The only thing we need to talk about is the baby.”
“This isn’t over,” I tell her, walking out of the door.
“It was over the minute you decided to do what you did,” she says, slamming the door, turning the lock with a click.
“It’s not over!” I yell at the door, waiting for her to say something. When she doesn’t, I turn and go away but only for the time being.
Chapter Thirty
Erin
I slam the door behind him when he walks out. He lied to me. Everything that I went through, everything that I felt was because he thought I was using him. I shake my head and walk to the kitchen, opening the white plastic bags that he dumped there and taking out the stuff. He got everything from ginger root to ginger tea to ginger snaps. I shake my head and walk over to the couch, sitting down and closing my eyes. My hands go to my stomach, and I say, “I love you.” Getting up, I walk to my bedroom and lie down on the bed, closing my eyes and slowly falling asleep.
I wake to a soft knock on the door, and I get up, the motion making me a little sick. I breathe in just a touch, and the knocking continues. I get up and see it’s almost dark outside, the sun setting. I unlock the door and open it, and I’m stunned. He is standing there with flowers and a stuffed animal under one arm and both his hands holding plastic bags.
“I brought some more things.” He walks in, and I watch him walking over to the kitchen, dumping the bags on the counter. “You look better,” he tells me, and I walk over. “I didn’t know what you were feeling like, so I stopped and got you a bunch of things. I have some soup, and then I have some pasta mild on the sauce so the acid doesn’t give you heartburn,” he says, taking out the containers. “I got you some chicken soup with rice. They said online that bland carb food helps.”
“Carter,” I say.
“I also got popsicles and Jell-O,” he tells me. “What do you feel like eating?”
I shrug. “Chicken soup,” I tell him, and he pours some in the bowl and puts it in the microwave. I walk over to the dining room table and sit down. “Thank you,” I tell him when he puts the bowl down in front of me. He goes over to the bags and warms up his