Page 78

“Allie!”
I duck into a diner to evade him, but also because I feel like my legs might collapse out from under me. Not because of the exertion, but because I need to cry. And possibly throw up.
Moving swiftly into the ladies’ room, I plow into a stall, shut the toilet lid and plop down on it, my head slumping low until it meets my hands.
Should I even be surprised? Everything went at warp speed with us. As soon as he found out I was pregnant, he was uprooting his life and moving here. Across the country. Buying a house with me. I mean, one minute we were having a cross-country fling and the next we’re tied together forever.
Maybe the stress of Bug and me not getting along is finally getting to him. Or maybe Bug was right when she said Asher is just‘doing the right thing.’
Could he bethatgood at faking his feelings for me? At putting on a smile and pretending what we have is everything he wants? Are all these unfamiliar hormones making me so gullible that I’ve gone so far as to buy a house and agree to a future with him?
I’m trying my hardest not to cry. I refuse to cry over another man who doesn’t want to be with me through less than perfect circumstances. He never asked for this. And he certainly neverasked fortwoof this. My resolve crumbles and tears stream down my face and drip onto my blouse right over my baby bump.
“Miss?” a woman says from outside my stall.
I clear my throat and wipe my nose. “Are you talking to me?”
“There’s a guy outside who wanted me to check on you.”
I pinch my brow. “Please ask him to go away.”
“Are you okay?”
“Yes. But I need him to leave.”
I hear her feet shuffle. She’s hesitating. I think I even hear her talking to herself. But then the bathroom door closes.
“It isn’t what you think, sweetheart.”
My heart clenches inside my chest when I hear Asher’s voice.
“I think you just lost the right to call me that.”
“Will you come out so I can explain?”
I laugh pitifully. “Explain why you got a phone call andhadto rush to the city. And oh, how convenient that you justhadto stay overnight when you could have taken the train home and back again in the morning. Was there even a job, Asher? Or do you just like fucking chippies in the city? Is that your thing? Maybe you need a twelve-step program, because there’s something seriously wrong with you.”
“Please come out.”
“No.”
I stare at his Cole Haan Oxfords as he enters the stall next to mine. Then suddenly, he’s on his back on the floor, scooting under the partition into my stall.
“What the hell are you doing?”
He rises up in front of me, unlocks the door, and says, “Do the adult thing and follow me out. We’ll get a cup of coffee and I’ll explain everything.”
“You had your hands on your ex-wife, Asher. That’s all the explanation I need.”
His head shakes in frustration. “Allie, what you saw was sympathy not infidelity. I promise you that’s all it was. She was having a bad day.”
“A bad day at the same hotel you were in? At the same bar. At the same time. That’s too many coincidences for it to be random.” Sobs begin again and there isn’t a damn thing I can do to stop it. “That’sourhotel, Asher. How could you?”
The door opens and someone walks in. “Is there a problem in here? I’m the manager. Do I need to call the police?”
Asher looks at me, his eyes begging me to follow him out.
“No,” I say. “No problem.”