Page 44 of Babydaddy To Go
“Don’t play dumb with me, Alyssa. Get the fuck out of my house.”
“Nate, what’s wrong? What happened?”
I throw the phone at her. “You betrayed me, that’s what happened. I can’t believe I thought…”
“Nate, I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Like hell you do!” I shout. “I want you out of my house right now.”
Alyssa unlocks her phone and finds the messages I read. “Nate, I don’t know what this is…”
I can’t help but laugh. “Wow, you’re going to play it like that, then? Whatever, I don’t want to hear any lies from you. You’ve fed me enough already. Get out of my house.”
“Nate, please, let me explain…”
“There is no way you can explain cheating on me, Alyssa. Now. Get.Out!”
She stands frozen for a few seconds. I can tell she’s deciding whether to continue fighting or to retreat. There’s nothing she can say right now to get me to let her stay. Even if she says she’s sorry, I can never trust her again. I can’t be with someone who cheated on me.
“Alyssa, get out of my house.”
Tears fall from her big brown eyes. “Nate…”
“Now!” I scream. She finally gets the hint. With a towel wrapped around her body, she gathers her clothes and runs out of my room, down the stairs, and out of my home.
I collapse onto the bed. Everything was going perfect and now it’s ruined. I was going to buy her a damn restaurant!
David is going to have my head for this. He kept hounding me over the last four weeks to make sure what I had with Alyssa was real. He tried to warn me that the restaurant was a stupid idea. I should have listened to him.
I pull out my phone to dial David’s number, but another call comes in. My assistant, Stephen, is on the line.
“Hey, Nathaniel, did you see it?”
“Stephen, I’m kind of busy,” I snap.
“Then I’ll be quick,” he responds, undaunted. “Last night’s episode had the highest ratings of all time.”
I blink a few times to clear my head. What is he talking about? “What episode?”
Stephen sighs. “Your reality show? Last night, we aired the episode about your restaurant opening. The numbers were incredible, and focus groups LOVE Alyssa!”
“Well, that’s too damn bad, because Alyssa is out of the picture.”
He doesn’t say anything for a few minutes. “Can we get her back in the picture?”
“Absolutely not, and don’t ask again,” I caution. “Ratings were fine before her and they’ll be fine after.”
Stephen pauses again. “You’re right. We can use this, too. I’ll talk to the producers.”
“No. We’re not using Alyssa. We’re pretending she never happened.”
My harsh tone stops the conversation. “Got it, Nathaniel. No Alyssa.”
He doesn’t ask why, which makes him a better conversationalist than David. After we hang up, I know I should call my financial manager, but I don’t want to deal with him right now.
I’ll talk to David later. For now, I need to think about my new restaurant and changes I want to make to the menu.
My mind won’t focus. It keeps running back to Alyssa and how beautiful she looked with nothing but a towel on. I shouldn’t be thinking of her like that now that I know who she really is. I can’t help it. No matter what she did, what we had was different than anything I’ve ever experienced. Our breakup doesn’t change that.