Crazy pregnancy hormones engaged! I’m going to kill them both. I’ll seduce Dante. He looks enough like Mateo, right? Colette doesn’t even like him, and I get to keep the house. Probably. If he gets the family, presumably he also gets the house.
If Mateo notices I don’t kiss him back, he must not care.
“Everything is fine,” he assures me. He’s the one who drops some bullshit like that, and I’m the one who gets the reassurances. Aren’t those mine to give? Shouldn’t I be the one saying, “It’s okay, Gigantic Master Asshole of All Assholes, I still love you, even though you just said that”?
But no, he is the one reassuring me that everything’s okay.
“I want the talk now,” I state. “I don’t care about dinner. I don’t care. Call them and push it back an hour if you have to. I’m not going to be able to get through dinner with this on my mind. Unless you want me stab Mia with a kitchen utensil, it’s a very bad idea for us to make dinner together.”
This displeases him. Sighing, he tugs me closer, holding my hand. “Don’t do that. You like Mia—you love Mia.”
“A little less knowing you want to fuck her.”
“I didn’t say I wanted to fuck her,” he states, glancing at the door to the study.
Adrian is standing there, with a wide-eyed Elise by his side.
“We’ll come back,” Adrian says, about to turn around.
“No,” Mateo says, stopping him. “Stay.”
Adrian’s head falls back and he sighs, like he’s never dreaded anything so much in his life.
I feel like I’m going to cry. I hate being pregnant. I hate everything.
“Do we have to?” Elise asks.
Mateo smirks, amused that even Elise wants to leave. “Come on in.”
“Actually, I have kitchen things to do,” Elise says brightly, leaning in and giving Adrian a kiss. He secures an arm around her waist, tugging her closer, like he needs to kiss her a little longer to get through this mess.
I reach a new low as I feel jealous of Elise. Adrian is so fucking devoted to her. She’s so lucky. I’m rolling downhill fast.
I’m trying not to get lost in it. I’m trying to keep my balance. I’m trying to be logical, and that’s usually easy for me, but… well, pregnancy.
I should go do kitchen things too, but now Elise is in there and she damn sure doesn’t want my company. Mia’s going to be here any minute, and I’m still feeling super stabby. If I just murder her today, I can totally blame my pregnancy hormones, right? How pissed would Mateo be? But hey, without his back-up bitch around to warm his bed, he’d surely keep me alive.
No, I can’t kill Mia. That would be wrong.
Of course, Mateo might be fucking Mia, and secretly fucking my fiancé is also pretty wrong.
I emerge from my murderous contemplation to see Adrian pouring himself a stiff drink, slamming it back, then pouring another.
Now he turns to face us, sighing. “So, what’s going on?”
“Nothing,” Mateo assures him. “Meg’s hormones are… making her crazy.”
“Meg’s always been crazy.”
“Yes, but the kind of crazy I like,” he specifies. “Apparently pregnancy makes her emotionally unstable.”
“Only room for one emotionally unstable partner in the relationship, huh?” Adrian asks good-naturedly, like he’s amused. I guess he has to be. This is a goddamn disaster.
Mateo rolls his eyes and approaches the cart to grab himself something to drink.
“Hopefully it’s a boy then,” Adrian remarks. “Maybe you won’t have to do this again.”
“Am I even going to be here for this to happen again?” I ask, my eyes on Mateo’s back. “What does this mean?”
“It doesn’t mean anything,” he says again, looking a little less patient. I do know how he hates to repeat himself, but I also don’t give a fuck right now. “I told you we’ll talk about it later.”
“After I stab your girlfriend—got it.”
Mateo slams his glass down and I jump as he strides across the room, catching my arm and yanking me close. I’m alarmed already, but even more so at the look of warning he gives me, like I’m sorely testing his patience.
“Be nice,” he says, simply.
I can only stare at him, my eyes wide, anxiety gathering in my chest. It aches. This hurts. Not his hold on me, nothing physical, but that he’s taking a stand for Mia—telling me to be nice to her. Letting me know he won’t accept me lashing out at her.
Goddamn him.
I swallow, looking away from him. “Yes, master,” I reply, scathingly.
He grabs my chin now, forcing me to look up at him. “I love you. Nothing has changed.”
Everything has changed.
But I don’t say that.
“I’m not feeling well,” I say, tugging my arm away from him. “I think it would be best to have dinner without me tonight. We’ll talk later.”
“Meg…”
“It’s one fucking dinner, Mateo,” I snap. “You want me to be nice and I can’t right now. So I’m going to go upstairs; just tell them I’m having a bout of morning sickness and we’ll be back to normal next week.”