I waited until his back was turned, then quickly made my way to my room to change clothes, feeling vaguely irritated by our conversation.
I tried to ignore most of what Alex said to me, and since we rarely talked, it worked ou
t well. The stuff about Derek cheating on me was just dumb, because Derek didn't have time to cheat on me even if he wanted to.
Still, when Derek cancelled our prearranged Friday date night–I was already dressed and ready to go to the movie when he called—with the excuse that someone had called off at Burger King, I played the understanding girlfriend and said it was okay, I didn't really want to see the movie that much anyway.
But a couple hours later I found myself deciding I needed gas, and I also found myself going to the gas station that I had to drive by Burger King to get to.
Of course, when I saw his car parked where the employees parked, I felt pretty stupid, but also immensely relieved. I was annoyed with myself after that for doubting Derek –however briefly—because of something Alex said.
Just because Alex was a faithless whore he thought everyone was. How could I even think my boyfriend would cancel on me to cheat?
However, on the way home from the gas station when I looked affectionately at Burger King, where my poor boyfriend was slaving away, I noticed Kayla's car was also parked at Burger King in the customer parking area. I had to do a double take, but when I saw the Playboy Bunny dice dangling from the rearview mirror, I knew it was her car.
I whipped my wheel to the left, causing the person I cut off to blare their horn at me, but I just rolled my eyes at them and parked at the side of the building where no one would see me.
What the hell was going on?
Of course my imagination was working overtime, but I forced myself to be sensible. The conclusion to jump to would obviously be that Kayla was there to see Derek. But the only reason he would lie to me about it would be if he was actually cheating on me with her, which would be completely insane seeing as he could've saved himself a lot of trouble by just staying with her in the first place.
Honestly, in my wild state of mind, it didn't even occur to me that Mike worked at Burger King until I walked in the doors and he looked up at me.
My steps slowed a bit, noticeably, but then I spotted Kayla leaning across the counter toward Derek, her pretty dark hair shielding her face from my view.
On reflection, I didn't think about a lot of things when I decided to show up at Burger King; I pretty much just saw and reacted.
When Derek didn't even look up, I felt some of my anger start to grow, and I had to warn myself that whether he had done wrong or not, we were about to get into a fight unless I cooled my jets.
I made myself breathe as I approached the counter, and Derek finally looked up at me. Kayla hadn't looked up, but she must have noticed by his expression that it wasn't a customer that walked in, because she looked over at me right after he did.
I wasn't sure what my expression looked like, and I hadn't spoken yet, but when Derek's eyes met mine I had to look away so he didn't see accusation in my eyes before I even figured out the situation.
It was strange, but none of us actually said anything. No greetings, however forced; no smiles, however fake. There was nothing, just silence and glances.
A full minute passed before Derek held up an ultrasound picture for me to see.
Realization struck me just like that, and I felt like the biggest jerk in the world.
I opened my mouth to say something, but nothing came out, so I closed it and walked a little closer. "First ultrasound picture?" I asked lightly.
Derek nodded, not saying anything at all.
He didn't really have to say anything. As soon as he dropped the ultrasound picture down on the counter, still not looking away from me, I figured he knew exactly why I had decided to stop in, and he wasn't very happy about it.
I didn't make matters any better, because I couldn't seem to stop looking guilty.
I cleared my throat, offering a little smile. "I was... hungry, and I thought I'd stop in and say hi," I explained.
He didn't argue or agree, he merely nodded.
"So, can I see?" I asked, offering a bright smile.
"You eat here often, Nikki?" Kayla asked, giving me a sly little smile. "I mean, you must, since it's the first place that came to mind when you were hungry."
I didn't respond, not willing to admit anything to her and give her the satisfaction. Since my head was back on my shoulders, I found myself wishing I wouldn't have pulled into that stupid parking lot.
"Or maybe you were driving by," she offered. "Just saw something you wanted to check out."