Chapter 20

Liz went back up to her hotel room after having lunch in the café downstairs. She opened the door and saw Joel waiting for her on the bed. “Hey, where have you been?”

He ignored her question. “I heard something interesting from a girl named Andrea today.”

She froze. Why hadn’t she expected Andrea to tell him? Even though she knew it was hopeless, she tried to keep cool and pretend nothing was wrong. “Oh, really? What?”

“I heard you slept with her boyfriend and he got you pregnant,” he said bluntly.

“And you would believe this why?”

“Because I went to see Dr. Hasken and it’s kind of hard for you to be one month pregnant with my baby when I haven’t seen you for over two months,” he stated.

She searched frantically for an excuse, but what could she really say? It was not easy to get a girl pregnant when you weren’t actually there. “Uh – um – well – yeah, I guess that would be kind of hard.”

“I don’t understand, Liz. Why? I thought you were happy with me! Am I not good enough for you?”

“Please let me explain,” she begged.

“Fine, I’ll let you explain, but I can’t imagine anything making me less angry about this situation.”

“I don’t even remember sleeping with him, Joel. We were both so drunk. I didn’t do it in my right mind. I was lonely, and he was there.”

“So you’re saying that if I were to get drunk and sleep with some girl and get her pregnant while you were away, you’d be fine with it?” he asked skeptically.

“I’m not saying you should be fine with it. I’m just saying that I didn’t do it because I care about him more than you or anything. I didn’t mean to do it. I don’t see how you can hold that against me because I didn’t even know I was doing anything!”

“But you obviously did!”

“Yeah, but I love you, not him!”

“You must have some sort of feeling for him if you slept with him!”

“Fine, I thought he was cute, but that’s it! He’s nothing compared to you, Joel! I would choose you over him any day!”

Joel’s face softened slightly, but there was still definite anger there. “Do you really mean that?”

“Yes, I do. I would never hurt you intentionally.”

He sat down next to her and ran his hand over her soaked cheek. “You would never do it again, right?”

“Absolutely not. I wouldn’t have done it this time if I had known I was doing it.”

“I don’t think I could live without you anyway,” he resigned.

She fell into his arms and buried her face in his chest. She was crazy to ever doubt their relationship. Hopefully, she would not be going out and getting drunk with Nick again. How could she even have slept with him in the first place? How stupid was that?

“I have to leave today,” he reminded her.

“That’s right. Can we just forget about that for now?”

“Sure.”

Chapter 21
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