Page 21 of Mate Matched: Xavier & Brady
They’d broken up before? Was I just someone to pass time with before he picked up with Gio again? My mind flashed back to the times we were together before it all fell apart. There had always been a bond between them I worried I’d never be a part of.
My mind flashed back to Xavier holding Sora and how happy he had looked. Gio was right. There was every chance I couldn’t give Xavier a baby. Did I want to waste precious time with someone who might ditch me to return to his ex?
Once I steadied myself, I took the test I’d kept in the cabinet. I blocked the new number while I waited for the minutes to countdown.
Negative.
Nine
Brady
Theresultofthepregnancy test shouldn’t have been a surprise. The crushing disappointment that came with it was, though. I thought I’d wrapped my head around what being a recessive omega meant in terms of my fertility. Clearly, I was wrong.
Looking at the test, I felt my heart shatter into pieces. Deep down, I think I’d banked on giving Xavier a baby to tie us together, acting as our anchor in a sense. After Gio’s texts, I wanted it to be positive to prove the bastard wrong. Unfortunately, the shithead was right, I couldn’t give Xavier the baby he wanted. Two heats, two negative tests.
At the party and after seeing Xavier around kids, I knew he had to be a dad. I just didn’t have the heart for all the fertility treatments to get us there. Malik had told me about some ofthem during the party. Not only was the cost eye-watering, it was taxing as hell on the body.
If I couldn’t do it naturally, then I didn’t want to do it at all. I didn’t have the heart for a fight for something that an omega was supposed to be made for. Why did everything in my life have to be a battle? Maybe I was still holding onto too much from my childhood, but I just didn’t want to be this failure of an omega. I wanted something easy, simple, not treatments and pain.
Things between me and Xavier had to end. All of it. I had to go cold turkey on the man. I wouldn’t do him dirty and ghost him like I’d tried to do before. Lesson learned there. No, this time I’d give him the adult conversation he deserved.
I was going to miss him dearly. He’d invited me into his life, arms wide open. Xavier had introduced me to his family, giving me a glimpse of what I could have. I’d met Malik, Chen, and little Sora. His friends had made me feel welcome. Sora was too cute! I was so smitten. It was going to be awful to miss out on all Xavier offered. Mostly, I’d just miss him and how he made me feel.
The call was answered almost instantly. “Everything okay? You slipped away before I could see you this morning.” Xavier sounded relaxed and happy on the other end of the line. I hated what I was about to do, even though, long term, it would help us both.
“Needed to get home.” My hands were sweaty. The phone slipped in my grasp. I fumbled with it before tightening my grip.
“Feeling okay? It’s about a month since your heat. Do you need to take a—”
“It was negative.” Oh, fuck this hurt so bad.
“I’m sorry, Brady.” He really sounded it. He had the best heart. “I know how much you want a baby.” Why did he have to sound so perfect?
I forced my tone to be steady with a hard edge. “It’s what you want too, isn’t it? You want babies, marriage, the whole thing.”
“Yeah,” he answered immediately. “They’d be great but—”
Time to get it out there. I took a deep breath and pushed on. “I think we should stop seeing each other. The lines are getting too blurred. It’s best it ends now before we end up hurting each other.”
“What?”
“I want to end things.”
“Are you serious?” his voice rose with his anger. “I’m divorced now. I thought we were building something real, and you want to end it?” There was a hitch in his breath.
“I’m never going to be who you want me to be—”
“What the fuck does that mean?”
“I’m recessive, Xavi. We’ve done two heats together and—”
“Two is nothing. We can try—”
“No. I’m not doing all that shit. You deserve someone who can give you all that. Hell, you can go back to Gio, and there’s a ready-made family waiting for you.”
Xavier swore, the words unintelligible. “That’s not happening. It’s you I want.”
“We’re over, Xavi. Give me some space, please. You can do that, right? I promise this is for the best.”
