The room was quiet when Ryan’s phone rang. July woke up thinking it was hers and answered the call. “Hello?” she mumbled in the phone.

“Where’s Ryan?” Mara asked with a bitter tone. July hated her and this call was only going to add fuel to the fire. The thought that Mara had his number ticked her off, but considering he was the boss, it was natural that she did.

“He’s sleeping.”

“So you two are having an office romance? You know you’re the last on the totem pole it seems. He went through all the women under thirty who worked in the office over the past three years, even Spencer’s wife, Rose.” A burning pain in July’s chest singed her heart. The dig had done its job. She tried to remain calm as she crawled out of the bed away from Ryan. She didn’t want Ryan to hear her on the phone with one of his lovers. She couldn’t believe it. What they shared the night before had been everything to July - all she ever dreamed about. And she refused to accept Mara’s words.

“You’re lying,” July hissed. 

“Oh, yeah. Then why did he have the door closed when you came back from lunch? I took that large cock of his between my lips and got my own lunch. He’s got to be the best out of all of them.” She didn’t respond to it because she remembered that Ryan’s dress shirt was partially untucked and he was trying to straighten himself out. How could I have forgotten that? She thought. July lost her mind the moment Ryan touched her. She knew that he could convince her that it was a lie and she couldn’t deal with that.

July hung up the phone, unwilling to listen to another word from Mara. She put the phone back in the room as she scooped up her things and made her way out of the apartment building completely dressed. Her hand swung out as she hailed a cab. After giving the cabbie her address, she sat back and did her best to hold her tears in. Once she got to her apartment, they fell hard down her cheeks. Needing to get away, she called Tyler.

“Hey, is there any more room on that personal jet of yours?” Please say there is. July felt like her world was crumbling and it was too much to bear.

“Yes, ma’am. There’s plenty. You need me to pick you up?” Tyler asked.

“Yes, I’m almost ready to go.” She had four months left of her lease and her rent was paid off. Not worried about her things, she gathered enough stuff to get out of there before Ryan came looking for her. There was no guarantee that he would come for her. After all, he’d gotten what he wanted and was going to be looking for a new assistant. She frantically moved around her place in a hurry. Tyler was there in twenty minutes and helping her take everything down.

“So, do I get to beat his rear?” Tyler said, pulling her into his arms for a hug.

“No, I just don’t think it’ll work between us and I don’t want anything to do with him. If I continue to work there, I’ll be looked at funny by all the workers.” They made it out of the apartment within another twenty minutes. There was no sign of Ryan as they left.

On their way to the airport, she sent him an email quitting. Nothing else needed to be said or done. He was just going to use her and spit her out like he’d done to the rest of them. She thought Spencer had been awfully guarded with his wife when Ryan was around. Then she remembered as he held her close saying he was going to need to find a new assistant. That had been odd, but she let it go. Now it all made sense, he needed to dispose of the used goods.

~~~~~

Ryan woke up to find the other side of the bed cold. His phone was beeping with an email, but he didn’t want to think of work. His goal was to find his future wife. Last night had been perfect. He jumped out of bed, looking around the room, and the lack of her clothes and shoes scattered around the room told him she’d left. He threw on some clothes and looked for a note or something. Nothing. Running back to his room, he grabbed his phone, maybe she sent him a message. He remembered her boy toy from last night was leaving today. After getting dressed, he rushed out of his place and drove over to hers, but she wasn’t there. He continued to ring the bell until one of the neighbors walked up the steps to go inside.

“Can I help you, son?”

“Yes, I was looking for July Cooper.”

“Oh, I’m afraid you missed her. She left with a cowboy this morning carrying several large suitcases. I’m sorry,” she consoled him, patting him on the shoulder. He collapsed onto the steps, sitting with his hand on his face and his elbows on his knees.

“Why?” he asked himself. Getting up off his butt, he went back to his car to go sulk at home. The trip came around faster than he liked. He wanted July by his side, but she refused to take his calls and had even gone ahead and changed her number. It boggled his mind that she would up and leave. The only answer he’d gotten from her was that email he refused to check at first. “I quit. I just can’t do any of this anymore.”

He tried to get ahold of company records, but Thanksgiving was two days away and the office was closed. He had planned on telling his family at Thanksgiving dinner that he was getting married, but that opportunity flew out the window. He was swamped with work, so he couldn’t chase after her, not that he knew where she lived anyway. He knew she was from Texas, but she said she lived on the outskirts of Dallas. That could be damn near anywhere. And he looked up the Cooper last name and got 2,700 hits on the last name in the area. By the night of Thanksgiving, he walked into his parents’ house and felt his heart tearing apart. The family was everywhere, and Spencer had his new little family and his parents looked more in love than ever.

“So what gives with your assistant quitting like that?”

“I don’t know.”

“Did something happen between you two? Did she finally get tired of you treating her like she did something wrong because she got your dick hard?”

“Matthew, watch your mouth,” their mom said.

“Sorry, mom.” Matthew wasn’t in the least bit apologetic. He thought it was funny, and at the same time, he felt bad for his brother. The rest of the night had been quiet when it came to July. The family knew better than to make it worse.

~~~~~

Her family didn’t know when to stop. They hated that she left in the first place and they wanted their daughter to stay close. “You can stay home now. No need to go back to Boston,” her father said. The great Dennison Cooper had been proud of his little girl, but like any father, he worried. From the look on Tyler’s face when he dropped off July, something had happened. A wise man that he was, he didn’t press the issue, but he hoped that by asking her to stay and guilting her into staying that maybe she would. The thought of his little girl in a big city all on her own without anyone to look after her scared him. She was licensed to shoot, but she couldn’t carry in Boston. Then there were the experienced men who knew how to easily seduce a young, sheltered, country girl. He looked at his angel and smiled. She seemed sad and he wondered if some cad had already gotten to her. Mrs. Danielle Cooper noticed that as well. And as soon as she had a moment alone, she had a talk with her little girl.

“Sweetie, are you going to tell us what’s wrong? You’ve been back for three weeks and you haven’t been the same.”

“Mom, I’m not going to go into it, but he and I are from different worlds. I shouldn’t have let him win.”

“Honey, are you okay?” July was up on her feet as her mother asked the question. July’s head was hovering over the toilet as she braced herself on the toilet seat, her lunch coming up easily as she heaved. Her mother prepared a washcloth and a glass of water as a bad feeling swept over both of them. July was going to have a baby.

~~~~~

Christmas was fast approaching around the Cooper home and July was stuck in an awkward situation. She knew that the right thing was to tell Ryan, but seeing him again was going to be difficult. She hadn’t stopped thinking about him over the almost month since she left his bed. Part of her felt like she should have confronted him on his affairs with the staff and Mara. Her heart broke all over again every time she heard Mara’s voice in her head.

“Sweetheart, I’ve kept this a secret from your father for a week now. Soon we won’t be able to hide it, and I believe that the father needs to know. You lied on your job application, didn’t you?”

“What? How did you know?”

“One thing is your address doesn’t match ours. There was someone asking around town for you and they were given the run around and moved on to the next town over.”

“I gave the old cotton factory as my address.”

“Yes, I know. He’s obviously looking for you, but if it’s the man they described, I have no idea what you were thinking.”

“What? He’s gorgeous. Look at this.” July pulled out her phone and had the picture that they had taken at a company picnic. Ryan had his arm around her waist.

“This is him? That wasn’t the guy that came looking for you, but then again, he may have sent someone looking for you.”

“Is he your boss?”

“Yes.”

“Well, he doesn’t look like he was trying to hide his feelings for you in that picture.”

“It’s my favorite one.”

“And you wonder why. The man is looking down at you with a smile so sweet that my teeth are hurting. Call him right now.”

“Okay, mom. I’ll do it.”

“Speaker phone and all or I’ll call your father.”

“Ryan here.”

“Ryan,” she said with a whisper.

“July, where are you?” She jumped at his words that were furious as hell. July looked up at her mother who had a raised brow, questioning this Ryan’s tone.

“My parents.”

“Where the fuck is that?” he asked; this time there was a distinct sound of frustration in his voice.

“Dallas.”

“I’m going to be on the next flight out.” July gasped. She wasn’t ready to confront him. There was so much to say and the constant need to vomit her brains out would be a dead giveaway that he’d gotten her pregnant.

“Don’t bother. I just wanted to tell you that I know you didn’t want this. So this is all on me, but I wanted to let you know I’m pregnant.” July didn’t miss the gasp of another woman near him. Since it was the weekend, he wasn’t in the office. 

“I hear you moved on,” she hissed. Her mother crossed her arms, pissed off that her daughter had been right to move on from this guy and feeling terrible that she made her call him.

“I haven’t at all. I’m on my way to see you,” he stated.

“Then who is it, your mother?” she asked, accusingly.

“No, it’s Matt’s future wife. I’m taking her to see him. It was a big misunderstanding, but I don’t want to talk about it right now. I want to talk about us.”

“There is no us.”

“Then why are you calling me, July? You run out on me and then you call out of the blue when you’re thousands of miles away to tell me you’re pregnant. It’s bullshit. When I get to Texas we’re going to straighten some shit out whether you like it or not.” July and her mother could hear him talking to the woman.

“Sorry, Candice. I have to talk to her. He isn’t going to hurt you.” The women moved their heads closer to the phone to listen in.

“I know that. He’s got a bark and no bite. Thanks.”

“I’ll drop off your bag in a few minutes.”

“July Cooper, you have a lot of fucking explaining to do when I see you. Trust me when I say that running out on me like that was so fucked up. I’ve been sending people out looking for you because, like all the damn women in our lives, you can’t seem to stop lying. HR gave me your fake address back home. Give me your real address.”

Mrs. Cooper said, “221 Magnolia Drive, Evansville.”

“Hello, ma’am. I had no idea she had someone else in the room.”

“I’m her mother and I told her to call you. Now, when you come here you better remember your manners because I assure you if you talk like that to my daughter in front of her brothers and father you’d better run fast. Even though, in my opinion, you deserve to be angry at her.”

“Don’t worry about that, Mrs. Cooper. And prepare for a wedding for the new year.”

“Yes, Ryan.”

“Thank you, ma’am. Excuse me, ladies, but I’ve got to get my ass on a plane.”