These kinds of heroines are highly frustrating. They can't handle the consequences of their own actions AND, somehow, find a way to blame the MMC. They also have zero critical thinking skills and leap to irrational conclusions.
For example:
“Look, um, that night—it was a great time. But…” I swallow, forcing myself to look at him - and then I do the only thing I can think of. I tell him the truth. “Look, I really need this job, okay? It’s really important to me. And—and what happened, that won’t change anything about the work, okay? I promise. I don’t want it to change anything. I’m sorry—I’m sorry I left and—and I’m sorry we ran into each other like—like this, I guess. But…can we just…forget about it? Please?”
This was after the MMC expressed interest in continuing where they left off. SHE shut him down. He respectfully says,
"I can’t say I’ll forget about it.” He says after a moment, mouth still curling up in that dangerous smile before he gives a slight nod. “But no, what happened that night won’t affect the work we’re doing here. You don’t have to worry about that, Ava.”
And then what does her stupid butt think later?
“No, I mean it, Vicki - he’s moved on. The one dinner we did have altogether was the only one we did get a few drinks afterward…and he totally ignored me the whole time. Let’s just drop it, huh?”
"We had our night and he’s done, it’s as simple as that - and it’s a hell of a lot more convenient too. He’s far more more interested in all the fun girls he can party with in New York, and that’s fine.”
Her inner monologue:
"I don’t know why that’s so hard to think about. It’s probably just some silly, insecure part of me that’s afraid of being so replaceable - or the idea that the most amazing night of my life turned out to be just ordinary to someone else. I mean, I’m not sure what I ever expected when I went along with the one-night stand in the first place…that was why I didn’t want to see him again. There’s just an oversensitive part of me that’s a little bit hurt that it meant nothing, that’s all."
I almost stopped reading this book right there. First of all, she's listening to rumors. Second of all, she turned him down and made it clear she wanted nothing to do with him. He's her boss. If he continued pursuing her, she would have a sexual harassment case. And what does she want him to do? Cry in his cornflakes in the hotel room? It's very self-important of her to tell him to stay away and then be judging him for having a good time on a trip. It's like she wanted him to mope around because she turned him down. Or chase her. They had ONE night; not a relationship.
It would be different if they had been dating. I could see her being hurt by him moving on quickly (or seeming to) if they had been dating and she ended it. But that's not what happened. They had one night and SHE left without saying a word. And then when he expressed he would have liked an encore, she shut him down.
At one point in the story, she inner monologues that she is glad her friend seems to be taking her job seriously because she thought her friend was pretty much careless about her job. Judgemental much?
Once the FMC finds out she's pregnant, she somehow becomes even more insufferable. She's freaking out (understandable) but she decides the MMC isn't going to want anything to do with the baby and is freaking out about how she will probably have to give the baby up for adoption. She even thinks about how her parents will insist they raise the baby because the FMC doesn't feel she can do it financially on her own, but she would feel guilty about it because they can't afford it. I don't feel sorry for her at all. The MMC is rich and more than capable of paying child support. He doesn't have to be a part of the baby's life to pay child support, which the baby is entitled to. Her whole line of thinking is just stupid. It's not being a golddigger to want the father of the baby to pay child support.
When she finally tells the MMC, she doesn't give him a chance to fully react or really say anything before she rambles to him that he doesn't have to worry about anything, she's giving the baby up for adoption and she runs off. He asked about the birth control she said she was on. It's a valid question and asked in shock, not accusation. She lost her mind because he didn't have the perfect reaction in ten seconds. And THEN, she has the nerve to be disappointed when he leaves her alone for the rest of the day. "He took me at my word and left me alone." She took that to mean she was right about him not caring about the baby.
With a FMC that assumes as much as this one AND interrupts all attempts at communication, the relationship can't develop at all! I actually find it offensive how much she assumed about the MMC throughout the story. She constantly thought the worst of him for no reason at all.
This FMC is the person that pushes you away and tells you to leave her alone and then turns around and thinks you are terrible for doing what she said to do: leave her alone. I can't stand characters like that.
There was one scene near the end of the book that I liked and I was going to raise the rating of this book to two stars for picking up momentum near the end but I realized part of the reason it was good is probably because the FMC wasn't talking during it. It was a highly emotional scene for the MMC and I liked that their secret was revealed in that moment, but he didn't care about anything except the FMC.