Page 31 of An Unexpected Encounter

“Hey,” Eli says with an awkward grin.

“What are you doing here?” I can already feel another wave of nausea and I’m trying my fucking hardest to keep it at bay.

“Well, we know you said you weren’t feeling good, so we thought we’d bring you some dinner,” Eli replies, a hopeful look in his eyes that matches his brothers.

“You didn’t ha—”

I can’t hold it any longer. Turning quickly, I run down the hallway, not even caring that I’m about to purge the non-existent contents of my stomach in front of them.

“Selena, are you okay?” one of them calls out.

“I’m fine… don’t come… in… here,” I say through bouts of vomiting with labored breaths.

“We’re going to wait out here if you need us,” one of them shouts back, but I don’t fucking care. I feel like death has come to take me.

Their voices echo down the hallway, but I can’t hear what they’re saying.

Once there’s nothing left, I stand slowly and flush the toilet before washing my hands. I splash cold water on my face and then use my hand as a cup to drink some. All I can taste is bile.

I grip the sink counter and take a deep breath in then slowly blow it out. I need to go out there and face them. My gut is telling me they’re not going to leave any time soon.

“Thank you for coming over, but I really don’t feel like company!” I shout as I leave the bathroom. They are all in the living room. Eli is standing with his back to me, looking at the photos on the wall, while Zeke and Jay are sitting closely on the couch.

“Is this your dad?” Eli turns to face me.

“Yeah. It was the last picture taken of us.” It’s one of me and my dad in the swing on our porch.

“You can see the love the two of you had for each other in the picture.”

“Thank you, Eli. But really, the three of you can go. I’m just going to lie down and try to get some rest.” I shift anxiously back and forth on my feet, wrapping my arms around myself.

All I can think about is that soon I’m going to have to announce my pregnancy to Mom and they’ll find out. What am I going to do when they start counting in their head and begin to ask questions?

I just need to remember it’s for the best they don’t know. It’ll piss Mom off and cause conflict for the guys and their father, and that’s the last thing I want to do. I still firmly believe that Abel needs to have his head checked for being with her. He seems nice, even though he didn’t once speak up about the way she talks down to me.

“We actually brought you some food. Some soup, and sandwiches.” Jay rubs his hands down the length of his muscular thighs. But all I can see are visions of him and me in the hallway at the hotel.

“I’m really not up to eating.” I sway a little and Zeke jumps up, wrapping his arm around me, and guides me over to the couch.

“When was the last time you were able to eat anything?” one of them asks. I’m so on edge right now, their voices all sound the same.

“Uh, I’m not sure.” I don’t have the strength to come up with an answer. Eating and keeping down food hasn't happened for a while and I feel like I’m getting weaker by the day.

“You need to eat, Selena. I’m going to warm you up some soup, and get you some Gatorade. But we’re not leaving you here alone. Where is Sam? He should be here taking care of you?” Zeke asks.

“He’s on vacation.” It’s not until the words leave my mouth do I realize what I just slipped up and said.

“What?!” comes out in unison. Varying levels of anger laced in the one word.

“He should be here with you, not on a fucking vacation.” Eli comes over and sits down on the coffee table in front of me.

“I told him to go. It’s fine. People get sick, it's not the end of the world.”

“So you’re trying to tell me that if it was him that was sick, you wouldn’t be there taking care of him? It’s bullshit, Selena. You have two options. You’re packing a bag and coming to our house or one of us is staying here with you. What’s it going to be?”

Fuck! How am I going to get out of this? I don’t want either of those options.

Chapter 15

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