Page 85 of Don't Quit the Day Job

"No. I didn't tell them. I don't know what they would do."

"And the father?"

"He wanted me to have an abortion, but I'm not having an abortion. I'm not doing that to my kid. Please, Max. Please help me."

"Oh my gosh. I just don't even know what to say right now, Marie. How could you have had unprotected sex? How could you have let this happen?"

"Don't tell me you've never had sex without a rubber, brother." She sounds as much like an adult as she looks, and as I stare at her, I realize what she's saying is true. I had not used a condom either time I'd been with Lila. I quickly grabbed my phone and text her.

"You're on birth control, right?"

Marie stares at me, a slight frown on her face. "Please tell me you're not texting Dad that I'm pregnant."

"No," I say, glaring at her. "It's not my place to tell him, but you're going to have to tell him eventually, especially if you want to stay here. Oh my gosh. We've got so much to figure out. I cannot believe this."

"You're not mad at me, are you? You don't think I'm a slut?"

"Marie, I love you. You're my sister. I will always be here for you. And if you're going to have a baby and you decide that that's what you want to do and you want to keep it, we'll figure something out. You're only eighteen though, and you still have to go to college and you?—"

"I don't want to talk about it right now," she says. "Can we just go back to your place and get pizza?"

"Yeah," I say, as I look down at my phone. Lila still hasn’t responded. I realize now that maybe I should have prefaced my text with something else, but I'll explain it to her later. "Come on, Marie," I say, grabbing her suitcases. "Let's go home."

"Thank you, Max. I knew I could count on you."

"I'll always be here for you, Marie. I love you. You know that."

Chapter Twenty-Six

Lila

It's been two and a half weeks since I started working at the law firm, and while I can't say that it's the best job I've ever had, I'm actually really enjoying getting to work on small cases. The sad part is, I haven't seen Max in over a week and a half. Sure, we usually text every night, but it’s not the same.

I open my refrigerator and stare at the empty contents. I really need to go and get groceries now that I’ve received my first paycheck, which had been the largest paycheck I’d ever seen in my life.

I have a frozen pizza in the freezer and some taquitos that I can put in the oven.

I look at my inflatable mattress and think about how much fun I'd had that night with Max. I want to know where he is, why he hasn't been to work, but he hasn't volunteered the information to me and I don't want to be nosy. A part of me thinks that the reason he hasn't come in is because he doesn't want to see me and he doesn't want me to get the wrong idea, but I ignore that possibility because why would he still be texting me if he had absolutely no interest? I know I want to have a conversation with him, but I'm scared. I don't even know what to say. "Hey, Max, you know that night that we pretended to be boyfriend and girlfriend and we had mad crazy sex and you kept your cock in me all night? Well, that was kind of fun. We should do it again, if you don't mind sleeping on my air mattress that isn't the most comfortable."

"He could invite you over," I whisper to myself. He has a nice place with plenty of bedrooms. My phone starts ringing and I pick it up, thinking it's going to be Zara. I stare at Max's name on the screen and my heart races as I answer. He doesn't normally call me. "Hi. Long time no speak, stranger," I say into the phone.

"I thought I'd check on my new assistant to see how she’s doing," he responds.

"I’m doing well. I've been helping Remington out with some work because you didn't really leave me much to do."

"I know. I'm sorry about that. Some stuff came up, and well, it's just been a pretty hectic week."

"Oh, so will you be in next week?"

"Most likely. Why? Have you been missing me?"

"I mean, I don't know if I would say missing, but I do work for you, and I just thought?—"

"Max, can you come here a second?" I hear a female voice in the background and freeze. Who was that?

"Just give me a moment, Marie," he says, and my mind races. Haven't I heard him talking to a Marie before? Who the hell is Marie?

"Do you have to go?"

---