Page 77 of Accidental Vegas Vows

Sophie’s hand motioned for me to continue, and I glanced at it quickly before turning my gaze back to Noah.

“Like, if I tell him and he feels the same about me, then we’d need to discuss what that means. We’d need to consider how confusing that is for Noah when he’s probably already confused about what we are. We’d have to consider if we even wanted to go through with the annulment, and we’d have to think about the possibilities of us being long term and how that would affect both of our lives. And I’m not ready for any of those conversations yet,” I explained, my throat closing in just a little. It wasn’t even that emotional of a topic and I was already getting overwhelmed.

“If you love him, then you have to be okay with having those conversations,” she said, her voice so fucking soft that it nearly sent me into a frenzy.

“I didn’t say that I?—”

“You didn’t need to.”

Tears burned at the backs of my eyes and before I could stop them, they welled up in the corners, slipping over the edges far too easily. I wiped them away, but there was no stopping her from noticing.

“Aw, Liv…”

Her arms wrapped around my shoulders from the side as she hugged me, and fuck, why did I want to just let myself cry at the Goddamn zoo? Why did I even want to cry in the first place?

“I’m fine,” I croaked. “Fuck, why am I crying?”

She snorted as she released me. “You on your period? You’re always emotional on your period.”

I shook my head. “No, it hasn’t…”

Wait.

Every part of me froze. It hadn’t started yet. How long ago did I put the emergency tampons in my bag? I thought back, days, days, days — no, shit, it had been a week. A fucking week. I’d done it a week ago after my phone had notified me that I was due to start that day.

“Liv?”

“Oh my God,” I breathed.

I pulled my phone from my purse and frantically opened my period tracker. Sure enough, right there on the screen, it said I should have finished my cycle two days ago. I had never been more than a single day off since starting birth control.

“What do I do? Soph, what the fuck do I do?” I asked, my voice shaking, my hands shaking. I couldn’t stop staring at it.

“Calm down,” she advised, putting her hand over my phone and clicking the button to turn off the screen. “You’re okay. You’re fine. We can go get a test. You’re on the pill right?”

I nodded, forcing myself to look back at Noah to make sure he hadn’t run off. Thank God he was still staring at the lion, even if he was making roaring sounds.

“And you’ve been taking it correctly?”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“You haven’t missed any, right?” she asked, her hand squeezing mine.

“Maybe one or two? I just doubled up,” I explained.

Her face went white as she forced herself into my field of view. “What do you mean you just doubled up? When was the last time you missed one?”

I blinked at her. “A few weeks ago?”

“Oh my God, Liv. You have to take those exactly as it says or they don’t work. How do you not know that?”

My gaze bounced from Noah to her, the stone in my gut sinking rapidly. “I don’t… I don’t know, I got them to help with my cramps. I wasn’t using them for birth control until recently.”

Noah spun on the spot and started trotting back over to us as Sophie spoke again. “Your parents didn’t—… Shit, no, they wouldn’t have, would they?”

“Livie, why are you crying?” Noah asked, but I didn’t know how to fucking answer him. He hopped up on the bench beside me and wrapped his arms around my waist, burying himself in my side. I knew he was trying to help.

“We’ll go get a test. Right now,” Sophie urged. Her attention turned to the five year old wrapped around me like a monkey. “Liv’s not feeling very well, Noah. Are you okay if we go now?”

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