Page 26 of Orlando

“I’ll drive,” I tell her, walking in the direction of where I know the garage is located.

“Prepare yourself, Orlando. Your mother is waiting at home for you,” Pops says, sounding a little too fucking cheery.

I groan. “Got it. I’ll see you there.”

“Fuck me. When did we get this old?” I hear Zio Theo ask my dad as they walk out together.

Chapter Seventeen

Imust drift off, because I wake with a jolt when a hand lands on my shoulder. “Babe, wake up. We’re here.” Orlando’s voice seeps through my foggy brain.

“What?” I open my eyes. I’m in my car, and then the events of the day come back to me.

Orlando. Sebastian. All of it.

“We’re home. Wait here. I’m going to get Sebastian out and then I’ll come help you.” Orlando jumps out of the car before I can respond. I turn my head and watch as he stares at the car seat.

“You need to unclip it, at the top. Pull the lever and pick up the entire capsule. If you try to take him out, he’ll wake up.”

“And that’s a bad thing? That he wakes up?” Orlando asks me.

“Not really, but I don’t like waking him if he’s sleeping.”

“Okay, like this?” Orlando follows my instructions before looking back in my direction.

“Mhmm.” I turn to look out the windshield and then it hits me. Where we are. Orlando’s house. Shit. His mother is here. She’s going to hate me. His entire family is going to hate me. Not that I don’t deserve it. “Maybe I should just stay here,” I suggest when Orlando opens my door.

“Why would you do that?” He carefully places the car seat on the ground. Sebastian is sound asleep. He doesn’t even stir with the movement.

“Because your mom is in there,” I tell him.

“And that’s a problem because…?”

“Well, I don’t know. She’s not going to like me.”

“Aleeka, everyone likes you. It’s hard not to. Besides, it doesn’t matter if she likes you or not, because you’re family. Come on.” He holds out a hand to me.

He keeps saying that I’m family. I’ve never had family other than my dad. Both of my parents were only children, and their parents had passed when I was still really young. It’s always just been my dad and me. And now Sebastian.

Reluctantly, I take Orlando’s hand. “Aren’t you nervous?” I ask him. I wish I could adopt his cool and calm persona, even just long enough to get me through the awkwardness that’s bound to ensue when I step inside that house.

“They’re my parents. Are they going to be in shock? Yes. Is my mother going to start planning our wedding? More than likely. But we’ll deal with it. Together,” he says.

I freeze. “Wedding? But we’re not… I mean, you and me, we’re not… We need to stay friends,” I tell him.

Orlando frowns at me. “Friends?”

“Yes, for Sebastian’s sake. That’s if you want to try out this whole co-parenting thing. We shouldn’t complicate things,” I say.

“Friends?” Orlando repeats.

“You’re saying the word like it’s a bad thing. Why can’t we be friends?” I ask him.

“We’re not going to work as friends,” he says.

“Why not?”

“Because I don’t tend to want to fuck my friends. And you… I very much want to—no,needto fuck you.” His words send chills through me, and I don’t think my weak knees have anything to do with my illness right now.

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