Page 68 of Instant Bond

It had been seven years since the last time I’d done this, but the walk of shame was all too familiar.

All the aisles had big signs over them explaining which items were contained within. Ironically, the pregnancy tests were right next to the condoms, which I felt was kind of rude. No need to remind anyone of any stupid mistakes they’d made. Then again,we’d used one the first time this had happened to me, so maybe I was just extremely uber-fertile. What a lovely and not at all terrifying thought.

Snatching one off the shelf and making my way back to the cashier, I set it on the counter. She looked down at it before glancing back up at me with a bit of sympathy.

“Is this all?” She asked, ringing it up.

“Yeah. Can I use your bathroom?” I set some bills on the counter and crumpled up the receipt she printed for me.

She pointed at one side of the store before handing me a key chained to a comically large plaque with the store’s logo on it. I guessed they’d had people accidentally walk out with it. Or maybe not accidentally. Why anyone would bother stealing a bathroom key, I didn’t know. But I used it to unlock the door and step in. It closed heavily behind me. Glancing at my reflection, I narrowed my eyes. That moron in the spotty mirror was the one who’d gotten us into this mess.

I followed the instructions on the box, trashing all the packaging while I waited. Pulling out my phone, I forced myself to scroll through a social media feed, though I couldn’t focus on any of the posts. When enough time had passed, I inhaled deeply, but didn’t bother drawing it out. Picking up the test off the corner of the sink, I saw there was absolutely no ambiguity. No barely-there second line that you had to squint to see and force yourself to believe that maybe you were imagining it. Both lines were thick and dark and very obviously there. Pregnant.

Groaning, I pressed my palms into my eyes. What kind of fucking idiot got pregnant on accidenttwice? I felt dizzy and wanted to lay down on the disgusting public bathroom tiles. The life I’d worked so hard to build up was crumbling and escaping through my fingers like grains of sand.

He’d askedonething of me. One. For everything he’d given me and my kid, all he’d asked was that I be on birth controland I hadn’t even been able to manage that very simple and reasonable expectation.

And then something I hadn’t considered yet occurred to me, freezing my stomach with terror. Would he think I’d done it on purpose? To trap him into being with me, or so that no matter what happened I’d have access to his money? I’d realized the night before exactly how and when it had happened, but that didn’t help me at all. It was still just me being a forgetful idiot.

I was pretty sure being a scatterbrained simpleton would be more forgivable in Karter’s eyes than if I was someone who would maliciously trap him into parenthood. But I didn’t have a clue what he would think. I’d thus far avoided pissing him off, or as far as I knew I had.

I remembered the way he’d snapped and snarled at someone from his work on the phone the first day I’d met him at the café and shuddered. If he yelled at me like that there was no way I’d be able to keep from crying. I was hovering pretty close to that anyway. Maybe I should wait to bring it up until I’d figured out a good defense. But was there even a good defense to any of this? Shoving the test in the pocket of my coat, I pushed open the door.

Ducking my head as I exited the bathroom, I brought the key back to the cashier. Her eyes seemed to search my face, probably curious about what the outcome of the test had been.

“Not good,” I told her, and she frowned, letting out a small sigh.

“Everything will work out,” she promised me. Lovely sentiment, but I wasn’t so sure.

Every step home felt like I was on my way to the guillotine, but I marched on. Dully punching in the code to Karter’s private elevator, I leaned against the metal wall as it rose.

As I tiptoed into the living room, hoping I could shed my winter clothes and get back into bed without him noticing, thelamp on the table next to the couch clicked on, scaring the shit out of me.

“Karter!” I gasped out, clutching my chest.

“Was the bus late?” He wondered, but didn’t apologize for scaring me.

“Ah, no. I just wanted to take a walk.”

“In this weather? As sick as you are?”

I wasn’t sick, but I didn’t bother correcting him. Not sick in the way he was thinking, anyway.

“Yeah. I-I needed fresh air,” I lied.

“You could have asked me to come with you,” he said. “I don’t like the idea of you roaming the streets alone, especially this early.”

“I did it a lot before I met you,” I pointed out.

“That was before me,” he countered. “Now I don’t want you doing things like that.”

“Well, I wanted to be alone.”

He raised an eyebrow, tilting his head. “Since when do you ever want to be alone?”

“Just… Sometimes.” I could barely get the words out without stuttering.

“You know something, Cameron? You’re a really terrible liar.”

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