Page 52 of Come Inside

“Don’t feel good,” I garbled out. It was time to officially take shrimp off my menu; every time I ate them now, something bad happened.

Izzy sighed dramatically. “It was only one bottle of wine and we split it, you are not abandoning me for this.”

Except it wasn’t the wine, something else entirely was wrong with me. Something I had never felt before. This wasn’t right.

I shot up as bile rose in my throat, running to the bathroom.

Barely making it to the toilet, I fell to the floor, retching loudly as I tried to empty the contents of my stomach, but there was nothing left to expel.

“You’re not pregnant, are you?”

Pregnant?

The word jolted clarity through my mind.

Wait, when was the last time I had my period? So much had happened since my encounter with James, but it was before that. That was over a month ago.

I had gotten a birth control prescription right after I found out what Mateo had done to my implant.

And before that I had only fucked twice. James had a vasectomy. Kazi used a condom.

No, no,no!

“Shut up,” I regurgitated the words out.

“You’re not actually pregnant, are you?” Izzy began to stroke my back soothingly while holding my hair back for me.

I loved this fucking girl, but the thought made me sick. I gagged into the toilet below.

“Can I get you anything?” The concern in Izzy’s voice was causing my guilt to sky-rocket.

“No.” I needed to tell her about everything.

Daniel, Kazi, Mateo, James, and maybe one day, the trauma of my childhood. I was keeping so much of my life from her now.

Why was I even doing that? To protect her? To protect myself?

“You’re not going to make it, are you?”

Fuck the fucking reunion. My stomach churned again, and I dry-heaved.

“I’m not. I can’t be around those hellions in this condition. I woke up early this morning like this, but I was hoping it would go away.” I tried to swallow down bitterness, hacking up the disgusting taste instead. “You are still going through with it. Both things.”

She needed this and my own fuck-ups could wait.

“I have another room booked for you under an alias. There is a packet I want you to read and an NDA you need to sign. You need this.” My body shook as I was forced to puke again, nothing coming out. Izzy needed this, she deserved this, to feel good.

She was finally going to do what she needed. Escape the vanilla men that flocked to her in waves. She was going to follow through on her darkest desires. And this man I had made sure to run the background check past Emil, I had met him in person, nothing would go wrong.

Izzy needed this. I could tell this breakup was hitting her harder than the last. Understandably so when your boyfriend fucks your goddamn step-sister.

All of my misery and mistakes could wait. Including the strengthening possibility that I wasfuckingpregnant.

“Okay,” she finally whispered out.

“Good. In my bag, the folder labeledCome to Bed,”I yakked out.

My bestie was a freak in the best way. Somnophilia? Dormaphilia? She had me wanting to try a thing or two.

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