Page 80 of You're All I Need

“You’re scaring me a little bit,” she says softly.

“I’m not trying to, I promise. There’s just…something. I need a friend.”

“And a friend is on the way,” she insists. “I’ll be there in five.”

“All right. Be safe,” I reply before hanging up.

I set my phone down on the counter and reach for the bottle of water. After taking a hearty drink, I return it to the fridge so it can stay cold. My legs carry me from one end of my kitchen to the other. I move back and forth constantly, feeling like a caged animal. A mixture of fear, anxiety, dread, and even anticipation and exhilaration races through me. It’s so overwhelming it’s hard to think straight.

I’m not sure how long it actually takes her to get here, but Stevie’s knocking on my door and pushing it open quickly. She looks at me with worry in her eyes and scans me from head totoe, as if looking for a sign of what’s going on. She closes the door behind her and slowly approaches. “Hey.”

I stop pacing. “Hi.”

“What’s going on?” she asks gently, taking another small step closer.

“I’m in love with Caden.”

It takes a few seconds before she registers my words, but the moment she does, a wide smile spreads across her beautiful face. “I knew it!” she bellows.

“No,” I reply, shaking my head and angrily swiping at the single tear that falls from my eye. “It wasn’t supposed to happen.”

“I know it wasn’t, but it’s not like that’s something you can control. Your heart wants who your heart wants.”

“But it wasn’t supposed to want him,” I groan as a few more tears fall.

She takes my hand and pulls me into the living room where we take a seat, facing each other on the couch. “Tell me what happened.”

“I need to start at the beginning,” I say, swiping at the tears and taking a deep, cleansing breath. “It was supposed to be fun, you know? Two people who enjoy sex. No commitments, no strings.”

“But then you started to fall,” she says gently, giving me a knowing, sad smile.

“I realized it this weekend. It was…” I close my eyes and picture us together at the baseball game. It’s so easy being with him. “It was great. Perfect, really.”

She reaches for my hand and gives it a gentle squeeze. “So, you need help figuring out what to do about it?”

I scrunch up my face a bit, and reply, “Not really.”

She seems confused. “What do you need help with then?”

“So, while we were in Cincinnati, I realized something else. I, uh, hadn’t started my period.”

Realization sets in and her eyes go wide. “Oh.”

“I got to thinking, I was in the placebo week of my birth control, and, well, I hadn’t started. At first, I just convinced myself it was because of the stress of starting the second job and everything. I even told myself I was probably off a week and didn’t realize it.”

“But you weren’t off a week,” she derives, sitting perfectly still.

“No. When I got back to the hotel, I checked, and…I was supposed to take the last pill in the packet on Saturday. I hadn’t brought the fresh packet with me, figuring I’d just start the new pack as soon as I got home Sunday, but when I got back here and went to open them, I couldn’t take it.”

“Okay,” she says softly.

“And I haven’t taken one since,” I add, knowing I should have triggered a period by now. That happened to me once before, I missed three days of pills due to a shortage of birth control at my pharmacy, and by the third day, I was bleeding again. “I remembered hearing something that said if you became pregnant, stop taking your birth control immediately.”

She exhales. “So…you need a test.”

I sniffle and whisper my first confirmation, “I think so.”

“Okay,” she replies with a nod, standing up. “I’ll be right back.”

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