She’s a woman of her word, showing up twenty minutes later and when I open the door, she balks.
“You look terrible.”
“Thanks.” I’ve shrugged on a pair of sweats and a hoodie and pulled my hair back into a messy ponytail.
She leads me out to the car, opening the door for me.
“Such a gentleman,” I tease weakly, my stomach still feeling unsteady.
She gives me a little bow, and I laugh, staring straightahead as we drive to the urgent care to keep from being car sick.
When we arrive, I lean on Marie as we walk inside and sit down.
She pats my hand. “You really are sick. Is that why we’ve barely talked in two months?”
I flush, a little embarrassed. “I’m sorry. It’s not that I don’t want to hang out, it’s just... the merger is happening in less than two weeks, and there’s still so much to do.”
She winces. “I can imagine. That’s why I’m not mad at you.” She nudges her shoulder against mine. “But we should catch up.”
“We really should.” I give her a slow grin, and her eyes widen.
“What’d you do?” she whispers, but then the nurse calls me back, and I’m saved.
For now.
I’m going to come clean. After all, she and Roland already know everything about me, and besides... I’m kind of excited to tell them.
It’s not like I have a ton of fun, sexy, casual sex stories like Roland or a bunch of long-term relationships like Marie.
That night is definitely the craziest thing I’ve ever done.
I explain my symptoms to the nurse, and she raises her hand immediately, handing me a specimen cup.
“I’m definitely going to need a urine sample.”
“Oh, I’m not—” I freeze.
I was going to say, “I’m not sexually active,” because well, I wasn’t. At least not untilthatnight.
She just pushes it into my hand, and Marie stares at me.
“You can’t be pregnant,” she hisses as the nurse walks out of the room, and I’m sure I’m as pale as death.
“There’s no way,” I mumble, more to myself than Marie, but she paces around.
“Is there? I mean, you would have told me if?—”
“I mean, it’spossible.But it’s really unlikely. It was only one night.”
She groans loudly. “Not Dominic again.”
I go silent, not wanting to blurt it all out in the doctor’s office, but she paces around the room some more.
“He hurt you so badly, Livvie. I remember picking up the pieces and how you couldn’t sleep without a bottle of wine in your system for weeks...”
“We’re not getting back together.” I mean that.
I don’t want a relationship. That’s why I wanted all of them, so that none of them would get the wrong idea. Well, that, and it’s one of my biggest fantasies.