Chapter 7
Tuna salad – not the problem in this story no matter how much Aurora wishes it were
Two months later
Aurora
“D amn him!” I shout as I slam my phone on my desk.
The receptionist chuckles as she sets a plate on my desk. “Which Sinner has your panties in a twist now?”
Thank goodness for Dani. Dani and I are the only people in the office who don’t swoon every time one of our rockstar clients appears. I think rockstars are assholes. She thinks rock music rots your brain.
She’s also a grandmother who’s been married to the love of her life for thirty years. She has no interest in our famous clients. Except to look at. They’re pretty eye candy according to her.
I roll my eyes. “Jett. Who else?”
She sighs. “I pity the woman who falls for him. He is not a rockstar who wants to be caught.”
My heart clenches at her words. Because she’s right. I’ve known Jett for ten years now. I know exactly how he feels about love and commitment.
And yet, I can’t help myself from wanting the man. From obsessing about him. I fell for Jett the first time he sauntered into a room and smirked at me with those piercing blue eyes.
Unfortunately, crossing the line and getting naked with each other hasn’t cooled my obsession one bit. Instead, it’s intensified. I swear when I’m lying in my bed at night, I can still smell his scent on my pillows and feel his heat surrounding me.
Obviously, my infatuation is a one-way street. Jett hasn’t answered one phone call since our night together. He’s never been very communicative but this is ridiculous. I can’t do my job if he refuses all contact with me.
Dani nudges the plate toward me. “I brought you one of the sandwiches left over from Mike’s meeting.”
“You’re an angel. I didn’t have time for breakfast this morning.”
I snag the sandwich from the plate but as soon as the smell of tuna salad hits me, my stomach protests. I drop the sandwich to clutch my middle.
“I think I’m going to be sick,” I mutter.
I breathe deeply through my nose to settle my stomach but inhaling brings the tuna smell back. My stomach gurgles, and I spring from my chair to sprint for the bathroom. I barely make it to a stall before I lose the contents of my stomach.
Dani pulls my hair away from my face and rubs my back as I heave into the toilet. “There, there,” she murmurs. “Let it all out.”
When there’s nothing left in my stomach to purge, I collapse on the floor of the restroom. “I don’t have time to be sick,” I whine.
Dani hands me a wet paper towel. “Are you certain you’re sick?”
I point to the toilet. “Did you miss the part when I puked my guts out?”
“You were perfectly fine until you smelled the tuna.”
“Maybe the tuna was bad.”
“As if Mike would ever allow any food that isn’t fresh in one of his meetings.”
I stand and straighten my clothes. “What are you trying to say?”
She pours me a glass of water and hands it to me. I rinse my mouth with the water a few times before she responds.
“Could you be pregnant?”
“P-p-pregnant?” I sputter. “I can’t be pregnant. I would know if I was pregnant.”
She cocks an eyebrow. “You just threw up because of the smell of tuna.”
She’s right. Oh no. Am I pregnant? I can’t wait to have children. I’ve always wanted a family. Ever since… I cut off those thoughts. I have enough going on without digging through my pathetic past.
“I can’t be pregnant.”
“You haven’t had any sex at all in the past months?”
My body heats as I remember the only sex I’ve had in the past six months. Being with Jett was everything I ever imagined it would be and more. The way he touched me as if he cherished me. The way he took care of me afterwards.
Until he snuck out in the morning. My fantasies of him didn’t include him being a bastard.
I shove thoughts of Jett out of my mind. “I always make the man glove up.”
“Gloving up isn’t always enough,” Dani says. “Condoms can break or be expired.”
“Expired?”
“Condoms have expiration dates.”
Shit. Shit. Shit. How long were those condoms in my nightstand? I’m not in the habit of bringing men back to my apartment. In fact, I can’t remember the last time it happened before Jett. Was it years?
“I need to go home.”
I sprint toward the door but Dani shackles my wrist to stop me. “You need to calm down.”
I glare at her. She should know better than to tell a woman to calm down.
“You can’t go busting through the offices appearing stressed. The other PAs will latch onto your behavior as an excuse to try and steal your clients. They’re all gagging to rob you of Cash & the Sinners. ”
Damn. I nearly forgot this office is a den of vipers. I’m usually left out of it because I don’t engage in petty gossip but all the other women need is the slightest of excuses to attack me.
I inhale a deep breath and force my body to calm down. It doesn’t work. I’m in full freak out mode but at least I’m not running out of the bathroom screaming.
“Can you tell Mike I’ll be working from home for the rest of the day?”
She drops her hand. “Of course.” She leans close to whisper. “And let me know if there’s anything I can do.”
I hope I don’t need her help. I hope I’m freaking out for no reason.
While I drive home, I try to convince myself I’m overreacting. I’m not the overreacting type but maybe this one time is an exception. I mean come on. What are the chances I finally have sex with the man of my dreams and he impregnates me? This isn’t some cheesy dime store romance novel.
Despite being ninety-five percent certain I’m suffering from some twenty-four-hour stomach flu, I stop at my local pharmacy to buy a pregnancy test.
I blow out a breath as I study the rows and rows of pregnancy tests. They all claim to be the ‘best’ and the ‘most accurate’. Not all of them can be the best.
Normally, I’d thoroughly research my options, but I don’t think the owner of this store will appreciate me sitting down in the aisle for an hour to google the best pregnancy tests. I grab five tests instead. One of them has to be the most accurate.
The elderly cashier giggles when I set my purchases on the counter. “Oh dear, we’ve all been there.”
I can safely say I haven’t been here in my thirty-three years of living. I expected the first time I took a pregnancy test to be with a loving partner. Not freaking out about an accidental pregnancy.
“These are on the house,” she says as she stuffs a few candy bars into the bag with the tests.
I try to smile my thanks but I don’t think I manage when she pats my hand in sympathy.
I arrive home and dump my purchases and bag on the floor before racing to the bedroom. I rip open the nightstand drawer. The entire drawer flies out and clatters to the floor. The contents spill out and I dig through the scarves and hairbands for the box of condoms.
“Expiration date. Expiration date,” I mumble as I study the box.
“Fuck a rockstar,” I mutter as I fall to the floor. The condoms expired a year ago.
I guess I need those pregnancy tests after all. I shove to my feet and go in search of the bag I dropped somewhere when I arrived home.
I dump the contents on the vanity in my bathroom. I grab a candy bar and rip it open. I sniff but the smell doesn’t make me gag. Good.
I devour the bar as I line the pregnancy tests up. Once they are all properly prepared, I begin.
By the time I’ve taken all of the tests and am waiting for the results, I’ve finished two chocolate bars. I open the third and final one as I watch the clock tick down.
When the alarm sounds, I wipe my hands on my pants and inhale a deep breath. But when I go to check the results, my eyes snap closed.
Come on, Aurora. You’re not a chicken. You’ve faced down crowds pulsing with anger when a concert was cancelled. You can handle a little test.
“I am not afraid. I am not afraid,” I chant as I slowly open my eyes to peek at the tests.
Pregnant.
Pregnant.
Pregnant.
Pregnant.
Pregnant.
Elation fills me. I’m pregnant. I’m having a baby. I cradle my stomach. My dreams of having a family are finally coming true.
But then I remember.
I’ll be doing this alone. Jett doesn’t want children. He hates children.
Maybe I shouldn’t tell him. If he’s going to abandon the baby, anyway, maybe it’s better he doesn’t know.
I glance down at my stomach.
“Welp. It’s me and you against the world now, Little Bean.”