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Quitting the gym seemed so final, but I couldn’t commit to my future if I stayed. Luna had done her workout while I quit in case I needed her support, but Lux had been totally chill about me leaving, even offering to have me back as an assistant manager if I wanted to return. I wasn’t excited about a future at the gym, but it was nice to have the option.
“Do you want to get some food?” Luna asked after I left at the end of my shift.
“I could eat.”
We ended up across from each other at a little taco restaurant. “I wanted to ask you about something,” Luna said after she finished the first taco on her plate. “Totally feel free to say no, but I figured it was better to figure out too early than too late.”
“What do you think I’m going to say no to?”
“I know it’s still several weeks away, but my heat is due mid-April. Do you want to be a part of it, and if yes, in what capacity?”
I swallowed down the rush of warmth at her question. “Of course I want to be part of your heat. What are my choices for capacity?”
“Well, you’re a beta, so I wasn’t sure how comfortable you would be trying to tackle it yourself. My heats aren’t that bad overall, but we could always get a heat helper or a friend to assist if you were worried about handling it.”
I turned the information over in my head. “I’m never been part of a heat before, so I’m not super sure what to expect.”
“That’s why I wanted to ask early. Whatever you end up deciding, we still have time to get everything arranged.”
Could I actually handle a heat on my own? I had no idea what Luna was comparing her heats to to say they weren’t that bad. I knew the basics about heats in general, but I had never learned about them in the context of participating in one. I worked my way through one of my tacos while I considered. Sidney would be a valuable resource, but maybe it wouldn’t be accurate information coming from an alpha who was designed to tackle the heat.
“Your brain looks like it’s about to start smoking,” Luna said teasingly.
“It’s a lot to consider. I want to be able to handle your heat myself, but I don’t want to risk you getting hurt if it’s hubris thinking I could.”
“Maybe you would be okay for it with your random alpha traits popping in and out.”
The idea lit up like a lightbulb in my head. “Actually, I should talk to the doctors doing the study about that. I didn’t pay as much attention to all the things they were studying, but I think they said something about alpha synthetics they were trying to develop. I’ll ask and let you know if they have any advice.”
“Sure, that works. All of my heats have been with club patrons, so I’m not sure what might help you.”
I emailed my contact for the study while we ate, eager to get us both answers. “I would bet that anything they could give me is still in clinical trials, and I don’t know what they would require.”
“What do you mean?” Luna quirked her head, examining me.
“Like if they would need to monitor during the heat or something like that.”
She shrugged. “I mean, I get watched on stage all the time. I don’t imagine I would have any issue being medically monitored during a heat. But we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it.”
“That’s totally fair.”
“Did Stella talk to you yet?” Luna asked.
“Nope, she didn’t. What would she talk to me about?”
Luna sighed, picking up her phone and tapping away. “I knew she would chicken out. Her basement suite is all ready to rock and be rented out, but she keeps pussyfooting about it.”
“You’d be okay with me living in your sister’s basement?”
“Sure. I think she would feel a lot safer with you living there, and it would help her make ends meet. Plus you would get to move out. Sounds like a win-win to me.”
It did sound like a win-win. All it meant was confronting Mom and the empty nest I would leave her with. That wasn’t a conversation I was eager to have, but I couldn’t deny the appeal of moving out to a place that wouldn’t be such a dramatic shift. I could still do all of my neighborhood projects from there, I would probably get to see Luna more since she was visiting her sister and nieces, and I could build up some sorely needed independence.
“Stella messaged back. I told her I ran into you and asked you if you were interested in renting. Sometimes you gotta light a fire under her butt. Would you be willing to meet up with her tonight and chat about some of the details?”
I pushed down the panic of it happening so quickly. It wasn’t even that quick. I’d been wanting to move out forever, but now I was faced with a new job and potentially a new home in the same evening.
“I can discuss it with her. There’s no pressure on her letting me rent it, though. I want her to have someone she feels comfortable with.”
