AllFreeNovel
Share Us
The minutes turn to hours while we talk, planning out a future we both dream of, but fear will never exist.
Alden excuses himself to go to the bathroom, and I scoop up my phone to see what fresh new hell awaits me online. I’m lying on the bed, scrolling through social media when he returns. He crawls up beside me. “What are you looking at?”
“Just trying to judge what level of whore I am now. Last I checked, it was scandalous, but I may have been upgraded to dirty.” I turn the phone around to show him the meme someone has made. They’ve taken the photo of him with his arm around me and added a random baby at the bottom. The text above the baby’s head reads, “That’s just my uncle daddy.”
“Creative but lacking. I give it three stars.”
“I shouldn’t have gone on that stupid morning show.”
“Hey.” He lays his finger on my chin and turns my head to face him. “That was brave as hell. You told the truth when you knew it would be ridiculed. You did it for me. For us. I’ll never forget that.” His lips press to mine for a brief kiss, then he takes the phone from my hand. “Don’t let these idiots get to you.”
“It’s hard not to. They all hate me. More than they do you, I think. You might be a victim in all of this. They think I’m a disloyal slut either way.”
“Sweetheart, you have to consider the source.” His arm loops around my shoulders, pulling me close until my head is on his pillow. “Let’s look at these keyboard warriors.”
He chooses a rude comment and clicks on their profile to see the middle-aged woman’s picture. “Look at Rebecca. She has her high school listed as School of Life which is code for ‘I didn’t graduate and failed the GED test twice.’” A smile inches across my face as he goes back and clicks on another profile from the comments.
“And Daniel, you can’t listen to him. He’s clearly mad about his severe aesthetic deficiency.”
“Den,” I chuckle.
“No, but seriously, tell me he doesn’t look like the type of guy who does finger guns when he’s dancing.”
Giggles spill out of me as he clicks on another comment. This one is from a young woman calling for us both to be “buried under the jail.”
He scoffs and shows me. “Out here judging others when her face screams listless hand job. I don’t understand it.”
“Okay, I get it.” Tears of laughter are building in my eyes.
He clicks to see a man’s profile who has written that we’ll both burn in hell for what we’ve done. “Fine, I’ll stop, but if you ever come into contact with Kyle, guard your IUD. He looks like he steals copper.”
That’s one thing about Alden that hasn’t changed. He can always make me feel better, often by making me laugh. “I don’t have an IUD but I’ll keep that in mind.”
“There are some people trying to help,” he points out. “This one is asking if they can track what strain of flu shots I might’ve had. She isn’t far off. The forensic biologist asked if Oliver or I had been vaccinated against or infected with something the other hadn’t. The medical records rained on that idea. We both had all the typical shots and diseases.”
“Where’s a good case of Ebola when you need it?” I quip, taking the phone and setting it on my nightstand.
He runs his hand through my hair. “I have to go soon. Before the sun comes up.”
“Like a vampire,” I murmur, trying to tamp down the despair and the fear I may not see him again.
“I’d be one of those sexy vampires, not the old crusty ones that turn into a bat.”
“You’re ridiculous.” He grins at me while I play with his fingers. A sudden memory strikes me, and I jerk to sit upright. “Rabies!”
“What?”
“You had rabies! I mean, not the disease, but you were vaxxed and had the prophylactic treatment for rabies after you were bitten by a bat!”
His eyes are wide when he sits up. “I don’t think that was mentioned in the medical records.”
“It was done at the Clearview Community Hospital, in their emergency room, and they referred you to their outpatient clinic for the follow up. It wouldn’t have been on your family doctor’s records. But you’ll have the antibodies! They can test your blood.”
I can see the wheels spinning behind his eyes. “We’d have to prove Oliver didn’t have the same thing,” he mumbles. “I need to talk to Lowell.”
Panic seizes me when he leaps out of bed and starts getting dressed. “Don’t leave! Contact him from here. He doesn’t have to know where you are.”
“I’m not going to put you at risk.”
