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Then she stood in a swirl of black and slipped into her coat. “Let’s go, Ken.”
Kennedy offered Laney some parting words, but I wasn’t listening, too busy watching Taylor as she paid her bill at the bar. I vaguely waved at her sister, my attention still diverted to Taylor, strutting out of Walt’s like she owned the place.
When I finally turned back to Laney and Ethan, they were both staring at me.
“What?”
“Nothing.” Ethan shook his head, while Laney threw her head back, laughing.
I pushed away from the table. “I actually do have to go to the bathroom.”
“No picking up any strange women,” Ethan warned.
“You seem to have me confused with my twin.”
“Don’t pretend you aren’t glad,” Laney shouted to my back. “We can read each other’s minds, remember?”
And thank god she couldn’t. I didn’t want anyone to know what I was thinking about. Could barely admit it to myself.
That I’d need to go home and fuck my hand, and it was all Taylor Novak’s fault.
CHAPTERNINE
Taylor
I stared into my cup, the coffee long gone cold. My sister had dragged me out to that bar last night in hopes of shaking some life back into me, telling me I needed to loosen up, rid the tension. Little did she know, that last time I’d tried that, I’d gotten pregnant.
I rubbed my fingers over my forehead, willing my breathing to slow down, counting down the minutes until I could leave work and head to the clinic and be done with this nightmare. When my period hadn’t shown up, I’d immediately taken a test, already knowing what it would show.
I hadn’t felt right, and even though I was on the pill, I’d forgotten one day. One goddamn day, too worked up over my argument with Dean at the Christmas party to take it at the usual time. Then Ace had happened, and when I’d finally realized the next day, I had immediately swallowed down the one I’d missed plus the usual day, like the directions instructed. I didn’t get Plan B because Ace had used a condom. Or, at least, I thought he had.
He’d been weird about it, and even though I’d insisted, I guess I should have been more careful. More thoughtful about who I was going home with.
Consequently, I was now the one in one hundred women who got pregnant after failing to take one of her birth control pills. I was a fucking statistic.
Shame washed over me. Again.
It had been trailing me every day since the afternoon I had peed on the stick. After Douchebag McGee had told me I looked tired in the parking lot of Perkins.
I hadn’t been able to sleep or eat much, too nauseated from humiliation. It was a mistake. I shouldn’t have been so hard on myself. At least, that was what my therapist had said. But I couldn’t help it.
I didn’t screw up like this. I was the reliable, responsible one. I didn’t forget to take my pill. I didn’t go home with men I didn’t vet.
I didn’t…
Closing my eyes, I reminded myself that this was a fluke. One easily remedied.
As soon as the test had turned up positive, I had made an appointment and attended the required “counseling.” All I had left to do was to go in today to get the pills, and it would be done.
“Hey, you asleep on the job?”
I snapped my head up to find Dean leaning against my desk. I batted his hand away from where he attempted to straighten my pens and highlighters. “Don’t you have somewhere to be? Some puppies to kick?”
“Well, you’re over here looking pretty down, so I thought I’d come kick you.” He tapped my foot with his, and I angled my chair away from him.
“Go be somewhere else. I have a lot of work to do.”
He placed his palm flat on my desk, nudging my planner and pen into perfect parallel lines, and opened his mouth. I stopped him before he could utter one syllable.
