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They had agreed that this week would be just for fun, and yet she acted like his decision would ruin everything. She was leaving the day after tomorrow. He doubted they would ever see each other again.
“Why does this feel like it’s going to ruin our remaining time?” Trevor said. “You must know this changes everything between you and me as well.”
“I know,” Luis said standing. “I’m going to see my family.”
Trevor nodded. “I’ll call my mother and check on her. See what my little brother has done now. I’ll be out in the lab if you need me. And leave Stacy alone. I think she needs some time to think about why she cares what you do. We agreed to no promises. But I think we’re all finding that really hard right now. At least, I am.”
It was true, they had all said this would be a week of pleasure and sex, and now he worried about her opinion. He wanted more than just this week. But if she wanted a family, she would drop him like a hot rock.
An hour later, he sat in front of his mother at the kitchen table, a cup of coffee in front of him.
“It’s kind of odd to see you here during the week. Is everything all right?”
“Everything’s fine,” he said knowing it wasn’t.
“Your father and I really like Stacy. And you and Trevor would make the perfect husbands for that girl.”
He nodded and sighed. But Stacy would not want him if he got a vasectomy.
“Mom, you know I have PTSD,” he said.
“Yes,” she replied. “But you’re seeing that military doctor, aren’t you?”
“Yes,” he said but it had been over two months since he’d seen him. It was never a pleasant experience to sit there and relive the events that bothered him. Especially, the one where John died. All it did was upset him.
“What’s going on, Luis,” she said gazing at him. “Is it Stacy?”
That was the problem. It was Stacy and yet it wasn’t her fault.
“She’s leaving on Saturday,” he said. “I don’t know if we’ll ever see her again.”
She nodded. “Do you want to see her again?”
Did he? Of course, he did. Maybe that was what was bugging him. She was leaving and he didn’t want her to go. And yet he kept trying to push her away because he didn’t want to get too close to her.
“You know, son, since you’ve come home from the service, you never let people get close to you. It must be terribly frustrating to a woman. Especially one who doesn’t understand our ways. Your job is to show her how the men in our community look after and care for the women here.”
As far as he was concerned, he’d done all that. He’d been protective of her, at least he thought he had. When they were having sex, everything between them was fine. But the last two days, he’d noticed that it felt like something more, and that scared him.
“If I let people get close to me, they’ll see the scars left from the war. Yesterday, I had an episode before we came to your party.”
“And how did Stacy handle it,” she asked.
That was the problem. She’d handled it very well. So well, that he could see himself confiding in her. He could see himself relaxing with her and letting his guard down. He could see her convincing him that they should have a family.
“She was excellent,” he said. “She was comforting. She and Trevor brought me back from the battle where John died. But, Mom, no one should ever have to do that. No one. I can’t depend on Trevor and Stacy to always be there when I go nuts.”
“You do not go nuts,” she said. “You just return back to the battles that affected you the most. The ones that hurt so badly when you lost someone you cared about. And if you don’t trust Trevor and Stacy, you could lose them as well.”
She was right. He could already see that Trevor was questioning everything since he didn’t want to marry and settle down with a wife and create a family. And Stacy…she wouldn’t accept him if he didn’t want children. She just wouldn’t.
“Mom, I did something really stupid this morning,” he said. “Really stupid.”
A frown spread across her face. “What? I’m sure it can be corrected.”
“I’m not so certain. Last night, the condom broke and I was scared that I had impregnated Stacy.”
His mother giggled. “I couldn’t be happier.”
