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Luke: Is someone supposed to be here? Don’t you usually get here first on Thursdays?
Luke: I’m worried about you.
Luke: Are you okay?
Chapter 18
Allie
Some surprises are better than others. Be prepared for all kinds today. -Allie’s Horoscope, May 9th
Knock! Knock!
What the fuck?My body hurts. All I want to do is sleep.
Knock! Knock! Knock!
Who knocks on a door anymore?Rude.
Knock! Knock!
“Allie, are you okay?” A booming voice calls, barely muffled by the distance between my bed and the front door. It sounds familiar. A little too familiar.Why is he here?
The awful noise continues as I force myself out of bed and painfully move toward the front door. My cramps are so intense, I’m practically limping.
Looking through the peephole confirms what I suspected. Luke is the motherfucker who forced me out of bed. Betty whines and wags her tail, probably smelling that I’m close.
“Allie?” he yells again, not catching Betty’s cues.
Reaching for the brass doorknob, I catch my reflection in the entryway’s full-length mirror. My hair is loose around my shoulders, kinked from yesterday’s ponytail. The gigantic t-shirt I’m wearing that readsDeath Before Decafis barely long enough to cover the biggest, comfiest granny panties I own.No notes.
Luke’s broad chest rises and falls with a full body sigh of relief when his wild eyes land on me. Then his jaw clenches under a freshly trimmed beard and he tenses up again. “You don’t keep your door locked?”
“Can you fucking not?” I roll my eyes at him, exasperated already. “What are you doing here? The last thing I need right now is to be dragged out of bed. For fuck’s sake, you have my number. Text me if you need something. This is the most—”
He cuts me off, running a hand through mussed black hair. “You’re not answering your phone, sweetheart. I texted, and I called.”
“So what? Calm your tits. Jesus. I don’t have to answer my phone. You don’t have to come banging on my door at,” I reach for my phone to check the time, but realize I left it in bed, “whatever the fuck time it is.”
“Allie, I was worried,” Luke says, the tension around his eyes corroborating his assertion.
“Just come in. It’s hot out there.”
As I’m shutting the door behind him and Betty, another wave of angry cramps tightens around my uterus. I can’t suppress the pained whimper that passes through my lips as I collapse at the waist, pressing a hand against my stomach.
“What the fuck, Allie?” Luke crosses to me in an instant, wrapping an arm around my waist and supporting my weight as I lean bodily against him. “What is going on?” he asks, angling his face, so his concerned espresso-colored eyes meet mine.
“It’s literallyjust cramps.”
“Just cramps? This isn’tjustanything. You need to lie down. Let me help you.”
“I was lying down beforesomeonecame banging on my door for no reason.”
Letting me lean on him, Luke guides me over to the blue sectional and holds my hand, steadying me while I lie down. He grabs two patterned throw pillows from the other end of the couch and tucks one under my knees and the other behind my head. Betty sits on the ground next to me, settling her sweet face onto the cushion next to my head.
“Shit, Allie.” Sitting on the walnut coffee table next to me, Luke leans forward, bracing his forearms on his knees. “I’m sorry. There’s no one atTurbine. It was an hour and a half after you were supposed to open.” Squeezing his eyes together, he runs his fingers through his messier than usual hair. He continues, voice quieter than before, “You weren’t there.Turbine’s never closed in the morning. I was afraid something had happened to you.”
“My uterus happened to me.”
