Page 107 of Drama Queen

I open the door, grab our massive order, thank the driver, and lay everything out. Zeke managed to tick the boxes with this one. We’ve got all meat, all veggie, hawaiian, and what looks like a chicken alfredo pizza. We also have regular breadsticks and cheesy breadsticks. I grab a couple of cheesy breadsticks and a piece of Hawaiian and the chicken one. We settle back in and Flynn raises his eyebrow at me.

“You got the pizza with pineapple on it?” he asks.

“Yeah, why?”

“You hate pineapple.”

“No I don’t.”

“Yes you do. The last time we ordered it for Dan you were complaining about how gross the combo of sweet and salty is and how something as healthy as fruit shouldn’t be allowed on pizza.”

I sniff. “Maybe I’m widening my horizons. You should try it.”

Flynn laughs and shakes his head at me, giving me another odd look before turning back to the movie. The next thing I know, I’m being gently jostled awake by someone’s hand on my shoulder. I sit up suddenly, confused about what’s going on.

“Wha?”

“Hey, it’s okay. You just crashed during the movie. You never sleep during movies,” Zeke says softly.

I stretch and groan.

Must be more tired than I realized. Zeke’s right, I never fall asleep during movies.

“I’ve been doing a lot of extra work. Apparently it’s catching up to me.” I tell him.

He reaches over and brushes a piece of hair out of my face. “I’ve missed you, love. Promise you won’t hide for so long again?”

“I’ll try.” I smile.

Zeke leaves me a chaste kiss on the forehead before getting up off the couch. The guys have packed up all the pizza and there’s a box of leftovers being slid into my fridge while they take the rest. Once they all have shoes on, they all stand at my door, waiting to say goodbye like a mini line of VonTrapp children. I stand and stretch one more time before giving hugs and saying goodnight.

“Thanks guys, I needed this,” I tell them.

“Any time, sweet girl,” Dan says.

Once I close the door, my mind begins to spin.

Tired. Nauseous. Weird food.

Fuck. I can’t be, right?

There’s no way. I take my birth control religiously. I’m sure it’s fine. Just to be extra sure, I put in a delivery order from the local pharmacy and it’s at my door just an hour later. I thank the driver and crawl into bed. From what I read while waiting for delivery, the morning will give me the best results. I drop off to sleep as I try to calculate the last time I had my period in my head.

The morning wakes me with sunshine streaming in my window. I slept great last night. Seeing the guys must have relaxed me more than I realized. As I lay there, I rethink everything from last night. I decide I’m overreacting. I’ve been working a ton of hours, my eating has been sporadic as a result, and I’ve honestly never tried the pineapple on pizza, so it was time to see what the fuss was about. It’s nothing.

When I walk into the bathroom, the box is sitting on my counter, all but taunting me, and I decide to open it.

I have to pee anyway, right?

May as well be sure, even though I know it’s going to be negative. Don’t want to be wasteful. Once I’ve finished, I set the test face down on the counter and throw on some lounge clothes for the day. It’s gonna be a lazy one. I clearly have beenpushing myself too hard. Once I’m freshly dressed and I’ve got dry shampoo in my hair, I check the time.

I think it’s been long enough. Why am I suddenly nervous? I know it’s going to be negative. In an effort to find my Zen, I take a deep breath, hold it, then release slowly. I repeat a few times to calm my nerves and decide to just own up. Let’s do this. I flip the stick over and check.

“Well, fuck.”

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