Page 84 of Together

“You know I’m not sharing my nuggets.”

“You know I’m not sharing my mac and cheese, either. So get an extra order of each of ‘em. And the waffle fries, too. We’ll eat it. Ain’t worried about it going to waste.”

“Grace and Samuel think I’m fat.” I have no idea why I blurt that out. Maybe it’s because we’re talking about all this fast food I’m about to inhale when I get to his house.

“Then we’ll send them a picture of your rockin’ fucking body and prove them wrong. They’re both assholes. Want me to go beat the shit outta Sammy boy?”

A giggle bursts out of me and a tear slips down my cheek as I wait in line at the best chicken fast food place on the planet. “Not that I don’t think you could, because obviously he’s no match for you, but Grace would probably do her lawyer thing and he’d tell the police about it and claim you assaulted him. It’d become a whole big thing and I’m not really up for it right now.”

“If you change your mind, you let me know.”

Even though he’s not an aggressive person by nature, I have no doubt that he wouldn’t follow through and go to battle on my behalf.

“I’ll do that.”

I pull ahead in line and place our order, two of everything because we’re a couple of monsters when it comes to eating. But spending the night on Nik’s couch pigging out over chicken nuggets and waffle fries sounds like the perfect way to end this shit-tastic day.

“Okay, I’m back. It’s busy tonight.”

“It always is,” he reminds me. “Best chicken on the planet, right?”

“Fucking right, it is,” I say, causing him to burst out laughing.

“Oh, man, Grace must have really pissed you off tonight if you’re pulling out the fucks.”

“She really did.”

“Can you give me a hint?”

“Hang on. I’m getting the food.”

He waits on the other end as the lovely lady who holds my bag of deliciousness takes my card. After our meal is safe and sound on the front passenger seat, I drive out of the parking lot, heading toward Nik’s.

“I’m a little afraid of telling you what happened because I know for a fact that you’re going to freak out so I need you to promise me that you won’t do that first. I feel like there’s something going on with Grace for her to say what she said, but I can’t be sure.”

“You’re not selling this very well, baby.”

“I know, I know.” I stop at the stoplight and wait. “Okay, so you know how she and Samuel have been trying to get pregnant?”

“Yeah? Let me guess. She’s mad at you that you got pregnant first.”

“No. Well, maybe? Kind of? I don’t know for sure. But they decided on adoption.”

“Oh.” He pauses, thinking. “That’s not so bad, right?”

“Them adopting? No. Whose baby they want to adopt? Yes.”

“Care to elaborate on that?”

“They want to adopt our baby.”

“What the fuck!” he shouts. “Are you fucking kidding me? Is she insane? She’s gotta be, right? That had to be a sick joke.” I couldn’t agree more with that.

The light turns green and I take off once again.

“Oh, she’s definitely… oh shit!” Out of the corner of my eye I see an incredibly large SUV careening toward me at a high rate of speed. The vehicle hits me in the passenger side with such force, my head hits my driver’s side window and I skid across the intersection, smashing into an oncoming truck. Glass shatters on impact all around me and the sound of metal crunching and tires squealing rings in my ears.

In the distance, I hear Nik frantically calling my name.

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