Page 75 of Trustfall

“Well, I wouldn’t want to leave a nice woman like you stranded. I don’t think my girlfriend will mind. Hop in,” he says with a wink.

I giggle and jump to my feet, swinging open the passenger side door and climbing inside.

“For the record,” I say in my regular voice. “Your girlfriend would mind. You ever give a random girl a ride, and I’ll sic Allie on you.”

“Noted.” He presses on the gas and shifts the wheel with one hand, while he turns up the radio with the other.Mess is Mineby Vance Joy pours out of the speakers.

“I love this song,” I say, turning the volume up even higher.

He smiles. “Yeah. Me too.”

“I have something to ask you,” I say nervously. I only just decided this yesterday, and I’ve been working up the courage to talk to him about it.

“Yes,” he says with certainty.

“What? I haven’t even asked yet. What if I were asking you to get a life-size tattoo of my face on your back?”

“Then I stick with my original answer. Yes,” he deadpans.

“You’re ridiculous,” I laugh. “Just hear me out first. So, my dad hosts a fundraiser at his house at the start of the summer. It’s for blood clot research and awareness. I don’t know if Nate ever mentioned this, but that’s how our mom died. Pulmonary Embolism. It wasn’t caught in time. Anyway, it’s this fancy gala with dinner, champagne, suits, gowns, et cetera. I know it’s not your scene. It’s not mine either, but the cause means a lot to me and?—”

“Yes,” he interrupts me. “As I said earlier…yes.” I breathe a sigh of relief, but I’m not sure that he’s calculated exactly what I’m asking.

“Nate will be there,” I remind him. “My dad too. This would be…going public.”

“Yeah.”

“And you’re okay with that?”

“We can’t hide forever, Em. And I like that there will be lots of witnesses. It means Nate won’t kill me. Right away…”

“Yeah, that’s what I thought too. At first, I thought we should tell him in private before the event, but fuck him. He’s the one who’s making us sneak around. We can tell him on our terms.”

“Fuck yes,” Luke yells. “We’ll show him he has no control over who warms his sister’s bed anymore.”

“Okay, let’s not say that. Ever again.”

Luke laughs, but worry etches across his forehead.

“Hey, baby?”

“Yeah?”

“Is that why you didn’t take birth control pills before? Because of the pulmonary embolism thing?”

“Yes,” I answer honestly. “I was on birth control in college for a while, but when I started to learn more about blood clots in my classes, I stopped taking it. Just in case. It can be genetic. Anyway, after college, it didn’t matter because I wasn’t—well, you know…active. How did you know birth control was a risk for blood clots?”

“Bartender, remember?”

“Sounds like a weird topic of conversation for a bar,” I muse.

“You don’t even want to know the things I’ve heard,” he shudders. “But…you started taking them again.”

“Yeah, I know more now. There are other contraceptives that don’t carry the same risk. Mostly implants and IUDs—but there’s a pill that is lower risk. That’s what I started a couple of weeks ago.”

He looks relieved, but it’s short-lived. “Emory, I would never want you to do something for me that you’re uncomfortable with. Or that puts you in any kind of danger. We can use condoms.”

“I know.” And I do. I know Luke is not Jaxon. Jaxon used to piss and moan about condoms after I decided to stop taking the pill. He did it anyway, even though he was the one who pushed me to start taking it in the first place. I guess he wanted a baby like he wanted a hole in the head. Of course, he could have left me high and dry if I got pregnant. He ended up doing that anyway. He didn’t care at that point. Sex with me was no longer about pleasure for him. It was just another way to control me. He liked that I made him wear condoms because it was one more thing he could hold over my head.If I can’t fuck you the way I want, I’ll find someone else.

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