Page 24 of Please Save Me

Every muscle in my body tensed. We were finally talking for the first time in weeks, and now she wanted to end things. No… Mason knew better. I told her I loved her, which meant she wasnevergetting rid of me.

“Like…break up?” I asked cautiously, still needing to clarify.

Her grasp on English had loosened just a hair as her pregnancy progressed. It wasn’t like she was no longer fluent; she’d just forgotten certain phrases and slang.

“What? No. Why would you think that?” She crossed her arms under her breasts. They pushed against the red flannel, causing the buttons to gap slightly. That’s when it sunk in: Mason was no longer wearingmyshirt. But I recognized the pattern.

My jaw clenched as I thought about just how badly I wanted to hurt Cameron. Mason wasn’thisto dress. It was one thing to help her stay clothed while Mason and I weren’t on speaking terms. This was a whole different level of disrespect. I took a deep breath as I pushed those thoughts away. Cameron was a topic for later. Mason was the main priority right now.

“You know what–never mind.” Still, that sentence came off far more irritated than than I intended.

Mason’s eyes widened like she was daring me to do it again.

“Sorry.” I breathed, looking up and raking a hand through my hair.

Her feet softly padded on the floor as she drew near. When I looked back down, Mason was right next to me, her hand resting on the kitchen counter. For the first time in the last two weeks, she was completely relaxed in my presence, allowing me to fully absorb her beauty.

I reached forward and swept a fallen eyelash from her cheek. Prior to pregnancy, Mason’s face had been thin, and her high cheekbones directly contrasted with how soft the rest of her features were. I wasn’t sure if it was the fact Mason had put on a fair amount of weight since moving to America or just a side effect of pregnancy itself, but her face had gotten rounder, which made Mason look a hell of a lot younger. I had yet to determine if that was a good thing or not.

“You seem stressed.” She commented.

I tried to laugh her off, but the sound came out weak and watery. Mason tipped her head as she continued to study me. Her mismatched eyes were always beautiful, but right now, they were unnerving.

“I uh, yeah. Fighting with you has me kind of out of sorts.” I admitted.

Her browfurrowed slightly, “You aren’t stressed about last night?”

“Why would I be?”

Without a beat of hesitation, Mason planted my hand on her stomach.

Oh yeah, that.

“Modern medicine is amazing,” I assured her. “If Lavender came early, we’d figure it out.”

Mason’s shoulders tensed at our daughter’s name. I knew she didn’t likeLavender, but the name was important to me, and she knew that. For a moment, I feared she’d argue with me about it again. Honestly, if she’d actually wanted to change the name, as long as she talked to me about it, I’d be fine… maybe. I just wanted to be a part of the process, it helped solidify that Masonwantedme.

After a moment, she nodded. However, her gaze seemed heavy, like Mason couldn’t lift it off the counter.

“I dated Alex for years, but he was a little… different. So having disagreements like this is new.” I tried to explain, but I realized I had never really discussed Alex with her.

Mason had gone through her laundry list of exes and explained how each of them traumatized her in different ways, even if she didn’t call it that.

“How long were you together?”

I tensed a little bit as I scratched my head. I settled for Alex when I was seventeen, and he was almost thirty. He had been nice to me every day I stopped in for coffee, and that wasn’t something I was used to.

Outside of Mason, people had never been nice to me.

I was a man of the law, and I knew my relationship with Alex was borderline illegal. But, I thought since it wasn’t sexual until I turned eighteen, it was fine. It wasn’t until I started dating Mason that I realized Alex had groomed me. The fact that I didn’t recognize his manipulation was mortifying.

“Eh, a few years.” Seemed like the best way to get my point across without telling her I wasn’t an adult when it started.

“And you guys didn’t fight?”

I pressed my lips into a thin line as I turned away from her. “Not really. He just kind of gave me whatever I wanted, and that was that… can wenottalk about this?”

Even now, a slimy feeling crept down my spine when I thought about Alex. He was an attractive man, but appearances didn’t make up for being a predator.

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