Page 26 of First Comes Orc, Second Comes Baby
She really, really, hadn’t meant to sleep with Brahnt last night.
Caro snatched up her headphones and put them on, lifting the lid of her laptop. “Fine. I’ve got a deadline and I don’t need to be dealing with your dating drama.” She gave Charlotte one last, withering look. “I’ve written this plot line too many times, and mostly the characters fuck it up until I intervene. Don’t make me intervene.”
“Gee, sis, you’re so loving. I’m overwhelmed with your concern.”
Caro was already dictating.
9
. . .SiX WeEkS LaTeR
“Damn it, Charlotte,”Caro said, staring at the positive pregnancy test. “How could you let this happen?”
Charlotte rested her elbows on her knees, trying to not panic and feel like shit, especially when she'd spent the last several days either on the toilet or above it—prompting her to take a pregnancy test, cause the timing of her symptoms made the flu seem laughcryably unlikely.
“You know I got off the shot years ago. It affects my weight.”
She couldn't take any type of birth control that affected her weight, which wasn’t even the worst side effect, and she'd cycled though all of them. Weight problems, skin problems, mood problems—none of them were issue free, and she always used condoms.
Always.
Until she hadn't.
“You didn't use fucking condoms?” her twin exclaimed. “What were you thinking? He's an Orc! As soon as you tell him, he's going to go berserk. They always do. Moody, possessive bastards.”
Charlotte swallowed. “I don't have to tell him yet. Caro, how am I going to afford a kid? Diapers, gear. . .I won’t able to work at some point, unless they let me do some kind of admin. How am I going to pay rent? I guess I can get Medicaid.” Charlotte gave her twin a weak smile—or tried. “Maybe we should try living together again.”
Which usually ended with them at each other’s throats. They’d never shared space well. Caro needed vast quantities of quality alone time and Charlotte was the opposite.
Add a kid in the mix?
Charlotte would have to hide anything weaponizable. And the Benadryl.
Caro put the pregnancy test down on the sink and stared at Charlotte. “Let me get this shit straight. You got knocked up during a one-night stand with a millionaire Orc whose sole purpose in signing up to the same matchmaking agency as you is to find a Human for a committed, monogamous relationship that leads to marriage, and you’re worried about money? Stop me if I'm getting anything wrong. I’m not, though.”
Charlotte grimaced.
“Why wouldn't you tell him? You said you liked him. That you hit it off.”
Charlotte had said that. She'd also said something noncommittal about why she hadn't seen Brahnt again. Because it seemed stupid to have commitment phobe issues after plunking down $3000—to find a commitment.
Her therapist was going to have a field day with her this week. A stadium sized field day.
“I’m pissed about the timing because it’s too early, but Orcs don’t abandon their young,” Caro continued. “There’s no reason for you to be afraid of his reaction, or to consider being a single parent.”
“I just, I need someone who's emotionally available,” she began, knowing how weak her voice sounded.
“You knew him for one whole day, Charlotte. How can you say he's not emotionally available? You didn't give him a chance. You ran away.”
“I wasn't sure. It was overwhelming and I needed time away to make sure it wasn't the pheromones clouding my judgment. That the whole marriage and kids thing wasn’t lovebombing.”
“Then agree to a long engagement. You don’t have to get married now, you can wait one to two years.”
“You know how I am, my track record with bad relationships.”
“I know. And I would back you up on your squirrely shit 1000%, except the agency has an impeccable reputation for vetting all their clients. Criminal check, psychological check, past relationship check, health check, everything.”
“There's no saying that some type of user or abuser can’t slip through the cracks.”
