Page 107 of Love It or List It
They stepped into the room and continued the confusing body language by pulling their sleeves over their hands and then smiling.“Uh.I got my period.”
It took a second for the importance of that comment to land.“Wait.”Austin jerked up, pushing his head and shoulders off the bed.Behind him, Joe grunted.“Really?”
“Yes.”
“Awesome,” he breathed.“Uh, not that I’m not thrilled, but this couldn’t wait until… not 6:02 a.m.?”
“I don’t have any supplies.”They grimaced, embarrassed.“Don’t suppose you have some extra?”
“Uh.”Austin did not.But… well, Joe had hair ties in his car.“Did you check the bathroom cupboards?”
Alex nodded.
Austin was loathe to do it, but he couldn’t leave Alex waiting.
“Joe,” he said softly, and stroked his hair.Joe grunted.“Joe, wake up for me.”
“Ungh.Wha—?”
“Pads or tampons.Do you have any?”
“You bleeding?”
Alex snorted, and Austin smiled.Clearly Joe wasn’t awake yet.“No, but Alex is.”
Joe’s eyes fluttered open and he looked at Austin, then Alex.“What?”
“I got my period.Like, off schedule.So….”
“Oh.”Joe flailed with the duvet and tried to sit up.
Austin put a hand on his chest.It was laughably easy to keep him lying down.“Just tell us where to find them.”
“Right.”He rubbed his eyes and stretched as though that might help him remember.“Uh… bathroom, basket on the shelf over the toilet.And I think the rest of the boxes are in the linen closet.”
“’Kay, thanks.I’ll go look.”Alex slipped away.
Joe turned his increasingly wakeful gaze on Austin.“Why is Alex so happy about getting their period off-schedule after six and a half years?”
“Uh, well.”Shit.Alex had flown the coop, and now Austin had to explain.That didn’t seem fair.“There was some… concern… that they might not get it for a few months.”
“For a few….”Joe inhaled sharply and swung his legs out of bed.“That little—”
Austin scrambled and got an arm around his waist.“Give your brain a minute to catch up before you go wringing Gavin’s neck, okay?”
“Gavin?”Joe whisper-screeched.His sickly pale skin had gone blotchy red.“I was going after Alex for not telling me.Are you sayingGavin—” He took a handful of loud breaths.Austin didn’t think it was the remnants of pneumonia.“I’ve told them about condomsso many times.”
“Yes, and they used them, but condoms are not infallible.”Austin brightened.“Although hey, in this case, they were not defeated, so.Congratulations on your successful sex ed lectures.”
“I’m too young to be a grandfather,” Joe said unhappily, finally relaxing back into his pillow.
Austin patted his shoulder.“Fortunately you’re not going to be one, so you can relax.”
But while the stress and adrenaline might’ve leeched out of him, the unhappiness persisted.“Why didn’t they come to me?”
Austin curled his body toward Joe’s and tugged him closer.“While you were out of town or while you were dying of plague?”
“Yes,” Joe said mulishly.
