Page 55 of Single Omega Dad
I frowned.
“You never cared before,” Trigg said. “So it wasn’t a big deal. Now something has changed. And, well, I’m going to make an appointment with my doctor for you right now.” He pulled out his phone and tapped several times.
“There. Done,” he said. “3 p.m. I’ll come by the bank and drive you.”
“I can drive myself.”
“You know what, dude? I’m coming with you. You can use some support. You don’t have to do everything alone. You’ve been an ass for so long, right? Just stop. Stop.”
I should have been offended. But he spoke the truth. It wasn’t something I didn’t already know about myself. I didn’t care what he thought. I couldn’t. But Trigg was a good guy. Always there for me even when I was a total buffoon. I appreciated it. He easily could have stopped speaking to me. Like Kris. Or rather, I cut off Kris, but same thing, basically.
“So it’s settled. I’m driving you,” Trigg stated.
I had stopped eating. Now I pushed my plate away. But finally, Trigg began to dig into his meal. As he ate, he peppered me with questions about who I’d met.
I grumbled. I grunted. I drank more wine.
By the end of lunch Trigg had excised from me Saber’s name and that we had already spent one glorious night together. He was ecstatic. My brother. My litter-mate. The only true friend I had ever had through no fault of my own.
It was embarrassing. It was a huge relief. It was the weirdest lunch I’d ever had.
*
I couldn’t stop thinking about Saber, about our night together.
Trigg picked me up for my three o’clock appointment right on time. Every step of the way I kept telling myself I would turn away. Leave. Not bother with a doctor or anyone else, and stay away from Saber and resume my life.
But things moved forward not of my own volition. Trigg got a parking space close to the office entrance. He came up alongside me, talking about some drafting project I had no ability to understand. And before I knew it I was inside, signing my name, filling out forms, showing my insurance card.
It took five minutes.
When I came out, Trigg had a huge smile on his face. “All done? Painless?”
I blinked as if waking from a dream. “He just needed a blood test. Said it would tell him what he needed to know and if I have to have more tests after that, they’ll schedule them.”
“And?”
“For now, I have a prescription. Simple hormones. I take one a day. I stop if I start to grow hair on my palms.”
Trigg laughed. “Excellent. You’re going to wonder why you didn’t do this sooner.”
“You know why,” I said.
The smile dropped from his face and he took a deep breath. “Yeah.”
Father had made sure all of us grew up with anxiety about doctors. Maybe he hadn’t done it on purpose, but all the same, not a one of his sons liked them.
In the car, Trigg seemed to be his normal self. But I was not. I felt stupid, annoyed and grateful all at the same time. I turned to look at Trigg, who even at thirty still had the air of a boy about him, smiling, open, and innocent.
“Thank you.”
Trigg glanced at me with a shrug. “No problem. That’s what brothers do. Look out for each other.”
I nodded, but my face grew hot. I had failed even at that. I had never looked out for Kris.
I stuttered as I asked, “If I—If I ever do decide to mate-bond with someone, how do you think Father will take it?”
“Math, we’re not forbidden from that, you know.”
