Page 16 of Come Alive
Correction—thelarge brute.
“Who are you?” James asked, his hands tightening into fists.
He looks like a criminal. What is he doing here? Has he hurt Yara?
The man didn’t respond, stopping right in front of James with a critical gaze.
“Mateo,” the secretary acknowledged, lowering her head. “I didn’t know she was back.”
Mateo gave her a curt nod, lifting his hand.
James unwillingly took hold of Mateo’s outstretched hand. And a moment later, he felt as the man attempted to crush his bones. James offered back the same energy, leveling him with a glare. “What is this?”
Again, Mateo didn’t answer his question, releasing James’s hand. “Yara is waiting.” He spun away, stomping back down the hallway, before swinging a door open and holding it, gesturing for James to go inside.
At this point, James wasn’t sure he wanted whatever this was, but if there was a chance Yara was on the other side, he wasn’t going to pass it up.
Filing inside, he glanced around. The space was large and clean, a large window replacing the far wall and showing off the city views. A metal conference desk taking up most of the space with one chair on his side and two on the other. And in one of those chairs…Yara.
His hands were suddenly clammy. His throat, too dry, as he swallowed a few times, attempting to not choke. She wore a long sleeve and pants, but he could picture what lay beneath. Imagine himself inside of her.Again.
“Sit, please.” She wouldn’t meet his gaze.
He wanted more than anything for her to look him in the eyes. To explain how she could do this to him. How just after he told her how his deepest pain was being abandoned, she did exactly that. How she broke her promise.
He settled in the chair across from her. Staring her down, waiting for her to speak.
The brute from before—Mateo—walked around the table, falling into the chair next to her, and sheleaned into him.
James stiffened, jealousy twisting a knife in his stomach. “Is that why you left? You are withhim?”The words spilled from his mouth before he could stop them.
“You will listen,” Mateo barked, slamming a fist onto the table.
James narrowed his eyes in anger but held his tongue.
“Look, both of you, this isn’t a pissing match. I asked you up here for a reason.” Yara finally met James’s eyes. “Mateo, can you please leave us?”
“Yes, but I will not go far.” The man next to her grumbled, offering James a glare before exiting the room and shutting the door behind him.
Leaving James and Yara alone.
James’s annoyance dissipated, his anxiety unravelling, a soothing calm replacing it. “Why did you leave?” he asked as gently as he could.
Yara breathed in and out a few times. “There are a few pieces to that. The first, I am determined to show you in person, but I promise it will make sense once I do.”
James combed a hand through his hair, clenching his jaw. “If you didn’t plan on telling me anything, why am I here?”
“Like Isaid, there are afew piecesto that. One of which is why you are here.” Yara stood from her seat abruptly, turning towards the window. “I want to preface there are three possibilities.”
“Three possibilities?” Confusion sunk down into him. He couldn’t understand what that meant.
“I’m pregnant.” Yara tossed the words out into the room.
They rolled and swung and spun before finally, eventually, landing on James.
James’s brain short-circuited.
“A condom, the pill, and a vasectomy. One of those failed and now I’m pregnant. I haven’t gone to the doctor yet, but I took about twenty tests between yesterday and today.”
