Total pages in book: 101
Estimated words: 98321 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 492(@200wpm)___ 393(@250wpm)___ 328(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 98321 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 492(@200wpm)___ 393(@250wpm)___ 328(@300wpm)
I nodded, because I didn’t trust myself not to say something weird and ridiculous.
Something like, I think I might be in love with you.
But that wasn’t true. It couldn’t be true. I wasn’t the kind of guy who fell in love—I was stronger than that. Smarter than that. It was the blowjob, that was all. It must have released those weird biological hormones that made ancient man want to, like, build a hut and hunt a woolly mammoth.
Quickly, I buried the thought and zeroed in on something more familiar. More comfortable.
“Tell me what I can do for you,” I said as she lay down next to me again, facing her nightstand. I curled my body behind hers, wrapping my arm around her waist.
She hugged it to her. “Nothing.”
“Are you sure?” I kissed her shoulder. “I’m really good with my—”
“I’m sure,” she said, laughing as she reached for the lamp and switched it off. “I know you’re really good with your everything, but I can wait. Technically, we just broke the rules anyway.”
“What do you mean? We got rid of the no-sex rule,” I reminded her as she settled her head on the pillow.
“We got rid of it for the purpose of conception,” she said. “What we just did was fun, but it’s not going to get me pregnant.”
“True.” I paused, looking down at her in the dark. “So you’re saying that was fun for you?”
She laughed. “Yes, that was fun for me. But don’t let it go to your head. I mostly did it so that you’d stop bothering me—until Wednesday anyway. Now go to sleep.”
I curled up behind her again, feeling slightly off balance by what had just transpired, but unable to put my finger on exactly why.
One thing was for sure, though. I couldn’t wait for Wednesday night. Just thinking about it made me smile.
I had a surprise for her.
Tuesday after work I went over to Cole’s house to help him get an old refrigerator out of his basement. Afterward, he asked if I wanted to hang out and have a beer.
“Sure,” I said, pulling my phone from my pocket. “Let me just text Bianca and let her know I’ll be a little bit late.”
While Cole grabbed two bottles from the fridge and popped off the caps, I sent Bianca a message apologizing that I’d be home later than I’d said and offering to pick up takeout on the way home. She responded that she’d worked late tonight anyway, so that sounded perfect.
“So how’s everything going with you guys?” Cole handed me a beer and leaned back against the counter.
“Good.” I took a sip of my beer and wondered what was okay to reveal to Cole and what wasn’t. I didn’t want to betray Bianca’s confidence, but Cole had been one of my best friends for twenty years, and he was a father too. I didn’t think she’d mind if I told him what was going on. “She didn’t get pregnant last month, so she was upset about that, but other than that, it’s been good. We’re actually getting along pretty well. Much better than I thought we would.”
“That’s cool,” he said. “Sorry about the other thing.”
“It’s okay.” I shrugged. “She knew it probably wouldn’t happen that fast. I don’t know shit about that stuff—apparently you have to time it exactly right, and even then the chances aren’t great.”
“I don’t know much about it either,” Cole admitted. “Trisha got pregnant almost right away.”
“Yeah, I guess some people just get lucky.” It made me sad that Bianca wasn’t one of them. “Unless I’m doing it wrong.”
Cole laughed and lifted his beer. “It’s not that. I remember it took my brother’s wife a while too. Almost a year.”
“A year? Shit.” I shook my head. “She only gave me three months, and I’m down one already.”
“Can’t you give yourselves more time?”
I frowned and took a long pull on my beer. “I don’t think that’s an option.”
“Why not?”
“We agreed from the start that this was temporary. We said three months, unless she got pregnant.”
“You also said you wouldn’t have sex,” Cole pointed out. “If that part of your plan can change, why not the timeline?”
“I don’t know,” I said. “I just feel like that’s a bad idea.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know. Like what if it still won’t work, and month after month, we’re just stuck with each other, no end in sight, and she starts to hate me for letting her down and I start to regret putting myself in this position, where I’m failing a wife I didn’t even want in the first place, and all we do is fight and get on each other’s nerves, and then she leaves, because we ruined everything, and we hate each other forever . . .” I set my beer down and rubbed my face with both hands. “Fuck. Just . . . fuck. No.”