I nod against his chest. He always knows just the thing to say to make me feel better, and I do feel better in fact. Wrapped tightly in his arms, I feel safe and protected.
“Is there a way to get a refund on the gift certificate?” he asks gently. I hiccup a bit.
“No. I called the facility, but they don’t give refunds. Plus, the damn thing expires in three months,” I say, wiping at my eyes. “Should I just let it expire? I hate my parents a thousand percent right now.”
Rob’s silent but then he lifts my chin and peers into my eyes with such tenderness it makes me want to cry all over again.
“No, don’t throw it away. I’ll go with you to the fertility clinic.”
My eyes widen and my bottom lip begins to tremble.
“Would you really do that for me?”
He nods.
“Of course. I hate the idea of you having to do this on your own. It’s scary, no matter what.”
I wrap my arms around his neck and pull him close, my heart beating fast. “Thank you so much. I… I just don’t know what to say.”
He pulls back and strokes my cheek with his thumb. “I’ll look at my schedule next week, and if we can find a time that works out with your classes, we’ll go then. Together.”
I sniffle again.
“Seems our relationship has gotten serious fast, doesn’t it? But honestly, I feel so incredibly lucky to have you by my side. I think it’s crazy that men like you exist.”
He chuckles in that way that makes my core tingle like mad. “I feel that way about you too,” he says in a rough voice. “I think there are a ton of guys out there who would kill to have a chance with someone as young and beautiful as you, Pepper.”
I blush. “I don’t know about that.”
He grins.
“You can trust me on this one, honey. One hundred percent.”
Happiness washes over me, and I kiss him tenderly, supporting myself with my hand on his heart. I feel its tempo quicken as I deepen the kiss and touch his tongue with mine. He moans low in his throat and goosebumps rise on my skin. I’m still afraid of freezing my eggs, but at least I know that no matter what happens, I’ll have Rob there. Maybe, with his support, this ordeal won’t be so bad.
8
Pepper
* * *
In my dream, I’m standing in front of the CryoFreeze building in the middle of the night. It looms over me like a haunted house from one of the old black and white movies my dad likes so much. I don’t want to go in, but I enter anyway, hearing an eerie voice calling my name.
The building swallows me up, and a thousand zombies draped in white scrubs descend on me. They tie me to a stretcher me and I can’t fight them or scream at them. A voice tells me that I’m trapped there until I promise it to give it all of my eggs, and then a zombie pulls out a thin metal tool that gleams in the darkness. That’s when my stomach cramps and I wake up.
The memory of that nightmare leaves me exhausted in the morning, and I go through school in something of a haze. I take notes, I flip through textbooks, and I even answer questions posed by my professors. But I feel like I’m on autopilot, and at the end of the day when Rob arrives to pick me up from campus, I’m still haunted.
“Are you feeling okay, honey?” Rob asks, his handsome face creased with concern. “I know you don’t want to go to the facility.”
“I had a terrible dream last night,” I mumble. “My brain still feels a little scrambled.”
“Was it about egg freezing?” I nod. “Can you describe it to me?”
I tell Rob about it, and by the end of my monologue, I feel a little embarrassed. Rational Pepper knows that nightmares aren’t real and shouldn’t be taken seriously, but irrational Pepper shivers in the car as she remembers the evil building’s haunted vibe.
He smiles, perhaps a bit amused, but doesn’t laugh. He touches my jeaned thigh and rubs circles on it. Rob doesn’t say anything for a while, so I fill the silence with a joke.
“Are you going to try to interpret my dream?” I ask. “Are you going to give me a reading and tell me that I need to buy a dreamcatcher?”
He grins. “You don’t need a psychic to tell you that your nightmare is just an expression of your anxiety. Besides,” he adds with a sexy smile, “I never do a reading for free. You’d have to pay me for it with that beautiful body.”
I giggle at him, and already I feel a load of stress begin to leave my shoulders. God, he’s wonderful. I place my hand over his and lock our fingers together, my nerves settling for a bit.