Shallow River

His lips touch mine in a gentle kiss. It’s sweet, and soothing. Slowly, he increases the pressure until it turns hungry. He scoops me in my arms and carries me up to our bedroom, never letting his lips stray from mine.

The second my feet touch the cool wood flooring next to our bed, he’s peeling my clothes from my body. Hot kisses trail from my lips down to my neck. They pause at my breast, and wet heat envelops my nipple.

My head drops back as pleasure washes over me.

This right here, is what makes me feel loved.

I can get used to this.

“I THINK I MIGHT be pregnant.”

I choke on my iced coffee, inhaling some of it through my nose while the rest flies out of my mouth in a perfect arch. Good thing class is over and we’re walking towards her car. If we were in the cafeteria, I would kill her.

“Wow. That was disgusting.”

I laugh, partially from disbelief. I wipe my mouth and nose with my hand, trying to clean up as best as I can. Great, now I’ll be sticky.

“That was your fault. Are you fucking with me?”

“No,” Amelia sighs wearily.

“Why do you think you’re pregnant?”

She shrugs her shoulders. “Because I’ve been really horny lately.”

I look at her incredulously. “That’s it? You’ve been horny?”

“No, I also threw up at the smell of bacon. Twice.”

“Oh my God, you’re definitely pregnant. No one throws up at the smell of bacon.”

“Right?” she says, her eyes wide.

“Are you happy?”

“Are you kidding me? I’m fucking terrified.”

I laugh and pull her into a tight hug. “Well, I’m happy for you, babe. You’re going to be an amazing mother.”

I’m beyond happy for her. Maybe one day, it’ll be Ryan and I having a baby, too. Our babies can be best friends.

She beams and hugs me back. “Thank you. I can’t do this without you, though, okay? I’m probably going to cry a lot. I already cried when I was watching one of those dance competition shows. Bawled like a fucking baby.”

I laugh and let her go. “I think I always cry during those shows. They’re just so fucking good that the only thing I can do is cry.”

She slumps her shoulders in relief. “Oh, good, I’m glad I’m not the only one. I was just going to use pregnancy as my excuse.”

“Yeah, I usually use my period as an excuse, it’s okay.”

We giggle the rest of the walk to her car. She’s already coming up with wild ass baby names like Jupiter and Italea, pronounced i-tall-ee-uh.

I wonder what Ryan would want to name our kids.

“YOU SEEM BETTER.”

Why does my body melt every time I hear his fucking voice? I don’t want my body to melt. I want it to turn to solid, unmeltable stone. Hearing his voice feels like injecting heroin. But just because heroin feels good, doesn’t mean it’s not capable of killing you. Mako is bad for me. He’s just like Alison—another pretty face sticking their nose where it doesn’t belong and trying to sabotage my relationship. For whatever reason, they can’t stand to see Ryan happy.

Mako stands there like a god, dressed in black pants again with a sage green shirt that makes his eyes pop out.