Mean Streak

“To have any kind of sex with a stranger. He was a stranger, wasn’t he?”

“He was four days ago.” She smiled wistfully. “Not so much of one now.”

Unable to bear her friend’s mix of compassion and bewilderment, she turned away and looked toward the lavish bouquet of white calla lilies that Jeff had brought to her room shortly after she was checked in.

“It’s not as out-from-nowhere as you might expect. I’m almost certain that Jeff is seeing someone and has been for quite some time. I could use that as justification for what I did, but that would be disingenuous and unfair. I didn’t do it to punish Jeff. The fact is, I didn’t take Jeff into account at all. I wanted to be with this man, and he wanted to be with me, and that was all that mattered.”

“Will you see him again?”

“No.”

You outdid yourself on the memories, Doc.

They’d exhausted themselves and had been lying spooned, fitted tightly together like two pieces of a puzzle, limbs entwined, hands clasped against her breasts. She’d been on the verge of sleep when he’d rubbed his face in her hair and whispered those words.

Then, Would have been easier if you hadn’t.

Probably he hadn’t intended for her to hear that annotation, or the bleakness that underscored it. He must have felt, as she did now, doomed never to be entirely happy again.

“Who was he, Emory?”

Roused from the bittersweet recollection, she whispered, “I don’t know. I wasn’t lying about that. I don’t even know his name.”

“But you slept with him.”

“Yes. And I don’t, nor ever will, regret it.”

She became aware of the tears rolling from the corners of her eyes and hastily wiped them away. “But there are practical matters that must be addressed. As you know, I went off birth control pills six months ago, when I thought that perhaps having a child…”

She stopped and rethought what she’d been about to say, which would have sounded like she was laying blame on Jeff. Whatever else, she must never deceive herself into believing that he was responsible for what she’d done last night.

“The future of my marriage being uncertain, I can’t risk adding the complication of a pregnancy.”

“No precautions were taken?”

“Precautionary measures, yes, but nothing…scientific. Or reliable.” Her face grew hot as she remembered his groaning, Christ, this is torture, averting danger with no time to spare.

“Can you bring me the pills? I can’t ask the hospital staff here because I can’t trust their discretion. I know I can trust yours.”

“I’ll get them for you, of course. But you know that emergency contraception isn’t one hundred percent effective.”

“I understand. But the sooner I take the first pill, the better. Which is why I’m asking you to get them for me right away, rather than waiting until tomorrow when I could buy them for myself.”

“I’ll go now.” She stood and headed toward the door, but Emory stopped her.

“Alice?”

She turned and looked back toward the bed.

“Thank you.”

Alice shook her head. “It’s nothing.”

“No, I’m thanking you for your confidence and for being my friend.”

Chapter 24

Rebecca Watson, undaunted by the downpour, walked straight to the driver’s side of Jack’s rental car and rapped on the window.