Reckless Temptations (Tempted #4)(40)
Lucky for me, I got front row seats to the “she’s having my baby show,” since my mother and I were staying with them until we found an apartment, or I got my shit together, whichever came first.
I was right about my mother jumping at the chance to be around her grandchildren. After my brother shared his news with us, I told him and Adrianna I was a nursing school drop out with an eviction notice on my door. They insisted we stay with them until we found some place else, some place close to them.
Now, here we are, food shopping with wet toes and Adrianna trying to get the goods on me and Riggs.
“I heard him, you know,” she started.
“Forget what you heard,” I said, shrugging my shoulders. “I’ve forgotten,” I added.
Because what is one more lie on top of the thousands sitting on my shoulders already?
“I won’t tell your brother if that’s what you’re afraid of,” she coaxed.
I thought about her words for a minute. I wasn’t holding back the twisted tale of how Kitten and Tiger got it on one night in an alley like a bunch of…well, alley cats. See what I did there? Cute right?
Did I mention I hate my life?
Take the fucking detour, he said.
I did.
It was a dead end.
Focus, Lauren.
I wasn’t holding back the alley cat story because I was afraid of my brother finding out. He’d kill Riggs, and as fun as that might be to watch, the only one who would put that dope in the ground was me.
I was becoming very angry lately. Like, I might need help.
“I slept with him, okay?” I blurted.
Psychiatric help too.
She rolled her eyes as she picked out tomatoes.
“I know, I heard the whole “I wear a rubber thing,”” she exasperated.
“Yeah, he’s a real catch,” I said sarcastically.
Adrianna dropped the bag of tomatoes into the cart and lifted my chin with her finger.
“You fell for him, didn’t you?”
“What? No? I may be going through a quarter-life crisis but I’m not that stupid,” I said.
“You’re not twenty-five,” she pointed out.
“I always wanted to be older than I was,” I stated and sighed heavily. “Look, I liked him a lot, that’s it. I thought he liked me too, but I was wrong. All he wanted was to get laid. Which is fine, because hey, we all need to get laid every once in a while, right? I suppose I should thank him because I’m good now for like a year until the urge strikes again and I do something else incredibly stupid,” I said, ignoring the lady picking out a bunch of bananas, staring at me like I just confessed to murdering someone.
I turned my gaze to banana lady and hissed.
You know what she could do with those bananas?
“What are you looking at? I’m having a crisis,” I sneered.
Adrianna moved behind me and took the wagon from me, pushing it out of the produce aisle before I told banana lady to split.
Ha!
Banana split.
I burst out laughing.
“Oh, my God,” Adrianna whispered, pausing mid-stride.
“What?” I asked, my laughter dying as I bumped into her.
“When did this happen between the two of you?”
“Like a month ago,” I said, as I glanced at the fish counter. The smell got to me, making me nauseous, so I pinched my nose and guided Adrianna down a different aisle.
“Wait here, I have to go pick up my pre-natal vitamins,” she said.
I shrugged my shoulders and took a seat on an Olive Oil display, waiting for it to cave on top of me because why not? I dropped my head into my hands and waited for my stomach to settle.
By the time Adrianna returned the nausea had passed, and I rose to my feet. She dropped a few more things into the wagon and stared at me.
“I’m fine,” I said. “I don’t think I ate today,” I added, pushing the wagon into a clerk because I wasn’t paying attention.
“Watch it!” the guy hissed, rubbing his side.
Actor, I didn’t even hit him that hard.
“Well if you weren’t taking up the whole aisle I wouldn’t have hit you!” I hissed.
“I’m stocking the shelves!” He argued.
“Hormonal and crazy,” Adrianna whispered beside me.
“Aww, A, it’s okay you’re supposed to be, you’re pregnant,” I said, wrapping my arm around her shoulders, diverting my eyes back to the clerk standing with his hands on his hips.
Road blocker.
“Move,” I ordered.
“Yeah, and what’s your excuse?” Adrianna asked beside me.
I turned to her in surprise and then let my eyes follow her finger as she pointed to the wagon. I leaned over and looked at the pregnancy test next to the tomatoes.
Oh, my God.
Getting drunk and stupid isn’t very fun when you’re by yourself. Blackie and Jack took off after the meeting with Bianci, leaving Pipe and Wolf in charge of our gun deal with Sun Wu. The guns were ready to go and tomorrow we were delivering them to “Jackie Chan.” I took my tequila upstairs to my room, deciding that I’d watch Rush Hour until I passed out.
I settled onto my bed and grabbed my laptop to free-stream the movie and remembered Sun Wu’s apartment. I bet that shit is more entertaining than watching a movie I’d seen a billion times. My fingers worked the keys on the keyboard, bringing up the surveillance footage of the apartment he had me wire.