New Leaves, No Strings (34 page)

‘Do it,’ I pleaded. He brushed the
hair gently off my face and kissed me again softly and tenderly this time.

‘Thank you,’ he whispered.

‘For what? I just lay there, you
did all the work.’

‘Last night, it meant so much.’

I knew he wasn’t talking about the
sex, but that he had left me see his vulnerable side and I knew how hard that
must have been for him. I reached up and kissed him back.

‘You’re welcome, you can talk to me
anytime Gabe.’

‘So see you tomorrow at 8.30 sharp?’
he asked smiling.

‘Ok, have a great afternoon and
evening, thank you for my multiple orgasms and my food.’

‘Bye girlfriend.’

‘Bye boyfriend,’ I smiled, shaking
my head in amusement.

He broke into a huge grin and blew
me a kiss and vanished. I lay back on the bed and hugged myself, drawing his
shirt collars up as I inhaled him. His scent made my toes curl. I looked at the
black vibrator standing proudly on the bedside table, it was calling to me. I
knew I had to resist, as he’d instructed, so I shoved it in the drawer. I
needed something else to focus on. I decided to strip the bed and put on some
fresh sheets and covers. By the time I was done it had taken the edge of my
desire. I ran myself another bubble bath, cleaned myself thoroughly and lay
back closing my eyes, enjoying the warmth of the water easing my stiff muscles.

It was about an hour later when I
was out and dressed and I crept into check on Lexi. She was fast asleep and I
saw she’d been sick again in the bowl, so I took it away, cleaned it up and put
it back for her with some kitchen towel by the side. She’d drunk all of her
water and eaten most of her toast, so I replenished her glass and quietly
closed the door. I figured I ought to get some studying done and headed back to
the lounge and settled in at my desk, but spent the first ten minutes dreaming
about my evening and morning with Gabe. I bit my lip and smiled to myself then
shook my head to clear my mind of him and concentrate. At two thirty I started
feeling sleepy and went to my room for a lie down. It was a little after three
when I heard Lexi’s door open.

‘Mia? Are you here?’

‘In my room, how are you doing?’ I
called. She pottered in wrapped up in her duvet.

‘Better. Thanks for cleaning up my
sick, you’re the best.’ She hopped up onto my bed and sat crossed legged. ‘So
dish.’

‘Dish what?’

‘Well you can start with the ruined
paint work there.’ She nodded at my purple wall. I looked aghast, I hadn’t even
noticed that there were chunks of my lovely purple paint and plaster missing
behind each of the white bedhead balls. I stood up and went to inspect and
winced as I saw that the balls were actually dented.

‘O god.’

‘I thought it’d look worse, sounded
like the bed was coming through the wall and that was with my ear phones on.’

I hopped up onto the bed with her
and sat crossed legged opposite. ‘Lexi, I’m so happy, it’s amazing. Sex is so
amazing, he’s amazing. He’s so caring and considerate and really
really
wants to make sure I enjoy myself.’

‘Typical you find someone like that
on your first time. Lucky cow. So what about these marks on your wrists? He’s
not getting too rough is he?’

‘No, god no. It was my fault, I
decided to try and take charge and cuffed him last night.’

‘Where the hell did you get a pair
of cuffs from? Or does he just carry them around in his bag on the off chance?’

‘There was a special offer on with
a vibrator that I wanted. It came with a pair of handcuffs and an eye mask and
I figured the eye mask would come in handy for on the plane when we next go
away. I was going to give the handcuffs to you, I forgot all about them until
yesterday.’

‘So how did that go down?’

‘I took him by surprise, he was
really mad at first.’

‘I bet he was, he’s a bit of a
control freak from what I’ve seen.’

‘You’d have been so proud, I stood
my ground and made him wear them while we … well you know,’ I blushed.

‘Fucked? If you’re doing it, I
think you can say it.’

‘Well it was all going amazing
until he needed to take a leak.’

‘So?’

‘I’d cuffed his hands behind his
back,’ I giggled.

‘You bloody vixen, you’re a secret
dominatrix you are.’

‘You told me be like that Lex, You
said if I wanted to get over these insecurities with him being experienced, I
needed to ramp it up. So I did.’

‘Have you asked how experienced he
is?’

‘Yes, this morning,’ I sighed. ‘He
told me a couple of hundred girls. I feel sick about it Lexi. Is that
normal
?
He said it was mainly one night stands.’

‘Guys tend to start a lot younger
Mia. If he was doing it even once a week, from say 15, then you’d be looking at
over 200 girls. So yeah, sounds reasonable.’

‘Reasonable?’ Logically I knew she
was right, but it didn’t make me feel much better about it.

‘Is he into bondage and all that
stuff?’ she asked as she ran her eyes over my marks again.

‘I don’t know. He enjoyed what I
did last night and said he’d never done that before, so I guess it’s new for
both of us. Lex it was so hot, but it was also really funny. I had to help him
pee after I’d refused to take them off. him I wasn’t going to give in and
release him.’

‘Who are you and what’ve you done
with my best friend? You’re in serious lust you know that?’

‘I do. I’m so loving sex, it’s like
I need it all the time. Why did I wait so long?’

‘Beats me.’

‘He’s pretty full on, not just the
sex. He opened up to me last night about his past and it was heart breaking.’

‘Why what happened?’

I took a deep breath and thought
about it. I couldn’t tell her everything, it wouldn’t be fair to him, after all
I’d promised. It was such a big deal for him to have told me, but I didn’t want
to lie to my best friend so I decided to keep it simple.

‘His mum died when he was a kid and
he’s still quite raw about it.’

‘God poor guy, how did it happen?’

‘A really tragic accident Lex. God
and to think I’m thinking of having stupid bloody therapy for my issues, it’s
just so wrong.’

‘Hey, you can’t compare your
problems to his Mia. Who’s to say how much anyone hurts, no matter how big or
small the event, you feel what you feel.’

‘That’s just it. I’ve a chance to
fix things, he doesn’t.’

‘So fix them.’

‘You make it sound so simple.’

‘It is, you ring your Dad and say
hey Dad, I’d like to see you but I won’t be messed around. If you say you’re
coming come, or I’ll kick your ass.’

‘Yeah that would go down so well.’

‘Well I bet Gabe would kick his ass
if he hurt you, or if anyone hurt you. I’m comforted to know he’s looking out
for you.’

‘He is, I really think he is,’ I
replied with a frown. ‘I’ve agreed that it’s a proper relationship Lex.’

‘No, seriously?’ she exclaimed.

‘Yep,’ I nodded. ‘I like him so
much Lex and he’s so sweet with me. He was so happy when I agreed.’

‘So, we need to get in at the
Doctors and get you suited up and to talk about your periods and this bloody
dizzy deal you’re going through.’

‘O god, periods,’ I groaned. ‘I’m
due on this weekend. That will ruin my enjoyable sex streak.’

‘What? You’re not due for another
couple of weeks.’

‘No, I’m due this weekend. What
makes you think it’s a couple of weeks? I’m always the week after you.’ I
watched Lexi’s face go pale as she stared at me. ‘O god Lexi, tell me you had
your period last week?’

‘No,’ she whispered.

‘What about August?’

‘I can’t remember. I’m not sure if
I did.’

‘Lexi it’s pretty damn important,
how can you not notice you haven’t had your last few periods?’

‘We were busy, partying at home,
saying goodbye, then with the move and settling in.’

‘God Lexi I don’t think you were
sick this morning from the bloody sausages, I think you’re pregnant.’

‘Shit don’t say things like that,’
she groaned. ‘I can’t be I’m on the pill.’

‘Is it 100% fool proof?’

‘Pretty damn much,’ she said emphatically.

‘So there’s no way it can be
affected?’

‘Well only if you have sickness or diarrhoea
or whatever.’

‘Lexi you were really sick after
our college leaving party mid-July, a few weeks before you were due on. Did you
have sex around then?’

‘Yes,’ she said sheepishly.

‘Just the once?’

‘No, there were a few guys that
week.’

‘A few? Jesus Lexi how could you be
so
bloody
stupid, I can’t believe …’ I cut myself off mid flow when I
saw her gutted face. ‘O god I’m sorry I didn’t mean to yell, come here.’ She
put her head in my lap and started to cry as I gently stroked her hair. ‘Right,
we don’t know for sure Lex. It could have been the stress of the move and
everything going on.’

‘What about me throwing up?’

‘Well maybe it was a one off. Those
sausages really weren’t cooked well.’

‘It’s not been a one off,’ she
sniffed.

‘You’ve been sick before? When?’

‘The last few weeks, a couple of
mornings.’

‘And you didn’t put two and two
together?’ I said softly.

‘We’ve been partying a lot, I
thought it was the alcohol. You were throwing up too the morning after those
parties.’

‘Well either way we need to know
for sure. I’m going to run you a bath and you’re going to go and relax while I
go down to the chemists to buy a test for you. If it’s positive we’re going to
get in at a Doctors to be sure. Everything’s going to be fine, you hear me?’

‘I’m scared Mia,’ she whispered as
she looked up at me with her big green eyes.

‘Me too, but I’m in this with you
ok? If you are, we’ll deal with it together, just like we deal with everything.
Right come on. I’ll get you settled in and pop out.’ She sat up and hugged me
and I hugged her back tightly. ‘Lie down here and I’ll come and get you when
it’s ready.’

I hopped off the bed and went and
gave the bath a quick rinse and clean and started filling it. I grabbed her a glass
of cold water and popped it on the cabinet next to the bath and poured in some
relaxation bubble bath for her. When it was ready I got her up and sat her on
the toilet lid, just as I’d done with Gabe last night. God what was with this
bathroom and emotional situations?

‘Right, I’m going to run out. Are
you ok for a while?’

‘Yes.’

‘See you in a bit.’

‘Thanks Mia.’

I looked back at her sitting on the
toilet looking so lost and gave her a reassuring smile and headed out the door.
Down on the street I looked around to get my bearings and tried to remember the
route Gabe had taken me on Sunday. Less than ten minutes later I was there and
made my way inside, past all of the rows of shampoos and makeup.

‘I need a pregnancy test kit please,’
I asked lady behind the counter.

‘Sure thing sweetheart, which one?’

‘There’s more than one?’ I asked
surprised.

‘O yes. You have yes or no, the one
that tells you how many weeks you’re along if it’s up to 3 weeks. Then we have
a double pack too. It tells you if you’re pregnant and the other tells you how
many weeks again, just so you can reassure yourself with two tests in a row.’

I stared at her baffled, how was I
supposed to know which one Lexi would need.

‘How long since you last period
honey?’

‘O it’s not for me, it’s for my
friend.’ She smiled at me and I got the distinct impression she thought I was
lying, whatever. She’d mentioned a double pack, maybe that was better than just
one so I asked for that and handed over £10 for which I got very little change.
‘Thanks.’

‘Good luck,’ she said as I hurried
out and power walked home, we needed to get this bloody thing done.

I made it back by 4.20 p.m. We
needed to hurry if I had to book her in at a doctors. I knocked on the bathroom
door. ‘Lex it’s me, I have the kit are you ok?’

‘As bloody ok as I can be. Give me
a few minutes will you?’

I went and sat on the bed, tapping
the pregnancy test kit rapidly on my knee. God if I was this nervous what the
hell was Lexi feeling? I put it down and searched for a doctors surgery within
a two mile radius of our postcode and a few popped up, so I scribbled down the
number of the one closest to us as Lexi opened the bathroom door wrapped in a
towel.

‘Let’s get this bitch done,’ she
said firmly.

‘You think you can pee?’