Page 37 of Trials of a One Night Stand
Granted, peeing on command might not be so easy, after all.
The toilet flushes. Water from the sink sounds. The door opens.
Jayne walks out. “It says to wait three minutes. I thought I’d wait out here. With you. Get a bottle of water out of the fridge. Want one?”
“Sure.” Though hard liquor sounds better. “But I’ll get it.”
She sits at the table, not on the couch. “Thanks.”
I take out two bottles of water from the refrigerator, remove the caps, and place one in front of her. “You should drink so you don’t get dehydrated.”
Jayne does. I merely stare at the label, wondering if it’s been three minutes yet. I’m afraid I’m about to jump out of my skin. I can’t lose my composure.
She takes another sip. “What are you thinking?”
“The truth?”
“Please.”
“I’m in disbelief. If I were a teenager or still in college, I could imagine finding myself here, waiting for the results of a pregnancy test. Shit happens when a brain isn’t fully developed and sex is involved. But I’m on the other side of forty. This shouldn’t have happened.”
“I know exactly how you feel.” She half laughs. “I had no idea not all condoms are equal.”
A memory from our night together hits me. When she pulled out the foil packets from her bachelorette party goody bag.
Fuck UnoPharm and their fucking useless condoms.
That’s what I get for thinking with my dick and not my brain. But again, I can’t let Jayne know what I’m thinking. Her eyes gleam as if she’s about to cry, and I know better than to ask if she’s okay. Who would be okay in this fucking situation?
I think for a moment. There is one thing I can ask her. The same question she posed to me. “What are you thinking?”
“Similar to you.” She picks at the label on the water bottle. “Getting pregnant has always been my worst nightmare.”
“You don’t want kids?”
“I want them, but I thought it would happen per the fairy tale. Meet someone, fall in love, get married, buy a house, and start a family. That was what I wanted. Getting pregnant when I was younger and in school was my worst nightmare, so I made sure it couldn’t happen.”
“Multiple forms of birth control?”
“Abstinence. I didn’t have sex for the first time until I graduated from college.”
That piece of information leaves me speechless. I take a sip of water to explain my suddenly gaping mouth.
“It’s just,” she continues, not meeting my eyes, “I grew up in a small town in Oregon. Think two stoplights rural. Everyone I knew wanted to marry their high school sweethearts and get pregnant.”
“Except you.”
She nods. “There were a few exceptions. Very few. And some ended up as single moms. But many found themselves in the same situation that their parents and grandparents were in and still live in my hometown.”
“Generational pattern.”
“Or curse, depending on your POV.”
“Like yours.”
Jayne takes another sip. “There’s nothing wrong with marrying and having kids when you’re young. I just—”
“Wanted more.”
