Page 71 of Demo
Shocked, I just stared at her.
Dee and I were enjoying some girl time while Knox was away with his family at a trades convention. He had only been gone two nights, and he would be back the day after next, but we couldn’t stop the texts, phone calls and video chats back and forth.
“So,” Dee said, taking another sip. “Which is it?”
When Dee first started at the paper, I hated her. Well, maybe not hated, but I really didn’t like her. She was garish, and blunt, and the absolute worst person to be at the front office, taking phone calls and handling walk-ins. She had zero customer service skills and even less professionalism, but at some point, I started warming up to her. She always said what she means, does what she wants, and never leaves you wondering where you stand with her. It’s refreshing actually.
I realized Dee was just staring at me. “Well?” She gestured to my stomach.
I bit my lip and nodded slowly.
“I knew it!” She leaped from the high-top, two-person table and came around and embraced me in a big hug.
“It’s still early, and no one,no one, knows yet,” I said.
“Oh my God! So I’m, like, the first to know?!” she squealed, standing next to me as I sat in the high stool, feet curled into the footrest, hands snaked between my knees.
“Yes, and please,pleasedon’t tell anyone!”
She made a zipper motion over her lips, then a “lock and throw away the key” move over her shoulder, and I laughed.
Dee went back around to take her seat. “So,” she said, picking up her beer to take a hearty sip. “Tell me everything. Start from conception. I want to know exactly how you got knocked up. Who was on top?”
Spitting out my water, I said, “Um, oh. Well …”
“Come on, don’t be shy. I’m in a dry spell over here. Give me the goods.”
That had me laughing. I never knew anyone who could speak so freely about sex—and, well, taking a dump, digging out a tampon, and any of the other myriad topics Dee talked about openly with me.
Suddenly feeling grateful to have someone to spill it all to, the floodgates opened.
“Well, actually,” I began, leaning over the table toward her. “I couldn’t tell you exactly when it happened or who was, uh, on top … or bent over the table, or, um, standing up in the shower—”
“Gurrllll!”
“Shhhh!” I shushed Dee, looking around. “It’s just, we’re still in that new-relationship-can’t-keep-our-hands-off-each-other phase. So, yeah, we’ve been … active.”
“I’ll say,” Dee waves her hand and gets the attention of the bartender and signals for another beer. “Go on,” she says, her attention back on me.
“Well, obviously it wasn’t planned.”
“Are you not on the pill?”
I shook my head.
“Do you not believe in condoms?”
I shrugged my shoulders and cringed.
“You are a walking public service announcement.”
“Hey, I thought this was a judgment-free zone!”
Dee threw her hands up in the air. “No judging here! Would you like to hear one of my dirty secrets?”
I thought about that for a second. “Actually, yes. That would make me feel better.”
She tapped her chin, then made anahaface. “I once had a boyfriend that wanted access to my rear door, if you know what I mean.” She gave me a wink.Oh God.
