The Baby Bargain

Chapter 35: Alison

"You have got to help me." Alison begged Ellie. "I hate skirts and dresses. They always make my ass look huge and that makes my breasts look even smaller."

"I'm glad to see you've changed your mind about Harker." Ellie grabbed Alison's hand and led her out of that store and toward a different one.

"Changed my mind? What are you talking about?"

"You want to look nice for him." Ellie smiled. "I get it but trust me, I think Harker likes how you look."

"Hardly." Alison's spirits, already low from not finding anything that didn't make her look like a pear, just became subterranean.

"Why do you think that and don't take how eager he was to get out of here as an indication. Men, especially ones like him, hate to shop."

"Even I know that." She truly wasn't offended that he'd practically charged out of the store like it was on fire. "I only brought him because I made him buy two pairs of jeans."

"You said he never wears jeans."

"He doesn't but if he wants me to wear a skirt or dress then he has to wear jeans."

"And he agreed?" Ellie stopped in the middle of the mall walkway.

"Yeah. Why are you smiling?" Her friend had a stupid look on her face.

"I told you he likes you." Ellie slapped Alison's shoulder.

"And I told you he doesn't. Not like that. Trust me." She tried not to let the hurt show, but they'd known each other a long time.

"What's wrong?" Ellie shifted direction and pulled her off to the side where there were less people.

"I'm not going to find a skirt standing in the corner." She didn't want to talk to anyone about this, least of all Ellie who'd never met a guy who hadn't wanted her.

"No, but we can talk. What's going on?"

Her friend wouldn't stop pestering until she told her so she may as well get it over with. "We haven't had sex yet. He doesn't want to, and I don't even sleep with him." She looked up, blinking furiously to keep from crying. "I really messed it all up on our wedding night. He was ready to do it and now he has no interest and...and I don't know why he doesn't want to do in vitro and it's a nightmare living with him. He's so grumpy and we barely talk at work anymore and after work is even worse and—"

"Okay. Okay." Ellie hugged her and then took her hands in hers. "Now, slow down. One thing at a time, okay?"

Alison nodded, wiping her eyes. She didn't even apologize for rambling because Ellie understood that was just how she talked.

"Did you tell him that you wanted to have sex?"

"Yes," she almost wailed.

"And he didn't?" Ellie looked confused. "That doesn't make any sense."

"It does when he can't...He isn't attracted to me."

"Oh honey, that is so not true."

"It is. He told me."

"He said he wasn't attracted to you?"

"Yes. I said we should, you know, and he said he didn't want to. That he...he had to...to"—thinking about it hurt enough, but saying it was like eating fire—"work himself up to...you know."

"What an ass." Ellie frowned but then shook her head. "It doesn't make sense. I see how he looks at you."

"You're confusing anger with lust."

"No, I'm not." Ellie pursed her lips. "You said he still doesn't want in vitro, right?"

"No. I offered and...and he was so mad—"

"You offered after he said he didn't want to have sex and he got mad at you for suggesting it?"

"Yes. I didn't suggest it right then. I couldn't. I had to get away from him, but later we were talking about how to fix this...this mess of a marriage. We both had ideas and I thought they were the same, but they weren't, and he got mad when I said in vitro."

"Did he tell you his plan to fix your marriage?"

"Yeah. That's why I need a skirt."

"Wearing a skirt will fix your marriage?" Ellie looked at her as if she had sprouted another head that was talking as much as her first one.

"No. Not exactly. He suggested a honeymoon and he wants me...insists that I wear a dress or skirt."

"Oh, he wants a honeymoon." Ellie grinned. "See. I told you he likes you."

"It's his way of working up"—she waved her hand in front of her thighs—"his attraction. He must have a thing for skirts or something. Maybe he's a leg man but my legs aren't that great. My thighs are too heavy from sitting all day. I should exercise but—"

"Your legs are perfect but where are you going for your honeymoon?"

"Oh, he's taking me to La Petite Mort Club for the weekend." She grinned. "I've always wanted to go there. I never told him that. I don't know how he knew—"

"He's taking you to La Petite Mort Club?"

"Yeah. Isn't it exciting? Now I can stop pestering you to get me in there."

"Oh, Alison. We haveto find you the perfect outfit and sexy underwear because that man definitelywants you...a lot." Ellie grabbed her hand and dragged her across the mall to thelingerie shop.