The Fling (18+)

Chapter 32

"...then I woke up the next morning, and my birth control pills were gone. I didn't understand at first, but then I went downstairs, and Robbie told me he wanted to start trying for kids." Jess sniffled, tucking some hair behind her ear. "He didn't ask - there was no conversation. He just decided. Just... my birth control got tossed in the garbage and it didn't matter whether I wanted it or not."

Sitting next to Jess, I felt her shudder as she relived the memory, "Jesus."

"It just... it became so clear at that point that I- I wasn't a person to him. I didn't have thoughts, I didn't have feelings - I was just a prop to him, a thing."

"If it helps," I muttered, "you're not alone. He treats everyone that way."

She laughed, a humorless expulsion of air, "It doesn't."

Sighing, I rubbed my face, "Worth a shot." I glanced over, picking up my phone from where it lay, face down on the bench, hoping for something from Bruce, but finding nothing.

"No word?" Jess asked.

I shook my head, "Nope."

"God," she groaned, hugging her knees.

A car raced by on the road behind our little vista, and my heart leapt into my throat, worried it was Dad, hunting for us.

The car passed by without even slowing down, and I chided myself for my silliness.

Next to me, Jess stared forward. "You know," she began after a moment, "of all the ways I ever pictured leaving Robbie, I never envisioned this."

Glancing over, I asked, "Do you have any idea what you're going to do now?"

Jess picked at the skin around her thumbnail, "I've been getting some things together. Just sort of haphazardly, I guess."

"Haphazardly?"

She shrugged, "Some of it's in a safe deposit box. Smith was holding onto some of it for me, but a lot of it is still at the house."

"Smith?"

"David," she clarified. "He had a pretty good idea of how things were, so he offered to help."

I nodded, feeling a renewed sense of fondness for my father's assistant.

"It's just..." Jess stared into the verdant distance, "I wasn't sure I was actually going to leave until... well, until what happened this morning."

"Really?"

"There was just this voice in my head saying, 'Oh, it's not that bad,' telling me that I'm overreacting, telling me..." Her words trailed off.

"What?"

She spoke in a small whisper, "Telling me that I deserved it."

"You didn't, and you don't."

"I didn't tell him that I still had an IUD," Jess mumbled.

"Huh?"

"It's what we were fighting about," she explained, voice worn and weary. "It's about to reach the limit of its effectiveness, and I'm getting it replaced."

"Oh."

"I guess I got careless - I didn't clear the search history on my phone. Robbie saw it and put two and two together."

"That doesn't excuse what he did."

"I lied about being on birth control-"

"Considering what he did with your pills?" I scoffed, "Pretty sure he had that coming."