Debt

42: Slow Love

Abrielle and Shawn were completely alone for the night. Erma was staying with the baby in her room, and she would trade off with Nurse Carla.

Bri sat in Shawn's lap and kissed him softly. "Shawn," she said firmly, but still softly, holding his face. "I'm going to give you another baby," she promised. "But I want you to understand that right now, I'm really not ready for one."

He nodded. "Okay, Bri. I understand that."

"So I'm going to ask you to use condoms," she told him, biting her lip. They had never used condoms, and she didn't know how he was going to take it. She was ready to ease herself back into their sex life. But not without a contraceptive. And right now, she didn't trust using any hormonal ones while she was breastfeeding.

"We can use condoms," he assured her. "I don't have any right now, but we can go pick some up," he told her.

"We?" she asked.

"Yes. I'm not about to go and pick up condoms alone. You using them too," he informed her. "We can go together. It's go take us two minutes to get a pack or two of condoms."

"Now?"

"When did you think was a good time? 'Cause if you wanna go raw, I'm all for that."

She took a deep breath and got out of his lap. She went to pull on a pair of sandals and put her hair up in a ponytail.

She followed Shawn out of the house and to the car. He didn't take her to the gas station, which she would've been fine with. Condoms were condoms, and the gas station was closer than the pharmacy he took her to instead.

She picked up the first box of condoms she saw, but Shawn caught her wrist before she started to checkout.

"You don't wanna look at nothing else?" he asked.

"No. I just wanna get some condoms and go home," she told him.

"Bri, really. You just want a plain box? Nothing else?"

She furrowed her brows. "What do you mean? Do condoms perform magic tricks now?" she asked smartly. She had never used condoms before, so really all she knew about was the basic condoms that just did their job of protection and nothing more.

"They might. If you would stop and take a while to look at them," he told her, pulling her back, putting his arms around her, resting his chin on her shoulder.

A couple of girls came into the store and passed the couple as they went to get juice, but they giggled when they saw them studying condoms. "Shawn, come on, this is embarrassing. Let's just get these and go."

"What's embarrassing about getting protection?" he asked her.

Shawn had never been embarrassed about buying condoms. Anyone who saw him could assume that he was about to get fucked. Wasn't nothing embarrassing about that. Anyone who saw them picking up condoms could assume they were about to go home and have some fun. Wasn't nothing embarrassing about that. While they would be busy flexing, them little girls would be bored watching movies together.

"They're giggling at us."

"And you know what, you about to go home and have your world rocked. They not. So I don't give a fuck about them laughing. Ignore them, baby."

She took a deep breath and looked at the condoms behind the display case. "Do those things really vibrate?" she asked.

"Do you want to find out?" he asked.

"Okay."

Shawn went to get the pharmacist to unlock the cabinet so he could purchase the specialty condoms and some lube. The girls were still over there giggling, and Abrielle was turning pinker and pinker until she was looking like a tomato. So Shawn made haste in purchasing their items and getting home.