A Mate's Bite(7)

Time to end the insanity.

“She’s gone.” Karla pointed to the prettiest shade of sapphire blue with a smile. “We’ll take all the decorations in that blue and the pale gold.”

The coordinator’s shoulders drooped. “That was…fast.”

Yeah. Thank goodness. “If you have any questions, call me. Otherwise, we should be good with this.”

The sun beamed down on Karla’s head, but the wind helped her stay cool. For a summer day, it wasn’t that bad. She headed for her car, ignoring the growing fatigue and lightheadedness plaguing her for the past few days.

Dammit she almost forgot to buy some Iron and B12 pills. She grumbled her way into the pharmacy near the lot where she’d parked her car. Her cell phone rang at the same time she walked into the store, and she almost tripped while trying to answer it and hold the heavy door open. Clearly she couldn’t do more than one thing at a time.

“Hey, Jordan.” She smiled making her way to the vitamin section. She needed a nap really bad.

“How are you doing?” Jordan’s voice sounded worried.

“Tired, but I’m getting my vitamins. What’s up? Is Emma making you insane with more blue?” She felt for her friend. Emma could get completely OCD with a project.

“She’s okay. Though if she mentions a pattern again, I may drag Aric to Vegas and say to hell with it.” She groaned. “But I’m not calling about Emma. I’m more concerned with you.”

Browsing through the multitude of organic vitamins, she grabbed her usual bottle of Iron and multivitamins. “Why? You know I get like this when I forget to take Iron and B12. I keep forgetting I’m probably the world’s only chubby anemic.”

“Not funny.” Jordan chastised Karla’s lame joke.

“I’m fine. Really.”

“Karla,” Jordan said slowly, “I want you to do something, but I don’t want you to freak out, okay?”

“If you ask me to buy you lube, I draw the line at that. I love you, but you can get your own.” She ran her fingers into her hair, pushing the annoying curls back.

“Karla...”

“Okay, fine. I’ll buy you lube, but don’t you dare tell the others.”

“It’s not that!”

She leaned on a wall of pills to hold back the lightheadedness she felt. Jordan was starting to worry her with how serious she sounded. The last time that happened they’d ended up getting put on probation at their school. It wasn’t their fault the fire alarms went off and everyone ended up wet from their science project. Thankfully, Karla’s brother Kel was the trial dean there. Being super smart got him through school early and he was handpicked after college as vice-dean at the school due to his great ideas on education and leadership. Recently, he’d been asked to lead when the dean took a leave of absence. Kel ignored some of the stuff they did. Okay, he ignored a lot of the stuff they did and treated them like five year olds who needed supervision. “What? Damn I need some food or I swear I am going to pass out.”

“I want you to pee on a stick.”

“What?” The room shifted. She saw a moving blurry wave of bottles. It happened so fast she swore she’d fall on her face. Her knees buckled under her and she slid down the wall. Plastic containers rattled on her descent as she knocked them down before landing on her ass with a thump.

“Karla, don’t panic, honey. But I really think you should buy a test,” Jordan said without actually saying what test. “The last time I saw you…”

Karla tried to rein in her fear, but it was hard. “The last time you saw me what?”

“You smelled different.”

“Different?” Karla frowned, lifting an arm to rub it under her nose. Nothing different there. “Different how?”

“Like your scent was mixed with another,” Jordan said quietly.

Nothing like a friend calling you up on the phone to tell you that you smelled pregnant.

Jordan knew Karla had always said she wouldn’t have kids until she was in a stable relationship and married. Right now, she was neither. She didn’t want to make the same mistakes as her mother. Living for a man that was never there for her. Ignoring the children most days because she was too worried about spying on their father. Karla knew that wasn’t what she wanted. She’d lived it from the child’s perspective. She was one-third of a triplet set and only got along with her brother, Kel. Her sister—her identical sister Kassandra—was the triplet from hell. Being neglected by their mom because she was too wrapped up in their father had been eye-opening and not something she ever wanted to put a child or herself through.