Chapter 2: Two Pink Lines

“Fine, one dance,” I said, and I put my hand in his before I could change my mind.

“One dance, that is what they all say, and then they ask for three,” Kade said, pulling me into the crowd.

“I am not like them, I am only here for an hour,” I said.

“I know, you keep saying it like a rule,” he said, spinning me slowly. “I usually stand in the corner with a drink and let people come to me, but tonight I walked across the room, and I still do not know why.”

“Maybe you were bored,” I said.

“I was very bored, and then I watched you laugh at your friend and cover your mouth, like laughing was against the law,” Kade said.

“In my family it is nearly illegal,” I said.

He laughed, and I felt it all the way in my stomach.

“What do you do, Red?” he asked.

“I run a company, fourteen hours a day, and I am very good at it,” I said, lifting my chin.

“Then why do you look at the floor when you walk?” he asked.

“Because the floor never talks back,” I said.

His hand stopped moving on my back, and he looked at me for so long that I thought I had said something wrong.

“What?” I asked.

“Nothing, I just figured out what is different about you, you have no idea how good you are,” Kade said.

“You have known me for twenty minutes,” I said.

“Twenty minutes is plenty when someone is not pretending,” he said.

“Careful, I might believe you,” I said.

“Believe me, I am a terrible liar when I like someone,” he said, with a small crooked smile. “Ask me for something, you never ask for anything, I can tell.”

“Kiss me,” I said.

He did, slowly at first, as if he were giving me every chance to stop him, and then not slowly at all, and I held his shirt in both fists as if the floor might disappear.

“Come with me,” he said against my mouth. “No names, no promises, just tonight.”

“Why no promises?” I asked, out of breath.

“Because I am bad at staying, I leave before sunrise, it is the one thing I have always been honest about,” Kade said.

“Then we are both honest, and I will not ask for more,” I said, and I meant it, because I was twenty four years old and I thought I could carry that deal like a coat.

His hotel room had a window full of city lights, and he stood behind me while I looked at them.

“Last chance to run, Red,” he whispered against my neck.

“If you stop now, I will never forgive you,” I said.

“Then hold on,” he said, and he reached over and switched off the lamp.

~~~

When I opened my eyes, the room was bright, and the other side of the bed was cold.

“Hello?” I said softly, sitting up with the sheet against my chest, and the only answer was the hum of the air conditioner.

“He told you, Mina, he leaves before sunrise, you knew the deal,” I told myself, and I laughed a shaky little laugh, because knowing a deal and living inside it are two different things.

My phone buzzed on the nightstand, fourteen missed calls and a row of messages, all from Dean.

“Babe where are you, I am worried sick,” I read out loud, “you were so worried you did not even check the hallway.”

That was when I saw the small white card on the floor near the door, face down, one corner bent, as if it had slipped out of a pocket on the way out, and I picked it up and felt the silver letters with my thumb.

“Kade Voss,” I read slowly. “Chief Executive Officer, Voss Group.”

My stomach dropped, because I knew that name, I had heard it through my own front door only hours before, from the man who said his billionaire boss changed girls faster than his suits.

“No, no, no,” I whispered. “I just spent the night with Dean’s boss.”

The phone rang in my hand, and I answered it before I could think.

“Mina, where are you, I came home and the door was locked, I have been calling all night,” Dean said.

“I know, I heard you, all of it, through my own front door, and your things will be on the lawn by noon,” I said.

“Mina, wait, let me explain, it is not what it sounds like,” Dean said.

“It is exactly what it sounds like, goodbye, Dean,” I said.

“You think you can just throw me away, you are nothing without me, nobody else will ever want you,” Dean said, his voice turning ugly.

“Somebody wanted me last night,” I said, before I could stop myself.

“What does that mean?” Dean asked, and then the line went quiet. “I always get what I want, Mina, remember that.”

I hung up, and my hands shook, and I held the card against my chest.

Three weeks later I was kneeling on the bathroom floor of my own office, throwing up coffee I had not even drunk.

“Miss Hale, are you alive in there?” Tina called through the door.

“I am fine, it is just stress,” I said weakly.

“You have been saying that for a week,” Tina said, and I heard a second set of heels.

“Mina, open the door, I brought your favorite salad,” Zola said.

“Zola, please, take it away, the smell,” I said, and I threw up again.

Zola pushed the door open and crouched beside me, and the jokes were gone from her face.

“You cried at a dog food commercial on Tuesday, you threw up at my perfume on Monday, and you ate seven crackers yesterday, when was the last time everything was normal?” Zola asked.

“I do not know,” I said, and I counted backward in my head, week by week, and I stopped counting at a hotel room with a green light on the door.

“Zola,” I whispered.

“Do not say it yet, we need proof, wash your face, we are going to the pharmacy,” Zola said.

Twenty minutes later we sat on the edge of my bathtub with five little white sticks lined up on a towel and Zola’s phone timer ticking.

“I cannot look,” I said, my knees pulled to my chest.

“Then I will look, you just breathe,” Zola said, and she held my hand until the timer beeped.

She stood and walked to the sink, and I watched her back go still.

“What does it say?” I asked.

“Let me check the other four,” Zola said, picking them up with shaking hands.

“Zola, please, say something,” I said.

“Two lines,” Zola said, turning around with tears in her eyes. “All five, two lines, every single one.”

I stood up and looked down at the row of little sticks, and my hand moved to my stomach all by itself.

“He left before sunrise, Zola, he does not even know my real name,” I whispered, and I pulled the card from my bag, and the silver letters read Kade Voss, the billionaire who never remembers a girl’s name, and I was carrying his child.