Denouement by M. O. Kenyan Read Free Book Online Page B

comforting arms. He
seemed to be able to gather her up whenever she was falling apart. She turned
to the rest of the table that included Jessie, Tobias and a few other crew members,
“This is Chris. Chris this is everyone.”
    “Not everyone, said Jessie. I’m the one who tapes the
pieces back together when she’s falling apart.” Jessie stood up and managed to
get a one armed hug.
    “Who’s the guy staring dagger eyesat me?” Chris whispered to Marietta.
    “What do you mean?” Marietta looked around, unsure why
someone wouldn’t like Chris when they had just met him. That was when she
spotted Tobias and true to what Chris said, his eyes looked murderous.
    Before Marietta could process what the look was
supposed to mean, McKenzie came out with the birthday cake. It had twenty six
lit up candles on it and a script design on the top. She bore through the singing
and then blew out the candles. She read the words on the cake but got hung up
on one, ‘birth’. Marietta swallowed hard and tried to remember when her last
period was. But she had been too busy and her poor diet meant her period
fluctuated. She looked around and no one seemed to have noticed her panic.
McKenzie was busy sharing the cake with the group and Chris seemed to be taken
with whatever Jessie was telling her. Marietta moved around the dining room
looking for Tobias.
    When she finally found him, he was in a corner
watching her once more. And Sarah was there, hanging on his arm like a forgotten
sleeve. Trying not to get irritated, she walked across the room.
    “Hi, can I talk to you for a second?”
    “Sure,” he muttered.
    “But—” Sarah began to protest.
    “Let go,” Tobias said sternly.
    “You didn’t have to snap at her,” Marietta said once
they were out of the dining area.
    “What did you want to tell me? Before that, who is
that guy?” Tobias looked imposing. His hands were tucked in his pockets as if
he was keeping himself from doing something. He rocked back and forth on his
heels and his eyes burrowed holes in her skull.
    “He’s a close friend of mine. He used to be my
boyfriend.”
    “Why is he here?”
    “Listen, I don’t owe you any explanations. I just
wanted to ask you one thing.” She took in a deep breath. “Earlier during—”
    “When we had sex,” he finished.
    “Yeah, when that happened. I
was a bit preoccupied, I didn’t notice if you had a—” She found herself choking
on the word. She glanced at Tobias but he didn’t seem to know where she was
going with her question.
    He shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t read minds.”
    “Did you have a condom on?” Marietta let the words
spill out of her mouth the whole time looking at his chest and not his eyes.
    “No, why? Don’t you use birth
control or something?” Tobias shrugged like it wasn’t a big deal.
    “No I don’t. I don’t go popping pills, hoping that someone
is going to burst into my room and have their way with me. I am not dating any
one and I haven’t had sex since—” She fell silent. She didn’t want Tobias to
know that he had been her first in almost nine years. “I don’t have a reason to
be taking birth control.”
    “Are you worried?” He stiffened then combed his
fingers through his shaggy hair. “Don’t you have some map or calendar safe day
thing.”
    Marietta scratched the back of her head at odds as to what
to say.
    “If you get pregnant we can raise the baby together.
It’s not a big deal.”
    Marietta was taken aback at how calm he sounded.
Talking about a baby the same way he would refer to a dog. “My father left when
I was nine and my mother killed herself just after my brother died because she
couldn’t bear to raise only one of her children and the guilt of... What makes
you think I would make a good parent?” She hissed at him, the anger taking her
over and forgetting her filter.
    Tobias’ calm demeanor disappeared and he stared at her
as if she had suddenly grown a new head. He made an attempt to