Eventually she couldn’t tell where she ended and he began, but she could feel him giving her endless bursts of pleasure as he slid in and out, in and out, always finding a way to take her higher than the moment before.
And when he finally finished, she felt it go deep inside and she wrapped her legs tightly around him, locking her ankles and squeezing him deeper still.
“Oh, Nicole,” he whispered. “Nicole, my love, my love. I finally found you.”
***
Had it all been just a dream?
Nicole couldn’t believe how the time had flown since coming back from Belize. It turned out that there was a price to pay for turning off cell phones for days and days on end.
And both of them were paying a high price indeed.
As soon as they got home, Red was back at the agency, working fifteen and even some eighteen-hour days.
As it turned out, Erikson Bikes had loved the pitch and given Red’s company a huge amount of work. They wanted him to help them roll out an entire new line of bikes and it meant print ads and TV ads and web advertising.
After a week of barely seeing her new husband, Nicole had come back to work as his executive assistant, and she’d been right by his side for many of those eighteen-hour days. It wasn’t easy, but it was exciting. They were, after all, building something together.
The days blended together and then became weeks. She hardly had time to return Danielle’s calls, let alone see her for lunch. Nicole didn’t see anyone, except for her co-workers and Red.
Eventually, she knew, things would slow down. Something would have to give. And finally it did.
On a day like any other, everything changed yet again.
It was perhaps six or seven weeks after their wedding that Nicole got a very strange email.
It came in at just after seven in the morning, when she’d barely even managed to open her eyes. She was in the office, of course, because Red was coming in so early and he demanded it of everyone else. Besides, she was his assistant and his wife.
Still, at the moment in question, she was cursing the day he’d started this company.
Sipping her coffee and wishing the caffeine would hurry up and kick in, Nicole saw an email appear in her inbox with a familiar name attached.
Opening the email, Nicole found that her heart was now racing and she had an uneasy feeling in her stomach.
Dear Nicole,
I know you are probably surprised (and likely not in a pleasant way) to hear from me in this fashion. Not a day has gone by since my visit that I haven’t thought about my poor treatment of you.
And of course, I’m not proud of the way I treated my son, either.
The truth is that I was scared. I was scared because for the first time in Red’s life, he’d found a woman that he cared about more than me. I know that sounds silly and perhaps even sick.
But it’s the God’s honest truth and I feel I owe it to you to be honest.
I miss having my son in my life, Nicole. And I miss getting to know the daughter that I could have had, if I’d only been able to see past my own selfishness and insecurity.
I hope that you can find it in your heart to forgive me and perhaps allow for the possibility of me returning, in some small way, to play a part in your new family.
Hopefully this email finds you well. I am so happy to know that the two of you are married and starting your lives together.
I will wait to hear from you.
Love,
Erica
Nicole closed the email and turned away from the computer, suddenly aware that her stomach was churning and bubbling in a most unpleasant way.
“Oh, God,” she muttered, before leaning over and throwing up into her wastebasket beside her desk.
She quickly grabbed a tissue and wiped her mouth, crumpled it, and threw it in the basket.
Was it possible that reading that email from Red’s mother could have so upset her?
Nicole didn’t think so. In fact, as she considered it further, she realized that it had been too long since her last period. And this upset stomach was incredibly similar to what she’d experienced the last time…
She shook her head. No, she couldn’t allow herself to get her hopes up again.
But what if?
Nicole thought back to the wedding. It had been just about seven weeks now, and so it made sense from that perspective as well.
Heart pounding again—but this time for a different reason—she got up and ran from the office.
She went down the stairs two at a time, jogged about a block and a half to the nearest CVS, and bought a pregnancy test.
Even doing it, Nicole thought it was impossible. It was a coincidence, it had to be.
A few minutes later, she was in a stall in the office ladies room, peeing onto a stick and then sitting there, watching to see what came up.
Her forehead and armpits were sweaty from running down the street and back, and she was basically a mess at this point. But Nicole didn’t care about any of that—all she wanted to know was the answer to this one question.
Minutes later still, she was walking into Red’s office and closing the door behind her.
Red looked up from his computer, distracted. “Hey, what’s going on?”