Rule 5: No secrets...unless kept from daddy
I slip up and watch a young couple pass, as we lounge at a secluded table in the Tops casino courtyard. Somethings Gotta Give is playing and I'm already on edge, the irony between us is painful. I suppose its the way I tilt my head - or maybe its the involuntary, airy sigh I give - that gives me away, the yearning for storybook romance.
"You can never have that."
I glare at him then hesitate, his...proposition in my head. I swallow and scratch the back of my right hand. My skin is crawling, itches. Maybe its the perfume in the air. The music thrumming around us. The handsome Courier still plaguing my mind hours after seeing him. No, no I am not attracted to Courier 6. Richie.
"You think I don't know that," I spit.
He takes a sip of his Nuka and scotch, humming with undeserved self-satisfaction. Dad would shit bricks if he saw that, or the way Vulpes grins at me - all teeth. I wonder if he knew just how loyal the Fox was...how loyal I was.
"Pairings are to be noted and filed by the end of next month..."
And...
" I don' know if I can be paired with one of the fertile men my age," my throat constricts, chest aches. A panic attack? "I just...they're like my brothers. I trained most of them."
"And yet, I see you oggling them most of the time."
I shake my head. "Don't mak -"
"You can choose, you know?"My little wallflower...
"God dammit."
"So," he leans closer to me, knocking his bowler hat off the small table. "What do you say?"
I stare at him, arms crossed on the table. I thrum my fingers before rubbing my throat, staring into icy blue eyes. Did he know he put me on the spot? He made my hands clammy, my pulse race...
"I'm pregnant..."