Perfect Together by Kristen Ashley

Especially after his dad sat him down and shared that Myrna wasn’t taking the breakup real great, she was doing some weird shit, and Sabre had to be on the lookout because of it.

Dad didn’t dog her, but Sabre could tell he was tweaked about it.

And now, seeing her standing there, Sabre was too.

Then again, after she was gone from his dad’s, but before his dad chatted with him, he’d texted her to say he was sorry it didn’t work out and maybe they could grab coffee sometime.

He did this because he dug her. She was a cool chick. When Dad wasn’t around, she smoked pot by the pool, and she mountain biked, and she had that old truck because, “we discard things we shouldn’t and we’ll pay for it soon, Sabre, seriously.” This meant she gave a shit about important stuff, like the environment.

So yeah.

She was cool.

A decent person.

Sabre would never say his dad played her dirty.

But to Sabre’s way of thinking, as hard as it was to admit this to himself, Dad hadn’t done Myrna right because he never should have let her move in.

This was because it wasn’t lost on anyone Remy didn’t really even let her move in. None of her stuff was anywhere, except her truck in the garage and her coconut milk in the fridge. But nothing personal. Nothing that meant anything.

Seriously, it felt like she was just staying over but for a really long time.

More importantly because his dad and mom were always going to get back together.

Sabre didn’t know what blip they were having, but from the very beginning, even though it lasted too long, he didn’t freak about it like Manon and Yves did, because he knew it was a blip.

So, from the beginning, he knew Myrna was temporary.

And his dad treated her like that.

He wasn’t mean or anything.

But he was never (not even close) with Myrna like he was with their mom.

Jesus, he was more into their mom when they were broken up than he ever was with Myrna.

Myrna wasn’t sixteen. She was an older woman. Maybe she knew the score.

But Sah figured women might not ever get over that kind of shit, seeing things as they wanted to see them, instead of how they really were.

Sabre was only twenty-two and he’d already had that kind of crap up in his face more than once.

So yeah.

He wasn’t feeling her being in Tucson, on campus, waiting for him outside his class because she had never come down to visit him at school, not alone, also not with Remy when he came down.

He went to U of A so that didn’t take any super sleuthing.

But to be outside his class?

What? Did she somehow scam on where he lived and follow him or something?

So, was she standing out there for an hour waiting to ambush him?

Okay, yeah.

Dad was right.

Sah hadn’t even said hey to her, and he knew his dad had downplayed it.

She wasn’t doing weird shit.

She was doing super weird shit.

She bopped forward in a way that he’d never seen her move, all fake casual and girlie.

“Hey, Sah!” she cried.

He moved toward her, and when he got close, he said, “Hey. What are you doing here?”

“Wondered if we could go grab a beer or something?” she asked.

He shook his head. “Sorry. No. Yeah, I mean, when I’m back home, maybe we could do something to keep in touch.” Never gonna happen, not now. “But I’ve got something I gotta do.”

She looked weird, panicked or some shit, when she pushed, “Okay. But do you have, like, ten minutes, like, right now? It’s important we talk.”

“About what?” he asked uncertainly.

She got another weird look, it seemed fake serious when she said, “Your dad.”

Here we go.

Fuck.

“What about Dad?”

She glanced side to side, reached in, grabbed his hand and started walking him toward a door.

Because he didn’t want to seem like a dick by pulling away, especially from some chick who’d just been dumped, he let her hold his hand for a few strides. Then he broke free to open the door and they walked outside.

He led her to an area in the quad where there weren’t a lot of people and turned to her.

“Okay, what’s happening?” he prompted.

She glanced around and requested, “Can we go somewhere and sit down?”

Occasionally, when his dad was working late or out of town on a job, Sabre had been alone with her, but only because they lived in the same house. They’d never intentionally spent time together and had not once been out somewhere together.

This was hella bizarre and it was giving him the creeps.

“Right, Myrna, I don’t want to seem like an asshole, and I know you and my dad’s breakup is new, but this is freaking me out.”

She jumped toward him again and he braced. He also didn’t feel a lot better when she grabbed onto his biceps and squeezed.

He didn’t think she’d ever touched him.

Now, with the hand holding, she’d done it twice.

“I know this is weird. And I’m sorry it’s weird,” she said earnestly. But he sensed that was fake too. All of it. Including her being sorry. “And I’m sorry it’s going to get worse, but I don’t know where to take this.”

“Take what?”

“I’m pregnant and your dad kicked me out because I want the baby, and he wants me to get an abortion.”