Author Anonymous_ A True Story - E.K. Blair Page 0,36

my exhaustion, lying in the warmth of my bed where I had two orgasms with him earlier, I throw the lies out the window and confess.

Me: I guess I wanted to know you were real.

Alec: I’m not real to you?

Me: You are now.

Alec: I’ve always been real, Victoria.

Landon shifts, and I turn around to make sure he’s still asleep before returning to my phone.

Me: Can I ask you something?

Alec: Anything.

Me: You saw me watching you and you gave me a look . . . a smirk. Why?

Alec: Because you came to me.

My eyes absorb those five words until they swim out of focus and the pang I felt earlier returns.

Alec: Come to me again.

Me: It’s late. And I’m nervous.

Alec: I’ll wait then. I don’t want you to be scared with me.

Me: You’re just so different than what I’m used to.

Alec: And how do you think I feel? You’re nothing like what I’m used to either. Your views, your modesty, your resistance, your values. I share your same hesitations.

Me: I guess I never saw it from your standpoint.

Alec: Let’s talk more tomorrow. It’s late and you need to sleep.

Me: Good night.

Alec: Good night, Victoria.

Setting my phone back on my nightstand, I close my eyes, but sleep refuses to find me as I wonder what it is I’m doing with this game I’ve created with Alec.

Brooke and I pile into the back of her husband’s Escalade with the kids. It’s a tradition with our two families that we visit the Belkin Family Farm at the peak of autumn every year. Landon was the first to bring me here back when we were dating, and I fell in love with it. It wasn’t until Brooke and Chris had their son that we all started going together.

The three kids situate themselves in the very back while Brooke and I buckle into the second row bucket seats. The guys are up front, chatting about the New England Patriots game last week, oblivious to the mayhem of laughter as Emily and Jill play with Ryder. We head south, and the drive takes a little over a half-hour before we arrive at the 180-acre farm, which boasts train rides, hay pyramids, farm animals, mazes, hay rides, face painting, and more. It’s enough to keep the kids entertained for the whole day, but the main reason for our visits each year is the apple, pear, and pumpkin picking.

“You have no idea how good it feels to finally have a day off,” Landon tells me as we walk hand in hand.

I look to him as the kids run around in excitement, trying to decide what they want to do first, and smile. “Remember the first time you brought me here?”

“How could I forget? That group of kids caught us kissing with my hand up your shirt while we were in the orchards.”

My head falls against his arm as I recall the squealing and laughter that erupted as Landon groped me. He thought we’d be well hidden among the plum trees, since their picking season had already passed, but a group of wanderers found us. I was flushed with embarrassment but Landon laughed it off. Those memories feel like a lifetime ago. No longer are we two young kids making out in the orchard. We are now husband and wife—parents—who are consumed by busy and stressful careers and who are, more often than not, passersby in the early mornings and late nights. Sure, we had spontaneous sex the other night, but that was a rare occurrence.

I can’t remember the last time we spent a day like this as a family, so I do my best to focus on Landon and the girls, but thoughts of Alec creep in when I least expect them to. The girls get their faces painted, Brooke and I laugh as they jump wildly in the bounce houses, and I cuddle into Landon’s arms as we go on a hay ride. Hours pass, and yet fleeting thoughts of Alec infiltrate moments where he shouldn’t belong. I tell myself it’s because this is the first day since we crossed paths that we haven’t talked. It feels strange when every day this week has been consumed with him. We can barely go twenty minutes without, at the very least, sending a text. And now that Landon has a day off, I’m no longer afforded the luxury of time to converse with my new friend.

“I didn’t take my birth control pill this morning,” Brooke tells me quietly as we