Like a Boss - Annabelle Costa Page 0,72

help but think about Luke. Is Jenna right? Am I making a mistake by not giving him another chance? I’ve dated a lot of guys over the years, but I’ve never felt this way about anyone before. Maybe it’s a mistake to throw it all away.

“By the way,” Jenna says, “thanks for saving my life, Ellie.”

“You’re very welcome,” I say.

Chapter 29

Okay, this is almost too embarrassing for words.

I’m sitting in my doctor’s office, wearing a gown so that goosebumps run up and down my skinny arms. I came in under the guise of being overdue for my annual exam, but pretty much the second I got in, I ‘fessed up the real reason I came in, which is that I wanted to be checked for STDs.

My doctor is Dr. Booth, a woman whose age I can’t pin down any closer than “well over sixty.” This woman could possibly be one of the first female doctors in the country, and she always seems a little disapproving of everything I tell her. And before now, I’d never even given her anything to be disapproving of. But here’s the thing—Luke was lying about a lot of things, so who’s to say he wasn’t lying about his sexual exploits? Who knows what he’s capable of? It’s better safe than sorry.

So I had to explain to Dr. Booth that I had sex with someone with a questionable past and thought I needed to be checked out and… well, let’s just say that she gave me quite a frowning.

“Oh, Eleanor,” she sighed, shaking her head. “And you didn’t use a condom?”

I feel like some stupid kid in a high school after-school special. Why oh why didn’t we use a condom? At the time we started having sex, it seemed like Luke and I were in competition for the Abstinence Olympics. Plus, and I’m going to be straight here, Luke depended a lot on direct sensation to keep his erections. So wearing a condom made him fizzle a bit. I’m sure he would have worn one anyway if I asked him to, but I greedily preferred the erection. Now I’ll probably pay for it with a scorching case of herpes.

“No,” I say awkwardly. I add, “Sorry.”

Dr. Booth sighs again, like she doesn’t know what to do with me, and I don’t blame her. I was stupid. It will not happen again. Ever.

So I’ve donated both urine and blood for sampling. I’m getting the golden STD screening panel, including all the best diseases, like gonorrhea, Chlamydia, syphilis, hepatitis C, and best of all, HIV. When Dr. Booth said that, I practically fainted. I can’t imagine Luke Thayer having HIV, but they say anyone can have it, right?

As I sit alone in the examining room, waiting for Dr. Booth to come back in, I hate Luke just about as much as I ever did.

It’s now been over a month since Luke and I broke up. He’s made a few low-key attempts to make amends. He’s sent me flowers and candy. The most important thing he’s done is to call all the members of my team who he laid off and offer them their jobs back. Everyone but Jenna accepted. In any case, it doesn’t matter. It’s over between me and Luke. And I suspect he realizes that.

After I’ve been waiting in this tiny, freezing exam room for what feels like hours, Dr. Booth enters with a grim expression on her face. My stomach sinks. Oh God. It’s bad news, for sure. Oh shit, do I have HIV? Oh no no no… but wait, doesn’t that test take days to come back? So, maybe it’s just gonorrhea then.

Please let it be gonorrhea.

“Eleanor,” she says in a low voice.

My heart is pounding so hard in my chest, I can barely hear my own voice eke out, “Yes?”

“You’re pregnant,” she says.

I’m… what?

No, I can’t be pregnant. I can’t. I mean, I literally cannot be pregnant. “That’s impossible,” I say. “There must be some mistake.”

“It’s not a mistake,” Dr. Booth says.

“Yes, it is,” I say confidently. “I haven’t had sex since my last period. So I can’t be pregnant.” Unless it was an immaculate conception.

“Ah, yes,” Dr. Booth says, “but was your last period normal? You know, sometimes when the fertilized egg implants, there can be some bleeding.”

Oh no.

She’s right. My last period was much lighter than normal. I attributed it to the stress of the break-up and didn’t think anything of it.

“What were you using for birth control?” she asks.

My face turns