it is!”
“You don’t really mean that.” He looked almost sad. “Faye, you can’t mean that. You can’t think that selling yourself is the way you want to spend the rest of your life. The girl I knew wouldn’t want this life.” The mask of hate was gone and in its place something else, something torn up, hurt. The sight of it killed something inside me, making me angrier.
“What difference does it make to you? You don’t even know me, not anymore!” I shouted. “I came with you to put my mother to rest. Not to change my life. I didn’t sign up for this shit.” I couldn’t go to the doctor. I just couldn’t. The last time I went to a woman’s doctor flashed into my head and I immediately pushed the thought away.
“Your mom would have wanted to help you, for you to help yourself,” he said the words like he was talking to a child. Like I was just some pathetic baby.
“My mom didn’t give a shit about me.” I wiped the tears from my eyes with the back of my hand.
“How could you really think that, Faye? She looked for you for a long time.” He looked sad, like I was breaking his heart.
“This is stupid.” I clutched my trembling hands in my lap. “We were just supposed to go shopping.”
“You’re not going to tell a soul, Faye, you got it? Sometimes you have to do things you don’t like. It’s part of being a woman.”
I pushed the voice away, her voice.
“You’re scared?”
I glanced back at Rhett. There wasn’t any hate in his gaze. Nothing but concern and curiosity, like he was trying to figure me out.
I chewed the inside of my lip and nodded. Why did you just admit that? Don’t be weak!
One of Rhett’s big hands covered my trembling ones. The touch shocked me, more because I had seen the disgust in his face the night before. The way he covered himself in hand sanitizer just from touching me.
“I’ll go in with you. I won’t leave you alone. Okay?”
I glanced up into his eyes. He was closer now. Less than a foot away. So close I could see the little ring of honey brown on the inside of his irises. This was the Rhett I remembered. The kind guy who was passionate about fish and weird cartoons, the guy who cared.
I took a deep breath. Just tell him no. Hell no. “Okay.” I heard myself say. What the fuck? “But this doesn’t change anything,” I added, getting a grip on myself. “I’m going back after the funeral.”
My words seemed to irritate him, but he didn’t comment, just nodded and removed his hand. Mine still trembled in my lap, against the too-large yoga pants. The loss of his touch left me feeling bereft and lonely.
“Ready?”
I chewed my lip and reached for the door handle. “Fuck. Let’s just get it over with.”
“Okay, Ms. Turner, you can sit up now.” Dr. Paul clicked off the light that pointed between my legs.
I let out a deep breath and relaxed the hand that had Rhett’s in a death lock. He sat up near my head, out of the way of a crotch shot, not that it mattered. Hundreds of men had seen my pussy, even if they hadn’t seen it, they had felt it with their cocks. Fuck, I’d even offered Rhett the chance to be one of those lucky men last night, but for some reason once we were there in the doctor’s office, I didn’t want him to see me like that—all splayed out with a probe in my cunt.
It didn’t make the least bit of sense. Maybe it was because the doctor’s office made it more real, made the fact that I had fucked tons of faceless men, plenty without a condom, seem more wrong than it ever had. Fuck. What’s going on with me?
I rubbed my nose and sat up slowly, pushing the ugly blue gown down over my hips. I brushed away the wetness around my eyes with the shoulder of my gown, hoping neither of them noticed.
“I don’t see any obvious signs of an STD, but I took swabs for testing so we will know in the next couple weeks. Have you had any irritation that you can think of?”
I shook my head. “No.”
Dr. Paul nodded,