“Charlotte, I will f-u-c-k your s-h-i-t up if you don’t stop smiling at me like that.” She starts laughing and holding her stomach while she tries to control herself. She wipes the tears from her eyes and works through her laughter.
“You can’t make me laugh like that. I’m going to pee myself.” She stops laughing eventually and motions with her hand for me to continue.
“He’s been going to my gym,” I say, and I watch Charlotte’s cheeks heat. I glare at her but continue. “And well, you know that he makes me act like an idiot when he’s around. I act like a simpering woman around him, and it’s pathetic.”
“It’s not pathetic, Piper.”
“It is. I’m an Alpha, I’m a doctor, for fuck’s sake. He makes me… I don’t know what exactly he makes me.”
“Fuck is a bad word, Auntie P,” Katie interrupts, my face going red as Charlotte gives me a look.
“Bad Auntie P, we’ll make her pay into the swear jar.” Katie claps her hands, and I glare at Charlotte who shrugs her shoulders. “She’s going to be able to pay for college with that jar, I swear.”
I pull out a five dollar bill and hand it to my niece, who smiles and goes back to eating and watching her show. “Little con artist.”
Charlotte smiles and shakes her head, going back to our previous conversation. “He makes you feel like you’re just Piper,” she says nonchalantly and bites into a piece of pizza.
“What?”
She sighs and puts down the pizza. “The bar has always been so high for you, Piper. Your dad—” She thankfully stops and shakes her head, noting how uncomfortable I am. “I just don’t think you’re used to someone wanting you for you. He doesn’t care that you’re an Alpha or a doctor. He just likes you, and what’s wrong with that?”
“I’m busy, so I can’t handle a relationship. I’ve got to get through my residency, and things aren’t going to slow down for years. Someone like Alexi wants a pack, wants an Omega.”
Charlotte tilts her head as she looks me over. “You’ve never wanted to be an Omega.”
“No, I haven’t. But an Alpha male like him, he’s going to want an Omega.” Charlotte scoffs, and I blink at her. “Go ahead, say it, Charles.”
“You want an Omega too.”
“Yeah, in like ten years from now.”
She waves me off. “Okay, but what are you freaking out about, exactly?”
I pour more wine and down it back. Katie is completely immersed in the show, so I talk in a whisper.
“He kind of, sort of, finger fucked me in the gym showers.”
“What!” she shouts, and that gets Katie’s attention. Charlotte waves her off, and Katie gives us a look of irritation before going back to her show and pizza. “How was it?” is her first question, and if she wasn’t pregnant, I’d probably push her shoulder.
“That’s not the point.”
“Oh, that so is the point.”
I sip more of my wine and shake my head. “It was amazing.”
Charlotte smiles and lies back down, wrapping her leg around a pillow. “So what’s the problem?”
“I can’t be with someone in that capacity, not yet.”
“So then how exactly did you go from ‘I can’t do a relationship’ to the captain of the Foxes having his hand in your pants?”
I finish my glass and pour another. I guess we’re going to be turning this into a sleepover tonight.
“I told him that I couldn’t do a relationship, and he was all ‘well, whatcanyou do?’ So I told him I just wanted to turn off my mind, and he definitely excelled at that.”
“So you’re hooking up?”
“I don’t know?”
