Jake
I bristled. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Dude, Griffin is my best friend!” he cried. “Maybe you’ve heard of me? Rafael?”
His name sounded vaguely familiar. At least that explained why he was tailing me like a puppy after he found out Griffin was calling me.
“Why are you so surprised to find out who I am?” I asked, crossing my arms.
Rafael scratched the back of his neck with one hand, still holding the box of condoms in the other. Then he realized it was awkward to have a conversation that way and set them aside on a shelf.
“I dunno,” he said. “I guess I wasn’t expecting you to be so…”
“Sowhat?” I snapped.
Rafael grinned. “Feisty?”
“Ugh.” I rolled my eyes.
“But, wait,” Rafael murmured. “All that stuff you were yelling about before… What kind of pills were you talking about?”
I couldn’t believe the gall of this alpha. “That’s not any of your damn business.”
Rafael’s brows knitted together, both in concern and thought. “You can’t mean birth control pills, since you sounded way too freaked out for that…” His eyes widened in shock and he asked in a sharp whisper, “Are you talking about morning-after pills?”
The hair on the back of my neck rose. I stepped away from Rafael. “Mind your own fucking business!”
But Rafael wouldn’t back off. He didn’t enter my space but he opened his arms in a vulnerable gesture. “Wait. Don’t freak out, please. I want to help.”
He spoke quickly, like I’d run off at any moment, and I guess I couldn’t blame him for thinking that because that’s definitely what I wanted to do right now.
“Griffin is my friend,” he continued softly. “And if you’re the Jake he’s dating - ”
“We arenotdating,” I stated.
“Oh. Wait.” His expression screwed up. “You’re not?”
“No! Did he tell you that?”
Rafael looked sheepish. “Well, no, actually… I just thought - ”
“Well, you thought wrong,” I growled. I was mildly relieved to find out that Griffin wasn’t going around telling his friends we were a couple, at least.
“But you are sleeping together,” Rafael said quietly. “Right?”
I narrowed my eyes at him in a glare, which he took as an affirmative.
“Oh man,” Rafael mumbled. “This is… This could be bad.”
“What?” I asked.
He paced down the aisle, then stopped. “Maybe we should talk outside.”
Suspicion flared in me, but it was overwhelmed by curiosity. Rafael looked serious about whatever he wanted to say.
“Fine,” I conceded.
We exited the pharmacy and found a secluded area in the lobby of the building with less foot traffic. Rafael took a seat on the bench and gazed at me expectantly. I groaned and sat on the opposite end. My legs bounced with restlessness. The back of my mind prickled with stress from all the things I still needed to deal with.
