Page 132 of Just Wait

“We can make a list and send the roadies out⁠—”

“No.” Her head shakes. “I need to be the one to go,” she whispers. “Kincaid’s giant dick fucked me right into starting my period. I found two tampons at the bottom of my purse, but I also need to find a laundromat. God, I’m so out of practice. My birth control implant has spoiled me. I usually only have to deal with this a couple times a year, and they’re always easy.” She pulls her hand to her abdomen. “This is awful.”

“The roadies also handle washing all our laundry. We leave them bags by the door three or four times a week, and they come back the same day…” I trail off at her expression. “You know what? We have some time before the show. I’m sure we can find a laundromat and a pharmacy with no trouble.”

“Thank you,” she whispers, her eyes falling shut. “Having this conversation with you is embarrassing enough. I’m not forcing random people to wash my bloody clothes and sheets.”

“Hey,” I murmur, brushing her hair back and tucking it behind her ear. “There’s no reason to be embarrassed. It’s part of life. Three little sisters, remember?”

Her lashes flutter open. “Thanks, Ry.”

I nod as she takes off for the bathroom.

I’m in so much fucking trouble.

I love it when she calls me Ry.

It could just be that I was the first person she ran into, but I also love that she was comfortable enough to come to me.

Okay, I need to get myself together. I have to find Benji and get us an escort into town. I should probably also strip the sheets off the bed so she doesn’t have to do it when she’s not feeling great.

I make some calls and handle everything for our trip into town. Only after stripping the sheets from the bed do I realize I might be overstepping. It’s not like I’m going to put them back on the mattress when they’re dirty, so I bundle them up in one of the big laundry bags we use for the roadies.

She’s still not out of the bathroom, but I find a washcloth and hand towel in the drawers we never use in the kitchen and scrub the spots on the bed.

The mattress should be dried by this evening.

I don’t want Lumen to be embarrassed, but I know from experience, the faster the stain is addressed, the more likely it is to come out.

Either way, it’s done.

I’m glad I was the one around to help. It’s not like I’m freaked out by blood, and I want to show her that I can be a good boyfriend.

I toss the washcloth and hand towel into the laundry container and wash my hands in the kitchen sink. Lumen’s phone hasn’t gone off, but I pull it out to check I didn’t miss anything.

She has no missed calls, which I’m sure she’ll be relieved about.

I turn around to check if there’s any other clothes or towels that we can wash while we’re at the laundromat, but Lumen comes down the hallway.

She wraps her arms around my lower back, nuzzling her cheek to my T-shirt. “Thank you.”

I give her a squeeze. “No worries. We can leave as soon as you get changed.”

Chapter Thirty-Four

Lumen

Iforgot how annoying it is to have to wait for laundry to be done. It’s part of life, so maybe I’m just in a shitty mood. My birth control implant has basically eradicated my periods, so it’s very on par with my life at the current moment that the first one I have on tour is an extra special kind of awful.

On the plus side, Riser is dream boyfriend material. The man remembers that we need quarters and laundry soap, which I probably only would have thought about when walking into the laundromat.

We wait for the two loads of laundry to finish washing and move them over to dry. Hopefully no one steals my stuff because we head to a big box store across the street.

I have no idea why anyone would want it, but I was always paranoid when I left my clothes in the laundry facility in my apartment to go back home and chill while it was washing or drying.

Riser is going to be a good shopping buddy. I can tell. He keeps hold of the cart, and his motto seems to be I’m following you.

I probably should have stopped here first, bought ugly period-worthy underwear, and washed them with the loads of laundry we started, but hindsight is twenty-twenty. I’m definitely not wearing any of the panties Kincaid bought me at the boutique shops.