The Naked Truth About Love (6 page)

Love Does Not Keep a Record of Wrongs

Not
a single day passed over the next four weeks that EJ did not consider telling Miss Priss about her love affair with Paul, but she couldn’t. Paul had sworn her to absolute secrecy until he sorted out his issues with Teddy dating his sister. Unfortunately she no longer had the luxury of keeping secrets. She needed her best friend’s advice.

Miss
Priss and EJ had been best friends since the day that they met. At age six EJ accompanied her parents on a routine trip to the vet for their aging family dog. Dr. Crown, Miss Priss’ dad delivered an unthinkable blow to the family when he told them that Bubbles, EJ’s dog was dying of stomach cancer and needed to be put down.

EJ
was absolutely devastated and inconsolable. She could not and would not stop sobbing. Bubbles was her only playmate and friend. Miss Priss who was visiting her dad at his office that day heard all the crying and ventured out of her father’s office to see what was going on. Discovering the distraught  EJ crying over her deceased pet and friend Miss Priss went to her and hugged her tight. She vowed to be EJ’s best friend and Bubbles replacement for as long as she lived.

EJ
stopped crying immediately upon accepting Miss Priss’ offer of friendship. Over a decade and a half later the two women could not be any closer if they were siblings. After graduating from high school they enrolled in FDC were they both majored in International Business. Extremely smart sexy and beautiful the two young women were and unstoppable combination. They planned to get their MBA’s and open a small international consulting firm in Atlanta when they graduated.

Until
today everything was on target, and then EJ discovered that her super regular period had sudden become irrationally irregular. Basically joined at the hip since the day they met the two women shared an off campus apartment not far from the FDC campus. Naturally, because of their closeness, their menstrual cycle was separated by a day or two at most. But for some reason Miss Priss was on but EJ had not seen a drop of blood since last month.

Staring
at the stick of a positive home pregnancy test EJ instantly knew why. She was pregnant and Paul was the father. Racking her brain to figure out how and when this happened she came to the startling conclusion that against all odds and reason she was impregnated the night she lost her virginity.

“
What the fuck? How is that even possible? Oh come on!” Her brain screamed.

Overwhelmed
she burst into tears totally oblivious to the fact that Miss Priss could hear her. Charging into the room to the rescue she found a distraught EJ in the bathroom holding an obviously blue pregnancy stick.

Shocked
she stood there spellbound, staring at assortment of various types of pregnancy tester all with the same damn result- positive as hell!

“
Oh my God!” She gasped thinking that EJ had somehow slipped up and become pregnant by some random guy. “Who the hell did you fuck?” She blurted out without thinking.

“
This can’t be happening. There is no damn way that I can be pregnant. I graduate this year and then I start grad school and oh my God! Oh my God! He’s going to kill me! I promised him that I wouldn’t get pregnant… He’s going to think that I did this on purpose! Oh my God! Please Lord, No!” She ranted as she quickly began to lose her damn mind.

“
Hold the hell up! Who the hell did you fuck and why in hell didn’t you tell me that you were fucking?” Miss Priss demanded as she examined the results of the six pregnancy tests that EJ had just failed.

“
Prissy I am so sorry!” She apologized.

“
What?”

“
I should have told you the first time we made love! I’m sorry, but he made me swear that I would never tell you.”

Miss
Priss eyes grew the size of two silver dollar coins.  She could not fathom what she assumed that EJ was trying to say. “I know fucking well you did not fuck my man! Is Bear your baby daddy? Is that who he is? Tell me!” Miss Priss snapped as she confronted EJ.

“
What? Hell no! I didn’t sleep with Bear! Prissy you know that I wouldn’t do that bullshit to you. Oh come on… How could you even think such a vile thing?”

“
OMG! Thank God, because I was about to beat your pregnant ass! Whew! I can’t believe I just loss it like that!” Miss Priss laughed.

“
I’m glad at least one of this finds this bull ass shit funny… because I don’t. FUCK! I can’t believe I got pregnant my very first time. Can that even happen?”

Miss
Priss quickly returned to best friend mode. “EJ I am so sorry. How did this happen?”

EJ
gave her a side glance before rolling her eyes. “Prissy, how do you think it happened.”

“
I mean I know how it happened… I just don’t know the when, where, who and why. And hold the hell up! Who has you keeping secrets from me of all damn people? Escape Jones you need to tell me something right now! I have never, ever kept a secret from you, especially not a secret this big.”

“
Prissy, I’m sorry… I should have…” She tried to apologize before Miss Priss cut her off.

“
Save all the sorry bullshit and start talking. Who knocked your virgin ass up?”

“
Damn you could have a little compassion for me.” EJ nervously giggled.

“
Fuck compassion… Come with it! I have to hear this bullshit! Who is he?”

“
Prissy, promise that you won’t be mad…”

“
EJ… I swear to God you’d better tell me right now and it had better not be Bear or I’m beating both of y’all asses!”

“
Paul..” EJ sighed.

Miss
Priss looked confused. “I don’t understand. What about Paul?”

“
I’m pregnant by Paul.” EJ confessed in a soft voice.

“
Paul who?” Miss Priss asked confused.

“
Prissy, come on… Paul Crown… Your brother.”

Miss
Priss was floored. In fact she looked like she had just been kicked to the floor by a bucking mule. Speechless she tried to process what EJ had just told her. Suddenly it became painfully clear. Her best friend had been sleeping with her twin brother behind her back and is now pregnant by him.

“
Oh my God!” She exclaimed.

“
Prissy please don’t be mad at me. You know how much I love him and you know that I’d do anything to be with him. We just needed sometime to figure out how to tell you. I wanted to tell you, but I didn’t want to ruin our relationship. Prissy I’m so in love with that man. ” EJ babbled.

“
I’m going to be an aunt! EJ… and you’re… You’re going to be my sister in-law!” The elated Miss Priss screamed as she grabbed EJ and held her tight enough to choke the wind out of her.

“
Prissy, calm down. There’s a reason that I was crying. I still have a really big problem.”

“
What? What’s the problem? Does Paul know? Well, of course he doesn’t know. I’ll tell him… Do you want to tell him or do you need me to tell him… Because I’ll tell him if you want me to.”

“
Paul is not going to be as happy about this as you are. Priss I promised him that he could trust me. I begged him to make love to me without protection and I promised him that I wouldn’t get pregnant. He’s going to think that I planned this whole thing. Prissy he goings to hate me if he finds out.”

“
What? What do you mean if he finds out? You mean when he finds out, right?” Miss Priss asked as she began to unravel when she realized what EJ was considering. “Oh no EJ! You can’t… Oh my God please don’t!”

“
Prissy, I have loved your brother since I was ten years old. Finally after all these years he decided to reciprocate those feelings. I can’t… I just can’t lose him. I’m sorry but… I can’t, I just can’t so please don’t even ask me to. It was a mistake… plain and simple.”

“
It! It is not an it! It is my niece or nephew and I love you to death EJ, but I swear to God that I will not stand by and let you abort my brother’s baby in silence. No! I swear to God I’m telling Paul.” Miss Priss threatened.

“
Priss no! Please don’t! I can’t lose him… I just can’t. So please don’t tell him. Please?”

“
EJ I am not, I repeat not going to let you abort my flesh and blood. I would never be able to look at my brother again if I let you do that. So don’t even ask. You have three days to tell Paul and then I’ll tell him for you.”

“
Prissy, it’s not yours to tell. So just stay out of it until I figure out what I’m going to do.”

“
Do you want to know what you’re going to do? Okay I’ll tell you what you’re going to do… You’re going to have a baby… that’s what you are going to do. And somehow if you manage to never let Paul find out that you even considered having an abortion you’re going to one day marry my brother. Provided you cease all that Tom Foolery and Fuckery! Why would you even think that Paul wouldn’t be there for you and your child?”

“
Priss that’s not what I said. You know our history. It was major for him to risk crossing the line to sleep with me. I didn’t even have to seduce him.”

“
Wait a second when did this happen?”

“
The night the four us went out. Paul brought me home and stayed all weekend while you were at Bear’s ranch.”

“
I thought so… I remember that dress and trust me you seduced the hell out of him.”

“
I did look good…” She snickered  “At any rate I practically begged him to screw me raw.”

“
See, I don’t get that… Paul does not have unprotected sex… with anyone… for any reason… So, what the hell happened?”

“
Damn hormones I guess… You know that I wasn’t using birth control, because I wasn’t having sex. And I’m allergic to latex.”

“
I get it, he was hot and horny and yeah… basically you two were a cluster fuck waiting to happen. Look you’re pregnant for a reason. You’ve always wanted to be with Paul, now you’ll have a piece of him to hold and love forever. EJ just tell him. If he has an issue with it, then fuck him. I’ll help you take care of the baby, I promise.  Just don’t try to take the easy way out. You’ll look back with regret for the rest of your life.”

“
OK, let me just see where Paul’s head is, but I know what he’s already going to say. He told me in no uncertain terms that he was not ready to be a father. So I know he’s not ready to be a husband.”

“
So what! If that’s how he feels then that’s his issue not yours. Okay? Your body, your decision. I wish I was pregnant by Bear. I wouldn’t give a damn what he thought. I’d have my baby and he could just kiss my pregnant ass if he didn’t want to act right!”

“
I swear to God I don’t know how or why the two of you can even stand to be in the same room with each other after all the bullshit you two have been through. How do you even begin to deal with his shit?”

“
Honestly, I knew what I signed up for when I first laid down with him. EJ, Bear loves me. I know with all the womanizing it may not seem like it but he does.”

“
I know, you don’t have to tell me. I can see it every time the two of you are within a hundred feet of each other. He can’t keep his eyes off you to save his life.” EJ interjected.

“
It’s just that he’s afraid to lose one single more person from his life. Once his parents died he felt like everything and everyone he loved would one by one be taken away from him. He couldn’t bear the thought of losing me or Paul for that matter. So, it just made since to appease Paul and stay away from me to preserve their friendship. The problem is he can’t leave me alone and I can’t leave him alone. So we’re stuck on this damn gerbil wheel… running from each other yet chasing each other at the same damn time!” Miss Priss sighed. “Neither one of us has the will power or the good common sense to just get off the damn dumbass wheel. It sounds easy and God knows I’ve tried, but I can’t. So, we just steal whatever time we can with each other and try to avoid hating each other for what we did while we were apart.”

“
But Priss, you won’t even consider seeing anyone other than Bear. At least try.”

“
I know damn well that the pot didn’t just call the kettle’s ass black! Besides, in my world there is no other man except Teddy Bear Davine. Sad, but so true.”

“
I feel you on that one.” EJ sighed as she took one last look at the discarded pregnancy test sticks in the thrash. “ Paul Crown will always be my one and only King.” 

“
Then seal your destiny and give your King a prince or a princess! He’ll love you forever for it and you’ll always occupy a seat on the throne of his heart.” Miss Priss advised EJ as she hugged her tight.    

“
Best friends swear that you will not say a word to Paul or Teddy! I promise I’ll tell him when the time is right.”