Page 84 of Use Me Up

“It hurts, because my omega is in heat, and I can’t get to her,” he says through clenched teeth.

“Well, let’s go find her,” I say, and I drag him across the parking lot while he gasps and winces and makes all kinds of dramatic noises.

We’re just getting into the Mexican restaurant when I see my mother’s car pulling up outside. She and my dad park haphazardly—mostly in a parking space—and then come running over to us.

“That was quick,” I say.

My mother sniffs me, and then her eyes get very wide, and I hold up a hand and am like, “One crisis at a time, Mom, but once we find Callie, I do need a Plan B.”

My mother’s jaw swings open.

My father clears his throat.

Andrew opens the door to the Mexican restaurant. I look at my parents for a few more minutes and then just follow him in.

Inside, it smells like crispy corn tortillas and they are playing upbeat Mariachi music, and there’s a hostess at a lectern, sorting through menus. “How many?” she says brightly.

Andrew sputters.

I lean around him. “We’re looking for someone. Blond, short, curvy, probably getting everyone to buy her drinks at the bar?”

“Um…” The woman shakes her head. “No, there’s no one here like that.” She gestures and the bar is entirely empty, absolutely no one there.

“Thanks,” I say and drag Andrew out. Back on the sidewalk, my mother is wringing out her hands and my father’s face is red, and I say, “Maybe we should split up. You guys look that way, and Andrew and I will go this way.”

Without waiting for an answer, I take Andrew by the arm and pull him away from our parents, because I don’t want to deal with any of this right now.

Andrew and I check the Applebees, which is on the other side of the road from the strip mall, and we also check the Buffalo Wild Wings.

Then my mother texts that they’ve found Calliope, that she was in a furniture store and she’d made a nest on one of the display beds. My parents are going to have to buy it now, because it’s completely ruined, clearly.

Andrew and Calliope get thrown in the back seat of my mother’s car, and she drives them back to their place. I take my car, and my dad takes Andrew’s, and then I have to drive back with him so that he can get Calliope’s car and take it home.

During this drive, my father is very intense. “What’s going on with Ellis?”

“He’s in heat,” I say.

“Did you leave him alone in heat?” says my father.

“No, his alphas came to find him,” I say.

“Oh,” says my father.

“Yeah,” I say. “I think I’ve known for a while that he was my water wings or whatever. A little crutch to use while I learned to swim, and now he and his alphas will work things out and that will be that. No more Ellis.”

My father drums his fingers on my dashboard, shaking his head. “Your mother wants me to tell you that if you want to be on birth control pills, you just make an appointment. She says that if you’re too embarrassed or something, she can delegate that to one of her assistants, but you need to tell her that.”

“No, it’s fine,” I say. “I can make my own appointment. It’s heat, Dad. Things get intense, that’s all.”

“Well, she also thinks you need to go and get a battery of STD testing,” he says. “And I agree, because—”

“Yeah, it’s all about my physical health and safety,” I say. “I get it.” I can tell they are horrified by my behavior. I can tell.

“That’s the most important thing,” says my father. “But I have to say that I think you’re very young, and you’ve been a little sheltered, Hannah, and I got a different impression from him than this. The way he looked at you, it made me think that he really cared about you. I trusted my gut and not my head, and your mother is being very I-told-you-so about it, and Hannah-banana! If anything happens to you, and I mean anything, it kills me, do you get that?”

I laugh a little. My dad is horrified, sure, but he loves me. I look across the car at him, and I nod. “I get that, Daddy.”

He slumps in the car seat. “I guess you’re due to have your heart broken.”