The Captain's Dirty Little Secret

Chapter 302: Chapter 302 - Pharmacy Run

The Tesla had been parked outside the pharmacy long enough for Roxie to start feeling stupid about it.

Neither of them had moved since Zac turned the engine off.

The bright pharmacy sign glowed through the windshield while Roxie sat with both hands tucked between her thighs, staring at the entrance like walking through those automatic doors required some kind of preparation. Every time she shifted in the seat, the tiny soreness between her legs reminded her exactly why they were here, and the tiny stab of discomfort was enough to bring back the panic she had been trying to keep under control during the drive.

Zac glanced at her again.

He had been doing that every thirty seconds.

Roxie finally looked over. "What?"

"Nothing."

His eyes dropped away almost immediately.

He still looked guilty as hell.

Roxie sighed and looked back through the windshield. They had deliberately driven to the next town because there was absolutely no chance she was walking into the pharmacy near Briarwick and buying emergency contraception where somebody’s mother, aunt, cousin or bored classmate could see her.

That had sounded like a good plan when they were leaving.

Now they were sitting outside another pharmacy refusing to go inside this one too.

Zac rubbed his hands against his jeans. "We should probably go in."

"Yeah."

Neither moved.

Roxie stared at the automatic doors.

Zac stared at them too.

Another minute passed.

Then something about the entire situation finally hit her.

A laugh escaped.

Zac turned toward her immediately. "What?"

Roxie covered her mouth.

Another laugh came out.

His expression changed. "Are you crying?"

That made it worse.

Roxie bent forward, covering her face with both hands while laughter started spilling out of her hard enough that her stomach hurt.

"Roxie?"

"I’m fine."

"You’re definitely not fine."

She tried answering, but she started laughing again.

Zac sat there watching her like he was genuinely considering whether she had finally lost her mind.

Roxie wiped underneath one eye. "My surprise was supposed to be fun."

Zac stared at her.

That only made her laugh harder.

Now he was fighting a smile. "It was fun."

"And somehow we ended up driving to another fucking town in the middle of the night because we need emergency contraception."

Zac looked down, but Roxie saw the smile break through anyway.

"This isn’t funny."

"I know."

"You’re laughing."

"I know."

Roxie leaned back against the seat and tried catching her breath. "I was literally thinking, wow, I’m gonna surprise my boyfriend tonight. He’s gonna love this."

Zac finally laughed quietly.

"It was a great surprise."

"Shut up."

His smile faded almost immediately. "I’m still sorry."

There it was again.

Roxie’s laughter settled.

She turned toward him and found the same guilty expression he had been wearing since everything happened. Zac had apologized so many times already that the words were starting to make her chest hurt more than the actual scare.

"We both did it."

"I should’ve stopped."

"So should I."

Zac looked toward the pharmacy.

Roxie reached over and touched his hand. "I’m scared too."

His fingers closed around hers.

"But sitting here figuring out whose fault it was isn’t gonna magically make tonight disappear." She squeezed his hand. "We came here to deal with it."

Zac nodded slowly.

Neither moved toward the doors.

Roxie sighed.

"We’re doing really good at dealing with it."

That got another small laugh out of him.

They sat quietly for another minute before Roxie looked down at their joined hands.

"Maybe I should just go on birth control."

Zac went completely still.

Roxie glanced at him.

His ears were turning red.

It took her about two seconds to understand why.

"Oh my God."

"I didn’t say anything."

"You didn’t have to."

Zac stared through the windshield.

Roxie could already feel her own face heating. "That isn’t what I meant."

"I know."

"I meant generally."

"Okay."

"For safety."

"Okay."

Roxie narrowed her eyes. "Why do you keep saying okay?"

"What am I supposed to say?"

"I don’t know. Something normal."

"I thought okay was normal."

"It sounds weird now."

Zac looked at her, and Roxie could see he was trying very hard to keep a straight face.

She immediately started talking again, which was probably the worst decision available.

"I mean, it doesn’t mean we’re suddenly gonna start having sex."

Zac’s face got even redder.

Roxie froze.

"Jesus Christ."

Zac laughed.

"Forget I said that."

"You said it."

"I know what I said."

"You brought this up."

"I was talking about birth control."

"Which led directly to that."

"Because you were being weird."

"I was sitting here."

Roxie covered her face again. "I hate you."

Zac laughed harder.

She was laughing too by the time she dropped her hands.

The ridiculousness helped.

They were still scared. Roxie could feel that underneath everything, sitting heavily in her stomach whenever she remembered why they needed to go inside.

But at least they were breathing normally again.

Zac looked toward the pharmacy. "I’ll go."

Roxie followed his gaze. "Alone?"

"You can stay here."

He meant it seriously.

Roxie considered the offer for maybe three seconds. Then she shook her head. "No. I’m coming."

"You sure?"

"Yeah."

Zac reached for the door.

Roxie stopped him. "But you’re buying it."

He slowly turned toward her.

Roxie smiled.

"You’re coming inside just to watch me buy it?"

"From a safe distance."

Zac stared at her.

"I think it’ll be educational."

"You’re enjoying this now."

"A little."

He shook his head and opened the door.

Roxie immediately pulled the hood of her sweatshirt over her head before climbing out.

Zac looked at her over the roof of the car. "What are you doing?"

"Nothing."

"You look like you’re hiding."

"I am hiding."

"Nobody knows us here."

"You don’t know that."

"We drove almost forty minutes."

"People travel."

Zac closed the door. "Take the hood off."

"No."

"You look more suspicious with it."

Roxie pointed toward his hoodie. "Put yours up."

"I’m not walking into a pharmacy with both of us hiding our faces."

"Why?"

"Because we’ll look like we’re robbing it."

Roxie pictured it and started laughing again.

Zac walked around the front of the Tesla. "Come on."

"Fine."

She kept the hood up.

The automatic doors opened, and Roxie immediately regretted everything.

The pharmacy was painfully bright.

There were maybe four customers in the entire store, but Roxie became convinced all four had somehow looked directly at her the second she walked inside.

She moved closer to Zac.

"Everybody knows."

"Nobody knows."

"That woman looked at me."

"She’s looking at shampoo."

"She looked over here first."

"Because you’re whispering about her."

Roxie lowered her voice further. "I hate this."

Zac squeezed her hand briefly before they separated near the pharmacy section.

He found what they needed before Roxie did, mostly because Roxie had suddenly become very interested in a display of vitamins several aisles away.

She peeked around the end of the aisle.

Zac was standing there reading the box.

He looked uncomfortable.

Roxie covered her mouth to keep from laughing.

Then Zac glanced toward her.

She immediately pulled her head back.

A few seconds passed.

Roxie peeked again.

He was still looking directly toward where she had disappeared.

She smiled and gave him a tiny thumbs up.

Zac stared at her.

Roxie disappeared behind the aisle again before she started laughing.

"This is serious," she whispered to herself.

It helped for approximately five seconds.

When she looked again, Zac was heading toward the register with the box in his hand.

Roxie followed from several aisles away because apparently, she had become a wildlife photographer documenting a rare event.

The cashier barely reacted.

That was somehow the funniest part.

Zac looked like he wanted to disappear, while the woman behind the counter scanned the box with the same interest she probably gave toothpaste.

Roxie watched Zac pull out his wallet.

He looked toward her.

The expression on his face clearly asked why the hell she was standing twenty feet away instead of beside him.

Roxie smiled encouragingly.

Then gave him another thumbs up.

Zac looked away.

She nearly lost it.

Roxie turned around before he could see her laughing and wandered into the next aisle.

She made it several steps before realizing what was surrounding her.

Condoms.

Roxie stopped.

Her laughter disappeared.

She looked left.

Then right.

Nobody else was in the aisle.

Her eyes moved back toward the shelves.

There were way more boxes than she expected.

Different brands.

Different sizes.

Ultra thin.

Textured.

Lubricated.

Ribbed.

Some claiming things Roxie wasn’t entirely sure she believed. She slowly moved closer. "Why the fuck are there this many?"

Apparently buying condoms required research.

Roxie picked up one box and read the front.

Then the back.

Her eyebrows rose.

She put it back.

Another box caught her attention. That one had flavours.

She picked that one up too.

After what had happened tonight, condoms suddenly felt significantly more relevant to her life than they had yesterday.

She read another package.

Then another.

One had wording on the front that made her pause.

"Huh."

Roxie reached toward it.

At the exact same moment, another hand reached from beside her.

Their fingers bumped.

Roxie froze.

The other hand froze too.

Slowly, Roxie turned her head.

Caleb stood beside her.

His fingers were still touching the same box.

Neither of them moved.

Roxie’s brain stopped working completely.

Caleb stared at her beneath the hood.

His expression changed slowly as recognition hit.

"Roxie?"

Her stomach dropped.

"Caleb?"

They both looked down at the box between their hands.

Then back at each other.

Caleb released it immediately.

Roxie did the same.

The box fell awkwardly back against the shelf.

Silence.

Roxie had never wanted to disappear more in her entire life.

Her first thought was Angela.

Caleb.

Angela’s Caleb.

Her best friend’s boyfriend was standing in another town after midnight reaching for condoms.

Great.

Fantastic.

Information Roxie absolutely wanted.

Then a much worse realization followed.

Caleb knew she and Zac were supposedly broken up. She didn’t know if Angela had told him anything, but this was not how she wanted him to know.

Roxie was wearing a hood in a pharmacy forty minutes from Briarwick, standing directly in front of a wall of condoms.

Caleb’s expression told her he was having exactly the same thought.

Neither spoke.

They just stared at each other in mutual horror.

Roxie opened her mouth.

She had absolutely no idea what she was going to say.

Then Zac’s voice came from behind them.

"Roxie?"

Her eyes closed.

Fuck.

Caleb froze too.

Roxie turned slowly.

Zac stood at the end of the aisle holding the small pharmacy bag.

His gaze went to Roxie.

Then Caleb.

Then the wall of condoms beside them.

Then back to Roxie.

Caleb looked at Zac.

His eyes dropped to the pharmacy bag.

Then moved back to Roxie.

Nobody said anything.

Roxie could practically watch every piece of information connecting inside Caleb’s head.

Zac and Roxie.

Together.

Late at night.

In another town.

Zac holding a pharmacy bag.

Roxie standing in the condom aisle.

Meanwhile Roxie was still staring at Caleb and thinking only one thing.

Angela’s doing it.

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