Page 45 of Embracing the Beat
I scroll past the first few hyperlinks until I see one I can’t help but click on.
The video is all in shadow, but still light enough to show a couple kissing passionately on the screen. My attention stays locked on the woman, waiting to see some sign the man is undressing Michaela. But the video stays in shadow except for the few seconds where a light highlights the tattoo on the woman’s right shoulder.
Sighing in relief, I close the video. It’s not her, thank fucking Christ. Michaela doesn’t have a tattoo. I would have seen it the other night.
I’m ready to close out of the app when another link catches my attention.
Michaela King and Tucker Winston - The Details Behind the Dirty Deed
Michaela to Tucker: I love you!
Mia Maddox confronts Michaela…Stay Away from My Man
Michaela spotted on the east coast. Is that a baby bump we see?
Anxiety and self-loathing squeeze my chest in a vise. Breathing is difficult.
Did we have sex while she was in a relationship with another man? While she was carrying another man’s baby? Fuck, but the question strikes a little too close to a wound still raw from Ashley. Would she have slept with me if she was dating Tucker? If she was pregnant with his child?
Call me crazy, but my cynicism rears its ugly head.
Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice…yeah, the rest of the saying is familiar. And it may have been a different woman between the once and the twice, but I’m not interested in lusting after another man’s girlfriend.
I need to know. I could text her, but it’s easier to conceal things through a screen. I need to see her reaction when I ask her about Tucker.
Pulling up in the driveway a little while later, I have no idea how I got here. My laptop bag sits on the seat next to me, like it all happened in the background since all I’m actively thinking about is what I just saw online.
“Mikey, you home?” I call out as I walk through the front door.
“Hey! You’re home earlier than normal.” A smile lights her face as she pads down the stairs. Dressed in cut-offs and a massive t-shirt that looks like it once belonged to Sawyer, she could still pass for a high schooler. Her hair is pulled up in a messy bun, locks escaping everywhere, and her bare feet show off light purple toenail polish.
As she comes closer, her smile fades until she’s standing on the second step, eye level with me.
“What’s the matter?” she asks.
“Are you dating Tucker Winston?”
She flinches when I say his name. “What? Where did you hear something like that?”
“Are you?” Why is she avoiding the question?
“I wouldn’t have slept with you if I was dating someone else,” she spits out. “But I’m so glad you think so highly of me.”
Anger tightens her features. God, this is so fucking familiar I want to puke. Any time I asked Ashley a question, it was always an evasive answer.
“You’re still not answering my question.”
“Oh my god, no. Okay? No. I am not dating Tucker Winston. That guy is a world-class asshole.” She steps down, heading into the kitchen.
“Are you pregnant with his baby?” The words are out of my mouth faster than I can process them.
She rounds on me so fast I blink in surprise. Her cheeks are bright red, her nostrils flaring, eyes wide.
“What. Did. You. Just. Ask. Me?” Unlike the emotion playing on her face, her voice is calm. Eerily so.
Shit…but I’ve already come this far.
“Are you pregnant with his baby?”
