The Border Part Two Read Online Free Page B

“Oh. You don’t need one of those, I used protection.”
    “Protection isn’t guaranteed to work. I need a pill.”
    “You didn’t need a pill any of the other times.”
    “I didn’t know about them then.”
    “Well…” Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out his wallet. “How much is it?”
    “No, I’m not buying it. I don’t want anyone knowing that I need one of those things, word might get back to my mother. You’ll have to go into the pharmacy for me.”
    “I can’t do that,” he replied. “Jesus, are you insane?”
    “You’re married. They’ll just think it’s for your wife.”
    He shook his head.
    “Do you want me to get pregnant?” she asked. “I sure as hell don’t want a kid, not right now, not with you!”
    He tossed some cash onto her lap. “I’m not going into a pharmacy and buying a goddamn morning after pill for you. It’s too risky. You’ll just have to do it yourself, or get a friend to do it.”
    “You’re a friend,” she pointed out. “You do it for me.”
    “Candy -”
    “Maybe I’ll ask your wife to pick one of for me,” she replied, taking the cash and dropping it back onto his lap. “I’m serious, Bob. This matters. Is chivalry dead in the modern age? Can’t a girl expect a guy who’s maybe popped one into her, to do the right thing? Especially after she also let him do that thing he’s been wanting to do for ages, but that she didn’t want to do at first because it seemed icky, but finally she gave in, and it was icky!” She paused, before sighing. “And get three, so we don’t have to go through this rigmarole every goddamn time.”
    ***
    “Fuck,” Bob muttered under his breath as he made his way into the pharmacy. “Fuck, fuck, fuck…”
    “Hey,” said Jean, the woman behind the counter, as she saw him approach. She had the local paper in her hands, and was evidently reading about the Mel Armitage murder. “How you doing today, Bob? How’s Beth and little Lucy?”
    “Fine,” he replied, looking over his shoulder to make sure no-one else was around. “They’re just fine.” Turning back to her, he saw her smiling face and realized there was no way he could bring himself to ask for one of those pills.
    “Isn’t it awful?” she replied. “That poor woman, murdered right here in Bowley.”
    “It’s terrible.”
    “You don’t think something like that could happen around here, do you?” she asked. “Well, not again. Well… It’s been nine years. You think you know a town, and then something like this happens and…” Sighing, she folded the paper and set it down. “I’m sorry, Bob. What are you after?”
    “Um… I’m sorry, what?”
    “What are you after? You came through the door, and usually people only do that deliberately.”
    “Right.” His eyes scanned the shelves for a moment as he tried to think of something he could ask for. “Codeine,” he said finally. “Just codeine. Paracetamol with codeine, I mean. Yeah, just a pack of those.”
    “Huh.” She grabbed a little blue box from the shelf and set it down on the counter. “Are you in pain, Bob?”
    “Me? No, I’m fine. Just a little tired, that’s all.”
    “So the codeine’s not for you?”
    “Oh, yeah, it’s for me.”
    She raised a skeptical eyebrow.
    “My back,” he added finally, letting out a not-very-convincing groan of pain. “It’s been killing me for days.”
    “You should see a doctor about that,” she replied as she rang up the sale and took the note he handed to her. “Don’t go self-medicating.”
    “Course not,” he said, taking the box and heading to the door. “Thanks, Jean. See you around.”
    As soon as he got outside, he hurried around the corner so that Candy wouldn’t be able to see him from the car. Taking the tablets out of the packet, he popped one into the palm of his hand and saw that the letter C was stamped onto one of its sides. Stuffing the rest of the pills into his pocket, he made his way back across the