After a grand evening full of palace exploration and good food, Reid’s daughter had decided she would like to spend the night in the company of her new friends. All of the children who were allowed to go had been gathered into one of the living rooms to watch movies. As there was no school the next day, a guard and a few servants were to serve as chaperones for as long as their young charges were awake.

It wasn’t as if the kids would actually manage to be awake for long, though. When Reid and I left them, most of them were curled up in heaps and piles, like exhausted puppies.

As happy as I was to have been part of the excitement and activities tonight, I couldn’t help but be over the moon that Reid was free to sleep in my bed.

My door had been fixed at some point during the evening, and the lock was repaired. I didn’t much care about either of those facts. Let the damn door hang open. Let the entirety of the media in all of Denmark come barging in to gawk at us. I would show them what a man was made of.

The moment Reid curled up in my bed, he fell asleep. I wrapped my body around him like a dragon protecting its treasure, tucking my cheek against the top of his head. The silkiness of his hair underneath my skin made me feel like I was resting my head on a cloud.

I would protect him. I wanted to protect him.

Even more than that, I wanted to put to right all the wrongs I had committed against him back in our college days. He had loved me so much, and I had just been getting off on how exciting it was to date a commoner who didn’t treat me like I was God himself. I had taken that open acceptance for granted, treating him in the same way as I treated everything else: like I was owed it by the world.

I was late to our dates. I ignored him at parties. I hid him from my family. Hell, I’d continued flirting with servants and cooks and guards, and random hot men out on the street. Most of that, I had done behind Reid’s back.

Then, there was the party. The vodka was flowing and the music was loud. I’d smoked too many cigarettes, and I was annoyed at Reid for wanting to go home because people were getting too rowdy. I got drunk, drunker than I had ever been, drunker than I had been since, and I found myself making out with some random freshman boy in the middle of the dance floor. The harsh, strobing lights illuminated us for everyone to see.

For Reid to see.

And then the freshman’s tennis player girlfriend had come up and backhanded me across the face so hard I fell against the wall. Dizzy, probably concussed, definitely embarrassed, I looked up and saw Reid staring down at me, with disgust written across his face.

“You deserved that.”

And then he had left me, with those words echoing in my ears, but that wasn’t the final straw. No, my last mistake had been a thousand times worse.

What an absolute fool I had been back then. Not a man at all. I had been a boy playing at manhood, testing my limits, and then throwing money at those limits to get them to move even further.

I was a man now. I had a second chance here with Reid. I was not going to fuck it up this time.

I fell asleep dreaming of what could have been, and what might be now.

Reid was first to awaken in the morning, and I knew that because he was propped up on his elbow and blinking down at me by the time I managed to open my eyes.

“What time is it?” I groaned.

“Breakfast time,” Reid said. “A servant just came by and knocked on the door to announce it.”

That must have been what woke me up.

Stretching, I held my arms out wide to either side, then up, then draped them over Reid’s shoulders. “So you didn’t run off in the middle of the night.”

A blush colored his cheeks, turning his fair skin an attractive shade of coral. “Even if I wanted to run away, I’d probably just get lost.”

“Ah, yes,” I murmured, sliding my fingers through his hair. “You weren’t paying any attention at all during the tour, were you?”

Reid turned an even darker shade of pink. “I had other things on my mind. Besides, I’m sure you’ve told your servants to prevent me from leaving here without you knowing.”

I almost flinched before realizing he was teasing me, laughter shining bright in his eyes. “Well, if that’s the way you feel, you don’t have to come to breakfast with me. There’s going to be waffles, pancakes, eggs, toast, honey, ham … but surely you don’t want to have any part of that, do you?”

As if his body had decided to answer the question before his mouth could, Reid’s stomach growled. I laughed and rolled out of bed, holding my hand out for him. “Come on. To breakfast, then.”

Reid looked beyond adorable as he crawled out of bed with his clothes rumpled, his hair all mussed. His bright blue eyes were still halfway shut as he followed me down the hallway, and he kept rubbing at them to try and chase some of the sleepiness away.

There normally was not a breakfast banquet. While we as a people believed in lavish affairs, we were also sticklers for proper protocol. I liked to splurge here and there, but I also believed that it was good to make sure that some things stayed sacred. Celebration type of occasions were usually saved for celebrations only.

This morning, things were different. For one, I wanted to celebrate the personal victory of having Reid in my bed. For another, I had found a chance to sneak away last night during all the fun and instructed the staff to make the breakfast just as special as the dinner. After all, what was the point in waking up when there wasn’t anything to look forward to?

The servants loved a challenge, and they had outdone themselves, judging by what I saw as I walked into the dining hall with Reid.

The center of the grand dining table almost seemed to be bowing under the weight of the bread stacked there. There were arrangements of baguettes, croissants, whole loaves of rye accompanied by knives for slicing, white bread, both white and brown rolls, and muffins galore.

Surrounding the centerpiece of bread were dishes of toppings to suit anyone’s tastes: butter, jam, cheeses both soft and hard, sausage, cold cuts of meat, and a variety of other spreads. Besides the bread, there were serving dishes of cereal —sweetened and unsweetened — and bottles of cold milk. I counted four different kinds of juice, containers of yogurt, and an orchard’s worth of fruit.

And those were only the cold dishes! If someone wanted eggs, or fried ham, or hot oatmeal, they had only to gesture and a servant would take what was needed from the table and head off to the kitchen to prepare it for them.

Reid looked over at me, and I saw the question in his eyes. I ignored him, thinking he’d be more comfortable if I didn’t make a fuss over him and the reason I’d arranged this.

“Look,” I said, pointing at the far end of the room. A few small children’s tables had been set up, and kids were going back and forth from the feast to their seats. “There’s Haley.”

Reid groaned. “Look at all that sugar!”

I held back a laugh. Left to her own devices, Haley had concocted a breakfast of hot waffles, warm syrup, chocolate sauce, whipped topping, and sprinkles. She noticed her father and waved at him, then tucked into her meal again.

I wrapped my arm around Reid’s waist. “We’ll get her to run around in the garden a bit, burn off some of that extra energy.”

He sighed, then snuggled his cheek to my shoulder. “I guess I shouldn’t be complaining. At least she’s happy.”

“And you’ll be happy too, once you eat.”

Reid glanced over at the large table filled with food, a shadow crossing his face. “I don’t know if I really belong over there with those kinds of people.”

Many members of court and their guests had taken seats at the table. My cousins, my younger sister — who was here for business, and not because she wanted the throne — and her two husbands, aunts and uncles. Many of them were still in their pajamas, though the quality of their bedclothes was as such that a person could buy a house for the same cost. Gold and silver and true gemstones were in abundance.

I wrapped my arm around Reid’s shoulders and pulled him closer to me. “Ignore the way they’re dressed, okay? They’re just people, like you and me. They’ll all be happy to meet you.”

I didn’t tell him that they would mostly be excited to meet him because of the novelty of speaking to a commoner. It didn’t matter, anyway. No one would say that out loud.

No one except Lesandra.

I looked around for her as I led Reid to the table and pulled out a chair for him. I couldn’t see her anywhere, which wasn’t a good sign. I had a bone to pick with her about setting the guards on us.

I sat down next to Reid and started to ask him if he’d like some coffee. A tap on my shoulder stopped me from speaking, and I found Lesandra leaning over me, staring down into my face with that sneer she wore so often.

“Look at this,” she said. “Playing pretend, like you’re a happy couple.”

Reid stiffened at my side. I touched his leg underneath the table, trying to tell him that Lesandra knew nothing. She was only poking and prodding, looking for weak points to unsettle us.

I kept my anger at bay while looking her right in the eye. “We don’t need to fake anything, unlike you.”

My remark caused a few titters of laughter. We had an audience, since it was well known that Lesandra and I were the top competitors. While some of the members of court were pretending not to pay any attention, others eagerly and openly gawked. They wouldn’t want to miss a moment of this.

And I intended to give them quite the show.

Lesandra’s nostrils flared. “This is not about pleasure. This is about winning. And I don’t know how you think you can win by pairing up with a washed out excuse of a man.”

Reid growled and started to stand. “Say that to my face,” he snapped.

I grabbed his hips and pulled him back down to his seat. Let me do this, I implored him, staring into his pale blue eyes to try and get my message across. Please, let me stand up for you and defend you.

But, before I could say anything, someone else spoke. A distant cousin of mine, pushing forty, whose name I could not recall right now. She had no hopes of winning the throne, but her son did. “You know,” she said, “Reid’s already had one daughter. It stands to reason he can have another.”

“Maybe the problem isn’t him,” Lesandra retorted, her tone scathing. Tilting her head, nose up, she left with her taunt hanging in the air.

I felt like I’d been punched in the stomach. If I was infertile, as Lesandra hinted, then all of this would be for nothing. I couldn’t impregnate Reid. I couldn’t have a child with him. I wouldn’t get the throne either, though that point didn’t seem quite as important to me as it once had.

But the doctor would have said something. Unless he kept quiet so he’d get our business.

A servant spoke at my elbow. “Coffee, sir? We have your favorite brew, hot and fresh.”

Gradually, normalcy reasserted itself. Everyone went back to their meals, and the conversation turned to lighter things, like the weather, and sports, and plans for the day.

Reid and I didn’t talk. We ate our breakfasts and drank our coffee, but we might as well have been in two different dimensions for all that we interacted. I turned the dilemma over and over in my head, unable to see any solution to the problem. If I couldn’t make a baby, then that was that. There was nothing to be done.

“You look like you’re in quite a quandary,” a soft voice murmured into my ear.

Startled, I looked up to see my grandmother, Queen Delia, bending over me. “Your Majesty!” I said.

My grandmother chuckled and straightened, not that it made much of a difference as far as her height went. Old age had stunted her, like it had to many elderly folks before her. “No need for such formalities, James. I came because I heard there was quite the production happening over here. As Queen, it’s my job to stick my nose in places where it doesn’t belong.”

‘You do it quite well,” I replied. “Are you sure you really want to abdicate?”

“I do, in favor of those who deserve it. Please, Reid, close your mouth. You’ll catch flies, and there are much nicer things to eat here.”

I heard an audible click as Reid clamped his jaw shut. He must have felt so awkward, sitting there before the actual queen of Denmark without a clue of what to do or how to act.

Luckily, Queen Delia didn’t seem to notice. She looked around the room and said, in an absent manner, “Didn’t the two of you date before?”

“Yes.” I nodded, looking to Reid for support. No luck. He still seemed shellshocked.

“I seem to remember the two of you had a certain friend. Was her name Allison? How has she been all these years? I remember her being so nice, if a titch weird.”

Reid grabbed at my hand under the table, his grip tight and urgent. I clutched at him, squeezing his fingers to let him know that I’d thought of the same thing as he had.

My grandmother looked back and forth between both of us and gave a gentle smile. “Well, it seems you two have some talking to do. I’ll just be on my merry way, then.” She moved away and greeted some of the other guests, shaking hands and exchanging polite greetings.

Clever, clever grandmother. She knows far more than she acts like she does.

If she had wanted to keep the throne, she could have done so without much issue, I thought. But, she was abdicating, and I knew now that she wanted me to be the one to win. She wouldn’t have come along and given that hint otherwise.

Grabbing Reid’s hand more tightly, I excused us from the table and led him out of the dining hall. Once the double doors shut behind us, I spun to face him.

“Allison!” we both exclaimed at the same time.

Allison was a friend from college, the sort of bright, bubbly girl you couldn’t hate even if you had a natural prejudice against her kind. Reid and I had fallen in with her separately, for different reasons.

Reid had liked her company and the knowledge she had. I had liked her because she knew what herbs would get a man’s blood pumping in all the right situations.

She was a hippy, a strong believer in natural medicine. If a plant could do it, she knew how to make it happen.

“You still keep in touch with her?” Reid asked me, then shook his head. “What am I saying? Of course you do. You got those perfumes from her.”

“We talk every now and again. What about you?”

“I buy cooking herbs from her,” he admitted. “And sometimes she watches Haley.”

“And she has that store, doesn’t she?”

Reid nodded. He bounced on the balls of his feet, unable to contain his excitement. Exactly like his daughter, which made me smile. “It’s kind of a mix between a health food store and a New Age shop. Lots of kale, tons of supplements for every need. If there’s something for fertility…”

“Then she’ll have it,” I finished. “Perfect! What do you say to a field trip?”

Some of the light died from his eyes, which almost physically pained me to watch. “Even though Haley doesn’t have school today, I do have some errands I need to run. I was hoping to get it all out of the way early. I can change my plans, though,” he added quickly. “I mean, my plans have already changed from what I thought they would be.”

As much as I wanted to insist we run off and do this together immediately, I knew we couldn’t. This was Reid, not some servant who was at my beck and call 24/7.

Placing my hands on Reid’s shoulders, I leaned in and kissed his sweet lips. “It’s okay,” I murmured. “There’s no rush.”

“No rush? But that woman who came over. She’s your competition, right? I’ve seen her on the news. She looks so ruthless.”

I touched my lips to Reid’s, then gave in and kissed his forehead, too. His hair tickled my face. “They’re all the competition. The media just picks favorites.”

“But in that case, shouldn’t you…”

I silenced him with a finger to his lips, tracing the curve of his mouth. “Did you hear the way she was talking? She’s always been like that, with rare moments of charity and good humor.

“She gets worse when things aren’t going her way. She isn’t succeeding at this any more than we are, so there isn’t anything to worry about. There’s no rush. You can go home and do your errands.”

Reid hesitated. “Are you sure?”

I hated myself for what I’d done to him in the past, making him doubt my sincerity. I’d have to find some way to make up for that, and soon. “I’m sure. Trust me.”

Whether he trusted me or not, he didn’t protest again. “Well, all right, then. I’m pretty sure I’ll be able to do it tomorrow, though.”

“There you go, then. One day won’t matter in the long run.” I held out my arms. “Hug me?”

He did as I had asked. I relished in his scent, the shape of his body on mine. When we parted again, I said, “We can leave Haley behind in the palace. I’m sure the other kids will be happy to have her back.”

“Are you sure she’ll be safe?”

“Are you kidding? The children are the future of our country. No harm will come to any of them, and especially not Haley.”

After a moment, Reid nodded. “Okay. Then I guess this is it. Until tomorrow.”

“Until tomorrow.”

I left him to fetch his daughter, and retreated back to my room. I had wanted to kiss him again, but I didn’t think I would be able to stop once I started.

The rest of the day passed slowly, as did the night and the following morning. By the time I left the palace to fetch Reid, I felt liable to crawl out of my skin through pure frustration.

We dropped Haley off with Dickon, and he was under strict instructions not to let her wander out of his sight. Dickon looked a little put out by something, but I didn’t really have time to ask him about it. I needed to get away before the swarm of children arrived.

Unknown to Dickon, I had spoken with some of the kids last night and told them I would give them a piggyback ride up the palace stairs if they spent the entire next day annoying the hell out of him. I’d only talked to a few of the children, but I was counting on word having spread. Haley would get in on the fun, too. It was going to be a grand old time for everyone involved, except for poor Dickon.

Left to our own devices once more, I drove with Reid out the palace gate and launched into a game of Lose the Press. It wasn’t as hard to do as it should have been, and we were soon hiding in plain sight as we tore down the highway in pursuit of Allison’s shop. We didn’t talk. We didn’t really seem to need to. We were sharing the same goal, the same purpose. Words would have been a waste of the beautiful silence surrounding us like a thick blanket, cozy and warm.

Allison’s shop, Something For Everyone, was at the far end of a string of conjoined business buildings. Stepping through the door caused a veritable wall of incense to slap me in the face. Jasmine, lavender, vanilla, cinnamon, ginger, and a thousand other conflicting scents all battled inside my nose to be the most powerful.

“It smells like Allison in here,” Reid whispered.

I laughed out loud, and then there she was. Allison Fairchild, beautiful and blonde, with her hair done up in many tight braids. With a headband of flowers and feathers, wearing a flowing white dress, she reminded me of a kind witch.

“James!” she cried, coming to me with her arms spread wide, gesturing to the dim interior of her store. “It’s so good to see you! And, oh my gods, is that Reid with you, too? Are we in college again?”

Reid came up and hugged Allison, then came over to my side once more. I wrapped my arm around him without thinking, letting myself do what felt natural. Allison grinned at the both of us. “Balance has been restored to the world, somehow! You two have to join me in the back for a cup of tea. We need to catch up. Wait! Why don’t I close up shop and we can all have an early lunch together?

I thought Reid might protest at this change in plans. Instead, he nodded, then looked at me. “It might be best to talk about everything in a way where we know we won’t be interrupted.”

I agreed, and Allison closed her store and went to have lunch with us. She took us to a vegetarian restaurant, which I thought might be disappointing, but was rather quite good — though it did leave me craving a bit of roast chicken or steak. Over the course of the meal, Reid and I filled Allison in on an abridged version of our story. We had met up again recently by pure chance, and had only been together for a short time before Queen Delia announced her abdication. Therefore, we were now trying to get pregnant so we could live happily ever after.

The story was close enough to the truth that I didn’t feel bad about lying. Reid had agreed to it too, when we were discussing it, though he didn’t look happy about it.

Allison looked at both of us after we’d finished our story, and gave a knowing nod. “I knew the two of you were meant for each other. Your energies are so similar. There was never going to be any other way for things to turn out.”

I wouldn’t have used those words. I did agree, though, and it made me feel happy to hear a positive opinion from someone else, even if it wasn’t necessary.

“Anyway,” Alice continued. “Come with me back to my shop, because I think I have just the thing for you.”

We followed her back to her store, the smell of which was no easier to bear the second time around. Humming what sounded like a chant underneath her breath, she guided us to a section of shelves filled with various teas and pulled one box out of the entire selection. She handed it over to me.

The label said Green Rejuvenation.

Reid looked over at it. “What is it?”

“That’s a tea for fertility! It’s actually one of my top sellers. It’s made from a special blend of herbs and greens, concocted by yours truly. It works to aid in production and reception, but I won’t bore you with the specifics when all that information is written on the box.”

We’d come all this way for tea? I didn’t even like tea.

“Does this actually work, though?” Reid frowned, putting his hand on his hip. The pose made him look so sweet and sassy that I nearly kissed him, and I probably wouldn’t have stopped there. “I know a lot of this stuff has benefits, but you’ve also told me yourself that that can be a placebo effect. What category does this fall under, Allison?”

“If you believe it will work, and it works, then it worked, and there’s no question about that,” Allison replied. Then, she shrugged and smiled. “I wouldn’t pull any of that on you guys. I don’t sell anything I don’t believe in.”

“That’s not really an answer,” I pointed out. “Does it work, or does it not?”

“Based on what I’ve researched, every ingredient in this tea increases overall fertility. Combined, they do seem to have an effect. I stand by it.” Allison flashed a cheeky grin. “If you aren’t satisfied, you’ll get your money back. Guaranteed.”

I looked at Reid, and he looked at me. I saw my own doubts reflected in his eyes, and I also saw a small, shining light of hope in the depths of his irises.

“We’ll take it.”

“Good!” Allison chirped. “Let’s go ring that up for you, okay? I’ll even give you a discount.”

And that was how I ended up paying way too much for what was basically a magic potion.

Reid and I bid Allison farewell, promising to stay in touch with her. She reminded us to both drink the tea, a whole pot between us every day. “It won’t taste very good,” she said, regretfully. “Not even with sugar. But that’s medicine for you.”

As we got back in the car, I muttered, “I don’t care what she says. I’m putting sugar in the damn tea.”

Reid smiled at me. “What if adding sugar ruins the effect?”

“She would have said that.” I scowled playfully at him. “But if that’s the case, I think I’d rather be infertile than drink it. Can’t you smell it?”

“I don’t know if I’m smelling the tea, or that dead skunk.” Reid pointed out the window, laughing.

“We’d best drink this in the bathroom,” I mused. “That’s the only place where the smell will be acceptable.”

Reid laughed again, warming my heart. It was amazing to me how much better we got along already. What had changed? Him? Me? Us?

In the end, the reason didn’t matter. All I knew was that I was happy to be here with him, sneaking glances at him whenever we came to a stop. His eyes sparkled, and his cheeks held lively color. My cock stirred with desire for him. I would have jumped him, if I hadn’t known he would be eager to get back to the palace and his daughter.

Later, I told myself.

Reid placed his hand on my crotch, like he shared the same thought as I did. Excitement tore through my body, and I pulled in a quick breath. He kept his hand there through the remainder of the drive, occasionally rubbing me, keeping me half hard and shaky.

Dickon was not happy to see me. I’d completely forgotten about the prank I pulled on him, telling the kids to make his life a living hell. Even now, as he left the playroom, they scampered after him, tugging on his clothes, asking him the sorts of questions only children can think of.

Watching them filled my heart with amusement, and something else I had a more difficult time identifying. If I’d been forced to put my finger on it, I would have called that feeling anticipation. With the help of this fertility tea, I hoped I would soon have a troublemaking child of my own on my hands.

Reid’s child.

Speaking of the tea, Dickon looked at the bag Reid held and curled his lip. I’d never seen him look like that, especially not when I was near. “You went to a health store? Sir, you know those are wastes of time. Pure hoaxes.”

I lifted my shoulders, a half-hearted shrug. “I know the owner of this particular store. A longtime friend of myself and Reid. We’re trying everything. Don’t you want to be the assistant to the new king?”

Still scowling, Dickon stormed off. The children wisely avoided him and went back to their usual play, Haley in their midst. It was difficult to tell she was a stranger amongst them, as she fit right in.

She really would be such a popular princess.

As soon as I had the thought, I scolded myself for it. That was the old James, butting in with his unwanted thoughts. I had changed. I was a better man than that now; at least, I was trying to be.

A tug on my hand drew me back to the present. Reid chewed his lips while staring after Dickon’s receding form. “I don’t think he wants to be just your assistant.”

“What do you mean?”

“You can’t be serious. You don’t know? It’s clear in the way he looks at you. I have some major competition of my own, I guess.” Reid kept chewing at his lips.

I placed my finger on his bottom lip, teasing it away from his teeth to spare it from that punishment. “No one can compete with you,” I whispered. “If I’d wanted Dickon, I would have gone for Dickon. I wanted you, Reid.”

Reid slipped his lips around my finger, biting me. Even though the action was a clear tease, my cock stiffened again. I shifted, putting my hand in my pocket to adjust myself so the children wouldn’t ask any hard questions.

I pulled my finger away, feeling weak and trembly in my knees. The desire to fall into his arms almost overcame me, and I had to turn away. “If you’ll excuse me, I owe a lot of children some piggyback rides.”

I enjoyed running around with the kids, hoisting them on my back three or four at a time to show off for Reid. Only Haley went alone. I felt something strange happening inside me when her small arms wrapped so trustingly around my neck. It was a shade of happiness and warmth I’d never experienced before, like I’d been colorblind up until now and had finally gained the ability to comprehend a rainbow.

Her trust, and the fact that she seemed to like me, meant just as much as my feelings for Reid. I held that truth close to my heart for a time when I would need it, just in case.

I sure as hell needed it when Reid and I drank that damn tea. When we reached a quiet moment, we snuck off to the kitchen with the box to get a pot prepared for us. One of the chef’s assistants stopped slicing cheese and came over. She stopped several feet away, her nose wrinkling. “Ugh. Can I, ugh, help you?”

I pushed the box of tea into her hands. “We need this prepared for us.”

She held the box by the corner, breathing through her mouth. “I think this has gone off.”

“Unfortunately, that’s how it’s supposed to smell. Please make us a pot.”

“If you insist,” she said. “Though I think I’ll have to prepare this in the back. The smell will pollute everything I’m making in here.”

I didn’t much relish the thought of eating Green Rejuvenation flavored dinner, so I agreed. Reid and I went into the nearby dining room to await the arrival of the concoction. The servant who brought out the tea walked sideways, so the fumes wouldn’t blow into his face.

I didn’t blame him.

The tea was not green. It was a sulfurous orange-brown, with floating green specks. The stench coming off of it reminded me of a prank item I had seen for sale online, called Liquid Ass. Having not purchased that particular product for myself, I could only imagine this was what it would smell like.

Reid held his nose. “It’s like someone went to a swamp and filled up a teapot with swamp water!”

“Then, these little floating green things are frogs.” I picked up the teapot and poured cups for both of us. The sludge didn’t look any better in a pretty cup than it did in the pot. “I’ve had frog before.”

“Was it blended up and served in a smoothie from hell?”

“Well, no,” I admitted. Ignoring the provided spoons, I picked up the sugar dish and tossed half of it in my cup. “They were braised in a sauce of red wine and served with the fluffiest mashed potatoes you’ve ever seen in your life. Tasted a little fishy.”

Reid stirred his tea, a look of displeasure on his face. “I’d be glad if this tasted like fish.”

I stirred my tea until the sugar had dissolved, then picked up my cup and brought it to my lips. Reid did the same. We locked eyes and it was such an unromantic moment that I started laughing. Reid giggled. “Ready?”

We counted to three and then we drank.

If Satan had diarrhea into a bowl and I mistook it for beef stew, the taste would have been comparable to this tea. It was vile and slimy and wrong. It tasted like something which absolutely should not be consumed by a human. Or anything alive, really.

Reid coughed, sputtering, grimacing. “It tastes like nuclear waste!”

“Reid,” I said, laughing, “Reid, I can’t wait to have a mutant baby with you.”

Alicia was right. The sugar did nothing. The tea seemed to absorb the sweetness, taking all and giving nothing.

We had to do this again?

“You need to get pregnant very quickly, Reid. Please. For God’s sake.”

Reid laughed and drank again. Despite the displeasure, his eyes glimmered. I couldn’t help but to feel that this had somehow brought us closer together.