Free Brat by Alicia Michaels

apartment with a nursery and enough money in the bank to hire a nanny and pay the rent for as long as I needed. As I sat on the edge of the bed and removed one of my pumps, I knew that wasn’t the kind of life this baby deserved. It was what I’d had growing up—a nanny, inattentive parents, and no love or fun.
    Was it really that simple? It seemed I’d already decided that having this baby would be a huge mistake. If that was the case, why did I still feel so uncertain?
    Finding a place for the shoes in my overflowing closet, I set about getting ready for bed. By the time Kinsley came out of the bathroom, I was in my tank top and boy shorts, settling under the covers with a bag of chocolate-covered pretzels and a smutty novel.
    Kinsley came bouncing into the room, her hair slicked back into a high ponytail, her eyes set off by smoky eye shadow.
    “Hey, how was your date?” she asked, her voice surprisingly chipper as she crossed to her closet.
    “It wasn’t a date,” I said, mouth full of pretzel. “It was a meeting … call it business if you want.”
    Kinsley laughed, pulling a black halter top from the closet. “What’s that you’re always telling me about letting go?”
    I rolled my eyes at her. “Yeah, in this case the words ‘get some’ aren’t exactly the best advice. I already got some, remember?” Boy did I ever. “So did you, if I recall.”
    Kinsley shrugged, removing her T-shirt and replacing it with the halter. “Me and Derek was a one-time thing, just like you and Chase. Besides, my one-time thing didn’t follow me home, so it’s easier to put behind me. Yours is living across the hall. Why not indulge a little?”
    Crunching another pretzel, I shook my head. “These chocolate pretzels are about all the indulgence I’m interested in for now.”
    Kinsley reached for a pair of black, strappy, high-heeled sandals and pulled them on. “Well, you enjoy those. I’m going to go catch up with Luke, Jenn, and Christian. It’s only eleven, the party’s just getting started.”
    My eyebrows shot up as she finished her outfit off with a pair of silver hoop earrings and a few dabs of perfume behind her ears. “You look hot.”
    She smiled and turned in a little circle. “You think so?”
    I nodded. “Definitely. Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.”
    Laughing, Kinsley reached for her purse. “That leaves me a wide array of options,” she called out over her shoulder before disappearing.
    Leaning back against the pillows, I opened my novel and tried to read. After re-reading the same paragraph four times, I gave up and let my thoughts roam. Instead of wandering to Chase or the baby as I’d thought it would, my brain switched to Kinsley. Something was going on with that girl, and as much as I wanted to blame it on the breakup, I just wasn’t sure. Losing Aaron was a huge blow for Kinsley, but she’d never been the type to party the night before the first day of class. Even if she would go to a party on a school night, she’d never leave the apartment so late. She’d arrive promptly, have one or two drinks, and call it a night by ten.
    Shaking my head, I decided that I was overreacting. Kinsley was probably just entering that phase of singlehood that consists of enjoying one’s freedom and playing the field. While we were on vacation this summer she’d gotten cozy with Derek, a friend of Chase’s from Texas A&M. Maybe it had showed her that there were other fish in the sea. Either way, I had my own problems. Besides, if Kinsley was going through something, she’d go to Jenn before she’d come to me, and her best friend would help her work through her problems.
    Deciding to mind my business, I set the pretzels aside and tried to get back into my novel, hoping that reading about someone else’s erotic escapades could distract me from the sexpot across the hall.
     
     
     
     
    I shot out of bed and dashed into the hall, just barely making it to the bathroom before emptying my