by E. L. Todd
“Well, that’s good,” I said. I squeezed Scarlet’s hand again.
Scarlet fell quiet.
Dr. Peterson closed his folder and stood up. “We’ll make a decision once the results are in. I’ll let you know immediately.”
“Thank you, Dr. Peterson.” I shook his hand.
He returned it then turned to Scarlet, grasping her hand in a firm shake. “You have a very supportive husband, Mrs. Preston. I’m glad to see that.”
She nodded. “Sometimes he’s too supportive.” A slight smile formed on her lips.
“I see couples come in here all the time, but rarely do I see the natural maternal and paternal instincts shine through. The two of you will be great parents.”
Scarlet’s mouth stretched into a smile. “Thank you.”
“You’re very welcome.”
I opened the door and let Scarlet walk out. I turned to him and lowered my voice. “Call me first when the results are in. If they are bad…I want to prepare her for it.”
“I understand, Mr. Preston.”
We stopped at an ice cream parlor on the way home. Scarlet ordered a three scoop cone and devoured it like she hadn’t eaten in years. I got a single scoop because I watched my weight. Unlike Scarlet, I couldn’t eat whatever the hell I wanted and still look like hot shit.
All that remained of her meal was the napkin, which was covered in chocolate and caramel sauce from the mess she made on her mouth. She breathed a deep sigh then looked at me. “I’m sorry for the way I’ve been acting…”
Huh? What the hell was she talking about? “Sorry?”
“I’m making this into an emotional ordeal.”
There she goes again, being selfless to the point of insanity. “Scar, it’s perfectly okay to be upset. It’s a big deal. I know how much you want to have kids. It’s enough to make anyone depressed. You’ve been through a lot.”
“But I know I’m hurting you.”
“I would be hurting anyway, baby. Please don’t feel bad. It would be odd if you didn’t feel hurt in some way.”
“I hear my brother’s voice in my head. He would say it’s stupid to be upset over something you can’t change. Deal with the deck of cards you have and play the game.”
She knew her brother better than I did, but that didn’t sound like something he would say. “That doesn’t apply to this situation, Scarlet. And we don’t know the results. There’s a possibility that we’re both perfectly fine but it just wasn’t meant to be.”
“But I doubt it.” Her voice carried the weight of her grief.
“Let’s just wait until the results get back. Then we’ll go from there.”
“God, I don’t think I can wait that long.”
The anxiety was killing me too. Our lives would be forever changed by the results. When I married Scarlet, I dreamt of having her as a housewife. She was pregnant and bulging, about to pop with my kids. Together, we would raise a family, children that looked exactly like us. If I couldn’t have that dream, I’d be okay with it. As long as I had Scarlet, I could get through anything else. Because she was everything to me. “No matter what happens, we’ll be fine, Scarlet. Just remember that.”
She looked into the distance, seeing something only she could distinguish. “I’ll try.”
10
Scarlet
“Where the fuck are you?” Ryan’s voice blared over the phone.
I had to hold the receiver away because it was so loud. “Damn, lower your voice!”
“Where the fuck are you?” he repeated.
Something pissed him off. I hadn’t heard him sound this mad in a while. “We just left the clinic. Why?”
“I need to talk to you.”
“Did I do something?”
“No,” he snapped. “Meet me at the shop.” He hung up.
I put the phone down, my ears still ringing.
Sean eyed me. “Damn, he’s pissed.”
“You heard everything?”
“California heard everything.” He returned his eyes to the road and maneuvered through the streets of New York.
“I wonder why he’s so angry…”
“He and Janice okay?”
“Last time I checked…”
“I have no idea. Maybe something happened at the shop.”
“Wouldn’t he just tell me over the phone?” I asked.
“I don’t know. You know him better than I do.” Sean turned down the side street toward the shop. We managed to find a parking space at the curb.
“I’m worried. The last time he was that pissed, he cut me out of his life forever.” Those were some dark times.
“We’ll find out.”
It was past eight, so we knew the shop would be closed. When we reached the door, it was unlocked. Sean opened it and let me walk inside first. Ryan was pacing in the room, wearing a suit.
My brother never wore a suit. “What’s up…?”
He moved his hand through his hair then did it again. “I’m fucking pissed.”
“Yeah…I picked up on that.”
Sean kept his hand on my waist.
Ryan gripped his skull and screamed. Actually screamed. “That fucking whore!”
My eyes met Sean’s and a silent conversation passed between us.
“Ryan, what’s going on?” I asked.
“Janice.” His eyes were wide with hate. “I went to this stupid pussy dinner thing for her work and everything was fine. She introduced me to her pretentious “I have a college degree” coworkers and she made it pretty damn clear I was the guy was fucking every night.”
Now I was just confused. All that sounded fine.
“But then I met that sleaze bag boss of hers. The guy was like a fucking Calvin Klein model. He was charming and interesting, and blah blah. I immediately didn’t like him. But Janice was so fucking buddy-buddy with him that it pushed me over the edge. He held her like he’d done it a thousand times. The fucker eye-fucked her right in front of me.” Ryan paced the room in a rage. “And they shared a piece of cake together while they went out to lunch. Who knows how many times they’ve done that.”
I needed to calm my brother down. “Ryan, it sounds like they are just friends.”
“Shut the fuck up!”
Wow…he was too far gone for me.
“No. When she introduced me, she said I was Ryan. Not her boyfriend. Not the love of her life. Not the guy she was fucking living with. Ryan. That’s it. Nothing else. Everyone else knew exactly who the hell I was. But to him, I was just Ryan.”
“Maybe it was implied,” Sean said timidly.
“No,” he snapped. “I admit my jealousy was unfounded before, but she slapped me in the fucking face. She flirts with this guy at work, and the fact he is just as good looking as I am just makes it worse. How could she do this to me? It’s so disrespectful. She wouldn’t let me hire any chicks because she was too uncomfortable with it, but she spends time with this asshole all day, every day? She has lunch dates with him? Fucking cunt.”
My brother wasn’t easily jealous or angered. In fact, he didn’t give a shit about anything most of the time. After the horrific childhood we had, he claimed he wouldn’t spend the remainder of his life being upset about anything. So, he was usually a happy guy. So, Janice really must have done something to piss him off.
“How would you feel if you showed up to the office and Sean was spending all his time with his female secretary, taking her to lunch and sharing jokes with her that only the two of them would understand? How would you feel if Sean held her, and she eye-fucked the shit out of him, wanting to fuck his brains out?” He continued to pace the room. “You wouldn’t like it either.”
No. Definitely not. “Ryan, I understand why you’re upset.”
“No, you don’t. You’re going to take her side because you always take her side.”
“No, I’m not,” I said gently. “You have every right to be mad.”
He halted. “I do? You aren’t going to say I’m being an ass
hole?”
“No. I know you better than anyone, Ryan. You know when you’re being unfair. Right now, you aren’t. I know I would be pissed if Sean did the same thing. Honestly, we wouldn’t be together right now if he did, but mainly because of our past.”
Sean stared at me for a moment before he looked away. “I wouldn’t like it if Scarlet did that to me.”
Ryan calmed down. He was still pissed but he didn’t pace the room like a soldier. “How could she do this to me…?”
“Do you think she’s cheating?” I asked.
“I…I don’t think so. I just find it hard to believe she would ever do that. But when I saw her with him…I don’t know. Maybe.”
That broke my heart. Ryan was protective over Janice, but he never thought foul play was a possibility. “Really?”
He shrugged. “He seems like the type of guy that would like to get laid even if she was seeing someone, like he wouldn’t care. A pig, basically.”
Sean rubbed his chin. “I can’t see Janice doing that to you, man.”
“Well, she slept with you,” he snapped. “And she’s Scarlet’s best friend.”
“Stop throwing that in his face,” I said.
“I’m not.” Ryan crossed his arms over his chest. “My point is, she’s not against fucking someone just for the hell out of it.”
“Neither are you,” I reminded him.
“Shut up, Scarlet. I don’t have a single friend that’s a girl besides Monnique and Hazel. Janice would be pissed if I did. It’s not even about the fact that she’s close with the guy. It’s because she’s being so hypocritical. How dare she force me not to hire women, but she runs off with this guy she met in college?” He shifted his weight, his suit fitting the muscles of his body.
“Where is she now?” I asked.
“I stormed off. She’s probably still there.”
I raised an eyebrow. “She didn’t come after you?”
“No… And that hurt most of all.”
Having nothing to say, I fell silent.
“She told me I was embarrassing her. That’s the biggest reason why I left. I guess I’m not good enough for her.”
“I don’t think that’s what she meant.”
“I do,” he said quickly. “She’s with her IV league friends. I’m just a fucking tattoo artist. She flirts with Cal because he’s educated and charming—fucker.”
“Cal?” Sean asked.
“That’s the piece of shit’s name.”
“So…what are you going to do now?” I asked.
“I don’t fucking know.” He ran his fingers through his hair again.
“Are you going to go home?”
“I don’t know,” he said again. “I promised her I would sleep with her every night even if we fought. But she promised me I was the only one, so if she’s throwing out promises, then I may as well.” The bitterness was in his voice.
“I think you should go home and talk to her,” I said.
“Why?” His eyes lit up in anger. “She’s the one who should be chasing me. Not the other way around.”
“Just talk to her,” I said. “Maybe she has an explanation for everything.”
“The only one I can think of is she’s fucking him.” His hands moved into his pocket.
“Do you want to break up with her?” I asked.
“No. Yes. I don’t know.” He covered his face with his hands. “If she were anyone else, our relationship would have ended the moment I walked out.” He took a deep breath and kept his hands over his face.
I wrapped my arms around him and leaned into his body. His arms circled me and pulled me to his chest, resting his head on mine. Sean stepped outside and gave us our privacy.
I hated seeing the hurt on my brother’s face. Now I understood what he went through when Sean broke my heart. And this was a million times worse. Janice was my best friend and I knew how much she loved my brother. I found it hard to believe she would hurt him like that. But she did. I’ve never seen him act this way, and that was a lot of evidence against her. I didn’t know what to think. But I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that I was on my brother’s side. Because he was everything to me.
Ryan gave me a key to his apartment when he first moved in. Since he wasn’t going home, I decided to pay Janice a visit. Sean waited in the car while I went inside. Janice wasn’t there so I stayed on the couch. After midnight, she came home.
She kicked off her heels then threw her purse on the table. When she noticed me, her eyes widened. “Scarlet, now isn’t the time.”
“I just want to talk.”
I could tell how pissed she was. Her shoulders were tense with aggression and her eyes indicated she meant business. With her hands on her hips, she glared at me. “You’re my best friend in the world and I love you to death, but I’m not in the mood to talk right now. I’m glad Ryan has someone who loves him as much as I do, but this is our relationship and we can handle it. Honestly, I’m furious he went to you first instead of having an adult conversation with me.”
While she was snappy and full of attitude, I knew she didn’t mean to be rude. If Ryan was having a bad night, I knew she was. “I’ve never seen him so upset before, Janice.”
“That’s too damn bad.”
Shit, she was mad. “Ryan made some pretty serious allegations against you. He’ll admit when he’s wrong, but his evidence sounded pretty convincing. I’m not a fighter and I’m not confrontational, but if you’re fucking with my brother I won’t sit by and let you get away with it.”
She crossed her arms over her chest and gave me a look of fire. “I know you mean well, so I’m going to let that threat go. I did nothing wrong. Ryan may have told his side of the story, but there’s my side.”
“Then let me hear it.”
She held up her hand. “With all due respect, it’s none of your damn business. This is between Ryan and I.”
The anger rose inside me but I kept it in check. Janice was still my best friend and I needed to give her the benefit of the doubt. “I know how much you love my brother and it’s hard for me to imagine you treating him like that, but Ryan doesn’t lie. When he told me what happened, it even made me mad. If Sean acted that way, I wouldn’t put up with it.”
“Don’t compare me to your husband,” she snapped. “That’s insulting.”
That stung.
“No offense,” she added quickly. “Ryan and I have been stable since the moment we met. We don’t fight very often, and when we do, we resolve it. This is no different. That is, if he has the balls to come home and face me like a man.”
“Why didn’t you chase him when he took off?”
“Why should I? He was the one making an ass out of himself. That was my night, my social appearance into work society, and Ryan made it all about himself, seeing things that weren’t really there.”
“It sounded like you were pretty close with your boss.” The accusation was in my voice.
“Because I am close with my boss. He’s my friend. Are you the only one allowed to have guy friends, Scarlet?” The venom dripped with attitude.
I didn’t have a response to that. I was closer to Cortland than any platonic friends should be. But I didn’t touch him and share a piece of cake with him at a restaurant. And Sean was welcome to hang out with us whenever he wished. “Not the same thing.”
“You’re right. It’s not. Because I didn’t sleep with him.”
Ouch.
“Please leave. You didn’t catch me on my best night, so I’m willing to forget all the bullshit you just said to me if you forget everything I’ve said to you. We’re still best friends, as far as I’m concerned. But please stay out of my relationship with Ryan. I respect your privacy with Sean.” She opened the front door and directed me out.
I stepped through the doorway, still feeling angry.
“And tell Ryan to get his ass home. He better not break a promise to me.” She shut the door in my face.
I was in a pissed mood when I
got home. Janice seemed so sure of herself that she was the one being wronged, not my brother. It made me wonder if I missed something, if Ryan left a crucial piece out of the puzzle. I couldn’t believe Janice spoke to me like that, but I guess it wasn’t surprising. She didn’t back down and play dead. When she was threatened, she fought with tooth and nail. While I was annoyed with the treatment, I respected her for it.
I was quiet because of the conversation. When we finally came home, Andrew was watching TV in the living room.
He turned it off. “How’d it go?”
“We’ll know the results in a few days,” Sean said. “How are you holding up?”
“It’s as good as it gets,” he said with a shrug.
I hated seeing how sad Andrew was. I felt like everyone was falling apart except Sean and I. Cortland and Monnique were working on their relationship, Mike and Cassandra had their problems, and now Ryan and Janice were at each other’s throats. Sean was the only stability I had.
Andrew stood up and clapped Sean on the shoulder. “I’m proud of you for being a man and taking care of this.”
Sean’s eyes filled with emotion. He was particularly fond of his father, looking up to him like a role model. “My wife is everything to me.”
“I’m glad to hear that.” He put his hands in his pockets. “Can I have a moment alone with Scarlet?”
“You better not make a move,” Sean teased.
“Why? You scared?” Andrew smiled.
Sean rolled his eyes. “If she’s not in bed in fifteen minutes, I’m coming after her.”
“It’ll probably be at least thirty.” Andrew winked.
“Eww, Dad!” Sean shook his head. “You’re a dirty old man.”
“Now you’ll know how you’ll be in thirty years.”
Sean walked up the stairs and gave us some privacy.
“Is there something I can do for you?” I asked. I loved my father-in-law dearly but I wasn’t in the mood for a heart-to-heart.
“Actually, yes. I hope you’re willing.”
I waited for him to ask.
“Sean and Mike don’t exactly…care for their mother right now. I’ve asked them to pay a visit but they both stubbornly refused. You’re my last hope. You’re much more objective and logical about things than they are. Would you mind checking on her for me?”