by Amy Brent
I knew that was a terrible idea, especially since we were getting divorced, but I couldn’t help myself. He was kind and handsome and charming, and after the whole bankruptcy and Jason thing, I felt closer to him than ever.
Of all the people in the world, I trusted him the most. I enjoyed spending time with him the most. He was my closest friend, so how could I help it that my feelings were deepening or strengthening? Even the divorce hovering in our future didn’t seem to make much of a different to my heart.
I snorted at that and got back to work. It was a Wednesday, and yet my hump day was depressingly lacking in any sort of actual humping. I remembered reading once that pregnancy could make women quite horny, and now I was experiencing it full hand. Even though my body seemed to be taking me on a rollercoaster ride that I was completely out of control of, most of it being gross and uncomfortable, I wanted to go for a roll in the hay and then some.
“Hey, Nicole. We’re going to be working a special Saturday this shift for a project. Any chance you’d be willing to come in?”
I looked up from the appointment I was writing, surprised to see my boss. “Oh, I’m sorry, no.” I said, trying to look relatively contrite. “My child’s father is flying in and he’s already bought his tickets.” Naturally I left off that he was a billionaire and could buy more tickets at the drop of a hat, but that wasn’t necessary.
“Aw, you sure? We could certainly use you.”
But I held fast. I wasn’t giving up my time with James if I could help it. There once would have been a time where I had no choice but to snatch up any sort of overtime shift, but James had pretty much taken care of that. I had a cool grand hidden away even with needing a new battery, an inspection and registration all in the same month.
“Sorry, if you let me know earlier next time, I’ll see what I can do.”
“Alright. Maybe next time.”
He wandered off, looking mildly surprised at my reaction, but I was more than pleased with myself. It was pretty liberating having the power to say no whereas in my past all of my choices were forced by my need for money. James had opened so many doors for me and I was eternally grateful.
I finished up my shift still feeling quite proud of myself and headed out the door. Maybe I would treat myself to some nice salmon as a treat for a day well done. After all, I was out of groceries and James almost always took me out on the weekends, so I needed to eat something homemade while he was gone.
I made it outside and was about to pull my phone out, when something violently fluorescent caught my eyes. Craning my neck, I saw a neon flyer taped to the wall just by the door.
My heart dropped out of my chest as I stared at it, my mind automatically going back to the last time in my life I had suddenly found a bright piece of paper outside somewhere I had been.
But it couldn’t be. There was no way-
I walked closer and sure enough, there was everything that I was fearing. I couldn’t breathe, and I could hardly read, as shock settled in.
There was my name across the top and a terribly pixelated picture of me in the center. In smaller type below that, it said that I was blackmailing a rich man for the custody of his child, that I was a home wrecker and it listed some married man that I had never heard of, and that I was addicted to drugs.
That was ridiculous! No one would believe that, right?
But I already knew the answer to that. Heart rate shooting up to a hundred, I knew that everyone would eat the drama and gossip up with a spoon. How did that vile woman find out where I worked though? How did she even know I was in St. Louis?
Despite her lapse of judgement with Jason, I knew she would never tell the ex that had worked so hard to ruin me. So that must have meant it was Jason himself who leaked, which seemed purposefully spiteful. While I didn’t think highly of the man, this was a new low.
Quickly, I snatched the piece of paper and shoved it into my purse before quickly walking away. Maybe no one else had a chance to see it yet? Had anyone left early?
I rounded the corner to our employee parking lot and stopped dead in my tracks. Spread out like some sort of hallucinogenic blanket was hundreds upon hundreds of neon flyers, taped along the walls, thrown on the ground, covering cars, it was literal hell.
I gasped, because what other sound was appropriate for what was going on, and ran forward, grabbing as many as I could. Paper after paper, I picked them up and shoved them into my shirt, or my purse, or my pockets. Anything to get them out of public view.
I was in an absolute panic as I hurriedly cleaned up. I noted that some of them said different things, but I couldn’t quite make out the words through the blurring tears in my eyes. Why was she doing this to me? I had just found peace, why was she trying to ruin my life again?! I had told off Jason; I wasn’t looking for any sort of romantic connection or anything like that with him. If anything, I wanted him to disappear from my life entirely.
But that didn’t matter to her, did it? She wanted to make me hurt. She didn’t care about me, or my child, or anything beyond her idiotic fascination with Jason. Just like everybody else, I didn’t matter to her.
My breath was coming in wheezing sort of rasps that didn’t seem to give me the oxygen I needed, but I hadn’t even made a dent in the onslaught of fluorescent papers. My coworkers were going to be out any moment, and I couldn’t handle them seeing this part of my life.
Dammit! This was too much! Why, why, why when I had just found happiness, I hade to have it yanked from me again? I had thought I was finally going to sit back and enjoy the blessings, and now this witch was trying to topple it all over again.
Tears streaming down my cheeks, I heard footsteps behind me. No. No! It wasn’t enough time. I didn’t have even a quarter of them picked up!
“Nicole, are you okay?”
I snapped upright from where I was standing, at the same time whirling to see a gaggle of my coworkers looking at me with a mix of confusion and concern. I opened my mouth, trying to think of some sort of excuse, or explanation that wouldn’t make me sound absolutely insane, but suddenly I couldn’t really move my lips to make words.
I looked to them, their forms hazy in my blurred vision, before suddenly the world winked out and I feel into nothingness.
Chapter Thirty-One
~James~
I checked my phone for the third time, waiting for a text from Nicole. Usually she texted me every day when she arrived home from work to tell me that she was safe, but she was running a bit late today.
I knew there was probably no reason to worry, since she had done it a few other times as well. A handful when she’d gotten stuck in traffic, or had gone to get groceries/gas, once when she was stuck in line for the bathroom at work because all of the women had decided to wait until the end of the day to use the facilities, but still, I never liked it when she went off schedule.
Granted, she didn’t have to text me at all, but I appreciated when she had started. Although I visited her often, I still worried about how she was when I wasn’t there. Sure, she had lived twenty-three years of her life without me there watching over her, but just look how that had turned out.
Finally, my phone buzzed and I reached for it, ready for her to tell me what hijinks she had been up to that made her two hours late on a Wednesday, but then it kept right on buzzing.
A call, not a text? That wasn’t like her. Given her old job consisted entirely of talking on the phone for entire shifts at a time, I knew she preferred to text whenever possible. If she was calling, then it had to be an emergen-
It wasn’t her. The area code was the right one for St. Louis, but her contact wasn’t coming up. A thousand theories flew through my mind, but I hit the call button before I could get truly carried away.
“Hello, is this Daniel Hines?” The voice on the other end asked. It wasn’t anyone that I recognized, and their tone was kind, but entirely too formal.
“Yes, it is.” I said coolly, my heartrate shooting up.
“A
h, I’m am contacting you because we have a patient here who has listed you as their next of kin.”
“What? Next of kin? What are you talking about?”
“I’m sorry to tell you this way, but one Miss Nicole Arden has had a minor accident and is receiving treatment here. However, doctor’s orders are that she cannot drive for forty-eight hours and they won’t release her unless there is a cognizant adult willing to transport her home and take care of her for the night.”
I was on my feet in a second. “What happened? Is she alright?”
“I cannot disclose anything beyond what was told to me by the doctor. How soon would you be able to get here?”
“If I catch a flight right now, about five hours. This is a hospital, right?”
“Oh yes, of course. If you’d like to provide me with an email address, I’d be more than happy to send you directions from the airport.”
“Yeah, do that,” I said before quickly listing off my address. I already had my keys in one hand and was striding out the door, not quite running, but certainly not walking either.
I was sick to my stomach and no matter how much I told myself to breathe deeply and that it was probably fine since they already mentioned Nicole being released, I couldn’t help my mind going off in a million worse case scenarios.
Was she hit by a car? Had she lost the baby? Had she had some sort of gestational heart attack?
I had no idea, and the thoughts just kept on going and going, making me more frantic by the second.
I’d never hailed and hopped into a cab so quickly in my life. I was breaking personal records right and left, but it still wasn’t fast enough. I should have been there for her. I never should have left. But at the same time, we weren’t together, and we were in the middle of trying to separate our lives. I couldn’t rightly do that and just crash at her place forever. Not to mention that whole running a business thing.
From the airport in my city to the one in St. Louis was a solid blur. I spent most of it texting my upper management and lawyer to just let them know the situation and that I would be out of the office for a week most likely. Then I emailed my secretary asking her to send me my company laptop so that I could do some work while I was taking care of Nicole.
And I was going to take care of her. Whatever she needed, whatever she wanted, I intended to make sure she got it. I hadn’t known fear in quite a long time, but there was no other name for the cold, dreadful feeling clamping onto my spine.
But it seemed like life had it out for me, because getting a cab outside of the St. Louis airport to take me to the hospital was its own ordeal. I grew angrier by the minute, and I was sure that wasn’t a very enticing look for possible cabbies.
But after fifteen minutes of waving, I managed to flag one down. I threw myself in, saying the hospital name so fast that I was surprised the drover was able to understand me, but sure enough he took off.
I watched the city whip by the window, appreciating that the driver was taking my urgency to heart. But every second slipping away felt like too great a loss and it was hard to keep all of my energy inside of my own skin.
By the time he pulled up to the hospital, I wasn’t willing to go through the whole credit card process to pay, so I just pulled a hundred from my wallet and handed it to him while I stepped out. If he objected to the cash, he certainly didn’t say, and I was already off.
I went straight to the front desk, trying not to look like some enraged killer. I think I managed somewhat, because when the worker looked up and didn’t appear to be terrified.
“Hi, may I help you?”
“Yeah, I’m looking for Nicole Arden. I received a call that I’m listed as her next of kin?”
“Oh, of course. Let me look that up for you!”
She looked back to her computer and typed away, eerily reminding me of how Nicole told me most of her work days went. I shifted from foot to foot, hoping to keep my calm just a little bit longer. I was almost there, and the feeling of impatience was growing that much stronger.
“Ah, tenth floor, room 1015. You’re going to want to go to the right, following the green line on the ground, and then you’re going to want to go into the red elevators. Once you get out on the tenth floor, the desk there should be able to point you in the right direction for the room.”
“Great, thanks.”
I took off, doing that strained run-walk that was just on the edge for an appropriate speed to move without being stopped. Somehow, I managed not to get lost, and finally ended up on the tenth floor.
I took a step towards the desk just outside of the elevators, but a room number caught my eye. 1001. That meant Nicole had to be close. I wasn’t willing to waste another moment getting instructions, so I walked off in the direction it made sense for 1015 to be.
My blood was pounding so hard with every door I passed. I had never had something affect me like this, but there was no denying that I was a mix of protective, scared and relieved. I just knew I wanted to see Nicole’s face and deal with whatever had happened to her head on. No more wondering, no more imagining the worst.
Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, I reached her door. It was only closed partially, so I was fairly sure I could go in, but I managed to pause long enough to knock.
“Come in,”
I heard her voice and it was like all of the tension in me came undone. I pushed open the door and strode in, walking right up to her bedside
“Nicole,” I said, no other words coming to mind. I could only look at her face. She didn’t have any bruises or scratches, but she looked both pale and stressed, which I didn’t like on her at all.
“I’m sorry,” she said, her brow furrowing as she looked up at me with a guilt I didn’t understand. “I know it’s a Wednesday and you had to leave the office, but they wouldn’t release me without having someone else to pick me up and if I left against medical advisement, then insurance might not cover everything.”
“Shhh, shhh, it’s fine.” I said, brushing her hair out of her face. “Just tell me what happened.”
There was a knock on the door and she sighed. “It’s probably a nurse. They check on me every hour and each time I thought it was you.”
“Hope you weren’t too disappointed.”
She laughed lightly at that, but the sound wasn’t rich or deep. Peering over my shoulder, she looked to the door. “You can come in.”
Instead of the singular nurse I was expecting, three people came in, one of them dressed in a lab coat and looking quite official. That, I guessed, was the doctor.
“Ah, hello! Is this Mr. James Hines that we have been waiting for?”
“In the flesh,” I answered as politely as I could. But my stomach was still twisting with nerves, so it wasn’t very convincing. “Can you explain to me what happened here?”
“I’m afraid Miss Nicole here lost consciousness in the parking lot of her place of employment. Thankfully, there were three people there to witness it, and they called an ambulance immediately.”
“It’s fine,” Nicole interrupted. “I let myself get too dehydrated then when I dropped something in the parking lot, I stood up too fast. This is a whole lot of to-do about something that should have been just an embarrassing mishap.”
“I’m afraid that’s not quite the case,” the doctor continued. I could tell that they were trying to be kind but were a bit exasperated with Nicole. I wondered what had happened when I was gone and if she had been fighting them the entire time. As strong as the woman was, sometimes she fought too hard to be independent.
“The unfortunate news is this is not just a case of dehydration, or low blood pressure. With the tests we’ve run, I’ve reason to believe that you’re experiencing a complication in your pregnancy and are most likely going to experience more.”
“Com…plication?” Nicole murmured, her face going even paler.
“Yes. Now I don’t want you to worry, because this is a relatively mild case, and we’ve got a plan in place t
o make sure both you and the little one are both happy and healthy.
“I’m putting you on bed-rest until the end of your pregnancy, and we should all prepare for an early labor. From some of your test results, we can extrapolate anywhere from six and a half to eight months, so nothing in the dangerous or NICU realm.”
“Bedrest? NICU?” Nicole repeated. I was pretty sure she was in shock and could only parrot back words, so I gently stroked her head again. That dark pit in my stomach was growing more and more by the second, but it just made me more determined to protect the woman in front of me.
“So I’m sure you can see now why we wanted to make sure you had a partner or support here. The next two to three months for you are going to be difficult, but not impossible. We’re also going to need you to go to biweekly checkups on your doctor, just in case anything suddenly develops. We’ll also give you a list for symptoms to look out for, what activities you can do often, what you can do occasionally, and what you should never do, as well as a diet to help you through this last stretch of the road.”
I had never seen someone who worked so hard to get on their feet only to have life smack them back down again. Couldn’t Nicole get a break this one time? Couldn’t life just cut her the tiniest bit of slack?
“Hey, you okay?” I asked, noticing her glazed over look.