Page 24 of The Plus One Professional

Even as I thought it, I didn’t quite recognize my own thoughts. I was starting to sound like the men in the romance period dramas Sara had been watching lately. It started withBridgerton, but then she moved on toSanditon, andOutlander. Now she was on the final season ofPoldark. Since she didn’t have a television in the nook that served as her room, I was stuck watching the shows. Which, honestly, I didn’t mind. They had decent storylines.

The grin that had been on my face since I left the reception slipped as I approached the door to my apartment and got a sinking feeling in my stomach. It took me a second to realize why my internal alarm was going off. When I approached the door, I didn’t hear anything. There was no noise coming from inside. I opened the door, hoping to find the boys or Sara or Carly on the couch reading or something, but there was no one. I was met with an empty apartment and deafening silence.

Where was everyone? Why wasn’t the TV on? Why wasn’t anyone in the kitchen? Had Sara been taken to the hospital?

I rushed back to Sara’s nook and found it vacant. Next, I checked Carly’s room. Empty. And no one was in the twins’ room.

Adrenaline was rushing through me like whitewater rapids as I pulled out my phone and dialed Sara’s number. It had just started ringing when I heard the front door of the apartment open.

I rushed down the hall just in time to see Sara walking inside.

“Are you okay? What’s wrong? What happened?”

She looked surprised to see me. “Nothing. I just walked the boys over to Jeremiah’s. They’re spending the night.”

“Where’s Carly?” I barked. Even though I could see with my own eyes that my sister was okay, the rush of emotions I had been feeling were still coursing through me.

“She’s at Riley’s.” Her brow furrowed. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m…I just…I thought something happened to you.”

“CJ, I’m so sorry. I…I didn’t even think about letting you know.”

“No, don’t apologize. It’s fine.” I knew that I was overreacting; it was just hard not to think the worst when the worst had happened. “I could have taken the boys when I got home. You shouldn’t be walking.”

“It’s two blocks. I was fine.”

She was saying she was fine, but I could see the dark circles under her eyes. And her cheeks were sunken in.

“Have you eaten?” I asked.

“I was going to grab a shake.”

The doctor had advised her to drink protein shakes to try and keep up her strength and for the calories, but they tasted like chalk to me.

“I’m gonna grab a shower, and then I was going to grill.”

“Didn’t you eat at the wedding? Are you still hungry?”

Yeah, I did. And no, I wasn’t hungry. But I knew that there was no way Sara would eat dinner if it were just her.

I patted my stomach. “I’m a growing boy. Give me ten minutes.”

After a quick rinse off, I pulled on some sweats, and when I walked into the kitchen, Sara was at the sink rinsing off veggies. I opened the fridge and found the chicken I had marinating for the next day's dinner. We could have that now, and I’d make burgers tomorrow, which the twins would be happy about.

“So, how was the wedding? This was Layla, right?”

“Yeah, it was. But this was the last time I’ll be seeing her.”

Sara cringed. “Did she tell you she has feelings for you? I was worried that was why she kept hiring you.”

“No.” I smiled as I walked onto the fire escape where the small grill was set up. I lit the charcoal and put the chicken on. “It was the opposite. I walked in on her making out with, I think she said his name was Enoch.”

“Enoch?”

“Yeah. Apparently, he was the reason she’d been hiring me. She said she needed to light a fire under him, or he never would have made his move. I’m not sure why she didn’t just tell him how she felt.”

Sara sighed wistfully. “Sometimes it’s not that easy. Sometimes, you have to let them make the first move. It has to be their idea. You just have to help them make it.”

---