Page 53 of Fighting a Riot

I grabbed my stuff and came back into the living room. “You’re wrong, Trixie.”

She aimed her coy grin at me. “We’ll find out now, won’t we?”

Chapter 9

Dodged a Bullet

Nora

Before I would qualify for FMLA leave, I had to exhaust all of my vacation and sick days. Since I was still using vacation days, but couldn’t do anything very vacation-like, I headed into the office on Monday.

To my surprise, Mia wasn’t around most of the morning. She rolled in after ten and from the way she spoke on the phone, I knew she’d been at the dentist.

I didn’t get a chance to even say good morning to her before I had to attend a ten-thirty meeting. Some co-workers in the meeting were surprised to see me back after my surgery. It was strange how people figured I’d go from surgery straight into chemo treatments.

When the meeting ended, I couldn’t wait to get out of the office for lunch.

The meeting room was located not far from the front desk, which meant I had to pass by the receptionist to get back to my cube.

I stutter-stepped at the sight of Destin standing in front of the receptionist.

“I’m sorry, she’s not picking up her phone,” Roberta said.

At the sound of my high-heels, Destin looked my way. If I wasn’t mistaken, he paled. “Nora. Wha… Erm, what are you doing here?”

I gave him a fake smile. “I work here, Destin. I’d ask what you’re doing here, but my hunch is that you’re looking for Mia. She had a dental appointment this morning.”

Destin looked to the side and back to me. “Can I talk to you for a minute? In private?”

My brows drew together. “I can’t imagine there’s anything you need to say to me—”

He sighed. “Please, Nora. It won’t take long. I just want to explain.”

Down to my gut, I didn’t think there was any explanation for his behavior, but I gave into his earnest tone and pleading eyes. “Fine. There’s a small meeting room, right here.”

His lips tipped up. “I know. I used to work here, remember?”

I gave him a dry look and waved my hand out for him to precede me.

I shut the door and leaned against it. “Let’s hear it.”

Destin shoved his hands in the pockets of his navy blue dress pants and stared at his brown Oxfords. When he looked at me, his pleading expression grew stronger. “I never meant to hurt you, Nora.”

“I’ll have to take your word for it. Your timing couldn’t have been any worse unless you’d said no at the altar.”

He pulled one hand free to run it through his sandy-brown hair. “Cancer is a big freaking deal, Nora.”

My brows shot up. “I just had the lumpectomy done last week, Destin. Believe me, I’m well aware of how serious breast cancer is.”

He sighed. “I’m messing this up. It’s just, we talked about starting a family and my sister mentioned how chemo can keep a couple from getting pregnant.”

“During the chemo process, yes. But, we weren’t going to try to get pregnant our first year of marriage anyway.”

He kept quiet for a moment. “I had hoped to change your mind about that.”

I raised my chin in a very slow nod. That served as another sign that we might not have worked out for the long haul. “I didn’t know that.”

He shoved his free hand back in his pocket. “Starting a family matters a lot to me, Nora.”

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