Page 29 of Emerald Malice

A fact that I conveniently forgot the night Andrey Kuznetsov darkened my doorstep.

My phone starts blaring, and I grab it, grateful for the distraction. I’m so desperate not to take these tests and prove my worst theories true that I’d be willing to talk to Katya. But it’s Aunt Annie instead. Much less problematic.

“Hi, Aunt Annie.”

“How’s my little Nic-Nat?”

Doing miserably, thank you. But instead of pouring my heart out like I want to, I go for a breezy lie. “Doing fine. How are you? How are things at the hospital?”

“Oh, the usual, honey. People get sick and I do my best to help get them better again.” She shuffles around in the background and I long to be back in her tiny two-bedroom cottage with the cherry tree out back. “Is everything alright with you?”

Avoiding the couch, I slump down on the carpet by the coffee table. “Of course. Why do you ask?”

“No reason. It’s just, you’ve called quite a bit the last few weeks. Not that I don’t love hearing from you,” she assures me quickly. “But I usually get a call once a week. And yesterday, I had three missed calls from you.”

I cringe. “Oh, yeah, I’m sorry about that?—”

“Don’t you dare be!” she scolds lightly. “I just want to make sure everything’s good with you. I would’ve called back yesterday, but I had a late shift.”

“I figured you were at work. I was just… a little lonely, that’s all.”

There’s a pause. “Everything okay with you and Katya?”

I don’t know how she managed to put two and two together so quickly. Although, Aunt Annie knows I have exactly one friend and no one else in my life to speak of, so maybe it’s not that big a stretch.

God, I’m pathetic.

“Katya and I are taking a… break.”

“Oh, dear.”

“It’s not a big deal, seriously.” I have to play it down. Aunt Annie is a worrier and the last thing I want is to stress her out about my troubles when she has people with real problems to take care of. “We just had a little fight. I’m sure we’ll get over it soon.”

“Has she been roping you into more of her crackpot schemes?”

I laugh. “You could say that.”

“You wanna talk about it?” I can practically see Aunt Annie’s brows pinched together in worry. “Or, if you need an outing, you can come spend next weekend with me?”

“Don’t you have to work?”

“I can see about moving around a few shifts. Meryl’s got her daughter’s engagement next month, so she might be willing to swap with me.”

My stomach plummets as I realize that I have succeeded in worrying my aunt. “No, no. Totally not necessary,” I say as nonchalantly as I can manage. “I’m busy this weekend anyway.”

“Busy doing what?”

I poke at the pregnancy tests lying on the glass coffee table. “Fun, exciting stuff! Stuff only a single woman living life to the fullest can do in the big city.”

Aunt Annie laughs. “Well, have fun. Just use protection.”

Now, she tells me.

I can only laugh before saying our goodbyes and hanging up.

“God,” I mutter to my empty apartment. “Kill me. Kill me now.”

No higher power seems to want to waste energy smiting me today, so I drag myself off the carpet, scoop up the pregnancy tests, and fumble my way to the bathroom. I pee on one test after another.

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