Page 18 of Waiting for Tuesday

Why on earth Jake wanted to put in a garden when there was perfectly good produce at the store was beyond me, but I’d made a promise long ago, and I was determined to keep it. Even if it meant getting up at seven in the morning on a Saturday. I threw the covers to the edge of the bed and rose to my feet. Ginger pranced to the other side of the room, and I knew it would only be a second before she was back with her leash.

We had a thing, Ginger and me. She forgave me all my flaws, and I took her for a run every night after work. Except for this week. This week I went straight to the pub. To eighteen hour days, and women who were more interested in taking selfies than participating in an intelligent conversation. This week had taken its toll on both of us.

I grabbed my running shorts from the foot of my bed, pulled them on, and then stumbled down the hallway to look for my shoes. The living room was a freaking mess. A week’s worth of not caring left discarded clothes scattered across the hardwood floor, and I didn’t even give a shit. I plopped down to the edge of the couch and found my shoes under the coffee table.

My phone vibrated beside me and I cringed.Who the hell was calling at this hour?I leaned over to get a better look and rolled my eyes.

Lisa.My youngest sister, and the one the other two always sent to do their dirty work. I sent the call to voicemail and bent over to pull on my shoes, but the phone immediately buzzed again.

Ginger plopped her leash down at my feet, and I shook my head. “Just like every other woman in my life, you’re trying to rush me.” I stood up and swiped open the call.

“Hello”

“Thank God, John! Where have you been?”

I yawned and stretched a little. “What do you mean, where have I been? It’s the butt crack of dawn on a Saturday. I was sleeping.” I walked to the kitchen, pulled a jug of OJ from the top shelf, and chugged a good mouthful. “What has your panties in a bunch?”

She was quiet a moment, which wasn’t like her, and I walked toward the sink and set the jug on the counter. “Lisa?”

“You haven’t heard…”

My chest constricted at the tone of her voice, and I shook my head. “Heard what?”

She hesitated. “John—Jake’s wife is in the ER. He just called, trying to find you.”

I pushed myself from the counter, unable to speak. I saw Jake and Katie less than twelve hours ago. “Wha—what happened?”

“I don’t know,” she whispered. “I think it’s something to do with the baby.”

I gripped the phone so hard I heard a crack. “Shit!”

“You-you should go, John. Jake sounded really upset.”

I turned to the window and looked out without seeing. “Where are they?”

“Holy Cross.”

* * *

It was onlyten minutes later when I pushed through the door to the waiting room of Holy Cross Memorial Hospital, but it felt like a thousand. It was early, eerily quiet, but the stench of antiseptic and tragedy left me tense with claustrophobia.

I found Em right away in the corner of the room. Her short hair plastered to her face like she’d just rolled out of bed, her body absent of the fashion she normally prided herself on, replaced with sweats and a t-shirt I knew she’d fallen asleep in.

“What happened? Where’s Jake?”

She shook her head and looked over her shoulders to the closed double doors. “I don’t know. Jake called this morning in near hysterics and told me Katie was bleeding. That’s all I know.”

I turned to face the door, needing the limited privacy as I took in the news. I raked my hand through my hair, trying to make some sense of it all.I saw them only hours ago and everything was fine.“Do you think she’s losing the baby?”

“I don’t know,” she whispered.

My head began to pound at the thought of it. Jake and Katie didn’t deserve this. They were newly married, just finding themselves after a lifetime of hurt, and there was only so much loss one could take. This would break them. Both of them.

Em touched my shoulder, and I forced myself to turn and face her. She was close to losing it—I could see that the moment I walked through the door. I clenched my jaw and pulled her into my chest. She was normally so strong, unaffected by life’s mishaps, but this obviously shook her. I hadn’t seen her like this in twenty-four years. Since we were kids. “She’ll be fine, Em. Everything is going to be fine.” Though I wasn’t sure I believed it.

* * *

Ahalf hour later, I pushed myself from the red vinyl seat and forced myself to the vending machine. I wasn’t hungry, not in the slightest, but I couldn’t stand to look at Em’s face any longer. It was one of defeat, sadness, and loss. I could practically see her building stone walls around herself, brick by brick. An armor of protection that didn’t offer any protection at all.

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