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Chapter Twenty-Five
Elizabeth arrived at the office at 8:00 a.m. Monday morning.
No more going in early. My time is valuable, too. Her own thought took her by surprise. She smiled. Things certainly changed in the past several months, and suddenly there were more important things to her than work. Joe. The kids. Herself. Months ago, she would have done anything for the Palmer James Company, but now, after all that had happened to her, she viewed things differently.
She settled into her office and picked up the phone to make an appointment with the doctor. Staring into the phonebook, she wondered which one to call. She hadn’t needed a doctor since she moved to Chicago, other than for when she’d cut her hand on the glass, and that had been handled at the emergency room. She dialed Angelina’s number. Perhaps her doctor could see her.
Angelina answered on the third ring. “Hello.”
“Hi, it’s Elizabeth. I was going to make an appointment to see a doctor, only I don’t know who to see.”
“Oh, I go to Dr. Stuart. Hold on, I’ll get his number for you.” Angelina came back on the line and gave her the phone number, and again, offered to go with her.
“Thanks for the offer, but Joe said he would come along. I’ll talk to you later,” Elizabeth said as she quickly disconnected the call in order to make the call to the doctor’s office before she lost her nerve.
Now that her denial lifted, and she had come to terms with the probability of pregnancy, she called Dr. Stuart’s office and scheduled the earliest appointment they had to offer. Fear of the unknown suddenly seemed worse than the fear of knowing. If not for the fact her appointment was in two days, she probably would have run out to the nearest pharmacy and purchased a home pregnancy test.
She dialed up Joe’s cell number.
“Hi, Elizabeth, what’s up?”
She was caught off guard when he actually answered. She’d expected to get his voicemail because she knew he would be at the downtown office this morning for meetings.
“Uhm...I made the appointment. It’s for Wednesday at 5:30 p.m.”
“Okay, not a problem. I’ll be there. I’m sorry, but I need to go, I was just on my way into a meeting when I saw your number come up on the caller ID. Do you want me to call you when I’m done?” he asked.
“No, I’m good. I’ll see you later tonight. Bye.”
She leaned back in her chair and took a moment for herself. The man she just hung up with was amazing. With as busy as he was, he stopped to take her call, and there was no doubt in her mind that whenever her appointment was scheduled, he would be there, no matter what it took.
Fortunately, for her preoccupied mind, her workday was fairly routine. Out of spite, she did the best she could to kill her gossipy receptionist, with kindness. She was still trying to figure out how she wanted to deal with Darcy, and the whole rumor mill situation. And then there was Mr. James. No word from him since his visit, no threat to her personally, or about losing her job. Apprehension snaked up her spine. What was he up to? And when would the other shoe drop? Surely it would.
At 5:00 p.m. she shut down her computer and threw on her coat.
In her hurried frenzy, she nearly bumped into Mr. Kent on the way out of her office. “Excuse me. I didn’t see you.”
Mr. Kent smiled. “That’s okay, I’m glad to see you leave on time. Big plans tonight?”
She returned his smile. “Big plans for a Monday night. I’m meeting my friends at the florist. Holly is getting married in a couple of weeks, and we’re checking out floral arrangements and bouquets tonight.”
