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“Shit.”
“What did I do?”
“Not you. Lauren.”
Gia’s nose scrunched up. “Lauren?”
She heard the voice, before I could explain. “Hi, Rush,” Lauren said. “I’m sorry to drop in unannounced. Can we talk for a minute?”
Fuck.
“Sure.”
I squeezed Gia’s shoulder and whispered, “You good?”
The look she gave me screamed anything but. I gave her another squeeze. “I’ll be back. Hang tight.”
Lauren and I went to my office. She was quiet until the door closed. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know where else to go.”
I pulled out a chair. “Take a seat. Whatever it is, I’m here. It’s fine.”
She looked down as she spoke. “Edward needs more surgery. You know they were hoping to take him out of the coma they have him in soon.”
“Yeah. The day before yesterday they were hoping for the end of the week. They said the swelling had gone down a lot. Did something change?”
“Not in his head. That’s still good. But they did some other scans today as a precaution and found another aneurysm in his stomach. It needs to come out. They want your consent to perform the surgery.”
“Why my consent? That’s Elliott’s decision.”
Lauren looked down again and wrung her hands. “Elliott’s not been so logical lately. He’s been…drinking a lot.”
“Everything with Edward too much to handle?”
Her eyes rose up to meet mine. Tears pooled and her bottom lip quivered.
“What’s going on, Lauren?”
“Elliott…he…he…” Unable to hold back anymore, she broke into a cry.
I handed her a box of tissues and pulled a chair next to her so I could rub her back. “It’s okay. Take your time. I’m right here.”
My heart was ricocheting off my ribcage while I waited to hear what she had to say.
Eventually she sniffled a few times and continued. “Last week…I went to his office to surprise him with his favorite dinner.”
The minute she said surprise him, I knew what was coming.
“He’d been so stressed between running the office and Edward being sick. I wanted to cheer him up.” She wiped her eyes and looked at me. “But he had someone already doing that for him. Right there in his office.”
Fuck. Such a goddamn lowlife.
“I’d suspected something was going on before. But I guess I just chose to ignore it and pretend he wasn’t cheating on me.”
I hung my head in shame of my DNA. “I’m sorry, Lauren.”
“Thank you.” After a few minutes of her telling me all the clues she should have picked up on, we rounded the conversation back to Edward’s condition.
“So is Elliott against the surgery?”
“He hasn’t been to the hospital in twenty-four hours. He’s just been drunk and pounding on my door. I’d asked him to leave because I can’t be around him right now. But I went up to visit Edward this morning, and apparently they’ve been trying to reach Elliott since yesterday, and he hasn’t called them back. They need a decision now. I’m sorry to put this on you, Rush.”
“No. Of course. It’s Elliott’s responsibility and mine. Not yours. I appreciate you coming to me. I’ll head into the hospital. Do you know where Elliott is staying?”
“I’m not sure. He was snoring on the floor outside of our apartment late last night. But this morning he was gone. I’m going to stay at my parents’ summer home in Montauk for a few days, so if you see him, tell him that he can use the apartment until I figure out what I’m going to do.”
“Okay.”
Lauren stood. I wished there was something more I could do to help her. She didn’t deserve this shit. “Montauk is twenty minutes. If you need anything at all, even just to talk or to scream about Elliott, don’t hesitate to call me.”
She gave me a hug. “Thanks, Rush.”
I opened the door to my office and she stopped. These days, I thought there wasn’t much that could shock me. But God had to prove me wrong.
Lauren turned back. “I almost forgot. We didn’t get a chance to tell anyone yet.” Her hand went to her belly. “I guess it’s not exactly happy news anymore. But…I’m seven weeks pregnant.”Gia rushed into my office the minute Lauren was gone.
“She knows, doesn’t she?”
“No.”
Her hand clutched her chest. “Oh my God, Rush. Did Edward…I’m so self-absorbed, I wasn’t even thinking…”
“Edward’s fine. I mean...he’s not fine. But he’s not dead. Why don’t you take a seat?”
Some of the color came back to Gia’s face as she sat down in my chair. I filled her in on the latest on Edward’s medical condition and told her that Lauren had walked in on Elliott with another woman in his office. I left out the part about Lauren being pregnant. One nightmare at a time.
“So you need to head to the hospital?”
“Yeah. I need to think about whether I’m going to try and find my asshole brother or not. But I’ll have two hours in traffic to figure that shit out.”
