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I close my eyes and lean into the wall, tears falling and mingling with the hot water. I can’t stop picturing him standing over her as we set her arm. She never even flinched. Never even took her eyes off him.
But when he helped her up, I saw her shoulders hunch up. I almost grabbed her good arm and told her to stay. Begged her not to go back.
But I just watched her walk out the door, her eyes locked on him.
I straighten and groan. I hope she finds her breaking point and leaves him before she really gets hurt.
But I can’t force her to. Most I can do is make a report.
I drag myself reluctantly out of the hot water. Toweling off, I wrap a towel around my long hair and step to the mirror. Dark blue makes raccoon circles under my tired blue eyes. My skin is lackluster and it looks like I’ve lost about ten pounds.
Not that I couldn’t stand to lose a few. My wide hips and big breasts are still very generous for my 5 foot 1 inch frame.
But I can’t afford to get sick and right now I’m driving my body into the ground.
I wander into the bedroom and unwrap my hair, drying it carefully while I study what I can wear.
I finally finish and decide to wear a soft silver sweater and a pair of dark, tight jeans. When I slip them on, they’re not quite as tight as they were but they’ll do.
I quickly dab on a little light perfume in a soft floral and then add some gold hoops and mascara and figure that’s good enough. I slide on my gray suede booties and throw on a dark grey peacoat with a scarf and mittens.
Locking the door behind me I drag my heels to my car and then drive to Stacy’s Sweets.
I can see that most of her lights are off. Our little group meets after Stacy closes a couple of times a month. I can see some of the girls are already inside and I park, not surprised when Amanda bounces out of the shadows.
“I was just about to come get you!” she hollers, hugging me tightly.
“It’s only been a month!” I gasp. “Not so tight, Manda. I can’t breathe!”
She backs away. “Oops! Sorry about that. I was worried about you. You look like you’ve lost weight.”
“Okay, well. Here I am. And I’m all in one piece. Let’s go get something to eat. I’m starved. Somebody called me to come and I didn’t even get to eat yet.”
She makes a face and her chocolate-brown eyes dance. “Hey, Carinna got a babysitter and she brought her cheesy hash brown casserole. And Sophie made those pinwheels you like with the ham and swiss and spinach.”
I stop and groan. “Shoot. I didn’t bring anything.”
She grabs my arm and drags me through the door. “Don’t worry about it. Everybody knows you’ve been working doubles. Nobody expects you to show up with food when you just got off work.”
I hesitate. “Still. I don’t like to show up empty-handed.”
Harvey yells across the room. “Don’t you dare take off, Jamie! I’ve already seen you.”
I sigh and slip my coat, hat and mittens off. “I’m gonna kill you, Manda!” I whisper out of the side of my mouth, hanging it up.
She just laughs.
Harvey hugs me and then she slaps me on the back so hard she almost knocks me over. “Shit, sorry about that Jamie. We were all getting worried about you. Good to see you’re still in one piece.” She steps back and her green eyes study me. “Or mostly. You look like hell.”
“Bad day at work.”
“Hmmmph! Well, at least you can get some food in you. Come on, there’s a ton.”
Harvey drags me across the room and I nod to the girls, smiling when I see Millie in the saggy brown dress. Lord, she dresses terrible.
Alex must have come right from work. She’s still dressed in her EMT uniform. Her arms are waving and she’s laughing at something Carinna’s saying.
I sigh and feel my shoulders unknot. These are my friends and it feels good to be here even though I’m tired.
