Not a good enough reason. I could never leave someone I love when they need me—especially if they were sick.
I studied Briana’s face. She looked so tired when she talked about her brother.
“Any status on a donor?” I asked.
She shook her head. “No. I have a website for it, and we all have HELP BENNY FIND A KIDNEY. YOU COULD BE THE MATCH! stickers on our cars. But it’s been eight months since I started looking for someone.”
“Do you have any more stickers? I’ll put one on my truck.”
She looked up at me and brightened. “You will?”
“Yes, of course.”
She beamed at me like this tiny thing was everything. “Thank you. And thanks for having lunch with me,” she said.
“Anytime,” I said, meaning it more than I think she knew. “Maybe next time we can do the cafeteria.”
She laughed a little. “I know you don’t like loud, crowded places. I never see you in the lounge. I just figured you’d be more comfortable here.”
Now my face went soft.
She’d picked here on purpose? For me?
Briana had just managed to do what Amy never could after almost three years together. She took me someplace to meet for lunch that wouldn’t make me anxious.
It wasn’t Amy’s fault I was like this. But I wondered if we’d still be together if every date with her didn’t wear me out. Would we have seen each other more if it wasn’t so exhausting for me? Maybe she would have known me better if she’d understood how to get to know me better. Like this. Putting me at ease. Meeting me halfway.
Someone knocked on the supply room door. I was sitting against it, so I had to get up to open it.
“Expecting someone?” Briana teased.
I was smiling at this when I opened the door, but the second I saw who it was, my expression flatlined. It was Jewel.
“What…what are you doing here?” I asked, confused.
She crossed her arms over her hot pink T-shirt. “I had to do a wellness check since nobody can seem to get you on the phone. Some nurse told me you were eating lunch in a closet?”
Then she peered past me at Briana. A huge grin ripped across my sister’s face.
“Hey,” Briana said, getting up with a smile. “You must be Jewel.”
My sister had a shaved head, she was covered in tattoos, and she looked just like me. She wasn’t hard to spot based on my brief story about her.
Jewel looked positively elated. “I am. And you are?”
“Briana,” she said brightly, offering a hand.
“Briana. Very nice to meet you.” My sister shook her hand, beaming. “So what are you two doing in here?” she asked, looking back and forth between us.
“We’re just having lunch,” I said.
“I see. Well, now that I know you’re alive, I’ll let you kids get back to it. Call me after work.”
“Yes, sure.”
She gave me a smile I couldn’t interpret and left. I shut the door and sat back down.
“She’s nice,” Briana said, picking up her Snapple. “In an I-gave-you-a-lawn-mower-chest-tattoo kind of way.”
I scoffed.
“Does your family do these wellness checks often?”
“She’s very in my business right now,” I said. “They all are.”
“Why?”
“Eh, it’s a long story.”
She looked at her watch. “We have fifteen more minutes.”
“It’s going to take longer than fifteen minutes.”
“Okay. Want to meet for drinks after work? Everyone’s going to Mafi’s for Hector’s birthday. We can get our own booth while we do our part to keep the liquor industry strong.”
I laughed. Then I immediately wondered if she really wanted me to go, or did she invite me because she didn’t think I’d actually come? I studied her expression. She looked almost hopeful. She really was trying to include me.
“I’m actually going anyway,” I said. “With Zander.” He’d texted me earlier for drinks after work.
“Perfect. I’ll come say hi.”
When our break was over, I held the door for her to let her out. “See you tonight,” she said before heading back to her side of the ER. As I watched her go, my cell pinged from my pocket. Then it pinged again and again and again in quick succession.
I pulled out my phone to see what was going on, and the second I saw it, my smile fell.
Oh no…
Chapter 13
Jacob
I stared at the string of texts from my family that had been streaming in since lunchtime. Everyone but Dad. Lots of exclamation marks and heart-eye emojis. I dragged a hand down my mouth.
I was sitting at Mafi’s with Zander having the after-work drinks I’d promised him earlier. Briana was across the restaurant with the birthday crowd. I could see her laughing with Hector against the bar.
“This is so bad,” I muttered, putting my phone facedown and my palms to my eyeballs.
Jewel thought Briana was my girlfriend.
It didn’t even occur to me at the time how that whole thing had looked, me alone in a supply closet with a woman, Briana knowing my sister sight unseen, like a girlfriend would. No wonder Jewel’d been so smiley.
She told everyone she’d met my girlfriend. She’d even gone so far as to search the Royaume Northwestern website to get Briana’s bio and photo, which she then shared in the group text.
“What’s bad?” Zander asked.
I sat back in my seat and paused for a long moment. “I messed up,” I said finally.
“With what?”
“My family. I told them I have a girlfriend.”
He blinked at me. “Why the hell did you do that?”
I blew a breath through my lips. “They’re worried about me. Jeremiah and Amy getting married. I just wanted them to think I was okay.”
His smile moved into a low chuckle. “Damn. Your mom’s going to lose her shit when she finds out about this. You’re gonna get psychoanalyzed within an inch of your life.”
“I know,” I said. “But it gets worse. They think it’s Briana.”
“Our Briana? That Briana?” He nodded to her sitting at the bar with Hector.
“Jewel came to see me today and I was eating lunch with her in the supply closet by Gibson’s office. She assumed.”
“Well, what are they saying?” Zander asked.
I glanced at my phone. “That my girlfriend is beautiful. That they can’t wait to meet her. That we were making out in a supply closet.”
He practically howled.
“She is single, you know,” he said, still cracking up. “Check this out. The jackass she was married to? Cheated on her with her friend.” He shook his head. “Idiot. You should have seen what she did to him when she caught him.”
I wrinkled my forehead. “What did she do?”
“Not my place to tell you. You should ask her. Let’s just say he got what he had coming, and I hope I’m never on her bad side.” He laughed again.
I took a deep breath. “I’m calling my family.” I picked up my phone and went to dial, but he stopped me.
“Just hold up a second. Hold up,” he said. “Why don’t you just ask her?”