34

AIDEN

 

I grab drinks for us and move back to the table and she’s sitting there, staring at her phone, looking like she’s seen a ghost.

“Carly?”

“My D-dad. My Dad collapsed at work. He’s in the hospital. They think it was a heart attack.”

“Oh shit.”

“It’s because my sister g-got hit by a car. My Mom is at the hospital with both of them. With both of them! They got the call about Caitlin and Dad collapsed. And now she’s there with them both.”

I put the drinks down and put my hand on her shoulder. “Hey.” She looks up at me. She’s got tears in her eyes.

“What can I do?” I ask.

“Can you get me to the airport? I have to… I have to go home.”

“Let’s go.” I’m helping her up. She’s shaky. I grab her tote bag and loop it over my shoulder, grab our drinks tray in one hand and put my free arm around her and lead her to the closest exit.  When we get out there, I pass her a drink, take mine and dump the tray into a recycling bin. I call Joshua to get here and get us to the airport. He tells me he’ll be here in ten minutes. We stand outside while I call Alice and ask her to get us flights as fast as possible to Buffalo.

Carly’s staring off into space, holding herself, leaning against the wall.

“Hey. We’re gonna get you home as quick as we can, okay?”

She nods, and her chin starts trembling.

“Hey?” I open my arms. “Need a hug?”

She falls into me and starts crying into my shirt.

Hm. Shoulda tried this move days ago.

I’m careful not to spill coffee on her. She’s holding hers behind my back.

I swallow past a weird lump and hold her, feeling bad that she’s going through this and thinking that no other woman has ever felt so right in my arms.

Her head tucks under my chin; she molds to me. And though she’s drenching my shirt with tears, holding my leather jacket in her fists, she’s warm and soft against me.

And fuck me, but I don’t want her to let go.

 

***

 

She protested against me going with her. But for some reason, I insisted and now I’m here, in Buffalo.   We took a cab from the airport to the hospital.

For some reason, I had to get her here myself. I also held her hand for the last hour of the plane ride. She was quiet, but she didn’t pull away. I’ve never been a hand-holder.

Now, we’re at the hospital and Carly’s father is gonna be okay. It was a mild heart attack. Her sister, however, is in bad shape.  Broken leg, broken nose. Broken ribs. But, Carly’s sister’s problems don’t truly stem from getting hit by a car.  When it happened, she was in the middle of a drug-induced flip out, running through the streets screaming, according to witnesses. 

Carly’s mother is an older rounder version of Carly with kind eyes and the type of maternal attitude I am not accustomed to.

She’s weepy. She hugged me already, despite Carly introducing me as her boss. And then she started to babble about Caitlin getting hit by a car and the cops calling Carly’s father at work and as his father was telling an employee why he had to leave early, he started hyperventilating and clutched his chest and then went down.

I sit there in the waiting room while Carly’s in with her father.

I’ve texted Kieran and I’ve sent a text to my father, telling him Carly’s father and sister got rushed to the hospital and so we’re in Buffalo.

He answers my text and invites me to stop in to Chancellor tomorrow since I’m here to tell the current management team in person the news that they’re being absorbed into CC and that they’ll all be getting severance packages.

I phone him to reply.

“Aiden. Hello.”

“Fuck, Dad. Have some goddamn sensitivity!”

Coming from me, this is saying something. I let him have it after that meeting on Carly’s first day about this same fuckin’ thing.

“S-son.”

“Damn it.” I rub my forehead in frustration.

“Okay, why don’t we table any work stuff. Just take care of our girl there and call me tomorrow. Let me know what’s happening.”

“Yeah, alright.” I end the call and that’s when Carly and her mother are coming toward me.

That morning, Dad told me he’s having part of his prostate removed. He reiterated that they’ve caught it early and that the prognosis is good.

He also tells me that my mother is refusing to speak to him over the fiasco surrounding Adele’s labor. She’s found a way to blame him, insisting he didn’t try very hard to wake her to come to the hospital and that she wasn’t drunk; it had been her sleep medication only that made her so difficult to rouse.

Bullshit, but whatever.

Mrs. Adler sits down in the waiting area beside me.  “Thank you so much for getting Carly to us so fast, Aiden.”

“Of course I’d get her home. How is everything?”

“Well, my husband, they’re keeping overnight for observation and running some more tests in the morning.  Caitlin, they’ve got sedated. She is in a bit of legal trouble, though, so she’s not going to leave from here other than to go to the…” she lowers her voice, “police station.”

Carly tightens her lips.

“My older daughter is not nearly as together as my younger one,” she adds.

I say nothing, because what is there to say?

I look to Carly, but can’t get a read on her expression. She’s chewing her thumbnail and staring at me.

Carly’s mother starts talking again. “So, I’ve already said good night to Darryl and stopped in to see Cait.  But, she’s medicated so she’s asleep. We should go home and get some sleep. I have my van. Aiden, would you be so kind as to drive?” She passes me the keys.