Somewhere in His Arms (16 page)

             
Even now she could still hear Alec’s harsh breaths in her ear as he thrust into her.

             
It was too much for her fragile mind to manage in one fell swoop, and she backed away from them both. Mortified at having slept with Alec in a drunken haze and feeling betrayed by Rudy, she felt her gorge rise in protest and clapped a hand over her mouth as she fled to the bathroom.

             
She didn’t make it and made a mess all over the carpet. Weeping openly, she collapsed in a pitiful heap and hugged herself tightly, feeling as though both her mind and body had been raped.

             
Lucy’s sobs reverberated throughout the house, while Alec stood shamefaced and numb. He clutched the ring in his hand so tightly he could feel the metal cutting into his flesh. Then he flung the chain angrily at Rudy not caring as it struck the man’s cheek, drawing blood.
“God damn you, Rudy!”
he swore bitterly as he stalked out of the house.

             
“Where are you going?” Rudy called out, wiping his cheek. “Let me drive you back!”

             
“Go to hell!” Alec shouted back before slamming the door behind him.

             
Rudy stood rooted to the spot as Tia rushed past him to aid Lucy. He could feel nothing at this particular moment, but a sense of utter and complete failure. He’d screwed up royally and as sure as he was standing, he was certain of only one thing: He was a sorry son of a bitch.

Chapter Eleven

“Breathe in,” Lucy instructed gently. She held the stethoscope to the girl’s chest and listened as she inhaled deeply. There was a slight wheezing in her lungs. “Did you take your medicine today?” she asked.

              Sophie hung her head in shame and started to cry. “We couldn’t get it,” she said, her voice trembling.

             
“Did you run out?” Lucy asked, handing her a tissue. 

             
The girl peered up at her with reddened eyes and blew her nose. “No,” she sighed finally and shrugged. “Mama couldn’t get it this month.”

             
“Oh, sweetie!” Lucy gasped and patted the girl’s shoulder in a vain attempt to soothe her. “Why couldn’t your mom get it?’

             
“Well...” the girl paused and then began ticking off on her small hand all the reasons why her mother couldn’t afford her medicine that month. “The toilet backed up again and then Juni needed new shoes...” she trailed off trying to remember the other thing. “Oh, and Marta needed stuff for the baby.”

             
“Who’s Marta?

             
“My sister,” she replied and began swinging her legs back and forth. “Mama said she’s going to have a baby just like you.”

             
Lucy started; now knowing her baggy scrub top had been a complete failure. “How do you know I’m going to have a baby?”

             
Sophie pointed at Lucy’s stomach. “You’re getting fat, just like Marta.” Her dark eyes grew round. “Aren’t you?” she asked, now unsure and wondering if she was going to get a spanking for being impertinent. Mama was always scolding her for being impertinent, whatever that meant. “Mama said the baby was important.”

             
“I’m sure it is,” Lucy said brittlely. ‘But what about
you?”

             
Sophie shrugged, so used to being forgotten that it didn’t matter anymore. “What about me?” Then as if bored she said: “Can I go now?”

             
Lucy smiled and reached for the glass jar full of gummy bears. “You’re all done.” She opened it and held it out for Sophie. “Since you were so good, you get a treat. Pick one.”

             
“One?” Sophie queried uncertainly and rummaged around in the jar for a small bag of candy. “Mama might get mad at me. The dentist costs lots.”

             
“I’m sure if you brush your teeth right after, your mama will understand.”

             
Sophie seemed to consider this and pulled out two small bags. “Can I have one for Juni?”

             
“Of course!” Lucy laughed, for a moment all her sadness forgotten. She helped Sophie down and escorted her to the door. “Don’t worry,” she told her, “we’ll give you some medicine until your mom can get some, okay?

             
Sophie smiled, revealing two small dimples in her plump cheeks. “Thank you!” she said gratefully, and waved to Lucy as she ran back to the waiting room to show her mother what the nice nurse had given her.

             
Lucy exhaled wearily and changed the paper on the examining table for the next patient. Her hand slid unbidden to her emerging belly trying not to think of Alec. It had been nearly two weeks since that explosive confrontation at Rudy’s. She hadn’t spoken to either of them since.

             
Not that Alec was beating her door down to talk to her anyway, Lucy thought bitterly. Once she had recovered from the shock of finding her husband, she had thrown what little clothes she had into a backpack and took a cab to a motel. She didn’t want to be around Rudy right now.

             
He later confessed to having known about Alec the whole time she was having her pity party in his guesthouse. The straw that had broken the proverbial camel’s back was the admission that once he’d found out about Alec he’d set up the whole caretaking job as a way of bringing them together. Whether or not they both remembered the other was inconsequential; Rudy’s exact words.

             
Lucy had had enough and more or less cut them both out of her life. She hadn’t expected this level of callowness from either one of them, especially Rudy. She’d had a terrible row with him after he’d gotten completely bombed on vodka martinis. He’d gone on a drunken tirade accusing her of ruining her life and railing about how the hell was she going to take care of a baby when she couldn’t even take care of herself. Not only had Rudy known about Alec, he’d found out about the baby as well. The final nail in the coffin was his incoherent blathering about her father. How
dare
good old Walt pop off and lay this burden on his doorstep when he had his own damn problems! And why couldn’t she get her crap together and leave him the hell alone?

             
So that’s exactly what she’d done. She’d spent her first night downtown in some godforsaken excuse for a hotel with the cacophony of shouting homeless and the piercing wails of police sirens haunting her dreams. She left in a hurry the next morning and hopped a bus to cheap motel near Echo Park. Oh, she could have splurged on a room at the Park Plaza, but she was trying to save her credit cards for the move east. All she had to do was hold out till Monday.

             
The plan was to fly out to New York, rent a car, and drive all the way to Prince Edward Island. Astoria was no longer a viable option since Lucy had decided that leaving the states entirely and starting over in Canada was the best thing for her and the baby. She had already renewed her passport and received the new one just prior to her blowup with Rudy.

             
To earn a little extra money, Diane---bless her soul--- had called her brother Carlos and persuaded him to hire Lucy part-time at his clinic in Skid Row. The money wasn’t great, but it was the daily grind of endless patients that saved her sanity. She could focus on work and not spend her time fretting over Rudy’s inherent stupidity and the husband who didn’t want anything to do with her or their unborn baby.

             
Her heart sank at the thought of Alec. In spite of herself, Lucy had foolishly kept her phone by her side, hoping against hope that he would call. Not that she was expecting a declaration of love and a promise of them living happily ever after, but she’d kind of hoped that he’d say something...anything about the baby. Somehow, she’d thought him better than that. The slow horrifying realization that she’d been wrong about him and had freely given him the only thing in her possession that she’d held dear, was more than enough to send her fragile psyche reeling.

             
Her phone rang constantly but it was only Rudy, who by now, was in a tizzy and frantically trying to get a hold of her. Lucy wasn’t buying it. He was only feeling guilty over his outburst and though she knew there was some truth in what he said, she didn’t need it flung in her face like some piece of offal from a crime scene. She knew she had to sort out her life. And she was going to do it with or without Alec. 

             
Steeling herself for what lay ahead, she flung open the door and went into the supply room where open boxes of pharmaceutical samples lay waiting to be distributed among the uninsured masses. Lucy sat down on a stool wincing at her aching feet. She couldn’t believe her ankles were swelling already! Just then her phone chimed and glancing at the number she squelched her disappointment at seeing it wasn’t Alec and tried to sound cheerful as she greeted Diane. “Hey girl!” she smiled in spite of herself.

             
Hey, yourself!” Diane answered brightly, and sounded as if she were munching on something. “What’s wrong?”

             
“Whatever do you mean?” Lucy asked innocently.

             
“He didn’t call...did he?”

             
“No,” Lucy gulped, trying to swallow the huge lump that had settled in her throat. “I knew he wouldn’t, but...”

             
“You kind of hoped he would?”

             
“Yeah,” Lucy croaked, and swiped at the tears that were beginning to fall. “I-I mean, not for me...f-for the baby.”

             
“Don’t you dare cry!” Diane scolded angrily. “He’s not worth it!”

             
“I know you’re right,” Lucy sighed, trying to get her emotions in check before she got herself fired. “I should cut my phone off.”

             
“Yeah!” Diane agreed heartily. “So, how’s it going?”

             
Lucy bent down and tugged at her sock where it was beginning to strangle her waterlogged ankle like a python. “She said I was fat!” she said in mock outrage.

             
“Who?”

             
“Sophie.”

             
“Oh, what does an eight-year-old know anyway?” Diane scoffed. “You’re not fat, just pleasingly plump!”

             
“Gee,” Lucy said dryly, “thanks.”

             
Diane laughed and shuffled some papers in the background. “So, did you give any thought to what I said?”

             
“To what?”

             
“To dinner and staying with us.”

             
“I don’t want to impose,” Lucy told her as she stood back up, and began pulling boxes of saline out and tucking them on the shelf. “Besides, I thought Eddie’s mom was staying with you.”

             
“Don’t remind me!” Diane groaned in frustration. “Do you have any idea what boiling tripe smells like four in the morning?”

             
Lucy giggled. “I thought you liked menudo!”

             
“I used to,” Diane grumbled, “then I started working in the morgue. I think I’ll pass. Besides, she uses a recipe from the seventh circle of Hell!”

             
“Stop!” Lucy laughed, fanning her face as she threatened to be overcome by a hysterical fit of giggles. “You’re going to make me pee!”

             
“I made you laugh, didn’t I?”

              “So when are you picking me up?” Lucy asked once she’d recovered, fishing out boxes of syringes.

             
“Eddie said to be outside at six,” Diane replied as she finished her lunch. “Did you eat?” she asked suspiciously.

             
“I had a bagel,” Lucy said and winced. “It was all I could keep down.”

             
“Get Carlos to give you some Benadryl.”

             
“Are you mad? You’d have to carry me out on a stretcher!”

             
Diane cackled evilly. “It would serve Eddie right!”

             
“What’s he done now?”

             
“
She’s
in my living room!”

             
They both dissolved in laughter, and Lucy finally hung up with the promise that she’d be ready and waiting outside at six sharp. Then it was back to the boxes for the remainder of the afternoon.