Twisted (31 page)

No, I can't believe I managed to block out a whole
conversation while I drowned in my own thoughts.
  “
Wow, congrats," I said, faking a smile.

Her sudden joy was depressing and I was sure my jealousy was
written all over my face.

"We'll call you when your blood work comes back, but the
urine test seems to indicate that you are indeed pregnant."

"Thank you doctor," Maddie chimed, as she was
escorted to the exit.

The walk to my car was quiet.  Then, "Are you heading in
to work?" I asked.

"No I think I better go pick up some prenatal vitamins. 
And have a talk with Hunter.  This isn't the sort of thing you put off.  I
already called Miller and told him I was taking the day off because I wasn't
feeling well.  Suddenly I'm feeling a whole lot better."  She smiled
softly and rested her hand on her flat belly.

I didn't notice, I growled to myself sarcastically.

WASTING
NO TIME AT all, Maddie called the fire station.  Apparently Hunter was at
work.  I wasn’t even going to ask why she had his work number on speed dial.  Despite
that, he was on the phone in a matter of minutes.  Their discussion was short.

“Well, here goes nothing,” Maddie said.  “Hunter will meet me
at the café up the road in 15 minutes.  “Wish me luck.”

“Good luck,” I said.

"Thanks again for understanding Abby.  I knew I could
count on you.  You really are a good friend."

"Such a good friend that you'll let me tell Edwin
tonight?” I begged.  “It's only a matter of time before everyone knows
anyway."

"I guess it'll be okay, as long as you wait until you
get home to tell him.  I want to be sure Hunter is the next to know."

"Deal," I said, exchanging a friendly hug. 
“Congrats, by the way.”

"Okay, thanks.  And thanks for the ride," Maddie said,
as she whirled away toward the café.

"Don’t you want me to wait with you?" I asked.

She kept on walking.  "I've wasted enough of your time. 
You should probably get to work.  I can ask Hunter for a ride home and, if that
doesn't seem like a good idea, I can always call a cab."

"Okay, if you're sure… let me know how you make
out."

"You know I will.”  She smiled and disappeared behind
the next building, totally optimistic and utterly annoying.

Why couldn't I be brimming with sunniness?  I should be happy
for the girl.  More confused than ever I headed straight for work.

"Good morning," I said to Taylor, as she greeted me
at the office lobby.

"Oh, hey Abigail.  Owen was just looking for you a
minute ago.  I never told him that you were gonna be late.  I thought you might
get away without him knowing," she said.

Worriedly, I rushed to my desk.  Why did she have to do
that?  I frantically clambered around my space, starting my computer and pulling
out the pile of new work that lined my mess of a desk.  My anxiety sharpened
when I briefly checked over all of the deadlines.

"Just the girl I've been looking for," Owen said, as
he peered in my door.  My computer beeped, and on flashed the monitor,
perfectly publicizing my lateness.

"Yes?" I asked.

"Is everything okay?"

"Everything's fine.  Why do you ask?"

"You're half an hour late.  That's unlike you.  You
usually you tell me when you're going to be late."

"Actually, I did call.  You weren't in your office, so I
left a message on Taylor’s voicemail.  I’m sorry you didn't get it.  I was at
the doctor’s."

"Okay.  Do you know where I might find the Jaxon file? 
I can't seem to find it anywhere."

It was such a relief to hear that he wasn’t going to dwell on
it.  "Did you check the vault?"

He nodded.  I stood from my desk, brushed past him and
crossed the hall to the vault.  He followed at a distance and stood in the
doorway as I slid the large shelves of files on rollers aside.  Three shelves
deep, I located 'J' and thumbed through the files.

Jacklin, Jacobs, Jasmine, Jasper.  Ah ha!  Jaxon.
  "Here it is," I said,
pulling it from the cabinet.

"Huh!  I looked there twice and couldn't find it."

"I guess you just needed a fresh set of eyes," I said,
hoping he'd forgive my tardiness.

It seemed to work too, because he took the file from me and
headed for the door.  "Thanks Abigail," he said, before rushing back
to his office.

A few hours later, I rested my head on the table in the staff
lunch room.  I had to get away from my heaping desk.  After munching on my
flavourless snack, I closed my heavy eyes.  It was an oddly lonely lunch hour,
everyone else having either gone out or worked straight through theirs.  I
crumpled up my wrapper and figured it'd be smart for me to get back to business
too but, before I could lift myself from my chair, Edwin appeared in the door
and approached me with dangerously naughty eyes.

"Doctors appointment, eh?" Edwin growled, cool and
sexy.

"What are you talking about?" I asked cautiously.

"I overheard you talking to Owen this morning.  I was in
the copier room."

"Of course you were.  So you were listening in on my
conversation, were you?"

"Quit changing the subject.  You told me you were going
to Maddie's house for a hair emergency.  So which is it?"  Suddenly his
tone was as sharp as a razor blade, making my knees knock under the table.

"I won't lie.  I was at the doctor’s.  But it wasn't for
me.  Please don't make me break my promise.  I have to keep my mouth shut for
now.  I will tell you all about it later."

"You can trust me.  This is me were talking," Edwin
pressed, testing my secrecy.

I sighed, closed my eyes tightly, and considered the
consequences of telling Edwin before we got home.    "You know I was at
the doctor’s office.  You figure it out," I said, without giving him any
more hints.

“Maddison?”

My eyes widened.  "Very clever of you; now zip your lips
before someone else hears you.  I told you: I'll tell you all about it
tonight."

"Tell him all about what?" Aliah asked, as she
entered the room.

Great.  Maddie's only fear was playing out right before my
eyes.  I'm a freaking gossip whore.  Aliah was the last person who should be
finding out about this from me.  It's not my place.  It's not my job.

"I can't deal with this right now," I exploded, and
then thrashed past Aliah in a moment of senseless frustration.

"Okay then.  Happy day to you too," Aliah replied,
as I stomped off down the hall.

Back in the lunch room, Edwin and Aliah stared at each other
for a long time, until they both agreed that it must be that time of the month.

"So… you and Hunter… you good?" Edwin asked.

"Yeah, I think Hunter and I are on the mend.  We had a
long talk yesterday and kind of figured things out.  It'll take some time, but
I think it might be worth the work."

"Good to hear.  Hunter's a good guy."

"Yeah.  That’s what they keep telling me.  Well, I gotta
get back to work.  I was just coming to say hello, but that didn't exactly go
over very well."  She smirked at Edwin.

"Yeah.  I'll go talk to her."

"Good man," Aliah said.  She hopped out of her
chair, patted Edwin on the shoulder and scurried back to her desk.

Edwin veered for mine and found me frozen in my chair.  My
hands were covering my face, as I contemplated my crazy life.  I spun around,
worried that it might be Owen hovering in door, and then sighed.

"Don't worry.  I'm not gonna ask you any more
questions.  Tonight… I get it."

I took a deep breath and sighed again, this time with
relief.  I leapt from my chair and wrapped my arms around Edwin's neck.  "Thank
you," I whispered softly.

Edwin pried my arms off of him and smiled at me playfully.  "As
much as I like this; it's not appropriate business etiquette," he teased. 
“Later.”

When he smiled my heart warmed.  And when he pecked my lips, even
though they were the only part of his body touching mine, it still ignited all
of my senses.

"I'll see you at home then?" I asked.  The sooner I
could get the news off of my chest the better.

"Absolutely… ahh… uhh… actually,” he stuttered.  “Shit. 
I totally forgot.  I have a dinner meeting right after work with Miller.  It’s
an important client.  Looks like you're on your own for dinner tonight."

"No," I pouted.

"Yes.  I can come home right after, if you want.  They'll
probably do drinks though."

I was done being a selfish beoch for the day.  "No, it's
okay.  Stay as long as you like.  We'll talk later.  Love you."

"Love you too baby," he replied.  And after another
quick smooch, he disappeared down the hall.

Just then, Aliah peeked around the corner.  "I don't
have any plans, if you want to do something," she suggested.

Startled, I jumped back for a second, and looked around to
see who else I was missing.  "What is wrong with this place?  Everyone's
so damn nosy."

"S-o-r-r-y.  Another time then.  You're obviously having
one of those days."

"Yeah, maybe.  I'm actually not feeling all that great. 
I'll probably just pull on some PJs as soon as I get home and lay around the
house; maybe even hit the hay early."  I couldn’t bear to spend another
minute with her, knowing the secret hanging over our heads.

"Okay, if you say so," Aliah replied, before
trotting away wounded.

What else could I do?

I
WAS
HAVING ONE of those days: the kind where no matter how hard you tried, you just
can't clear your mind long enough to get anything accomplished.  At least I
managed to finish off my day at work without any more major catastrophes.

When I got home and walked in my quiet, empty house, my
nerves were set on fire, though the air conditioning blasted on cold.  I
shivered with awareness, senses on high alert.  But aware of what?  I couldn’t
say.  The dead silence pierced through my ear drums, so I pulled my I-Pod from
my purse and plugged the white headphones into my aching ears.  Music always
had a way of soothing even the darkest of days.

I jogged up the stairs, taking two at a time.  I quickly stripped
from my suit and dropped it in a heap on the floor.  I pulled on some grey
sweat pants and zipped a hot pink sweater over my camisole, the music thrumming
steadily in my ears.  Despite the loud distraction, nothing could disguise the
hunger twitching in my gut.  It was growling a song of its own.  Maybe that’s
part of the reason for this ridiculously massive headache.

After hanging up my dry cleaning, I turned the music up even
louder, hoping to pound away the deprivation long enough to prepare something
to eat.  Not gonna happen tonight.  I’m starved.  I dashed down the stairs and
hit the kitchen up for a bottle of pop and a slice of bread.  A spoon and the
jar of peanut butter came next.  I carried it all to my comfy couch and sat in
front of the TV, licking peanut butter from the spoon.  Disgusting, I know, but
so comforting.

My eyes were so sore from my early morning rise and a hard
day’s work.  Though the show playing on the screen was broadcast in HD, it
looked like a blur of colour to me.  Music still droning, I shut my eyes and
tilted my head back against the corner of the couch.

So many worries tumbled through my mind, the very things I
had been trying to avoid all day.  Apart from my own issues, I hadn't heard
from Maddie and that caused me some concern.  I shunned all thoughts from my
mangled mind and refocused it on imaginary plain white ceilings, four white
walls… bareness… blankness… emptiness… nothingness… until I passed out from
exhaustion.

I shivered suddenly, as an icy feeling spread across my
entire body and woke me from a heady nightmare.  I forced opened my heavy eyes,
and tried to focus them, but they burned with ache and delivered only blurred
vision.

I was being watched.  I could feel it.  It felt like a
single, dead, icy finger being dragged up my spine.  The hairs stood on my arms
and prickled my skin, an alarming unease attacking me.  My unreliable eyes
darted toward the front window and then across the room.  The loud hum of my music
turned up my anticipation.

It was dark outside, but the nightlight in the kitchen was on
and the television illuminated the house enough for me to see what I had to.  The
shadows spoon fed me impending doom.  I ripped the earphones from my ears and
threw them to the floor.  The silence was deafening.

I tossed the open container of peanut butter on the couch and
leapt up to grab the phone in my defence.  I hugged it against my breasts and
very slowly glanced into the kitchen, bracing myself for what I might find, but
not being ready for what I found.

A shadow flickered across my kitchen floor and a dark
silhouette swiftly appeared in the small window above my sink.  My eyes locked
on the dark figure, framed in my window.  I couldn't move, frozen in fright, in
voiceless agony.  The only indication of movement was my violently trembling
hands clutching at the phone.  Then the shadow slowly, sluggishly, turned to
look in the window.