She didn’t try to pull away, just relaxed into his arms. Nothing felt wrong about this moment, but it kept her from curling up into a ball on the floor, when all she wanted to do was pull the covers over her head and tell herself that this was just one big nightmare.
In fact, it was soothing and the thought occurred to her, that Anna had been hinting curiously about the chemistry between her and Cal. Of course they had known each other for four years—had their ups and downs—but she and Cal had already tried to date a few times and realized that it wouldn't work with them being both business partners and lovers.
Cal called out something about staying with Sophie and took a seat. When she arrived back into the waiting room a half an hour later, he was still sitting in the same seat. He met her half way and picked her up before she could collapse of exhaustion. Samantha, who had been watching at the nurse’s desk, offered him a wheelchair to set her in.
“I’m fine.” Gillian reassured both Samantha and Cal. “Cal, get Sophie.” She inquired, resting her head on the palm of her hand. Her eyes were already starting to droop closed.
“Does that mean you’re keeping her love?” He asked, scooping up Sophie into his arms and as the little girl protested, he put her on his shoulders, so that she couldn’t get away.
Gillian eyes flickered opened, and with a tired sigh, she answered. “For now.”
He decided he would ask what that meant later. Right now, he was formulating a plan that she may or may not like when she woke up. He turned towards Samantha. “Well, I’ll make sure she gets the sleep she needs.” He felt Sophie hold onto his neck lightly. “If anything happens I’ll be sure to give the hospital a call—yeah?” And with that, he was out the doors with both Gillian and Sophie in tow.
Even though he had known Sophie for a matter of hours, he was starting to feel a weird sensation of protectiveness over her as well. Not that he would ever admit it. But what he would admit was that it had been a great while since he had been around kids.
As he took Sophie off his shoulders and placed her in the car seat that he had gotten from Ava’s car earlier, he fumbled around with the buckles again before snapping them into place. Sophie rubbed at her eyes tiredly, letting out a yawn.
As he closed the door to his car, he hoped that she would nap on the way home. As he started up the engine and went on his way down the road, he looked in the mirror to see Sophie’s head was resting against the side of her seat; eyes closed.
He contemplated calling his daughter, but didn’t want to risk waking up either Gillian or Sophie—although he was sure that they would both be out for awhile. Looking over at his best friend, he knew that she wasn’t going to be happy about the arrangement as he drove home.
As he got out of the car a little while later, he opened the back door and picked up Sophie. Making sure that Gillian was still asleep in the front seat, and took Sophie inside to the guest bedroom, and was coming down the stairs when Emily walked in.
“Hey, dad.” Emily greeted, sticking her bag on one of the kitchen chairs. “What’s Gillian doing in the front seat of your car asleep? And why is there a car seat in the back of your car.”
Cal looked as his daughter. “We had a woman over at the office collapse today. Had her daughter with her.” He knew his daughter could fill in the blanks pretty well. At least what she needed to know.
“But she’s okay, right?” Grabbing an apple and balancing it in her hand, Emily knew by the look her father was giving her, that the woman wasn’t okay. “So what about the little girl? What happens with her?”
“I put her up in the guest room.” He offered vaguely, leaving her to put things together. “Do me a favor, Em?”
Washing the apple in the sink, she turned back towards him. “Yeah.”
“Grab some sheets and blankets from the closet and change the sheets on my bed.” He started heading out the door, calling back. “And put an extra blanket on there.” He pointed, and started back towards the car.
She leaned against the side of the counter. “Hey, dad. I know that Gillian was attacked the other night, but did she agree to come here?” He turned to go back to the car, without answering. “I’ll take that as a no.”
When he opened the passenger door, he noticed that her head had drifted to the side of the seat. He unbuckled her seatbelt and her eyes fluttered open.
“Cal—what are you doing?” Her voice was thick with sleep; green eyes glazed over and focused.
“You fell asleep on the way from the hospital.”
“I know you better than that. You really didn’t think I would notice that you took me to your house?” She looked past his shoulder, then laid her head back down on the seat and closed her eyes again. “Where’s Sophie?”
He picked her up, and offered even though he knew that she was probably already was falling back to sleep. “Inside.” Not really having expected her to wake up, he hadn’t planned on what to say to her. He knew that he was falling deep, but it didn’t really matter why it did it, but who he did it for.
When he walked into the office every day, his day brightened significantly seeing her. He had never told her what she meant to him because of the bloody line, but after seeing her attacked earlier this week—brought out new feelings.
He loved her. Not just a best friend love, but he knew that he had been falling for her for a long time, since the first time he had met her. He asked her to start a business with him, because he trusted who she was. He found her to be a good match, a great psychologist; who never forget a voice, and just as stubborn as he was.
Carrying her upstairs, his daughter was just folding down the covers. “If she asks, I wasn’t a part of this.”She folded back the cover so that he could slip Gillian in.
He laid Gillian down on the bed, while slipping off her shoes. “Deal. Now go finish your homework.” Emily walked out of the bedroom, closing her door harder than usual.
Covering her up, he placed the sheet and covers over Gillian. He placed the blanket closer to her if she got cold and walked out of the room. He walked down to the kitchen and pulled out a glass of water and filled it up. When he got back upstairs, he took another look at her sleeping form, and put the glass on the dresser; along with an Advil that he hid behind the glass.
Closing the door so she wouldn’t be disturbed, he grabbed the keys out of his pocket and walked back downstairs. He scribbled down a note to Emily and Gillian, before walking out of the house, starting the engine and driving away.
---
It wasn’t until almost a couple hours later, that Gillian woke up staring at a rather white ceiling, and laying underneath a rather blue comforter that was definitely Cal’s style. She looked over at the clock that was sitting just behind the lamp on the dresser; stating in green that it was a quarter to six.
The house seemed too quiet and she remembered asking about Sophie when she had been talking to Cal earlier. Inside. His words came drifting back to her, just as she had fallen back to sleep. She had wanted to say so much more, but couldn’t keep her eyes open.
Sitting up slowly, she saw the glass of water and Advil. She took a sip of water and got out of bed. She opened the door and listened. The house was quite silent, but she heard something that she hadn’t picked up on earlier behind a closed door: tapping of fingers on a keyboard.
Knowing that Em’s room was just across from his, she knocked and got no response. Maybe she wasn’t here after all. But when she opened the door, she saw the fifteen year old girl: sitting on her bed, with the computer on her lap; earphones in her ears.
Looking around her room, Gillian realized that in the years that she had known him, or the number of times that she had been in this house—she had never been in here before.
There was medium sized bulletin board was hanging on the light green wall, with some pictures of her friends and papers and reminders. A desk; her school bag was on the chair.
Emily took the earplugs out her ears. “You’ve never been in here before, have you?” Shutting the computer, she set it on the bed.
She folded her arms and leaned against the frame of the door. “Not once, since I met your father.”
“How did the two of you meet anyway?” Emily asked curiously, standing near her desk now.
“We met while I was working at the Pentagon.” Her tone warned that she couldn’t give the specifics. She listened and heard a slight cry coming from somewhere in the house. “Where’s Sophie?”
“Dad said that he had put her in the guest room, down the hall.”
Upon those words, Gillian sighed and left the room; Emily following right behind her. They passed the open door to the bathroom, and there was only one door left. When she opened it, the room was darkened slightly.
Flipping on the switch, Sophie was sitting up in the middle of the bed; tears flowing down her cheeks. Her eyes looked up at her, just broken. The little looked up at her with tears in her eyes. “Want my mommy.”
“I know you do.” She could feel Emily’s eyes on her. “But right now your mommy is very sick.”
“Swick?”
“Yeah.” Gillian spoke softly, sitting next to her on the bed. Her hand pushed back a few stray blonde pieces of hair from her face.
“But me Hungwy.” Sophie pointed to herself, hiccupping. Like she was asking who was going to feed her now that her mommy was gone. The doorbell rang and Emily offered to answer it, which left them alone.
That’s when Gillian remembered that she had no idea what Sophie liked to eat. She took in a deep breath. “What do you like to eat?”
The little girl thought about it, her blonde hair all over the place. “Banas!” Gillian gave her a very puzzled look, when Emily appeared at the door; holding a manila envelope in her hand.
Stopping what they were doing, they both looked up at Emily.
“Who was at the door?”
“A guy named Corbin? Told me to give this to you.” Stepping forward, she handed the envelope to Gillian. “What’s going on?”
Opening the envelope, she pulled out a letter and a packet and began reading.
Gillian,
Thank you so much for taking Sophie. I know that it’s not what you wanted, but I hope in time you will see why I made this decision. I can’t tell you enough, how sorry I am. I never wanted to lie to you about how much time I had left, but it came out wrong.
There may be so many things that you’re worried about, but you have so many people in your life that care about you and will care for Sophie as well.
I know that it’s a lot to ask of you—to take on raising a child. I was the same way, when I found out that I was pregnant. Especially after when I told my boyfriend Kevin about being pregnant, he left –I tossed and turned every night—worrying about how I could raise a child, with only a few friends and no family.
We went on and off and then split up for good after Sophie was born. We both decided at the time that we wanted to have a family and were going to get married. We tried raising her, but he found that he wasn’t ready.
One night, I woke up and found his side of the bed was empty. It was a rough year and I had a hard time finding a place to work. Finally found one at a daycare and was doing great. Then I got sick and could no longer work, and I just knew that I had to find you.
Sophie really like bananas, chicken, broccoli. She’s not really picky, so please make sure that she eats well. The only thing that she doesn’t like is: spinach, peaches (she’s allergic to them), and bees. That’s the only thing that I know that she’s allergic to.
Please…please take care of my baby girl.
All my love,
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.