Chapter Fourteen

Adam

Over the next few days all she seemed to do was sleep, eat and watch Farscape with me. I wasn’t sure if it was the natural fatigue from the chemotherapy or depression. I crammed my work into the times when she was asleep, opting not to go into the office. Jordan, my CFO, brought me the important stuff I had to see to every few days and—to his credit—asked about her health and seemed concerned.

Though I was expecting “the talk” and eventually, I got it.

“So, uh…can I ask—what’s going on with you two, anyway?”

I looked at him over the paperwork he’d lined up for me to sign but didn’t answer.

“Are you two, uh… you know…?”

I started signing. “Friends? Yeah we’re friends.”

“But you’re not…together…”

“In what way does that concern you?” I asked, whisking the top paper off the stack and proceeding with the next one.

He held out a hand, looked away nervously. “Okay…I’m just trying to watch out for you, man. After last time—”

I clenched my teeth. “This isn’t last time.”

“Are you sure about that? Adam, you have a big heart and I know you feel sorry for her, but she had you tied up in knots for months…”

My pen froze and I straightened. “I don’t feel sorry for her. I love her. We’ve moved past that…or at least we’re trying to, until well-meaning people bring it up again.”

Jordan took a deep breath and let it out. “Fine. Okay. Just…just be careful, okay? You have no idea how this is all going to…shake out…” His voice died out and he grimaced as if, in hearing what he was saying, he realized how ridiculous he was being.

As if he had to remind me that I had no idea how this was going to end up. Her eighty-five percent chance had done that for me. That number hovered at the edge of my thoughts every damn day. It had stunned me speechless the first time I’d heard it at the doctor’s office and I’d buried it under a brave face ever since. Of course I had no idea how this was all going to turn out but I didn’t need Jordan’s reminder of that all-too-real fear.

I didn’t say anything for a long while, burning my way through the stack, skimming each page to make sure of what I was signing. Then I straightened and put the cap back on the pen, looking at him. “Listen. I get what you are saying, but I’m okay. And she will be, too. She’ll pull through this.”

He nodded, bent to take up the stack and then stopped, looking at me. “Yeah, she will. But after she does? What about then?”

“I realize that she’s not your favorite person—” Likely because he preferred his women dumb as toast and Emilia far exceeded his maximum IQ limit for a woman. Some men were genuinely intimidated by a smart woman. But I had no patience for this today, no matter that it was well-meaning. I clenched my teeth. “She needs friends now. Support. Why don’t you be that instead of the constant critic?”

Jordan frowned and didn’t say anything, shifting his weight from one leg to the other.

“I know that my advice in the past has only made things worse for you but…Well, if you ever want to talk about it, I’m here for you, man.”

“Your advice is shit.” I laughed and he tilted his head and smiled self-deprecatingly.

“Hey! I was wondering if you wanted—” Emilia rounded the corner from the hallway and into my office, obviously unaware that Jordan was here. She halted in the doorway and locked eyes with Jordan—whom she sometimes referred to as her nemesis.

They stood and stared at each other in silence. She didn’t have anything on her head and Jordan was the first person besides me, her mom and my housekeeper to see her with no hair.

“Hey Jordan,” she managed weakly, her face flushing red—and the color carrying through across her naked scalp.

“Mia!” he said in a bright voice as if our previous conversation had never taken place. “Wow, you’re looking—”

“Bald?” she interrupted, putting a self-conscious hand to her head. “Shiny?”

Jordan hesitated awkwardly. “I was going to say ‘a lot better than I thought you would be looking after two weeks of chemo.’”

Mia’s brows rose. “Oh—oh…thanks.”

“I hope you are feeling okay?”

Her mouth thinned a little but she didn’t look at me. “I’m feeling great, actually. Never better.”