Chapter 18 A Friend’s Funeral #2
“Oh! And I need to change Callahan’s diaper,” Mer blurted out. She moved toward the bathroom, then reached back and grabbed Colt’s arm, yanking him to follow her.
“Sorry?” Colt said confusedly to me and Ali—the only ones left standing by the dessert table. “I guess she needs help?”
When we were alone, Ali sighed. “Wanna bet they did that on purpose?” she asked before popping a mini eclair in her mouth.
Shocked she was staying and speaking to me, I cleared my throat. “Nah, I don’t take bets I know I’m going to lose. Mer has a shit poker face.”
She chewed thoughtfully, making me squirm in the silence.
“Ali,” I started, “I’m sorry about—”
She started coughing into her hand.
“You okay?”
Holding her chest, she continued coughing while her face turned a brighter shade of red.
“Shit, are you choking?” I moved behind her to do the heimlich.
She quickly shook her head and warded off my hands. “M’fine,” she managed to say between coughs.
“Are you sure?” I looked at her incredulously while reaching for a water bottle on the buffet table behind us.
She tried to hold down another cough while struggling to crack open the water.
Taking it back, I easily cracked the bottle open for her. “Anything else I can get ya?”
She shook her head, but looked like she was sucking on sour candy. After a long sip of water, her body convulsed again. This time, she shoved the water bottle at me before bolting for the women’s restroom.
Confused as to what just happened, my eyes bounced from her water to her empty wake.
Kappy came up behind me and slapped me on the back. “Hey, where’d everyone go?”
“Piper went for coffee, Mer and Colt went to change the baby. Ali just ran to the bathroom,” I mumbled, rubbing my forehead and staring at the women’s restroom door. “She was coughing.”
“Damn, you sure Al Pal wasn’t just trying to get away from you?” Kappy chuckled. “She asked the girls to help run interference between y’all.”
I shook my head. “No, she was really coughing. Wait, what?” I turned to stare at him. “She said that?”
Kappy’s mouth dropped slightly open. “Shit, I think that was a secret too. You think it was a secret?” He held his jaw. “Any chance you could forget I said that?”
Without another word, I strode toward the women’s room.
“No, dude, just forget I said that, okay?” Kappy rambled behind me. “It’s not a big deal. You know what will be a big deal? Piper killing me. She could, ya know? She could do it. She’s scary when she’s angry. And she’s the one that controls my meds, ya know?”
“Becuase she knows you won’t take them, dumbass,” I mumbled before knocking on the restroom door. “Ali, I’m sorry, okay?” I continued knocking.
“That door’s pretty heavy,” Kappy commented.
I cracked it open slightly. “Ali, are you okay? I just want to talk,” I called out. “Please don’t run away. I know I don’t deserve it, but can we please talk?”
“Hey, that was good,” Kappy said with a bright grin. “Good job.”
I ground my back teeth. “Ali?” I called out again. “You good?”
This time, the sound of coughing and hacking echoed in the small room.
“Oh shit. I’ll go get Piper,” Kappy said before darting away.
“Ali?”
Silence filled the air while panic flared to life in my body.
There’s no way I could just stand there, not when she could be choking or passing out or going into anaphylactic shock. The memory of her having an allergic reaction during an ice show practice flashed into my mind, making my hands tremble.
“Man…uh…coming inside to help,” I announced loudly, feeling awkward as hell entering the women’s restroom.
The first two stalls were empty. When I pushed in the largest stall door, it opened easily, revealing Ali slumped in front of the toilet and looking weak and pale as a ghost. The sight of her getting sick had an invisible fist squeezing my heart.
Swearing under my breath, I immediately bent down behind her. “You okay?”
Holding her head, she gave a little nod.
“You feel hot, are you sick? Maybe you caught something from the plane on your way here?” I asked, rubbing her back.
Her body tensed at my touch, like she was scared, and I hated myself for it.
A minute later, the sound of high heels echoed in the room and my eyes fell closed. Shit.
A second later, our stall door flew open.
“Okay, you are not supposed to be in here,” Piper announced, crossing her arms over her chest. “I’ve got her, you can go.” She nodded to the exit.
I froze. There was no chance in hell I was leaving unless Ali asked. “Just give us a minute, okay?”
Piper’s nose flared with a breath. “Ali, is that what you want?”
Ali swallowed hard. “Yeah, that’s okay,” she whispered.
Her words filled me with a small sense of relief that completely vanished a second later when her body started heaving again.
“That’s it, get it all out.” I continued rubbing her back. “Was it something you ate? Can you breathe okay? Do you think that dessert had nuts?” I pulled back, ready to run back to the lobby to beg the crowd for an Epipen.
“No.” Her hand shot back to hold mine. “It’s not that.”
My brain flipped through a million different what-if’s as she slowly stood from the toilet and leaned against the cinderblock wall. Her head fell back as she breathed deeply in through her nose and out her mouth.
My eyes darted around her, trying to detect what was wrong. “Are you sure you’re not…” My eyes snagged on her body and one very specific possibility popped into my head.
Oh.
Oh shit.
But no…
That couldn’t be it.
The question was on the tip of my tongue, but I had no clue how to ask it.
“How long are you here for?” I tested instead.
Sensing my shift, her guarded brown eyes flicked to mine.
“I mean,” I coughed to clear my throat, “when do you have to get back to the cruise ship?”
Her nose flared with a breath, but she remained silent. She wasn’t answering because I had a feeling she wasn’t leaving, but I needed to hear her say it. I needed to hear her say that she was…
“Ali…are you…” I couldn’t even finish the sentence. But the more I thought about it, the more I was sure of it. The barfing. Her boobs. The fact that her stomach was slightly popping out. “How many months?” I asked, keeping my voice low.
Her slender throat bobbed with a swallow.
“How many months along are you, Ali?”
Her shoulders hiked up. “I-I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she stammered.
“Alinna,” I said gently.
She closed her eyes, looking equal parts exasperated and exhausted. “Jameson.”
The silence in the bathroom was deafening. “How many?”
She licked her lips. “I don’t know. Maybe three?”
My knees buckled. We were halfway through October, so that meant… October, September, August… the middle of July. The room spun around me. I held the side of the stall to keep myself standing.
“Can you get me some more water?” she asked, coughing to clear her throat.
“Yeah, yeah,” I choked out, moving to the door like I was walking through a haze.
She’s pregnant.
Ali’s pregnant.
Ali’s pregnant with our baby.
Making a beeline to the waters, I ran right into Colt. “Jeez, JP, what the f—” He stopped when he saw my face. “You good? You’re all white.”
I shook my head. “Water.”
He immediately handed me a bottle. Without thinking, I turned on my heel.
“Dude, you okay?” Colt jogged to catch up with me as I rushed back to the women’s room.
Before I could enter, Colt yanked my right shoulder, making searing pain shoot through my shoulder. “Sorry, sorry!” He immediately released me. “But that’s the ladies’ room.”
“I know,” I said through gritted teeth.
His eyebrows slammed down as he pointed to the door. “You can’t just go in there. It’s an invasion of privacy.”
My jaw clenched. “Ali’s in there.”
Lucy skipped up between us. “Whatcha guys doing?” she asked sweetly. “Do you like my hair? Auntie P did it for me,” she said, showing off her slicked back up-do.
“Very pretty,” Colt said with a dopey smile.
I tried to enter the bathroom, but Colt pulled me back again.
Lucy scrunched her nose. “What are you doing, Uncle JP?”
“Honey,” Colt spoke to Lucy while holding me with a stare, “can you see if Auntie Ali is in the restroom for us?”
“Sure!” she answered in a peppy voice. Colt pulled the door open, and Lucy skipped under his arm to enter the room.
Colt pinned me with his gaze. “Wanna explain what’s going on here? Because it doesn’t look too good for you, my friend. Ali didn’t seem too thrilled to see you, and now it looks like you’re going after her.”
My face cracked. “I’m not… What?” I shook my head. “Ali’s—” I shut my mouth. It wasn’t my place to say it.
Colt gave me a stern look.
“She’s not feeling well.” My whole body vibrated with tension. It took all I had in me not to take a swing at Colt and run back to Ali.
A second later, Lucy stuck her head back out. “Nope!” She shrugged. “No one’s in here.”
My hands flew to my head.
No, no, no.
She played me.
“JP, what is going on?” Colt demanded, but his voice sounded like it was coming from under water.
Without another thought, I broke into a run, dodging kids and old people as I tore through the lobby and headed for the parking lot.
As soon as I pushed outside, the cold wind ripped through my bones, but I kept moving until I spotted her.
She was halfway to the cars when she looked back over her shoulder.
Seeing me, those brown eyes of hers widened before she started running.
The clumsiest girl I knew was running in high heels, on the cracked cement, while pregnant.
“I’ll stop,” I called out, raising my arms. “Just stop running. I don’t want you to hurt yourself. Please, Ali,” I begged.
She slowed to a stop and hugged herself against the wind. After a couple seconds, she slowly turned and faced me head on.
I moved to take a step forward, but her hand shot up. “No, wait.”
I froze, waiting on her permission.