Chapter Three #2
Reaves let out a breath. He should probably protest, clarify that Alara wasn't his girl, but he let it go, only to keep the conversation flowing. No other reason. "Alara seems to be doing better, and Zia's loving being at Dad's place."
"I'll bet she is. Anyone would. She's a real character, that one, isn't she?"
"She is. She took a shine to you too. I told you she christened you—you’re the Silver Dragon."
Frank chuckled. "You did." He reached up to touch his thinning gray hair. "Made my day, that did. Dragons seem like proud creatures to me, and it made my Bev laugh when I told her that there's a pretty young girl out there who told me I'm silver, while she insists on saying that I'm balding."
Reaves laughed. "Bev loves you no matter how much hair you have left. Give her my best, will you?"
"Course I will. Don't let me hold you up. Do you have an early start in the morning?"
"Not as early as I was expecting, no. I won't leave here till around nine."
"Well, I'll be here, but forgive me if I don't get the chance to have a word with you. That new couple in 2B have a delivery coming in." He made a face, and Reaves had to laugh.
"Hopefully you won't see as much of them once they're finally settled in."
Frank just rolled his eyes. "Yeah, we can hope. Goodnight, Reaves."
"Goodnight, Frank. If I don't see you tomorrow, have yourself a good weekend."
"Thanks, kid. And you."
When he reached his apartment, Reaves headed straight for the fridge to grab himself a cold beer. It was an indulgence he didn't usually allow himself on a weeknight, but since he wouldn't be flying tomorrow, he didn't see why not. He flopped down on the sofa and took his phone out to call Ollie.
It rang a few times before his friend picked up.
"Hey, Reaves, what's up?"
"Nothing, everything's good, but I'm calling to ask you a favor."
"Anything you want—what do you need?"
"Alara finally booked herself a doctor's appointment."
"That's good news. When is it?"
"That's what I'm calling about. It's tomorrow morning at ten."
"Then of course you should go. Don't worry about the flight, I'll call Elliott and see if he can cover. He and Trick aren't flying this week."
"That's okay, I was gonna call him myself. I just wanted to make sure with you first that you don't mind."
"You should've known the answer."
"Yeah, I kinda did, but I still wanted to talk to you."
"Is she alright? Has something happened that's made her finally give in and make the appointment?"
"No, nothing like that. The waiting period's over on the insurance, so she finally called."
"That's awesome."
"Isn’t it? But listen, I can call Elliott."
"There's no need for you to do it. I'll have to talk to him anyway, brief him on the flight and everything. You just relax." Ollie laughed. "If you can. This has been a long time coming."
"Don't I know it. I'm just glad we can finally get started on figuring out what's wrong with her. And doing something about it."
"Let me know as soon as you know anything, will you? We'll probably still be in the air by the time you get out—shoot me a text and I'll call you when we land, okay?"
"Thanks, Ollie."
"Nothing to thank me for. I'll be keeping my fingers crossed. Oh, hang on a minute. Callie's here."
Ollie's voice was muffled while he spoke to Callie for a few moments before coming back on the line.
"I told her about the appointment, and she wants to know if she should call Alara."
Reaves thought about it for a moment. "She can try. I'd love to call her myself right now and see how she's feeling. She has to be nervous about tomorrow. But… we're not at that place, you know."
"I know, but I bet you will be soon. And that's exactly what Callie was saying. Hang on, I'm going to hand you over."
Reaves smiled when Callie came on the line.
"Hey. What do you think, should I give her a call? I know you want to but won't, even though I think you should."
"You know my position, Callie. I don't want to put any pressure on her."
"No, I know, and that's admirable. But it still leaves Alara sitting there alone, with no one to talk to the night before an appointment she must have been dreading as well as looking forward to for weeks now."
"Yeah, you're right. When I left Dad's place, she was going to put Zia to bed and she was going up, too. She might be sleeping, I don't know."
"It's not that late, so I'll call her. If she doesn't answer, I can leave a message. Tell her I'll be thinking about her tomorrow."
Reaves froze. "Wait, no, hang on a sec, Callie. Then she'll know that I told you about the appointment."
"And you think that's a bad thing?"
"I…" He shook his head. "I honestly don't know. On the one hand, I don't feel like I should be sharing her news. On the other…" He let out a short laugh. "And I know you'll understand this. I don't feel like I should hide from her the fact that I have."
"I know exactly what you mean," said Callie. "Keeping secrets didn't work out too well for any of us in the beginning. But I'll tell you what. I'll just call her and ask her what she's doing tomorrow. Then she can tell me herself."