Chapter Thirty
ISOBEL
Chicago
Staring at the prospectus on the table in front of me for Vivid’s new social media push, I pinched the bridge of my nose, trying to ignore the headache I’d had for days. I’d traveled for work before, running dozens of book tours over the last seven years, but my new position wasn’t remotely close to city hopping and spending most of my time in bookstores.
“Isobel, is now a good time?” Mark, the head of publishing in the Chicago office, asked, leaning through the doorway to the makeshift office they’d prepared for my brief visit.
“Yeah, I need a break from staring at these, anyway. What’s going on?”
He sat across from me, placing a manila folder in front of him. “What can you tell me about Samuel Langley?”
Taken a little by surprise, I leaned back in my chair. “He’s uh… He’s currently the copy-editing intern of one of my colleagues.”
“Adrian O’Neill, right?”
“Yeah.”
“I’ll cut straight to the chase. We’re contemplating going after him to come run the mystery department in this office. His resume is solid, and Sloane shared his manuscript samples with me. I think he’d fit in well here, and he’s got family nearby. Is there anything you’d recommend we offer to sweeten the deal? ”
“Why Sam?”
He was more than qualified, but last I knew Sloane had wanted him to move up inside the Boston office. I didn’t know anything about other offices having openings for copy-editing interns. But it sounded like he wasn’t going to be an intern.
“Like I said, he seems like a good fit, doesn’t need much training to step into the role, and Sloane said she has another intern she can offer the job in Boston to if we can convince him to move.”
Fuck. Kristine was going to lose her shit. Sloane hadn’t told us anything further about the hiring panel’s decision because the final interviews were later this week.
“Have you talked to Adrian? He’d be able to give you a reference. Sam has been his direct report for a few years.”
“I will, but I just wanted to gauge the situation before we prepared an offer package.”
We’d both known there was a high possibility one of us would lose their intern, but it seemed we’d both be looking for replacements soon. Part of me wished I’d brought the candidate profiles with me so I could have Sloane schedule an interview.
“Talk to Adrian first, but I think Sam might consider it if your offer is competitive.”
“Thanks, Isobel. Having you here the last few days has been great. You looking for a lateral move anytime soon?”
Shaking my head, he sighed in disappointment. “Sorry, no plans to leave Boston. But thank you for thinking of me.”
“Yeah, I knew it was a long shot. And I’m pretty sure Sloane would come after me for trying, but figured I’d shoot my shot. Let me know if there’s anything else you need before you head back.”
He let himself out and my fingers itched to grab my phone and give Adrian a heads up. But things had been weird between us since I’d been out of the office. We still talked every night before I went to bed, but I was so exhausted from all the time changes from hopping all over the country that I usually started drifting off mid call.
I still hadn’t made any decisions about what I wanted to do, and my appointment at the clinic was the day after tomorrow, so I needed to figure it out soon.
The fickle bitch that was infertility had the potential to eviscerate an otherwise stable relationship. I would know. It swiftly cut apart my marriage without hesitation, leaving me a shell of the person I once was.
The two times I’d been elated and then utterly wrecked when the spark of life inside me took a firm hold on my heart before it was snuffed out, and left scars even years later.
Was I brave enough to go through that again? Or would I always carry this ache of regret with me?
“After you’re done collecting your urine sample, wipe again using these and then stay undressed from the waist down. Place the sample in the box on the wall and we’ll run a quick pregnancy test. Dr. Charles will come in once we’ve got the results. The procedure typically takes about ten minutes. She’ll give you some aftercare instructions, but you should be cleared for intercourse in a few days. Some recommend waiting for two weeks, but that’s completely up to you and your partner.”
The nurse placed a few hygienic wipes in my hand and left me in the exam room to do my business.
I understood why they had to do the pregnancy tests, but I’d had this IUD in for over three years with no issues. Not that my sex life had been frequent until the last six months.
After I washed my hands, I put my specimen in the box, flipping the little dial that showed the nurses a sample had been placed inside.
Adrian offered to come with me, but he couldn’t be in here for the removal, so I declined, knowing he was still trying to get everything in place for Evan in New York. We’d be driving down early in the morning instead of flying since it was less than four hours. Sloane had offered to buy plane tickets, but by the time we dealt with security and luggage, it’d take nearly as long as the drive.
Sloane told me this morning about the plans she had for Sam and Kristine. He’d been the hiring committee’s first choice for the opening in the fantasy department, but they were going to let Mark pitch the position in Chicago during his final interview. If he decided to take it, Kristine would get the fantasy position, and I’d requested Andrea to take her place. She’d said there was interest from another editor for her, but Adrian hadn’t said anything about who he was planning to replace Sam with.
Absently flipping through my emails, I shifted on the uncomfortable paper underneath my legs, wishing they’d hurry and get this thing out of me.
My plan was to ask Adrian to use condoms for the next few months until the timing worked out better to try. I still wasn’t sure how I was going to balance everything, but Leila had laid into me when I told her I was considering waiting until a time when things slowed down at work.
She’d been pissed when I mentioned it on the phone, telling me to stop doing the things I thought I needed to do to make people happy and do what I wanted.
Getting my ass handed to me by my best friend was probably the only reason I was currently sitting on this hard-as-rock exam room table with my pants off.
A knock sounded on the door, and I tossed my phone onto the pile of clothes in the chair to my right.
“Good afternoon, Isobel. How are we doing today?” Dr. Charles asked as she stepped through the door, pulling a cart behind her. From what she’d told me at my last appointment, IUD removal just required a speculum and a small device that would collapse the arms so she could pull it free. She hadn’t mentioned anything about an ultrasound being needed .
“I’m good,” I responded absently, watching as she uncoiled the cord on a long wand and covered it with a condom.
“We got your preliminary urine test results back, and they’ll be in to collect a blood sample soon, but I just need to check something before we send you down the hall for a full scan.”
“Scan of what?” I asked, my heart beating faster as she squirted the gel onto the tip of the wand and stepped toward me.
“It seems your IUD may have stopped doing its job. I’m going to do a quick transvaginal scan to see if I can locate it, and then we can talk about removal options that pose minimal risk to the fetus.”
“I’m sorry…the what?”
“I guess I should have led with that,” she chuckled, smiling at me while she held the ultrasound wand in the air. “Congratulations, Isobel, you’re pregnant.”
She kept talking, but I couldn’t follow anything she said because the room started spinning and then everything went black. The last thing I remembered was the sound of her calling for a nurse.