Chapter 98

DORIS

The good news continued to roll in the next day. Mr. Owens' assistant called and said one of the hottest new songwriting teams had two songs available for me and the band to record. We set up a time to listen to them and decided we liked the first one better.

Mr. Owens had an amazing recording studio and sound engineer professional lined up for us to use. I asked if Arthur and Mia would be allowed to come, and the record executives, the sound engineer, and the rest of the band hall said of course. Arthur cleared his schedule.

It was an amazing week.

We recorded the song. Even though it was hard work, it still went well. I was happy with the initial results, and I was sure it would be a hit.

For a moment, it was all I could think about.

Arthur and I were lying in bed that night. When I looked at his face, I could tell something was still bothering him.

“Arthur, what’s on your mind?”

“It’s Cathy. Not only don’t I understand why she did what she did, I can’t let her get away with it. We have the recording of Jeff saying that she did it, although he didn’t name names. I’m sure the police are looking into it. But I’m not sure she’ll admit it, and she needs to be punished.”

“With all that’s been going on, I haven’t really thought about it,” I said.

Arthur stroked my hair.

“Understandable," Arthur said. "Truthfully, I haven’t wanted to think about it. Cathy and I didn’t date for very long, but we were always friends, even if we didn’t talk for years at a time. And she is Mia‘s biological mother."

I nodded. I totally understood what Arthur was saying. It seemed like from the moment she got pregnant, she was a different person.

“I just can’t seem to muster the same kind of anger at her that I have against Dr. John and Jeff. But in some ways, it’s worse. I don’t just feel angry I feel betrayed."

“I hear you, Arthur. She must’ve been desperate, but you would think she’d have loyalty. I guess when people are really under pressure, you see who they really are.”

Arthur held me close. "I just don’t know what to do about her,” he said.

“Well, I think you should just leave it to the police. She’ll get what’s coming to her.”

“I don’t want her to have the baby in jail, even if it’s a nice jail.”

“We’ll figure out something. You always do.”

I closed four good real estate deals, and my assistant was able to close some deals that I had started a few months ago that never happened. My assistant was learning fast, and when she followed up and was persuasive, she managed to make us both some money.

Mr. Owens, the record executive, arranged for me and the band to have a professional photo shoot, which was exciting.

Arthur and I were invited to a charity gala at the Metropolitan Museum. It was a beautiful night. We drank, we danced, we had a fancy dinner. We met an astrophysicist, the dean of English at Yale University, and a male model who looked too handsome to actually be real.

The Arctic Avalanches had an amazing win where they were down six nothing and came back to score goal after goal in the last five minutes.

Monday morning, Arthur left for work early. I got out of the shower. I was just about to put on my power suit to go for my first meeting of the day when a wave of exhaustion like I hadn’t felt in months overtook me.

I sat down on the bed. I couldn’t believe how tired I was. Was I getting sick?

I called my assistant. I asked her to cancel all of my meetings for the day. There was nothing that I had to do that she couldn’t take over for me. I made myself a cup of tea and had a few sips.

But even those small actions exhausted me, and I guess it made sense. The last few weeks had been a whirlwind ever since the pharmaceutical company burned down; it had just been one thing after another.

Yes, some of those things were very good, but it was still emotional.

It was easy to forget that I was supposed to take it easy.

I fluffed up my pillow, crawled under the blankets, and immediately fell asleep.

When I woke up. It was 1 PM, and I was starving. I looked in the fridge, but nothing seemed appealing. I had some celery with peanut butter, as I called Nina.

“Hey girl,” I said. “Are you busy?“

“Not really. I’ve had great sex. I closed a small deal. I did my sit-ups, so I’m good to go. What do you have in mind?"

“That might be a little too much information, Nina, but what I had in mind is lunch at the diner. I took the day off work.”

“Really? Are you feeling OK?“

“I am now. I was just exhausted, so I took a personal day.”

“Well, I’m definitely up for lunch. I’ll meet you there.”

Nina was already at the diner when I got there. I could see from her expression there was something wrong.

I sat down across from her in the booth.

“What is it? I asked.

Nina looked like she didn’t want to tell me.

“Just tell me.”

Nina showed me her phone. It was a photo of Arthur kissing a beautiful woman. For a moment, I felt stabbed in the heart all over again.

“Wait a second,” Nina said. “This is in this morning’s news, but I think it’s an old photograph. Look at this. This is a different haircut.”

I took the phone from her. She was right; his hair was longer in the photo.

“Phew,” I said, putting my hand over my heart "Gave me a heart attack there.”

“Just trying to look out for you.”

"Nina, I’ve had enough drama in this past year to last a lifetime. I thought Cathy was going to steal Arthur away. I don’t wanna worry about some thin model taking him away from me.”

"I guess you’ll have to figure out some way to get him to really commit to you,” Nina said.

I could feel my mouth sour. “It’s not that I think he’s not committed to me. It’s just so many people in my life have left, or died, or let me down."

I took a deep breath. "Even with all the time I’ve spent with Arthur on this whirlwind we’ve been on, it’s hard for me to let my heart go 100% because I know I’m already ruined for all other men. If Arthur left me, I would be devastated.”

“I’m sure you would, but you know what? You would move on. You would survive; it would not break you. On the other hand, if you never give your heart fully, if you miss out on one of the best things in life because part of you is protecting yourself and you're a little scared, is that really who you are?”

The waitress headed our way. “Keep talking like that, and I’m going to say I don’t like you anymore," I joked quietly.

Nina laughed. "No way. We're friends forever. That's why I showed you that photo. It's good to know you've got nothing to worry about. That's one crisis averted."