“Ben certainly didn’t produce this kind of reaction from you. It makes me wonder if there is more to your feelings than you realize.”
Oh, she realized them all right. “I’m terrified that he’s got into trouble. We had this sort of fight yesterday at the ultrasound.” Maybefightwas the wrong word, but they’d certainly not left each other in a happy place. “Then he just took off. He never leaves the office like this. And he hasn’t even checked his email. Where could he have gone?”
“Maybe he’s at home. Maybe he just needed a mental health day.” Caroline touched her hair, smoothing it. “Did you know that sixty percent of women and twenty percent of men have called off sick because of a bad hair day?”
Mandy knew without a doubt Damien wasn’t a contributor to that statistic. “Damien would not call off sick because his hair looked bad. He would be bleeding out his eyes before he called off work.” Which made her wonder if he was in his apartment, bleeding out his eyes.
Her stomach churned. “I don’t even know where he lives! Oh, my God. He could be dead.”
“If he was dead, he would not have had the forethought to cancel all his appointments first.” Caroline took a bite of her Cobb salad. “Why don’t you just call or text him? You’re his assistant. Surely you know his cell number. Make up a work excuse.”
“I texted but he either had it off or on airplane mode.” Her stomach clenched. “Or he blocked me.”
“Why would he block you? That makes zero sense. Just call him.”
“You’re right.” She bent over and started digging around in her purse for her phone. “How did you know you were in love with Brad, Caroline? Was it this eureka moment?”
“Well, no, not really.” Caroline’s voice was puzzled. “I just knew that Brad was the man I wanted to spend my life with. I knew we were right for each other. And of course, I love him.”
Mandy lifted her head. She stared at Caroline, thinking that somehow her roommate had managed to do it all so nicely and cleanly. She’d met a responsible, attractive man at her previous job, dated, gotten engaged, bought a great apartment with him, and was planning the perfect wedding.
While Mandy was pregnant with one man’s child and in love with another.
She’d never thought of herself as a difficult person, but she sure in the hell wasn’t making things easy on herself either.
“Do you mind if I try Damien’s cell real quick?”
“No, go ahead.”
Mandy hit Demon Sharpton on her phone and held her breath. She really needed to change that. After six rings, she was despairing and preparing to leave a rather pathetic sounding message when he answered.
“Damien! Oh, good, I’m so glad you answered.”
“Mandy?” His voice sharpened. “Is something wrong?”
Relief and irritation intermingled. “I could ask the same of you! I’ve been worried sick. Where are you?”
“Chicago. I had some things to take care of.” He sucked in his breath quickly.
“Chicago?” Mandy frowned. He’d just winged off to Chicago, canceling their dinner plans, and hadn’t thought to explain himself to her? She thought she might be angry about that.
“You were worried about me?” He winced, then said, “Oww, damn it, that hurts.”
Well, excuse the hell out of her.
“Stop moving,” she heard someone say in the background.
“What are you doing?” If it was kinky and involved a woman, she was going to become seriously unpleasant.
“Getting a tattoo.”
Oh. That seemed as unlikely as him taking a bad hair day off, but then she remembered the tattoo on his arm. How she hadsuggested he get it fixed to cover Jess’s name—before she had known his wife had died.
“Where?” She wanted to confirm what she suspected. Crumpling her napkin, she waited for his answer.
“Over my old one.”
Mandy closed her eyes. She wasn’t sure what it meant, but she thought it meant Damien was trying to leave the past behind. That he was trying to move forward.
