After eating a few bites, she was already starting to feel full. Niko picked up her phone, which was being charged and handed it to her. When she saw the time, she sucked in a startled breath. “Oh, my gosh it’s four-thirty. I have a class at five.”
Niko, who was ladling the soup into a Tupperware, said, “You don’t have classes tonight.”
Her eyes shot up to his. “Did you cancel them?”
“No, I got all your classes covered.”
“Well, who’s covering tonight?”
“No one. You didn’t have any classes on the schedule.”
“The only nights I don’t have classes are Saturday and Sunday,” she argued.
He stared at her blankly. “Yeah.”
“What day is it?” she asked.
His brow furrowed, and she could see the concern on his face. “Sunday.”
“No, it’s not.” She picked up her phone, and seeing the date on it confirmed what Niko said. It was Sunday. “But the dinner… the dinner at The Cove—we just got home… on Tuesday. We just got home from the dinner.”
She was so confused, she thought she,mighthave slept a full twenty-four hours, butfive days? How had she lostfive days? She started to hyperventilate. She couldn’t breathe.
“Tiana, it’s okay.” Niko was suddenly at the table beside her. “It’s okay.”
She opened QuickBooks on her phone, but when she did, nothing had been updated since Tuesday afternoon, the last time any data was imported. Of course it hadn’t. No one was going to do her QuickBooks, that was ridiculous. So she didn’t know what she’d made last week. She didn’t know if all her classes were covered. Or what if she’d had dropouts?
Tears began to fill her eyes. She couldn’t afford a week of no income or of decreased income. Pops had his surgery in two weeks. He would be in recovery over Christmas, but there was a specialist surgeon who was going to be in Sacramento at that time. They wouldn’t have another shot until June, and with Pops’ age, six months was a factor.
Niko reached across the table and placed his hand on hers. “It’s okay.”
“I need to go.” She stood and pulled her hand out from under his. “I need to go to the studio.”
“Okay, okay.” He stood as well. “Why? What do you need?”
“It doesn’t matter. It’s my studio. I need to go. Now.” She turned around to go down the hall and felt herself getting dizzy. The room was spinning.
“Okay, okay.” Niko spoke to her like she was a cornered wild animal. “Whatever you need, we will get it. You look really pale. Can you just sit?”
No. She didn’t want to sit down. But she didn’t really think she had a choice because everything was going blurry and then black.
“Tiana… Tiana… Tiana…”
She heard her name being called from far away. She didn’t want to answer it. She just wanted to stay asleep.
“Tiana…Tiana…”
Her eyes flapped open like bird wings, and she saw Niko’s face hovering above her.
“Hey.” He was smiling down at her, but he had his phone to his ear.
“Hi,” she said, but her voice sounded quiet.
She was really tired and not sure where she was.
“Yeah, she’s alert. Okay. Okay, okay, thanks, Liam.”
Niko disconnected the call, and he put his phone on the coffee table. That’s when she realized she was lying on the couch.
