“Shit, Harvey! You scared the hell out of me,” I yelled. I also wanted him out of my way so I could get to the ER.
“Sorry, I was about to knock,” he said, his brows furrowing at my state of agitation.
“I have to go.” I passed him, not worrying whether I was being rude or not.
“Alright,” he said. “Hey, do you need a ride? Are you OK?” I stopped walking towards my car, and my knees gave out. I sat on the floor crying. Harvey must have been dumbfounded at the sight of me because it was a few seconds before he did or said anything. Eventually I felt his hand on my shoulder, patting me.
“How can I help?” he asked. I surrendered to the fact that I would not make it to the hospital like this, so I told him.
“I’m having a miscarriage,” I spit out, gasping between words. He stood me up and helped me to the passenger seat of his truck. He walked around to the driver’s side.
“Where to? The hospital?” he asked. I looked at him and nodded, so grateful to have him— anyone— here with me at that moment. We drove in silence, and I sent my boss a quick text saying I had to call out sick today. I didn’t give any details, and that would have to do.
When we arrived I filled out my name and reason for coming in. I was let into a room rather quickly and told to wait for the doctor. They took blood, and then we were left waiting.
“Does Greg know?” Harvey asked. It was the first thing he’d said since he walked me in and told the lady at the front desk I was having a miscarriage and had to be seen right away.
“No, I haven’t told him,” I said.
“Wait, about the baby or the miscarriage?” he asked.
“Neither.”
“Do you want me to call him?” He reached into his pocket for his cell phone.
I looked at him, tears once again spilling down my cheeks. The concern in his eyes was evident. I recognized it should come from me, but I didn’t know if I would even be intelligible over the phone if I kept at it like this. I nodded, and Harvey went outside. My eyes darted around the room, trying to distract myself with whatever I could. Nothing worked.
Harvey came in and said, “He’s on his way here.” I nodded, and the tears returned.I might just cry forever, I thought to myself. It was silly too, because I had only known about it for three days, and nobody else knew. It’s almost as if it hadn’t even existed.
But it had. It had started to grow inside me, and something happened to take it away from me. I needed some kind of distraction.
“Harvey, why were you coming over today?” I asked, willing my breathing to return to normal. “Was it to ask more questions about Natalie?”
“We don’t have to talk about that now,” he said, crossing one of his legs over the other one.
“I’d appreciate thinking about something else. So what is it?” I pestered.
“No really, we’ll talk about it another day. Just remember you promised not to tell Greg or Natalie.”
“I won’t, but Greg wouldn’t say anything if I asked him not to. You can trust him.”
Harvey gave an almost inaudible “hmph”, and I narrowed my eyes.
“What was that?” I asked
“Nothing, I’ve just been paranoid, and I don’t want Natalie finding out. I’m probably way off base here, anyway.”
“But what about that ‘hmph’ noise you made after I said you could trust Greg. Has he ever spilled any secrets I don’t know about?” I asked, wishing he’d tell me already instead of being so mysterious about it.
“No, I’ve never told him any secrets,” was all he said.
“Harvey, look at me. I’m having a miscarriage, and you’re distressing me further. Can you please stop with the mind games and tell me what you came to my house for?” I was losing my cool and considering throwing him out. My hormones and emotions were all over the place, and I wanted to give into them and scream bloody murder.
“I don’t want to tell you because it will make you upset,” he said. He must have noticed that I was at the point of unleashing my wrath because he immediately amended, “But I suppose there’s no other way out now.” He drew in a deep breath and sat forward. “I have my suspicions that Natalie and Greg are having an affair,” he said, letting it hang in the air. I froze. That I was not expecting. I thought he was just going to accuse Natalie. But Greg? With Natalie? I laughed. Loudly. Harvey simply watched me laughing like a madwoman until I tried to compose myself.
“You’re nuts,” I said, wiping tears from my eyes.
“I have my reasons.”
