“That door’s pretty heavy,” Kappy commented.
I cracked it open slightly. “Ali, are you okay? I just want to talk,” I called out. “Please don’t run away. I know I don’t deserve it, but can we please talk?”
“Hey, that was good,” Kappy said with a bright grin. “Good job.”
I ground my back teeth.“Ali?” I called out again. “You good?”
This time, the sound of coughing and hacking echoed in the small room.
“Oh shit. I’ll go get Piper,” Kappy said before darting away.
“Ali?”
Silence filled the air while panic flared to life in my body.
There’s no way I could just stand there, not when she could be choking or passing out or going into anaphylactic shock. The memory of her having an allergic reaction during an ice show practice flashed into my mind, making my hands tremble.
“Man…uh…coming inside to help,” I announced loudly, feeling awkward as hell entering the women’s restroom.
The first two stalls were empty. When I pushed in the largest stall door, it opened easily, revealing Ali slumped in front of the toilet and looking weak and pale as a ghost. The sight of her getting sick had an invisible fist squeezing my heart.
Swearing under my breath, I immediately bent down behind her. “You okay?”
Holding her head, she gave a little nod.
“You feel hot, are you sick? Maybe you caught something from the plane on your way here?” I asked, rubbing her back.
Her body tensed at my touch, like she was scared, and I hatedmyself for it.
A minute later, the sound of high heels echoed in the room and my eyes fell closed.Shit.
A second later, our stall door flew open.
“Okay,youare not supposed to be in here,” Piper announced, crossing her arms over her chest. “I’ve got her, you can go.” She nodded to the exit.
I froze. There was no chance in hell I was leaving unlessAliasked. “Just give us a minute, okay?”
Piper’s nose flared with a breath. “Ali, is that what you want?”
Ali swallowed hard. “Yeah, that’s okay,” she whispered.
Her words filled me with a small sense of relief that completely vanished a second later when her body started heaving again.
“That’s it, get it all out.” I continued rubbing her back. “Was it something you ate? Can you breathe okay? Do you think that dessert had nuts?” I pulled back, ready to run back to the lobby to beg the crowd for an Epipen.
“No.” Her hand shot back to hold mine. “It’s not that.”
My brain flipped through a million differentwhat-if’sas she slowly stood from the toilet and leaned against the cinderblock wall. Her head fell back as she breathed deeply in through her nose and out her mouth.
My eyes darted around her, trying to detect what was wrong. “Are you sure you’re not…” My eyes snagged on her body and one very specific possibility popped into my head.
Oh.
Oh shit.
But no…
That couldn’t be it.
