“Can you get Kallum?” I managed to say. I was dangerously close to losing it now. “I just want Kallum.”
There was a convocation of whispering and hissing, and the door thumped a little in the frame, like someone was jostling to go out into the main room. And then some more whispering—I thought I heard Nolan’s husky voice in the mix now—and then Bee said, “Um, Winnie? Kallum’s still out of commission a bit. I guess the reindeer are trying to get the bleeding on his lip to stop. But once he’s not bleeding anymore, I can send him in?”
Right. Kallum was bleeding because he’d drunkenly tried to pole dance at a party. And I was bleeding because we might lose our baby.
I looked at the blood and tried to think. I wasn’t cramping, I didn’t have any pain. When I dabbed myself with toilet paper, the blood was bright and thin, no clots in sight. It might be okay. Everything might be okay. I just had to speak. I just had to ask for help because the person I trusted the mostcouldn’thelp right now.
“I’m bleeding,” I whispered and then took a breath. I had to be louder. “I’m bleeding,” I said again, louder, and I heard the worried murmur roll through the crowd on the other side of the door.
“Well, shit,” Bee said after a minute.
“Shit,” Sunny agreed. There was more murmuring, then the tap of Steph’s heels receding into the distance.
“Winnie, we need to get you to a hospital,” Teddy said. “Steph is checking to see if anyone has a car to drive you there. I think with as far out as we are, it’ll be faster than waiting for an ambulance.”
“Is anyone okay to drive?” I heard Bee ask.
“Oh God,” Sunny said. “I know you and I aren’t, and Nolan definitely isn’t. Teddy?”
I heard the kind of heavy sigh that can only come from under a mustache. “I’m not sure if I’m good to drive or not, and if I’m not sure, that means it’s not safe enough for me to feel good about. Maybe a crew member?”
“I’m looking for an Uber now,” Bee said decisively. “In case Steph can’t find a car and-slash-or someone to drive it.”
“And I’m looking for Lyfts,” Sunny added. Then: “Nearest Lyft is forty-five minutes away.”
“Closest Uber is in Montpelier,” Bee added. “Fuck me sideways.”
“Have offered many times,” Sunny responded. “Winnie, are you still doing okay in there?”
Was I doing okay? I was frozen on the toilet, afraid to move or even breathe, lest I bleed more. Lest I feel something worse than blood, like pain or cramps.
“I don’t know,” I said numbly. I could have been at the deep end of a pool; in one of those sensory deprivation tanks Addison swore by. Everything felt like it was coming from a million miles away.
“Okay, we’re coming in,” said Bee. “We promise not to let Teddy in unless you start bleeding from your butthole too.”
“Actually, I’ve got an idea,” Teddy said. “Be back in two shakes.” I heard a quick, heavy stride pace away from the bathroom.
“Move it! Move it!” Sunny called after him, and then the door opened.
“Oh, honey,” Bee said, seeing me with my panties around my knees. “Okay, okay. We’ve got you.”
I looked up at her and Sunny, and their kind, concerned faces, and then promptly burst into tears.
“Shh,” Sunny said. “Shh. We’re here now.”
And indeed in short order, I was stood up, my panties taken off and then folded into a paper towel to show a doctor, and then given a pair of sequined panties and a pad to wear.
“Vixen gave us the panties from her stash and Cupid gave us the pad,” Bee said, straightening out my dress as Sunny held up a tissue for me to blow my nose in.
Teddy arrived at the door just then. “I have a ride to the hospital,” he said. “But we should get going now.”
“And Kallum?” I asked hopefully. “Will he be coming with us?”
“Yes,” Teddy said kindly. “The dancers are getting him an ice pack and he’ll be ready to leave.”
Teddy’s ride ended up being none other than the trolley, helmed by Ronald, and the ice pack Kallum showed up with was a prepackaged frozen cocktail that he was holding directly against his cut lip.
“Babe,” Kallum said to me the minute he climbed onto the trolley. “Are you okay? Teddy said you were bleeding? Does that mean...?”
