Page 57 of The Executive Assistant

A voice calling out my name in the office. An ambulance and its wailing siren. A familiar hand squeezing mine.

“What happened?” I asked my friends.

They both looked pale with worry. There was no oneelse in the room. Did they bring me here somehow?

“You passed out at work,” Brooke told me, placing her hand on my shoulder. “The doctor said it was from exhaustion.”

My eyes widened. People had warned me about passing out from exhaustion, but I’d always thought they were exaggerating. “I was kind of tired, but I was just going to get a cup of coffee.”

“Cameron found you unconscious in the hallway and called an ambulance. He called us while he was in the ambulance with you,” Emilia added.

Cameron was the one who helped me? I didn’t even think that he was still in the building at the time.

I was lucky that he found me. If I had fallen differently, I could’ve hit my head and been seriously injured.

From what I could feel, it seemed like only my knees and my right shoulder ached. They must’ve taken the brunt of the fall.

“Where is he?”

“We had to force him to leave,” Brooke told me with a small smile on her face. “He refused to leave your side, but he was falling asleep in the chair he was sitting in.”

“He even pretended to be your husband so that he could be allowed to sit by your bed. They were only letting family in last night,” Emilia said. “He really cares about you, Alison.”

He pretended to be my husband? He sat by my side?

The thought of Cameron still caring made a sob rack my body. Tears spilled from my eyes as I dropped my head.

“Aw, Alison,” Brooke said as she leaned forward and wrapped her arms around my shoulders, pulling me into a hug.

Emilia took my hand and squeezed it, concern shining in her eyes. “What’s wrong?”

I cried into Brooke’s shoulder for a minute before releasing her, wiping my eyes with the back of my hand as I sniffled. My chest felt so tight that it was hard to breathe, but I pushed through. “I ruined everything between me and Cameron, but he’s still so kind to me.”

Brooke frowned and shook her head. “You didn’t ruin everything.”

I shook my head even harder, only able to picture how sad he looked when he broke up with me. How defeated he looked. “It’s too late. You didn’t see how he looked when we broke up. He was crushed.”

Emilia and Brooke shared a brief look. “Maybe we didn’t see his look then, but we saw how he looked this morning. He had the kind of look you have when someone you love is hurt,” Emilia said.

“He was trying to hide it, but he was panicking on the inside,” Brooke added. “I think he was trying to be strong for you, even when you were unconscious.”

My heart thudded heavily as I tried to picture him with that look on his face. Did he really still care about me thatmuch, despite all that I had done? It was hard to imagine, but I knew that my friends weren’t lying to me. They cared about me enough to give it to me straight.

“Did he say anything?” I asked them.

“Not much. He told us that he hoped you were okay, but he mostly talked to the nurse and doctor,” Emilia replied. “He kept asking them questions, wanting to make sure you’d be alright.”

I nodded. “Thank you for staying with me,” I told them, feeling immensely grateful. “How long have you been here?”

“Only a few hours,” Brooke said. “We arrived at nine, and it’s almost noon now. Cameron stayed the night, so we sent him home so he could change his clothes and have a shower.”

I turned to look at the window. Sure enough, the sun was shining outside. I’d been unconscious since last night.

I frowned at my friends. “Don’t you two have work?”

“We took the morning off,” Emilia said. “It was an emergency.”

“You didn’t need to,” I said, but I was touched. “That means you have to head back to work soon, right?”

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