Page 54 of Always

“Maybe after the cleaners come,” Marco tried to console her. “Or someone might find it in their cuff or their bag tomorrow.”

Blinking back the tears that threatened to spill down her cheeks, Anika nodded dully.

It was only an earring, but of any object she owned, that was the thing that connected her most closely to her mother. She had seen Eleanor wear them dozens of times, and when she looked at herself in the mirror and saw those points of blue light glimmering on either side of her face, she had always felt safer, stronger, more capable, as if a small piece of her mother’s spirit lived inside those stones. Though she had the necklace and one earring still, the set had been broken. She cursed her carelessness.

“Come over to my place,” Marco whispered to her, his arm around her shoulders, “I’ll pour some wine, give you a massage—I can make you feel better.”

“That sounds really nice,” Anika said. “But honestly, I’m exhausted. I think I’ll just go home to bed if it’s all the same to you.”

She knew Marco was doing his best to cheer her up, but at the moment she just wanted to be alone.

Gwen offered to see the last of the people out the door and pay the waitstaff so Anika could leave.

“Thank you,” Anika said, giving her a hug.

She didn’t see James anywhere. Maybe he had already left. Bennet and Stella certainly had, after only a cursory glance around for her earring.

“You should have kept it in a safe, like I do with Mama’s diamonds,” Stella had said.

“You still have the other pieces,” Anika whispered to herself as she climbed in a cab. But she drove home feeling very empty inside.

* * *

19

Monday morning Anika went to work, still feeling melancholy over the loss of the earring. She was trying to shake it off, but she felt a strange sense of doom, as if her carelessness had caused a curse to fall upon her.

Marco had planned to meet her for lunch, but he texted her in the morning to say that Dominic had another relapse and was back in the hospital. It was clear from his follow-up messages that the prognosis wasn’t good.

That was the awful thing with a terminal illness. Though the end result was determined, the uncertainty of timing, combined with the inevitability of pain and suffering, were terrible to endure. Anika offered to come to the hospital, if only to bring lunch or to keep him company for a moment, but Marco declined.

I have a lot of work to do. I brought my laptop, he wrote.

Anika was busy herself. With Hannah unable to dash in and out of the office on errands, Anika was appreciating how very many things Hannah actually managed to get done in a day. Most of these now fell on Gwen’s shoulders, and much of Gwen’s work came to Anika.

Calvin had been admirably patient with Hannah’s requests to please grab her a sparkling water from the fridge, or turn down the air conditioning, or switch the record playing on their old radio. Now he was wearing headphones full time so he could politely ignore her. Anika had to holler at him or send an instant message if she wanted to get his attention.

At lunchtime, a car pulled into the lot behind their building and honked. Anika went to the window, thinking that Marco had found time to get away after all. Instead, she saw a tall, bearded blond man waving from the window of a silver Mercedes.

“Holy shit,” Anika said aloud, “is that Dr. Thor?”

“We’re going with Dr. Dreamy,” Gwen said. “It’s more alliterative.”

“His name is Adam,” Hannah said cheerfully, gathering up her crutches.

“I didn’t know doctors did house calls anymore,” Anika said.

“Oh, he’s been calling every day,” Hannah said. “He’s very attentive.”

Anika held the door open so Hannah could get through.

“And they say our healthcare system is no good,” she said with a smile.

Anika felt decidedly more buoyant the rest of the afternoon. She told herself it was because she was happy for Hannah.

The next day, Marco called Anika at work to ask if she would come meet him in the evening.

“Of course,” she said. “Do you want me to come to the hospital?”

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