Page 8 of This Love
It was a moment before another text came through, this time from his wife, Tina.
Tina: 3 minutes. It’s bad. She’s blue. We’re headed to the hospital.
I set the beer bottle on the side table. Fuck. That was too long. She was going to lose her memory.
I wasn’t worried about her dying. We’d been through this before. But the aftermath was a nightmare. Ava was a fighter at her core. She’d refuse help. Fake what she knew.
And she’d reject me. Three of the five times, she’d run from me. She trusted no one. No matter how I tried to convey my love for her, how I was safe, I never seemed to play it just right in those first hours after a seizure.
Jules entered the room. “It looks like the bride is delayed?”
I hadn’t said anything to them yet. Bill watched me intently, probably sensing something had gone wrong.
Fuentes was taking in her short skirt.
There was no way to sugarcoat this. “Ava’s on the way to the hospital.”
Jules’s face paled beneath her bright makeup. “Oh my God. Is she okay?”
I stood. I had to go. “She had a seizure in the limo. They’re rerouting to the hospital to have her checked.”
Jules pulled out her phone. “If she’ll be here later, we can move up the cocktail hour, swap it for the wedding. The guests can have the dinner, and we could do the ceremony at the end.”
I shook my head. “No, it’s worse than that.”
Jules looked up from her screen. “Oh, God. Will she be admitted? It’s not…fatal, is it?”
Bill whirled on her. “It’s not fatal. Jesus.”
“She doesn’t know.” I walked toward the door, tapping out a response to Tina.
Me: I’ll get Gram and head there. Which one?
Tina: Seton Central.
The usual. I shoved the phone into my pocket. “Jules, do what you want. Have the cocktails. The dinner. No sense wasting it. But there won’t be a wedding today.”
Jules straightened to full height, as if she were bracing herself. “I understand. I’ll make the announcement. Will you come back?”
Would I? “I’m not sure. Just…just have a good time. I need to get Gram.”
“I’ll help out here,” Bill said. “Keep me looped in.”
I tugged on the door. “Thanks. I’ll update you when I see her.”
“Hey.”
I stopped and turned to him.
Bill’s face was grim. “You think she’s lost it all?” He undoubtedly remembered the first time Ava lost her memory. She disappeared for months, and he’d found her first, working in a grocery store as if she’d never known any of us.
I frowned. “I don’t know. But given that it’s already been three minutes and they’re headed to Seton, probably so.”
His mouth drooped. “Sucks, man.”
I nodded. “Yeah.”
My footsteps in the rented shoes squeaked on the shiny floor as I headed toward the back exit to the green. I didn’t want to say anything to anyone but Gram. Jules could handle it.
