~~~
The next day, which was Saturday, Veronica sat in Melanie’s kitchen while Angie made pancakes.
“I’m kind of scared right now,” Melanie said, eyeing her daughter, who had summarily refused any assistance.
“Shut up,” Angie said in exaggerated offense.
Veronica raised her eyebrows, grinned, and hid her face with a big sip of tea.
“You measured out the flour…?” Melanie said.
“Mom, it’s pancakes. As long as I don’t burn them, they aren’t exactly hard to get right.”
“Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth,” Veronica said. “Wouldn’t it be nice to have Angie cook some meals here and there when the baby comes?”
“Gift horse, huh? Like the Trojan horse?” Melanie said dryly. “Look how that worked out. Seems to me if someone had poked around that horse’s mouth the Trojans would have been a lot better off.”
Veronica smirked and Angie shot them both glares. “You wait. These’ll be the best pancakes you ever tasted. You’ll see.”
A moment later, a loud pounding startled everyone. Melanie sat up straight, turning towards the front of the house, and Melanie and Angie followed suit. “Someone at the door?” Melanie murmured.
“Why don’t they use the bell?” Angie asked.
Shouting followed the next series of thumps, although Veronica couldn’t make out the words. Melanie stood and exited the kitchen, and after a second, Veronica followed her.
“Can you hear me? I said come out!” a woman shouted on the other side of the door.
Melanie glanced at Veronica, her eyebrows raised. Veronica shrugged and shook her head.
“Come out and face me, you bitch!”
Melanie’s eyebrows arched higher, and she walked to the door, unlocking and opening it.
On the other side of the screen, Allie stood on the porch—Veronica recognized her from the yoga class. Her face was almost unrecognizable, it was so red and blotchy, and tears streamed from her eyes. She had one hand under her heavy belly, supporting the weight, and she leaned the other against the frame of the door.
Sighing heavily, Melanie opened the screen and went to stand beside Allie on the porch. Veronica hesitated. Did she stay where she was, in case Allie tried to slug Melanie (she was reasonably sure Melanie wouldn’t try to slug Allie, because of her pregnancy), or did she give them privacy and return to the kitchen? A glance over her shoulder showed Angie hovering in the kitchen doorway. Veronica opted to stay where she was for the moment.
“Allie,” Melanie said.
“And I suppose you’re Melanie,” Allie replied, her voice broken and bitter.
Angie shuffled up next to Veronica. “Is that Chris’s other girlfriend?”
“Mm-hm,” Veronica nodded.
“I know everything,” Allie said to Melanie, slightly breathless from crying. “So don’t try to lie. Tell me, are you proud of what you’ve done? Did you know I was pregnant, or did you think you were just stealing a man, and not a father?”
Melanie bit her lip and tucked in her chin for a moment, a gesture Veronica and Angie both knew to mean she was mustering her patience.
“Does it make you feel like you’re hot shit, that you can take a man away from another woman?”
Melanie cocked her head to the side. “Is that what he thinks?” she asked. “Does he think I want to take him away from you? Oh, that’s rich.”
Allie blinked, not understanding.
“He’s going to be so surprised when he realizes I never want anything to do with him again,” Melanie said, more in the direction of Veronica than to Allie.
Frowning, Allie blinked again.
Melanie patted her arm, and Allie pulled away from her. “Look,” Melanie said. “I know this sucks. I just went through it myself. I didn’t know about you. Chris lied to both of us, Allie. The only reason I didn’t march over to your place to confront you was because I don’t know where you live. How did you find me, by the way?”
Allie opened her mouth and shut it again, then raised the hand she’d been leaning on, running it through her short dark hair. “Stop,” she said. “You’re such a liar. You don’t get to lie your way out of this. Look at me,” she said. “I’m going to have his baby in just a few weeks. You ruined my baby’s family, you whore!”
“Hey! Don’t talk like that to my mom!” Angie cried, and Veronica caught her arm as she lunged for the door.
“Let them handle this,” Veronica said.
With a grimace, Melanie pulled open the screen door with the obvious intention of coming back inside. Allie stepped to block her and slammed the screen shut.
Melanie flinched and then glared at her. “What do you want? My sympathy? You have it, okay? We’re actually in a very similar situation, you and I!”
“Don’t try to compare yourself to me!” Allie screeched. “I’m no cheater! I would never try to take another woman’s boyfriend!”
“Listen, ho, my mom didn’t try to take anything!” Angie shouted, and Veronica had to use both hands to keep a hold of her arm.
“Angie, it’s okay,” Melanie said, her eyes not leaving Allie’s face. “This woman just thinks she knows what happened, and she doesn’t actually have all the facts. And who knows what lies Chris told her. What did he say, that he met me before he met you?”
Allie’s face flushed darker red. “No!” she said. “But he said that he—it doesn’t matter. You won. You get to have him.”
“I don’t want him,” Melanie growled, her hands making fists at her sides.
Shaking her head, Allie drew her eyebrows together in a look of pain and confusion. “Why would you say something like that?”
“Because he’s a lying sack of shit—”
Letting out a small “oof,” Allie grabbed her stomach with both hands, lurching forward. Then she slapped a hand on the frame of the door, her knees buckling. Melanie jerked forward, catching her under the elbow.
“Hey,” Melanie said. “Hey, you okay?”
“No, no, no, no, no,” Allie shook her head, her eyes wide. “Not now. Don’t do this now.”
“No. Freaking. Way,” Angie said, her arm going limp in Veronica’s grip.
Straightening a bit, Allie seemed to recover herself. She yanked her elbow from Melanie’s grasp with a scowl, took two steps across the porch, and then doubled over—at least as much as that was possible with a belly as big as hers. She hit the boards of the porch with her knees and yelped.
“Goddammit,” Allie whimpered.
Melanie took a deep breath, shot a look through the screen at Veronica and Angie, and went to Allie’s side.
“Allie, I know you hate me. I know this sucks. But it looks like you need a hospital.”
“Leave me alone!” Allie retorted, and then her water broke with a splat on the aging boards of the porch. “Oh, shit.”
“‘Oh shit’ is right,” Melanie said, slipping her hands under Allie’s arms. “Little help here, girls?”
It was like Veronica had forgotten she was there—like she’d been watching a movie, or maybe having a vision. She came back to herself with a jolt and hurried out of the door, Angie just a step behind her. Between the three of them, they managed to help Allie to Melanie’s SUV.
Ten surreal minutes later, where Melanie coached Allie’s breathing and Allie alternately did as she was told, cursed, and cried, they arrived at the ER. Melanie, Angie and Veronica eased Allie out of the car, although the contractions seemed to have abated, at least for a few minutes.
“I can’t believe this,” Allie muttered.
“You’re telling me,” Angie said.
Veronica just gave Melanie a look, and Melanie clenched her jaw as she broke away from them, leaving Veronica and Angie behind to support Allie as she walked into the hospital. Melanie flagged down a nurse, and after a short exchange that Veronica couldn’t hear over the din of the emergency room conversations between patients, family members, hospital staff, and the announcements
over the PA system, Melanie hurried back over to them.
“They’re swamped,” she said gesturing around. “She said unless the baby’s crowning, forget it.”
Allie’s mouth dropped open.
“We have to take her to L & D,” Melanie said.
Closing her eyes, Allie whispered, “I am in hell.”
“Can they do that? I mean, the baby’s early, they have to stop her labor,” Veronica said.
“Look, I could stand there and argue with the nurse, or we can get Allie to L & D as fast as possible. I just figured it was better to get her to L & D,” Melanie said.
“Right,” Veronica said, turning Allie around and ushering her out of the ER again.
Labor and Delivery was one building over—a layout decision that Veronica found acutely unwise—but it only took them another five minutes to get over there, and by then Allie was having another contraction.
“I can’t believe this!” she wailed.
“It’s going to be okay,” Veronica told her.
She and Angie helped her out again, and Melanie charged ahead as she had before. In moments she returned with a young African American nurse pushing a wheelchair. Veronica noted that her name tag said “Lelia.” Angie helped Veronica ease Allie into the chair as Lelia fired off questions, first covering her basic information, then moving on to her pregnancy.
“When are you due?”
“July 24th,” Allie said.
“Is this your first pregnancy?”
“Yes.”
“Any problems up until now? Contractions?”
“Just Braxton-Hicks.”
And so on, until they were all in a hospital room and Lelia was having Allie sign consent forms. As soon as Allie handed the forms over, Lelia went about inserting an IV. It all happened so fast, no one remarked on the fact that Melanie held Allie’s hand as they inserted the needle. Allie herself had her eyes squeezed tightly shut, muttering about how needles made her faint.
“We’re going to start you on some glucose first, just in case we end up having to do a C-section,” the nurse said. “You sit tight. I’ll be back in just a few, after I call the doctor.”
She left.
Melanie, who had been bending over to hold Allie’s hand, released her and straightened.
Looking around at them and the room as if she was just waking up, Allie said, “This is not the way I pictured today going.”
“Understatement of the frickin year,” Angie muttered.
Something struck Veronica, and she turned on Angie. “Did you turn off the stove?” she asked.
Angie’s face went slack.
“Oh, crap,” she breathed.
Veronica looked at Melanie, who clapped a hand to her mouth.
“What do we do?” Angie asked, looking at each of them in turn.
Veronica patted her pockets—no cell phone, and she hadn’t thought to bring her purse. Melanie found her own phone a moment later.
“Do I call the fire department?” she asked.
“Do you have a number for a neighbor, first?” Allie asked.
With a quick nod, Melanie punched some buttons and then held the phone to her ear. “Come on, come on…”
Her face brightened.
“Mrs. Sergeyev,” Melanie said. “I’m sorry to bother you. I’m having a bit of a crazy day. I had to go to the hospital with Angie—no, we’re both fine. It—um—it was for someone else. No, Veronica’s fine. Um—the thing is, Mrs. Sergeyev, it was a bit of an emergency, and we all rushed out, and Angie was cooking breakfast when it happened. I was hoping… um—could you check and see if there’s smoke coming from my house?”
After a few more minutes of discussion, Melanie ended the call. “She’s sending her son over to have a look, and I told her it’s okay if he has to break the door or something to get in.”
Allie stared at her. “If your house is on fire…”
They all waited to see how she finished the statement.
“…I’m really sorry.”
Melanie walked over to Angie and put her arm around her shoulders, giving her daughter a squeeze. “Yeah,” she said with a sigh. “Me, too.”
No one said anything after that. Veronica knew they were all waiting for Mrs. Sergeyev to call back. But the silence grew, and Allie stared at her fingernails, and Angie rested her head on her mother’s shoulder, and Veronica could feel how awkward everyone was.
“You really didn’t know about me?” Allie said at last. She peered up at Melanie through lowered lashes.
Shaking her head, Melanie replied, “No. And as mad as you were this morning, I was just as mad about a week ago when we realized Chris was picking you up at the yoga class.”
Allie blinked. “Oh my god. I didn’t even put it together. I—it’s like I knew you were both familiar, but it just made me feel even more—off balance. The yoga class.”
Melanie nodded. “We were right behind you when you left the building. You kissed Chris when he got out to hold open your door.” Melanie clicked her tongue. “That was the worst moment. I just felt like the floor was falling away under my feet.”
Her cell rang, and she punched the button and put it to her ear. “Mrs. Sergeyev?”
Lelia entered at that moment. “I’m sorry, I have to ask you not to take cell phone calls—”
“Her house might be burning down,” Allie snapped, and Lelia’s eyebrows arched. Then she pursed her lips and gave Allie, then Melanie, a skeptical look.
Allie waved at her, as if to shoo her away, and Lelia put a hand on one hip.
“Okay,” Melanie said, her face breaking into a smile. “No, that’s fine. No, no, really, Mrs. Sergeyev. I’ll have to bake him a cake! No, really, really, please tell him thank you, we are so grateful. No way. No, no, I’m serious. Thank you. Thank you again.”
She ended the call and beamed at each of them, letting out a relieved sigh.
“So?” Angie demanded.
“So Mrs. Sergeyev’s son—we’re lucky he was over for brunch—went and broke the door in because there was smoke coming from the kitchen. And I guess the pan was on fire, but nothing else, so he knocked it off the stove and smothered it with the throw from the couch.”
“What?” Lelia said, her voice ringing with surprise.
“Oh my god,” Angie cried.
“Melanie, that was so lucky,” Veronica said.
“I know!” Melanie exclaimed. “And Mrs. Sergeyev is all, ‘He’s sorry about the door and the blanket is ruined and there’s a big mark on the floor where the pan landed and do I want him to pay to at least get the door fixed’ and I’m just like, ‘Uh, no, I think I owe him a friggin’ cake,’ you know?”
“Jeez,” Allie breathed.
“Tell me about it,” Lelia agreed.
Melanie gave Angie a little hug. “What a relief, right, Ange?”
Grimacing, Angie nodded.
“I mean, I wasn’t going to say anything, but talk about a Trojan horse after all, huh?” Melanie said.
Angie shoved her mother. “No way are you pinning this on me! Okay I forgot the stove, but it’s not like pregnant women start to have babies on the porch all the time or something!”
Veronica, Melanie, and Allie started to laugh, but then Allie said, “Oof,” and Lelia sprang into action, wrapping an elasticized belt around her and attaching a square plastic thing that turned out to be a monitor to it. She fussed with some paper that ran through one of the machines like the kind in old-fashioned printers, with the holes down both sides, as Melanie shifted from one foot to the other uncomfortably. As Allie’s contraction finally passed, Melanie took a step towards her.
“So, um, I’m thinking you probably have someone you’d rather have with you right now, other than me,” she said.
Allie’s eyes grew sad, and she stared down at her mound of a belly. “You’d think,” she said.
Melanie started to reach out a hand, then let it drop to her side again. “I bet it would have been Chris, if this had happ
ened just yesterday, huh?”
Allie let out a half-laugh. “Yeah.”
“What about family?” Veronica asked. “Is your mom in town? Or a sister?”
Allie sighed. “Mom is in New York. She’s coming in three weeks, when the baby was supposed to be born.”
Lelia made a humming noise. “Babies have no schedule but their own,” she said.
“Anyone else? A friend?” Melanie asked.
Allie sighed again, laying back into her pillows. She closed her eyes, then opened them again and met Melanie’s. “I don’t want to call anyone. I know it sounds weird, but—do you think maybe you could stay?”
Melanie looked taken aback, but after a moment’s pause she looked around, located a chair in the corner, and pulled it up to the side of the bed. Angie and Veronica exchanged a look, but said nothing.
“It’s weird,” Allie said. “I know it’s weird. It’s just, if I call one of my friends, I’ll have to explain about Chris. And I can’t face that right now.”
Melanie nodded. “I get it. I feel like a total fool, too.”
Allie grimaced, but then her face relaxed. “Nice, at least, to know I’m not alone.”
“So,” Melanie said. “Do you know if it’s going to be a boy or a girl?”
“A girl.” Allie broke into a smile.
“Oh wow,” Angie said, grinning at her. “Have you picked out a name?”
Allie’s smile vanished. “Chris liked ‘Emily,’ but now I don’t know…”
Shaking her head, Melanie patted Allie’s arm. “Don’t worry about it, it’ll come to you. You have until the hospital discharges you to decide. Right?” She turned to Lelia.
“Right,” Lelia said. “And I’m sure you ladies will all want to talk over the possibilities, but I have to do a pelvic exam on Ms. Edwin, and she’ll need you all to take a step outside for now.”
Chapter 24
Veronica, Melanie and Angie all stayed with Allie until late in the afternoon. By that time, Allie decided she was ready to call two of her close friends, on the condition that Melanie would explain about Chris. When the two women arrived at the hospital, Melanie spared no details, and they marched into the birthing room like they would first deal with the delivery, then go kill the father. It was a relief to Veronica to turn Allie over to their care—she was glad Allie no longer hated Melanie, but Veronica felt unprepared to help a woman she barely knew through the ordeal of labor. Melanie seemed to have a better handle on all of it—it was, after all, a scene she knew she would be experiencing for herself soon enough, and she’d dealt with the disappointment of discovering Chris’s lies, as well.
The Plane and the Parade (Veronica Barry Book 3) Page 26
