The Apartment (An Apartment Novel Book 1)

by Amanda Black

  “Yes baby, that’s it… oh fuck yes, that’s it… I can feel you squeezing me even tighter… oh… oh God… FUCK!” He threw his head back and cried out, finally losing control. His body tensed up painfully before exploding in the most intense, blinding pleasure he had ever felt. Between his ears ringing and his vision blurring, he wondered if anyone had ever died from an orgasm.

  Gently shifting to the side and slowly pulling out of her, Ethan wrapped himself around her tightly, almost protectively. “Are you alright?” he whispered against her neck.

  “Mm,” she nodded, exhausted. “Better than alright.” He had been so gentle with her; she had never felt so precious to anyone.

  He wanted to take her into the shower and spend his time cleaning her and helping her wind down, but he was suddenly so sleepy that he hoped she didn’t mind resting for just a moment or two first.

  Burying his face in her hair and inhaling deeply, he barely had the energy to whisper one last thing to her before closing his eyes and drifting to sleep.

  “Thank you for trusting me.”

  Chapter 16

  The next few days were full of more pleasure than Lily could have ever imagined in her wildest dreams.

  By some great miracle, the Gods of Infidelity had been smiling down on her when she returned home Sunday evening. She had been all ready to go home and put on a brave face, making dinner while she suffered through the piercing agony of being away from her beautiful stranger yet again, only to find out that not only was her fiancé going out of town for the entire week, but so was her father. He was being sent to Springfield by the high school to help chaperone a student government field trip because the American History teacher had fallen ill and wouldn’t be able to go. He was less than thrilled by the news.

  She almost hadn’t been able to contain herself when George told her over their bowls of venison stew. After she fought through the initial urge to jump up and down and do cartwheels around the living room, she still had trouble paying attention to him for the rest of the night. Her mind could only think selfish, joyous thoughts from that point on. No more dinners. No more excuses. No more rushing to the apartment and leaving within an hour or two just to go where she didn’t even want to be.

  Lily could get used to that.

  From the next day on, the week had turned into one giant orgasmic blur, separated only by brief intermissions so that she could go to work and go home to sleep. She was sorely tempted to stay over for the night, but she was paranoid George would call the house while she was gone or that she might find her bored cats ripping the house apart in protest of being ignored. Spoiled rotten brats that they were.

  It didn’t help that her beautiful stranger’s hints for her to stay were becoming less than subtle. Every time she would get ready to leave, he would find a new way to distract her into staying longer. Whenever they would nod off afterward out of exhaustion, which was pretty much every time, he would hold her tightly to him as soon as he felt her stirring. One time the bastard had even begun stroking her hair and humming softly in her ear, trying to lull her back to sleep. And that’s not to mention the bed, which felt like like lying on a cloud. It was getting increasingly difficult to say no when it was the last thing in the world she really wanted to say.

  Lily sighed to herself, unable to concentrate on the buzz of office activities going on around her. Although she was supposed to be updating a patient’s chart, she was letting her mind wander back yet again to the previous afternoon.

  “I don’t know the first thing about painting,” Lily admitted, watching him apply broad strokes of color across the pristine canvas. “But I certainly do love to watch you do it.” It didn’t hurt that he was shirtless again.

  “Care for a demonstration?” he smirked.

  “Yes!” she squeaked. After the last demonstration he’d given her, she knew that the answer was always yes.

  What she had assumed would be a silly lesson about doodling stick figures in a notebook quickly took a turn for the erotic. Before she knew what was happening, her stranger had rolled out a drop cloth across the floor and stripped her bare, laying her down right in the middle of it. With palette in hand, he slowly began painting lazy, sensual strokes of color along her fair skin.

  He went through every brush in his case, explaining the difference in each width and texture. When he ran out of brushes he smirked again, telling her that it was time to explore the sorely underrated art of finger painting. Dipping his long, slender fingers into a freshly mixed dollop of a lovely shade of aquamarine, he proceeded to smear the oils around her nipples and down her stomach. Before long, single finger strokes were replaced with whole handprints across her flesh, and the entire effect was mirrored onto his own torso once he covered her body with his.

  The amount of scrubbing and touching that was needed to clean each other off later only served to ignite another heated sex fest in the shower. It had been so steamy, and slippery, and​—​

  “Yoo-hoo, Earth to Lily!”

  “Huh?” She was startled back from dreamland, jerking upright when she realized that Becky was sitting right next to her and waving her hand in front of her face.

  “Where were you just now? You looked like you were about to start drooling any second.”

  “Oh… I, uh, I guess I just zoned out there for a minute.” Hazy images of her stranger standing under the spray with water streaming down his back were still clinging to her conscious mind. They refused to be shoved away for later, and who could blame them, really?

  “I’ll say. I was trying to get your attention forever.”

  “I’m sorry, Becky. What did you need?”

  “Oh, I didn’t need anything, really,” she said, laughing lightly. “I just came to tell you that I had to help that weird old lady again. You know, the one with the Yoda forehead?”

  “Ugh, yeah. That is the creepiest forehead I’ve ever seen on anyone, especially a woman. It’s even creepier than Mare Winningham’s.”

  “Oh my God, isn’t that the frumpy chick in St. Elmo’s Fire? Man, I never thought about it before. Her forehead is creepy!” They both erupted in a fit of laughter that was interrupted by the loud beep on Lily’s phone.

  “What now?” Lily sighed before picking up the receiver. She didn’t want to deal with Kim and her bad attitude today—she wanted to escape back into fantasies of her stranger.

  Becky gestured that she was going back to work as Lily pushed the flashing page button. “Yeah?”

  “Lily, you have a patient call on line four,” Kim snapped. “They asked for you specifically.”

  “Okay, thanks.” She clicked over to the other line. “Thanks for holding, this is Lily. How can I help you?”

  “Lily?!” a panicked voice croaked. “It’s Maggie Foster. Can you help me? I’m freaking out a little bit.”

  “Hi, Maggie. I’ll certainly try to help. What seems to be the problem?”

  “I’m spotting,” she whispered, as if merely saying it out loud was painful. “And please don’t give me the spiel about how this happens to most women. Nothing about my pregnancies has been what happens to most women.”

  “No, no, I wasn’t about to say that. When did it start?”

  “Overnight I think. It’s not heavy, but it’s there.”

  “Alright, have you been doing anything strenuous? Have you had sex in the last twenty-four hours?”

  “No! I’ve been too scared to!” she cried.

  “Okay, okay, are you having any cramping?”

  “No, not yet. Is there any way that you could squeeze me in for an ultrasound today? I’m not due for my next one for two more weeks, but this is exactly how all of the others started. I won’t be able to calm down until I know the heart is still beating.”

  “I understand, but don’t you live in Chicago? Wouldn’t you rather go to a local hospital to be seen quicker? I can try to call in the order.”

  “I’m already in Aledo. My mother-in-law had me over for the weekend sin
ce Eric is out of town again.”

  “Let me see what I can do, alright? I’m going to put you on hold for a minute.” Lily ran down the hall toward the ultrasound room, grateful to see the technician just dismissing a patient.

  “Hey Lily, what’s up?” she asked her after handing off a series of blurry pictures to a beaming woman.

  “Heidi, I need a really big favor. I know you’re overbooked today, but I’ve got a majorly important red sticker chart that needs an emergency scan. Can I have her come in?”

  “I don’t know,” she huffed. “I’m never going to get out of here as it is.”

  “I know, and I’m sorry for making it worse. Believe me, though, Natalie will be insanely pissed if we don’t jump for this one.”

  “Alright, fine,” she sighed, glancing down at her watch. “But she needs to get here as soon as possible.”

  “I don’t think that is going to be a problem. Thank you so much.” Lily spun on her heels and dashed back to her desk, already grabbing for the phone as she sat down. “Are you still there?”

  “Of course!” Maggie replied with a shaky breath.

  “Okay, I was able to work you in, but I need you to get here as soon as possible.”

  “I’ll be there in ten minutes.” The call went dead. She had already hung up.

  * * *

  Less than twenty minutes later, Maggie Foster was having a clear, warm gel applied to her abdomen by Heidi. She was joined by her mother-in-law, Barbara, who had refused to let Maggie drive herself to the office, and, strangely enough, Lily.

  It was not customary for the nurses to be in the room with patients during this procedure, but when Lily had attempted to excuse herself after taking her into the room, Maggie had grabbed her hand.

  “Please don’t go,” she whispered. “Barbara is going to cry in a minute. Eric is usually here to be strong for me, but he won’t be able to get here for a few more hours.”

  “Uh, alright,” Lily replied, unable to hide the completely baffled tone in her voice. “Just let me tell someone that I’m going to be in here.” She walked back to her phone and paged the front desk.

  “Reception,” a sharp voice barked on the other end.

  “Kim, it’s Lily. You’re going to have to shuffle some charts around up there. Natalie is going to be down a nurse for a while.”

  “What?” she snapped. “You’ve got to be kidding me! We’re swamped!”

  “Well, deal with it,” Lily shot back. “If Natalie has a problem with it, just remind her that I am helping a red chart.” She went to hang up but stopped the motion in mid-air, bringing the receiver back to her ear. “And if you have a problem with it, you can just kiss my ass.” Click.

  Now Lily was in the ultrasound room, standing next to the table where Maggie was laying, holding her hand. She noticed that the elder Mrs. Foster had already migrated to the back of the room and was hunched over in a chair, repeating a quiet prayer to herself under her breath.

  “Okay, I’m going to start now,” Heidi announced, dimming the lights slightly and sitting down in front of the machine. She fiddled with a few controls on the keyboard and held out the ultrasound wand, placing it in the middle of the gel on Maggie’s skin. They all held their breath as they watched her moving it around, turning it in different directions and stopping frequently to enter data into the computer. At one point she switched on the volume only to turn it back off again quickly, but she hadn’t been able to hide the sound in time. There had been nothing but static.

  And silence.

  Stopping the machine, Heidi set down the wand beside it and handed Maggie a towel to wipe off the messy gel. Once her hands were free again, she set them both gently on Maggie’s arm and looked at her with eyes full of sympathy.

  “I’m so very sorry, Mrs. Foster,” she whispered.

  Barbara immediately broke down into sobs, but Maggie sat there quietly. Lily was worried that she might be in shock until she felt her squeeze her hand tightly. “That’s alright,” she whispered. “I’m quite used to being a failure at this.”

  “Don’t say that,” Lily scolded. “You have a genetic condition, Maggie. That is not your fault. You did everything perfectly, it’s just so hard to predict what will happen. There are women with your condition who only ever suffer one loss, and then there are those who lose seven or eight.”

  Their discussion was interrupted by another loud sob from Barbara. Maggie rolled her eyes and turned to look at her over her shoulder. “Mom, sweetie, why don’t you go sit in the waiting room? I’ll be out as soon as I find out what happens now, okay?”

  “Alright,” she choked out. Barbara slowly walked to the door, stopping first to hug Maggie and kiss her on the cheek. “I’m so sorry, sweetheart.” She wiped her eyes with a tissue and went out the door.

  Maggie looked back at Lily. “I love her dearly, but I’m trying really hard to keep a tight rein on my own emotions. I can’t handle her weeping like that right now. I know she feels badly for me, but the harder she cries, the more I feel like I let her down again.”

  Visibly uncomfortable with the awkward conversation, Heidi excused herself to give them some privacy. “I’ll let Natalie know,” she said quietly to Lily on her way out into the hall.

  Once they were finally alone, Lily jumped in. “I’m sure that Mrs. Foster doesn’t think you let her down.”

  “I’ve robbed her of four grandchildren now, Lily. And each one gets farther along, giving us all false hope. It’s just…. cruel to put her through.”

  “It’s a cruel situation for everyone, not just her.”

  Just then a gentle knock sounded at the door and Natalie stuck her head in. “Maggie? May I come in?”

  “Of course, Dr. Wilde. Thank you so much for sparing Lily right now. She’s a great hand-holder.”

  “She’s the best we have,” Natalie agreed, and the praise sounded so genuine that Lily couldn’t help the pink stain on her cheeks. “Let me just start by saying that I’m so sorry this happened again.”

  “Well, we knew it was a risk from the beginning.” Maggie said, shrugging. The detached look on her face didn’t reach her eyes, though. She was blinking back tears rapidly. “What do we do now? I’ve never found out like this, without anything really coming out first.”

  “Well, that’s what I need to talk to you about,” Dr. Wilde said, the tone in her voice leaving no doubt that it wasn’t going to be pleasant information. “In some cases we can remove the fetus, but I’m afraid that won’t be an option for us now.”

  “Why? I was hoping to just get this whole debacle over with as soon as possible.”

  “The fetus is too large now, Maggie. You’ve made it almost seventeen weeks, much farther than you have in the past. We can’t remove the fetus here when it is that large; it’s against our policy to perform a D&C on anyone past the first trimester. There are some locations that might, in a life or death situation, but I cannot. I don’t want to get into specifics, but it’s a grisly procedure that we don’t perform here.”

  “I understand. I didn’t realize it was that large already. I wouldn’t want that done, either. But what does that leave us with, then?”

  “We are going to have to admit you to the hospital. Once you are set up in the maternity ward, we will need to induce you. I’m sorry, but the only option is for you to deliver the stillborn fetus.”

  “Oh God!” Maggie gasped as a rogue tear made its way down her cheek.

  “I know it sounds terrifying, but it is quite similar to what your body would do on its own, except now we can monitor and control everything. We have no idea how long you would have taken to expel the fetus yourself, and this actually has less impact on your body than a D&C.”

  “How long will it take?”

  “I’m afraid that’s hard to say. Some women are done within hours, while others take a day or two. However, I can promise you any painkillers you might need to get through the contractions.”

  “Jesus Christ!” Maggie waile
d, putting her face in her hands. “Fine,” she huffed after collecting herself. “But I want to be so doped up that I don’t even know what day it is. I don’t particularly want to remember this.”

  “I’m sure we can work something out to make you comfortable. Why don’t you go home and pack a bag. Grab a bite to eat if you think you can. I’ll get the orders sent over to the hospital and when you are ready, just head over there and get checked in.” Natalie looked at Lily. “Would you come with me for a minute?”

  “Alright.” She turned to Maggie. “I’ll be right back, okay? Why don’t you finish getting cleaned up and dressed?” Lily followed Dr. Wilde into the hall, closing the door quietly behind her.

  “I think it would be wise if you stayed with her today, at least until her husband is in town. Her mother-in-law is a wreck out there. I honestly don’t know if either of them are fit to drive right now.”

  “That’s fine, but what about—”

  “Don’t worry about the clinic, we’ll manage. And I’ll pay you for the rest of the day.” Lily had to stop her eyes from bugging out. Natalie never liked to part with help or money.

  After grabbing an extra box of tissues and escorting the two desolate women outside, Lily took the keys from Barbara and began to chauffeur them home in a sleek red Mercedes. Lily insisted that it would be a hell of a lot safer to leave her own shitty old car in the lot and take the expensive vehicle they had driven.

  “How are you doing, Maggie?” Lily asked over the loud sobs from Barbara in the back seat. “I mean, I know you aren’t good, but do you need anything?”

  “Honestly?” she replied, looking sideways at her from the passenger seat. “I’m just pissed. Of course I’m sad and depressed and doing everything I can to keep from acting like her,” she nodded toward the back seat, “but overall I’m just pissed. And I want a large chocolate fucking shake. I’ve been eating so healthy lately and I want something horrible for me right now.”