The Wrong Time Page 12

  I nod, while Georgia mutters, “Fourth,” under her breath before covering her mouth with her hand. It’s comforting in some ways to hear someone else has had the same dramas we’re facing. I can’t believe that people have to go to these measures to have good care for their relatives who are either elderly or in poor health. This is the next field I’m going to suggest that we, as a company, look into. There has to be a way to make facilities better, to train staff to be proactive rather than reactive.

  A knock on the door startles Georgia, and I place my hand on her knee. A man steps inside, and I’m so glad to recognize him. Dr. Nova, Mom’s neurologist. He’s doesn’t dress like the other doctors. Today he’s wearing a collared polo shirt and loose-fitting trousers. Whereas, all the other doctors are wearing business shirts and ties.

  I stand and shake his hand before introducing Georgia to him, who’s expression tells me she’s wondering who the hell he is.

  “Dr. Nova, this is my girlfriend, Georgia. He’s one of Mom’s doctors.”

  “Nice to meet you.” He shakes her hand, and she politely smiles. She is looking uncomfortable as though she may not want to be here.

  “All good?” I ask Georgia.

  She smiles at first as though she’s not sure about her answer, before nodding. “I’m good.”

  Dr. Wagner’s pager begins to beep in his pocket. He checks it before standing, handing the folder to Dr. Nova, and leaving the room.

  “That’s emergency life for you.” Dr. Nova smiles. “We’ll look after your mom while she’s here, Adam. Don’t worry about that. But it’s concerning that she’s not as clear as she has been previously. It seems to have started around the same time as her GP put her on the new blood pressure medication. I’m amazed he didn’t contact us. Beverley’s had periods of being aware of what’s going on around her before taking the medication, didn’t she?”

  “She did,” I start. “But each time I’ve seen her recently, there’s been little to no recognition at all. At least before on her bad days, she used to think I was my father, but lately, it’s like she’s staring right through me.”

  The days that Mom looks at me blankly almost breaks my heart. I know it’s not her fault, but sometimes I’d love a reassuring hug from her like she used to give me as a child.

  “We’ll run some tests. She’s likely to be admitted for a few days. It says here they have sedated her for now, so we’ll let that wear off and see how she takes to the situation. I’ll go and see her when she’s coming out of it. Beverley seems to recognize me. She’ll have to have a couple of scans to see if there’s any damage from the fall. Hopefully, they get them done before she wakes. Once that’s all done, we’ll assess and perhaps try a few different types of medication to see which one she reacts to best.”

  I nod, then rest my elbows on my knees before resting my head on my bunched hands. I can feel a tension headache forming. I suck in a long, deep breath, blowing it back out through my nose. I want to grunt and groan, but it’s not going to do Mom any good. Georgia wraps her arm around my shoulder, squeezing me. I twist my head to face her and smile. She has no idea how wonderful it is to have someone here with me.

  “Adam, she’s in the best place, and we can get this sorted out. Just a bit of trial and error.”

  “Thanks. I know you’ll take care of her. I always worry about her.”

  I wish she’d never gotten this fucking awful disease.

  “I understand,” Dr. Nova smiles. He’s not like other doctors. He cares about every one of his patients, which is why we went to him in the first place. Basil recommended him to us after telling me how amazing he was with his father.

  We stand and leave the room, following him down a long corridor to where Mom is located. She seems to be at the back of the emergency department where it’s a lot quieter.

  He pulls back the curtain revealing Mom lying peacefully in a bed with her wrist wrapped in bandages. She looks a mess with her hair all over the place, and a large bruise is forming on her forehead.

  “Oh, Mom,” I mumble.

  Georgia places her hand on my chest, rubbing the spot several times.

  “I’ll leave you with her.” Dr. Nova walks out of the cubicle and down the corridor.

  I take the seat next to her bed. There’s only one seat, so Georgia suggests that she go and see if there are any others available.

  “Mom, what have you done to yourself?” I run my palm over the side of her face before taking her hand in mine and holding it tight.

  I know she’ll recover from these injuries, but while most people have a fall and completely recover, I know Mom won’t be like that. Regardless, she’ll still be fighting this disease in her brain that’s slowly robbing her of every memory she’s ever had and stopping her body from working to its full capacity.

  If only she’d come back to us whole.

  If only wishes came true.

  Georgia

  It took me a little while to convince Adam to come home. His mom was still asleep, and the nurses told us it could be a few hours before she wakes, so I suggested we come home to have some lunch so Adam can handle work calls and emails. His cell was blowing up while we were at the hospital. Luckily, it was switched to silent at the time.

  In the car, on the way home, I thought about what this current stressful situation may mean for Adam’s sobriety. Could this trigger him into a relapse?

  He’s made no mention of it, not that he would. Given we had an amazing night together last night and then first thing this morning before he was told about his mom’s fall, I now worry that when we arrive home, his sobriety might come into question in his mind. Dealing with stress is hard for an alcoholic, and this is a very stressful situation.

  Before we left, we were again reassured by another of Beverley’s doctors that they will get her medications sorted. She was being wheeled to imaging as we left, and we’ll learn the results of her scans when we return to the hospital later today. Hopefully, she’s on a ward by then.

  I sit on my thought for a few minutes before deciding to ask him. Clearing my throat has Adam glancing across at me.

  “What’s the matter, gorgeous?” he asks.

  “Umm… I want to ask you something. Please tell me to shut up if I’m out of line, though.”

  He chuckles. “I wouldn’t do that. But go ahead…”

  I ponder how to word this for a few seconds. Not wanting to come across as accusing or attacking in any way. “I’m worried about you right now…” I begin.

  “About me?” he asks. “In what way?”

  “Given what’s happened today, I’m worried you might not be able to handle the situation and may have an urge.”

  “An urge?” he questions, a smile turning up on his face.

  It’s nice to see him smile.

  He’s a lot calmer than when we first arrived at the hospital this morning. The reassurance that his mother is stable is just what he needed, but now isn’t the time for sexy talk, and I’m surprised he says it.

  “Be serious, Adam,” I protest while rolling my eyes.

  “All right. I am. See…” He quickly turns his face toward me and points to his lips which are in a straight line.

  “I’m worried you may have another relapse. Something like this could trigger you.” I look out the side car window, not wanting to make eye contact with him in case what I’ve said has upset him in any way.

  “Georgia, you worry too much. I’ll be fine. My ways to cope are fresh in my mind. I hadn’t even thought about alcohol at all.”

  I squeeze my eyes tight. I can’t believe I brought it up when he hadn’t even thought about it, and now he is thinking about it.

  “I’m so sorry. I shouldn’t have said—”

  “No, it’s fine. Thank you for your concern, but you don’t have to worry. You know, while I was sitting with Mom earlier, I thought how nice it was to have you by my side through all of this. How I can’t not have you next to me as you make me feel stronger than I’
ve ever been.”

  My heart melts at his words, and I smile, looking back at him.

  His cell phone ringing through the speaker of the car interrupts our moment.

  Adam taps a button on the steering wheel to answer. “Adam Cunningham speaking.” I’m shocked by how he answers. Usually, it’s a clipped yes or hello.

  “Adam. Basil. Sorry to hear about your mom. Hopes she’s all right.”

  “Hey, thanks. Yeah, she should be fine.”

  “Listen, buddy, I know you’re off today, but I think you forgot to cancel the people from Padney Garry.”

  “Fuck,” Adam yells in the car, bashing his fist to his leg. “Yeah, I did. Is Johanna available to take them?”

  I look at Adam in shock. It’s so unlike him to forget about something so important. They are a very large importing company whose owner suddenly passed. Now the three children want to break the business up into pieces. They want to keep one division each, rename them, and then sell the other division.

  “Man, she is. But they want to see you. Remember their agreement? They only want to deal with you.”

  “I’m due back at the hospital a little later. I can’t get into the office today.” We pull into the driveway, waiting for the gate to open. Adam rubs his hand up and down his pants several times as though his palms are sweating. They could very well be. This is a huge client with the possibility to pull in millions to the company.

  “Can’t even spare an hour? Maybe if Suellen and the other two see you, then they’ll let Johanna do the rest.”

  “Can’t do it today. I’ve got Suellen’s number. I can give her a call.”

  I can tell he’s starting to become agitated. He drives his car into the parking spot but doesn’t get out of the car. He’s entitled to have a day off here or there. He owns the damn company, and given the current situation of his only living parent in the hospital, I think that counts as a legitimate day off.

  “See that you do, and as soon as you can. She’s not happy. The last thing we want or need right now is to lose another clien—”

  “All right, Basil. I know what you’re saying,” he groans out, cutting Basil off halfway through a sentence.

  I look at Adam, furrowing my brows.

  It’s not like Adam to be so abrupt with Basil.

  “Fine! Talk to you later.” Basil hangs up before Adam even gets a chance to reply.

  “He sounds angry,” I comment as I pop the door open.

  Adam changes his cell to silent before popping it in his pocket.

  “Let him be. Today is about family. I need to make sure Mom’s comfortable in the hospital for the next few days, and perhaps work on a special birthday surprise for someone.”

  I get out of the car before calling, “What?” over the roof.

  “You heard me,” Adam says. A smile is curling up at the edge of his mouth, and I can’t help but grin in return.

  “You don’t have to do anything special for me. I never celebrate my birthday.” I shrug my shoulders.

  It’s true, I’ve never really celebrated my birthday, definitely not in the last ten years or so. When Dad was around, it was always either early or late because Mom was a bitch and wouldn’t let Dad have me on my actual birthday. But then she never did anything for me either, not even a damn cake. Mom told me that no one celebrates getting another year older. I always forget about it as it’s just another day.

  “Well, this year, sweetheart, I’m making up for it. Twenty-five is a good birthday to celebrate.” He walks around the car to meet me before throwing his arm around my shoulders, pulling me in close. “I’m going to celebrate the amazing woman you are. The woman I love.” He places a kiss on my forehead, and I can’t help but smile.

  We walk inside, surprising Lucy, who’s in the laundry room. “I wasn’t expecting you home for a long time,” she calls out, her accent slightly more noticeable.

  She told me recently that while she does work around the house, she’ll occasionally call her sister on her cell. It’s after speaking to her sister that her Spanish accent is more noticeable. Lucy clips her cell to her blouse and walks into the house with the cell speaker on. I told her that she should get some earbuds instead of the speaker, but she said she doesn’t like little things in her ears, which is why she never got her ears pierced.

  Lucy runs out of the laundry room as though she’s a deer caught in headlights. She quickly flicks her head toward the couch.

  “Rico,” Adam says. “How are you feeling?”

  I frantically look around Lucy to see Rico now standing from the couch and walking toward us.

  “I’m good, thank you, Mr. Cunningham. I’ve been cleared to come back to work next week. That’s what I was doing here. Lucy invited me in for a coffee.”

  Lucy’s face is beetroot red, and I can tell something else is going on here. I grin at her. Her husband left her for a woman much younger two years ago, and while she’s not divorced yet, she told me she’s now ready to move on.

  I don’t think Adam’s clicked on to what’s happening, and it’s probably for the best. He can’t be a hypocrite because he’s dating someone he works with.

  Adam’s cells dings, and he pulls it from his pocket, before muttering, “Shit!”

  “What’s wrong?” I ask as Lucy shows Rico out the back door.

  “Basil and Darius are on their way over here. They need to see me urgently.”

  Fuck! What the hell am I going to do while they are here?

  Seems they don’t know I live here.

  My face must give away my thoughts.

  “You can go to the guesthouse or stay upstairs if you like. Basil knows you stayed in my guesthouse a while ago, but doesn’t know you’re still here.”

  “Won’t it seem odd that I’m not at the office today, too? I don’t particularly want to hide, Adam. But I understand this is your business, and I’ll do it for you.”

  “You know what? Fuck it! If they say anything about you being here, we can say I invited you over so we could both work from home today. It’ll come out one day, sweetheart. It will.”

  “Sure.” My smile is weak. I hate having to hide our relationship from people we work with. I can’t wait for the day when we can openly kiss at the office. I’d love to make our relationship known before he proposes to me if that happens one day. Until then, I guess I’m stuck playing these silly little games and hiding.

  Lucy comes up behind us and offers to make us some lunch. She says she made a quiche today for lunch as she was anticipating us coming back and a lasagna for dinner. We both eagerly agree to lunch. I’m starving, and I know Adam would have to be too, given he had no breakfast this morning.

  After sitting at the kitchen table in silence, eating this amazing sun-dried tomatoes and spinach quiche, Adam gets another text.

  The look on his face tells me that Basil and Darius have arrived. My heart begins to race. I contemplate running upstairs and changing into something more business-like, but I decide against it. If you work from home, you don’t dress up, unless you have to. But I need to remember that this isn’t meant to be my home. I need to distance myself from it.

  Adam stands, placing his plate and glass in the sink before walking toward the front door.

  From where I’m sitting, I can just see, and as Adam pulls it open, Darius and Basil are standing there as serious as they can possibly be.

  Shit! This must be really bad.

  Adam shows them into the kitchen area, and I greet them.

  They’re wondering what I’m doing here. I can tell by the looks on their faces, and why I haven’t left. It’s as awkward as shit, but I try and shift the mood a little.

  “I’ll get back to work, Mr. Cunningham.”

  Adam gives me a partial smile as I leave.

  Before I’m even out of earshot, Darius says to Adam, “Why the hell is she in your home? I told you it was a good idea to have boundaries with her.”

  “She… I… ah… fuck this. She’s here becaus
e she lives here. We’ve been together for a couple of months.” He turns over his shoulder and asks me to come back.

  I close my eyes and suck in a deep breath.

  This can either go one of two ways.

  I just hope it’s not going to be the disaster I’m expecting it to be.

  Adam

  It’s been done. I’ve spilled the beans and told Darius and Basil that Georgia and I are together. I should be able to trust these guys with my life. They are my oldest and longest friends.

  The looks of shock on their face tell me they aren’t happy with the news I’ve just shared.

  “You’re what?” Basil asks, scrubbing his forehead with his hand.

  “We’re together,” Georgia chimes in from behind us.

  I grab on and pull her under my arm, hugging her.

  “Ah, shit! Adam, this’s going to make life difficult for you. Possibly for all of us. Imagine how many office flings will start once you two are made public. We’re already losing money. I can only imagine it’ll go further south with all the break-ups and fights…” Darius grunts and rolls his eyes. “This won’t be a good thing.”

  I look at Georgia, who’s trying to slink away. She doesn’t want to know what’s going on in the company. This is making her terribly uncomfortable.

  “Hey, both of you… just remember you’re talking about the both of us here. This isn’t a bad thing. I’m the happiest I’ve been in years. If ever. She’s amazing, and if you took your heads out of your asses for two seconds, you’d realize that it’s been a good thing for me… and us.”

  “But what you don’t understand is that this has been the worse couple of months for the company,” Basil interjects.

  “Don’t start talking figures right now,” I groan, flicking my eyes at them toward Georgia. She doesn’t need to know that the guys are desperate to tell me something I already know.

  We’ve had a couple of not-so-good months, financially speaking. Some of that was having to give a payout to Zac. We’re not by any means in any sort of trouble. Hell, I could close the business now and live well on the money I have. But Darius and Basil both like to see our numbers going up each month, and up by a lot. I know last month we didn’t make much of a profit if at all. But it’s no big deal to me. Every company has its lull. We’ve been blessed by having so much business over the years and never have a downturn until now.