Midnight Ballerina (42 page)

I THREW MY phone down, frustrated beyond belief that Monroe wasn’t answering my calls. I guess I probably deserved the cold shoulder, but it just meant I would have to go and find her then.

The fact that Monroe wasn’t here or at home any more was eating away at me. It had taken everything in me to kick her out of my house that day, and yes, I had done it in the heat of the moment because what she said pissed me off beyond belief, but I never meant for things to get this out of hand. My heart doesn’t sit right in my chest without Monroe a part of my life.

I heard someone come in through the front entrance, hoping that maybe it was Monroe, but I sat back in my chair once I saw that it was Tanner. “Hey, man, finished up for the day?”

“Yeah and me the boys took off a little early since we’re ahead of schedule. We planned on hitting up the bar later, you want to come with us?”

“Nah, I’m just gonna go hang out at home.”

Tanner rolled his eyes. “Still poutin’ about Monroe? The two of you were good together. I mean, you actually seemed happy for once in your life, but you can’t be depressed about it, especially when you were such an asshole.”

“Tanner, just shut the hell up.”

“Whatever. You need to get out, Miller, just have a couple of beers. You owe me a favor anyway.”

“What in the hell do I owe you for?” I turned back toward my computer to print out an invoice to send to a client. I wasn’t used to doing this anymore and it was just another reminder of Monroe not being in my life any more. It was killing me.

Tanner plopped down in one of my chairs. “Since I dropped all of Monroe’s stuff off for you. Did you really have to be such a douchebag and throw all of her stuff in garbage bags? I mean, you could have at least packed it up in some boxes. And she acted like she didn’t even know you had kicked her out. That’s pretty low, man.”

“Tanner, what in the fuck are you talking about? I didn’t kick Monroe out, she won’t answer my calls.”

“Well, I can see why,” he muttered.

“You still didn’t explain what you meant about ‘when you dropped all of her stuff off’?” My voice rose as I became more agitated.

“Your ma called me up, asked if I could drop Monroe’s stuff off to her. She said you didn’t want to have to see Monroe again since things were over between the two of you, but she didn’t want me to mention it because she figured you would get all depressed again. I guess I should’ve kept my mouth shut.”

“No, you shouldn’t have. God, I can’t believe I’ve been so fucking stupid.” I slammed my hand down on the desk. “No wonder Monroe hasn’t been answering my phone calls. She probably thinks I’m the biggest jackass.”

“Well you kind of are.” Tanner smirked but it was quickly wiped off his face when I jumped to my feet, slamming my fist into the door. It felt good to release some of the heat growing inside of me but I was still shaking with anger and I didn’t think I could do anything to calm that down.

“I didn’t tell anyone to pack Monroe’s stuff up.”

“Um….” Tanner laughed nervously. “Well didn’t you notice her stuff was gone yesterday? I dropped it off to her then. Your ma had everything waiting for me.”

“I didn’t go home last night,” I seethed, pacing back and forth in the small space of my office. “I slept here. I haven’t been able to sleep at home since our fight. I missed her when she was at her parents’ house, but now it’s different.” I blew out a breath. “I can’t believe my ma pulled a stunt like this.” My bed didn’t feel the same without her and I knew it wouldn’t until she came back, but apparently my ma was trying to make sure that didn’t happen.

After all of the things she’d done over the years, this had to have been the worst. Monroe meant more to me than anyone in the world and I’d be damned if my ma was going to rip her out of it because she was jealous of our relationship.

“I’ve gotta piss and I’m going to give you some time to cool down. Sorry bud.” He slapped me on the back. “Sorry, man, I should’ve known you wouldn’t have been that big of a dickhead, to Monroe at least.”

I grunted in response, my fingers twitching as I grabbed my phone, needing to make things right. I just hoped it wasn’t too late. I called Monroe five times in a row, not getting an answer once and it was frustrating as hell. I knew she would probably tell me to fuck off, not in those exact words, but in a nicer, Monroe way, but I needed to talk to her.

Now more than ever.

Tanner walked back into my office and I grabbed onto his arm. “Dude, give me Amelia’s number.”

“For what? Why would you think I have blondie’s number?”

“Because you took all of Monroe’s stuff over to her apartment and you knew where she was, don’t play dumb. Amelia’s number,” I repeated impatiently.

“Um….let me make a phone call.” He held up a finger and walked out front to the receptionist area.

“Tanner, just give me the phone!” I yelled at him from the doorway. He shook his head, turning away from me, and I slammed my hand against the doorframe, not knowing what in the hell to do.

“Okay,” he said, pushing on my shoulder to walk back into my office. “I got a hold of Amelia. She’s with Monroe.” I blew out a breath, relieved that I would finally be able to get to Monroe and tell her what a jackass I’d been, clear up the misunderstanding that I still couldn’t believe happened, and hope that she would even listen to me. “All right, where is she?”

“Well, promise you won’t go bat-shit crazy?”

“Where is she, Tanner?” I bit out, not in the mood for any of his games.

Tanner sighed loudly. “Just don’t act like a dumbass. I’ll drive you and get you there safely. She’s in the hospital. Amelia’s with her, I’m not really sure what happened.”

My stomach dropped and I pushed past Tanner, who tried to stop me, reminding me that he was going to drive so I didn’t get myself into an accident, but I didn’t have time to wait for him. As soon as I got into my truck I slammed my foot down onto the gas pedal as hard as possible. I couldn’t get there fast enough as the panic started to set in. Monroe was going to be all right, I kept repeating to myself over and over in my head. Now, I just had to get myself there in one piece.

I GROANED AS my eyelids fluttered open, immediately noticing a throbbing ache in the back of my head. I felt a hand in mine and realized it was Amelia once I was able to focus my eyes. “Where in the hell am I?”

Amelia’s head snapped in my direction and she grinned widely. “You’re finally awake! That was some nap you had yourself there.”

“It doesn’t feel like it, I’m exhausted.”

“Probably the pain meds they gave you when you got here. You’re in the hospital. Do you remember everything that happened?”

“Um….” I squeezed my eyes shut. “I remember talking to Carleton and him apologizing to me and after that I started to get this horrible pain. I threw up…and I’m guessing I passed out after that?” I gripped my stomach as another flare of pain ran through it and Amelia patted my hand.

“Well, I heard a few people starting to yell about some girl that had passed out. You weren’t back yet, so I started to worry, especially when I didn’t see Carleton anywhere, so I ran in that same direction. I figured that asshole had tried to do something to you, but he explained what happened. We tried to call an ambulance for you but you kept going in and out of consciousness, refusing one, so I brought you to the hospital. You don’t remember waking up at all?”

“Not really.” I shook my head and clenched my stomach again. “This pain is excruciating,” I whimpered slightly and Amelia frowned.

“Sorry, sweetie. You’ve been complaining about that every time you come to for a few minutes. I did mention your endo when I brought you in. Oh, and here’s the doctor now.”

Amelia sat back as the doctor who came in started asking me questions and I answered them as best as I could. He made a few notes, telling me that a nurse would be in shortly. I must’ve fallen asleep again because I didn’t even remember him leaving the room before the nurse was tapping lightly on my shoulder.

“Hi there. This might be a little cold, so I didn’t want to shock you. I’ll be really quick.” I opened my eyes to see her squeezing gel onto my belly and then she was rubbing an instrument across it as she took an ultrasound, looking at a screen as she went on taking several shots on her computer, murmuring to herself all along. “All right, we’re all set. The doctor should be in shortly.”

“Thanks.” The pain was getting worse, but there wasn’t much I could do. Amelia said they’d given me pain meds as soon as I got here, checked the back of my head to see if there was a concussion and told her that I would be staying overnight just for observation.

“I’m going to go make a few phone calls. Are you going to be all right for a few minutes?”

“Yup, I’m good.” I shut my eyes for a little while, opening them when I heard someone come in and realized it was the doctor who sat down on the stool and slid over to my bedside.

“So, you have a ruptured cyst along with that nasty bump on your head.”

“A ruptured cyst?” I repeated and he nodded his head.

“Cysts can rupture at any time, and that’s why you’re feeling the discomfort right now. We have the ultrasound here and, fortunately for your sake, it doesn’t look like a bad one. We’ll get you some medication and it should clear up on its own without having to do surgery.”

“Well there’s my first good news of the night,” I grumbled and the doctor smiled.

“Yes, it is. Try to get some rest if you can. I’ll be back to check on you in the morning and if everything checks out, you’ll be good to go.”