Come Away With Me (35 page)

“Thank you.”

“Let’s get you upstairs and in bed.

Lie down for a while and see if your stomach settles.”

“Okay.”

Jules follows me upstairs. I don’t feel too bad, just intensely nauseous. I hate throwing up.

My phone pings in my pocket as I climb on the bed. It’s a text from Luke.

About to take off. No one recognized me. I miss you already, beautiful.

I smile and hit reply.

I miss you too. Be safe. I want you home in one piece, please.

And, I have to barf again. I run for my bathroom, and stay there for the next thirty minutes. Jules is hovering with wet rags and water, and makes me shove a towel under my knees.

“I think we should go to the E.R.”

“No, I’m fine.” I wretch some more.

“Yes, I can see that you’re in top form,” Jules replies dryly.

“Don’t be a bitch.”

“Nat, I’m worried. You can’t stop throwing up.”

“I don’t have anything left to throw up.”

“Yet you’re still dry-heaving. This isn’t normal, even for the flu. You don’t have a fever.”

My abs are starting to ache as I continue to heave over the toilet.

“Nat, don’t make me call my mother.”

“She’ll side with me,” I reply.

“Fine, I’ll call Luke.”

“No, he can’t do anything from L.A.

anyway.”

More heaving. God, there’s nothing left in me! What is wrong with me?

“Okay, Nat… get in the goddamn car.

Here’s a bucket.” Jules shoves a big plastic bowl under my face and helps me to my feet. “An hour of uncontrollable barfing is too much. You’re probably dehydrated.”

She helps me into the car and takes me to a nearby hospital emergency room.

Surprisingly, it’s fairly quiet and I’m processed through triage and into a room quickly. I’m thankful that Jules is with me

to

give

them

my

personal

information; I can’t stop heaving long enough to form a sentence.

I manage to give a urine sample and change into a hospital gown.

“Natalie, I’m Mo. I’ll be your nurse today. Put this pill under your tongue.

It’s called Zofran, and it’ll help the nausea.” I gratefully accept the medicine from the kind, petite nurse and take a deep breath.

“Let’s get another set of vitals.” Mo smiles and takes my temperature, blood pressure and heart rate.

“Everything is normal. That’s a good sign. Dr. Anderson will be here in a few moments.”

“Thank you.” Jules pulls a chair up next to me and my phone starts to ring.

It’s Luke.

“Hello?”

“Hey, baby, I’m at the hotel.

Everything okay?”

“Yes, everything’s fine. I’m just hanging out with Jules.” Jules’ eyes go round and she mouths “What the fuck are you doing?” at me. I brush her off.

“Okay, good. I’m heading back out to my first meeting. I’ll text you when I can.”

“Alright, have a good meeting. I love you.”

“I love you too.” I hear the smile in his voice as he hangs up.

“Natalie…”

“Stop. He can’t do anything from L.A. There’s no need to worry him.

He’ll be home tomorrow anyway.”

“He should know that you’re in the emergency room.” God, she’s stubborn.

“That pill they gave me is helping with the puking. They’ll probably just send me home.”

“Knock, knock.” A small blonde woman pokes her head through the door.

“I’m Dr. Anderson. I hear you’re not feeling well, Natalie.”

“I’ve been throwing up for about the last hour and a half.”

“Has it been steady, or does it come and go?”

“Steady. Couldn’t breathe until the nurse gave me that anti-nausea pill.”

“Any other symptoms like diarrhea, fever, abdominal pain?” She is jotting down notes in my chart as we talk.

“No, just the vomiting. I was a little nauseous early this morning, but I thought it was just nerves. Then the vomiting started.”

“Okay, well, it sounds like we’ve got that stabilized.” She pushes on the skin on my hands and looks in my mouth and nose. “You’re pretty well dehydrated, so I want to start an I.V. and get some fluids going, we’ll take some blood and run your urine and see what we see, okay?” She smiles down at me kindly.

“Okay. Will I be able to go home today?”

“Most likely. Let’s get some test results and I’ll be back in a little while.”

“See?” I say to Jules after the doctor leaves. “I’ve probably just got the flu.”

Nurse Mo bustles back into the room and starts my I.V.

“Oh, no, I’m outta here!” Jules jumps up and runs out of the room. I smirk at Mo.

“She hates needles the way most of us hate spiders.”

Mo laughs, draws some blood and bustles back out again, leaving me with Jules.

“How are you feeling?” she asks.

“Better. Still a tiny bit queasy, but I don’t feel like I’m going to throw up anymore.”

“Good. You were starting to scare me.”

We sit in companionable silence for a while, both of us checking our phones and watching a bit of TV. We wait a really long time, about two hours, before we see the doctor again.

“I’m sorry for the wait. I had a few blood tests that I wanted to run and they can take a little time.” She pulls a chair up next to me and it looks like she’s settling in for a long chat.

Shit, what’s wrong with me?

“I have some good news, and some news that could go either way, depending on how you choose to look at it.”

“Okay. I’ll take the good news first, please.”

“You’re very healthy. All of your vitals are normal, and your labs all came back completely fine.”

“Good.”

“Except, and here’s the other news, you’re pregnant.”

I hear Jules gasp beside me, but I don’t understand.

“What did you say?”

“You’re pregnant.”

“No, that’s impossible.” I shake my head adamantly. There must be some mistake.

“Oh?” The doctor raises an eyebrow. “Why is that?”

“I’m on the pill to prevent pregnancy.

I never, ever miss a pill. Never. I’m The Pill Nazi.”

“The Pill can be very effective at preventing pregnancy, but just like all birth control, it can fail.”

“No, if I take it the right way, which I do, I won’t get pregnant.”

I see Jules pick up her phone and start tapping the screen voraciously while the doctor smiles patiently at me and pats my leg.

“Natalie, the pill is ninety-nine percent effective when taken correctly.

There is a one percent chance that it can fail, and it seems that you are that one percent.”

“What?!” The world starts to fall away from beneath me.

“She’s right, Nat.” Jules shoves her phone in my face. “Never mind that you have an educated M.D. right here telling you this, but WebMD concurs. Ninety-nine percent effective.”

“I take it this is bad news?” Dr.

Anderson asks.

I look at Jules and she looks as shocked as I feel. “I don’t know.”

The doctor looks at my ring and smiles broadly. “Maybe it’s just a shock. We ran both your urine and blood to confirm. I’d like to do an ultrasound to determine how far along you are.”

Nurse Mo steps out of the room and returns with a little ultrasound machine on wheels. Instead of putting a probe on my flat belly, the doctor has me put my feet in the stirrups so she can use a vaginal probe.

“The baby is too small to see with the external probe,” she explains.

Baby?
Oh. God.

The nurse turns out the light and we all look at the screen of the machine.

Suddenly, there is a little black circle, about the size of a quarter, and inside is a flutter.

“There we are!” Dr. Anderson smiles. “I’d say you’re at about six weeks along.”

Jules grabs my hand and we stare at the screen in awe.

“Is that the heart?” I ask, pointing to the fluttering on the screen.

“Yep. It’s hard to make out much more on this machine, but the black area is the amniotic fluid, and that flutter is the heart. You’re nausea and vomiting is something

we

call

hyperemesis

gravidarum. It’s morning sickness times a hundred. You’ll probably be pretty nauseous during this pregnancy, so I’ll prescribe you some anti-nausea meds to use at home. They won’t affect the baby. Also, stop the Pill immediately, start taking some prenatal vitamins with folic acid and make an appointment with your OB doctor in the next four weeks.”

She hits a button on the machine and a photo of the ultrasound prints out.

“Here, something for you to show off.” She winks at me. “We’re going to keep you for a while, push another bag of fluids and make sure your vomiting is under control, and then you can go home.”

“Okay.”

She leaves and Jules and I just stare at each other.

“Are you okay,” she asks.

“No.” I feel numb.

“I love your ring. The picture you texted me Saturday night didn’t do it justice.”

“Thanks.”

“Okay,

let’s

talk

about

this

rationally.” Jules takes my hand in hers and looks me in the eye. “He loves you.”

“He’ll think I’m trying to trap him.”

She laughs –
laughs
– and squeezes my hand. “Natalie, that won’t even cross his mind.”

“His family will think that.”

“Who gives a fuck?”

“He just barely proposed.”

“Now you’re just babbling. Natalie, look at me.”

“It’s too soon.” My eyes fill as they find hers. Thank God she’s here with me. “We just met, we’re still learning each other, Jules. We’ve been engaged for less than a week. It’s too soon.”

The tears come in earnest as my phone rings again. I send it straight to voice mail.

“Nat, you have to talk to him.”

“I’m not telling him this over the phone.”

“No, he’ll worry if you don’t answer the phone, silly.” My phone rings again, but I’m crying too hard now to answer it.

“You answer. Tell him I’m in the bathroom or something.”

“Natalie’s phone,” Jules answers.

“No, sorry Luke, she’s in the bathroom.

Want me to have her call you back? Uh huh. Oh, okay, I’ll tell her. Bye.”

“Well?” I ask when she hangs up.

“He’s going into another meeting but he’ll call you later.”

“Good.” I let my head fall against the bed. “Oh, God, what am I going to do?”

“What are you talking about? You and Luke are going to be parents.” Jules takes my hand again. “Nat, you’ll be awesome parents.”

“It’s too soon,” I whisper and put both hands over my face and weep.

My crying jag subsides and I take a deep breath as Nurse Mo returns to change my I.V. bag.

How am I going to tell Luke that I’m pregnant? I know he wants kids, and so do I, but not yet. We’re not even married yet. I couldn’t bear it if he thought I was trying to trap him into something he doesn’t want.

Jules turns on the TV and flips through channels, pausing when she finds a nightly entertainment gossip show.

“We spotted Luke Williams out today.”

Holy shit!

“He was having a romantic lunch with Vanessa Horn, one of his former co-stars from the
Nightwalker
movies. Has Luke finally come out of hiding to rekindle his romance with the lovely Vanessa? They were engaged to be married for over a year before their split early last year.

We smell love in the air! We will be sure to keep you updated on Luke and Vanessa as we get more details.” There is a series of photos rolling across the screen, taken today. I recognize the black t-shirt and jeans he wore on the plane. He and the beautiful blond Vanessa are indeed leaving a restaurant, his arm is around her shoulders and he’s smiling down at her, his nose pressed against her ear. Then there’s a photo of him wrapping his arms around her shoulders and pulling her in for a kiss.

The camera is angled badly, so I can’t actually see the lip lock, but it’s obvious that’s what they’re doing. In the next photo, she’s getting into a car and he’s holding the door for her. In the last photo, he’s getting into the driver’s side of that same car.

“Holy fuck, he’s cheating on me.”

“We don’t know that.”

“I just saw it with my own eyes!”

“Nat, it’s the fucking paparazzi. They make everything up.”

“Pictures don’t lie. I know that better than anyone. You saw the way he was touching her and looking at her. He kissed her.”

The jealousy running through me is primal. My heart is hammering, I’m breathing hard, and I feel my face heat.

If I didn’t have anti-nausea meds on board I’d be hurling again.

“Natalie,” Jules murmurs and takes my hand. “I’m sure it’s not what you think.”

I shake my head and give in to the tears. “It’s over.”

“No, Natalie. No. Talk to him about it tomorrow.”

“There’s nothing to talk about.” I shake my head again, unable to believe what I just saw. “I can’t trust him. I can’t live this celebrity life with him.”

“You’re being silly.”

“Shut up! You’re supposed to be on my side! You’re
my
goddamn friend, not his. He’s fucking around on me! I just saw proof, so show some fucking loyalty, Jules.”

“I’m sorry.” She starts to cry too, and I feel like a shit.

“Come here.” I scoot over and she crawls up onto the bed with me, holding me to her as we weep. “What am I going to do?”

“Take some time. You’ve just found out you’re pregnant after being violently ill. You’re not thinking straight. Take some time.” She’s stroking my hair and I am so thankful for her.

“Okay.”

My phone pings, and it’s a text from Luke.

Almost done with today’s meetings, baby. Will call you tonight. Love you
.

“Fucker.” I throw the phone down and don’t bother to answer, but the floodgates open to more tears. About five minutes later there’s another text.

I haven’t heard from you all day. I miss you. You okay?

“Nat, you have to talk to him.”

“No.” I turn the phone off and throw it in my handbag.

A few minutes later Dr. Anderson returns with my prescriptions and discharge instructions. “You’re free to go, Natalie. Good luck.”

I’m going to need it.