Back to Me

Paige let the bags fall from her arms and ran to grant the little boy his wish. She’d walked through the neighborhood park on numerous occasions, but she’d never seen this brown- skinned kid with hazel eyes before. He was too adorable in his jeans and Disney Cars T-shirt with the matching shoes.

“Of course I will.” Paige scanned the playground. “Where are you parents?” she asked before giving the swing a light push.

“My father is around.”

Paige looked around again in every direction. “Where? I don’t see him.”

On the backswing the little boy held his head back and revealed the cutest smile. “I know. Nobody can, but he’s always around, watching me.”

“If you say so.” Paige wasn’t convinced. Her neighborhood was relatively safe, but not to the extent that she’d leave a child unattended in broad daylight.

“You can go higher. I’m not afraid,” the boy called out several backswings later.

“You’re a brave young man. How old are you?”

“I don’t know. My father told me not to worry about my age.”

Paige smirked, thinking the boy’s father must be some sort of psycho. She guessed from his size he was around five. She lost track of time as she pushed him and listened to him pretend to be a superhero flying though the clear blue sky. His giggles soothed her heart and lifted her spirit.

“Okay, you can stop now.” The boy stilled his legs and looked up at Paige.

Paige grabbed the chains and brought the swing to a complete stop. “Is anything wrong? I’m not in a hurry. I can push you as long as you want.”

“No, that’s okay,” he answered, shaking his head. “It’s time for me to go now.”

Paige surveyed the park for the third time to see if the child’s father had shown up. The park was completely empty. “Where are you going?”

The boy jumped off the swing and took off running through the sandbox and across the grass.

“Wait!” Paige called before she took off running after him.

“Let me go!” the boy screamed when she grabbed him from behind. “Let me go!”

“Honey, calm down. I don’t want you to run out into the street and hurt yourself.” Paige’s efforts at soothing him failed.

“No! Let me go!” The tighter she squeezed, the louder he screamed and the wilder his arms flailed. “You have to let me go!”

Violent tremors sent Paige thrashing around the bed, but unlike the two previous times she’d had the dream, she didn’t acquire any new wounds. The first time she tried to escape the dream, she bruised her left elbow on the nightstand. The second time had her running for cover and twisting her right ankle, just as she’d done during her escape from Seniyah’s house. Her foot had given way, causing her right knee to crash onto the hardwood floor. Her cries of agony had gone unheard and unanswered as she crawled back into bed.

Her whole body ached. The down comforter she loved so much and the six-hundred-thread-count sheets were soaked with a mixture of sweat, water from the melted ice she’d used to numb her ankle, and urine. She couldn’t remember exactly how many times, but at least twice she had tried to slide off the bed and hop to the bathroom and had failed. For once she didn’t care how she looked or smelled. She didn’t care about anything; she’d completely surrendered to depression.

Her stomach stirred. It seemed like the second consciousness set in, her stomach churned. She forced her eyes open, only to be greeted by the sunlight peeking through the drapes. She’d seen sunlight at least three times since returning home and collapsing on the bed after Seniyah’s betrayal, but she wasn’t sure if it was the same sunlight or a different day.

“Oh no,” she groaned while clawing her way through the mangled bedcovering. Not only was her stomach awake, but her bladder had also decided to join the party. Too weak to stand and hop, Paige maneuvered her way to the floor and attempted to crawl across the hardwood to the bathroom. When she was less than halfway there, a sharp pain shot through her right ankle, causing her to wail and lose the battle with her stomach and bladder. Figuring the end had to be near, Paige lay in the mess and wept until another deep sleep overtook her.

Sergio-Xavier checked his watch, just in case the clock on the wall was wrong. Unfortunately for him, the Rolex confirmed what he feared—it was only 10:30 a.m. Another ninety minutes to kill. Tuesday mornings were his downtime, when he caught up on dictation, returned patient e-mails, or read medical journals. The last several Tuesday mornings he’d spent the majority of this time courting Paige.

For a split second he considered calling her but quickly dismissed the thought. He was done. She’d crossed the line. He didn’t expect the woman who could potentially wear his name to be perfect, but he did expect her to respect him as a man. Paige had proved she had more regard for a dog, and because of that, whatever plans he had for their future had been canceled. He would honor his promise to DWAP, but after that Paige McDaniels would be completely erased from his agenda. Just like with Nicole, he hurt, but he would survive.

His intercom sounded just as he opened a medical journal. “Dr. Simone, there are some people here to see you,” the secretary announced.

He wasn’t expecting anyone and checked the schedule on his iPhone before responding. “Is it a patient?”

He heard a smirk. “I doubt it, but from the looks of things, you may have to treat one or two of them in the near future.”

He had lost his tolerance for drama four days ago, when he walked out on Paige. Whoever was there to see him had better have a clear purpose and not waste his time.

“Send them in.”

Sergio-Xavier reached for his lab coat. He’d gotten one arm in when the divas—all seven of them—rushed into his office, with hair color to match the green, yellow, blue, and pink knockoff designer purses on their arms. From the determined looks on their faces, the divas definitely had a purpose and wouldn’t leave the building until the mission was accomplished.

“What are you doing here? Shouldn’t you ladies be in school?” he began, but Jasmine cut to the chase.

“We signed in before we cut . . . I mean, before we sort of got permission to leave. Have you seen Ms. Paige?”

“Excuse me?” he said.

Jasmine’s loud tone matched her bright yellow hair. “I said, have you seen . . .” She let the thought hang, as if she had remembered something, and then continued. “We don’t mean to barge in and interrupt your schedule, Dr. Simone, but we’re looking for Ms. Paige. She didn’t show up for DWAP last night,” she explained in a normal tone. “We tried calling her last night and this morning, but she’s not answering her cell phone. We don’t have her home number, but I’m sure you do. We just want to make sure she’s all right.”

Just what he didn’t want or need—more Paige drama. “Maybe she was just tired and decided to stay home last night,” he suggested, more to ease their worry, because at the moment he didn’t care where she was.

“She never cancels on us, and she’s not at work today, either. We stopped by her office first,” the girl with pink hair added. “Ms. Paige never misses work. She told us she even has a home office so she can work from home.”

“That’s true,” he said contemplatively.

“Have you talked to her?” Jasmine asked. “Can you call her?”

The seven pairs of worried eyes staring at him made him angry all over again with Paige. These young ladies genuinely cared about her well-being, and she didn’t show them the slightest regard. She was too busy forcing her hopes and dreams on Seniyah to notice they needed her.

“Have you checked with Seniyah?” he offered. “I’m sure she’s heard from her.”

This time the one with green hair spoke up. “That’s what we thought too, so we checked with her first. We went to her complex before school, but she wasn’t there.”

“Maybe they’re together?” he offered.

“No, they’re not,” Jasmine went on to explain. “Seniyah’s in the hospital. She lost her baby over the weekend. She had pre-clampses, and her baby came early and is dead.”

“Preeclampsia,” he said, correcting her.

“Well, you know what I mean. Seniyah’s mother said they had been at the hospital for two days and hadn’t seen Ms. Paige since she dropped some stuff off on Saturday.”

The new information made him more than a little concerned. How will Paige handle the loss of Seniyah’s baby? he wondered. He hadn’t seriously considered her a mental case, but the woman did have a furnished nursery and had, as Tara would say, “flipped the script” on him.

“I haven’t talked to her in few days,” he admitted and then picked up the phone. “But I’ll call her office. I’m sure she’s there by now.”

The divas huddled around him in expectation, only to groan in disappointment when he told them Paige still hadn’t made it in and probably wouldn’t, since she’d been working at home lately. He thought that was the end, but the ladies had more in mind.

“Call her at home,” Jasmine stated more than asked.

For their sake, he obliged. Once again they huddled around as he dialed Paige’s home number. After eight rings, he disconnected.

“Come on, Dr. Simone. Since we don’t know where she lives, we’ll follow you. I have my brother’s car,” Jasmine announced, and the divas headed for the door. “What are you waiting for?” she asked when Sergio-Xavier didn’t follow suit.

“Hold on, ladies. She’s probably at an appointment,” Sergio-Xavier said, with less certainty than before. “Let me make one more call.”

The girls huddled back around him as he dialed his colleague. “Hey, man,” he said when Kevin answered the line. “Did Paige lead praise and worship yesterday?” He maintained his smile, although Kevin’s response gave him cause for more concern than he wanted to have for Paige. “All right. Thanks, man.” The line went dead, but Sergio-Xavier continued talking. “Really? That’s great. I’ll give her a call later.”

He prayed he sounded convincing. If he told them Paige had missed her scheduled praise and worship time, they’d panic, like he was about to.

“There’s nothing to worry about,” he assured them. He prayed he wasn’t lying. “Ladies, relax and go back to school. I promise to make sure she calls you later today.” He intended to keep that promise, even if he had to pin Paige down and press the phone to her ear.

Jasmine wasn’t convinced. “Are you sure she’s all right? Because it’s just not like her to leave us hanging.”

“Trust me on this. You’ll hear from her today. Give me your cell number, and I’ll make sure of it.”

“All right,” Jasmine said, relenting. “But you better. I mean, please call me.”

“I promise, as long as you all promise to go back to school.”

Jasmine conceded, “That’s fair.”

“What is it, Jasmine?” Sergio-Xavier asked after he entered her number into his iPhone, and she continued staring, like there was something she wanted say but didn’t know how. “What’s up?”

Jasmine looked back at the girls, and they nodded, as if giving their consent. All of them had the same unsure and vulnerable facial expression.

“About school. We know we’re not four-point-oh students, and our attendance isn’t the best. We need to work on our communications skills and get a better grip on the English language. And we may need to tone down our wardrobe, but just a little.” Jasmine paused and took a deep breath. “We need some work, and it may take a miracle, but we’ve been thinking that maybe we shouldn’t settle for junior college. Maybe we should try our luck at a regular university or a state college.”

Sergio-Xavier imagined his grin resembled that of a proud father. “That’s great. Are you serious?”

“Well, yeah. I mean yes,” Jasmine continued with more confidence. “I picked junior college because that’s what my brother did. That’s what everybody we know does. We didn’t think we were capable of more until DWAP. We figured since we did such a great job running our small business, with some knowledge from the university, we could start our own corporation. We’re talking logos and franchises.”

Sergio-Xavier chuckled as the girls exchanged high fives.

“We know it’s going to take a miracle for us to get in, but we’re thinking about giving it a shot,” Jasmine said. “What do you think? Do you think we can do it?”

“Yeah, do you really think we can?” the others chimed in.

Fourteen fearful and expectant eyes, hanging on his every word, tugged at his heartstrings. These young ladies were truly remarkable. Why couldn’t Paige see that? The mere fact that they considered stepping out of the box and not settling had earned them his respect.

“I believe you can do anything you set your mind to,” he answered honestly.

“Thank you, Dr. Simone!” Jasmine exclaimed.

Sergio-Xavier had to lean against his desk to keep from falling over from the force of the group hug they lavished on him.

“Okay, Doc. You go check on Ms. Paige, and we’re going back to school and to talk to a counselor. And don’t forget to call me,” Jasmine reminded him as they trotted out the door.

As excited as he was for the ladies, Sergio-Xavier couldn’t savor the moment. He had to go and find Paige. Sure, he was angry and hurt, but he knew her well enough to know she wouldn’t miss two days of work without calling, unless she couldn’t call.

He hung his lab coat on the rack, and then, while calling a colleague to cover his afternoon clinic, he changed from a white dress shirt into a mock turtleneck sweater. While jogging down the stairwell to his car, Sergio-Xavier acknowledged something else but refused to admit what his heart already knew.