Alicia hated that she’d had to call her mom and stepdad to take a rain check on dinner, but given the circumstances with her and Phillip, she hadn’t thought getting together with them was a good idea. Not when Phillip would have quickly shown how angry and irritated he was with her. It had just been better for Alicia to cancel, versus setting herself up to hear questions from her mother, because Alicia couldn’t handle that. Not today.
Alicia turned off the ignition of her car and pulled out her phone. She’d just arrived at the hospital, but she wanted to try Levi again. She’d called him twice while driving, but he hadn’t answered. He didn’t pick up this time, either, and since she’d already left him a message earlier, she hung up. It wasn’t like him not to answer or at least call her back within a few minutes, so she wondered what was going on. Nonetheless, she deleted all her calls to him from her phone, got out of her car, and went into the hospital.
As she stepped on the elevator, she pulled her phone back out and placed it on silent. She wasn’t sure if Levi would be calling back or not, but if he did, she didn’t want it to ring when she was anywhere near Phillip.
She walked off the elevator and went down to the family waiting room. Melanie, Mr. Johnson, and Phillip sat in one of the far corners, and a couple of other families were there, too.
Phillip stood up, and when he reached out and hugged her she was relieved. But soon, more guilt inched up her spine because while she’d tried to find comfort in Phillip’s embrace, she couldn’t stop thinking about Levi. She was still wondering where he was and why he wouldn’t answer his phone.
“Hey,” Melanie said, standing and hugging her, too. Then Alicia leaned down and greeted Mr. Johnson.
Phillip stood next to her, and Alicia wasn’t sure what to say. The connection between them felt awkward, and she detected a certain sense of sadness from him. It was the reason she refused to make eye contact with him and looked at Melanie instead. “Can I go in to see him?”
“Of course. We can do it now.”
Phillip and Mr. Johnson stayed behind, and Alicia followed Melanie to the intensive care unit.
“Where’s your mom?” Alicia asked, noticing dark circles under Melanie’s eyes. She’d sort of wondered about that yesterday, but she’d figured maybe Melanie was just tired and hadn’t been sleeping well. The darkness seemed more obvious today, however.
“Home, I guess.”
Alicia wanted to ask why, but since Melanie hadn’t elaborated she left it alone.
Melanie opened the door, and one of Brad’s nurses smiled and walked out.
Alicia moved closer to the foot of his bed. “I can’t believe this happened.”
“I don’t think any of us can, but I’ll tell you one thing: Brad’s accident has made me rethink everything. Two of his senior partners dropped by this morning. They couldn’t go in to see him, but they made it clear that they were here for us. Said they want him to take off as much time as needed to recover. So I decided right then that I was taking a leave of absence as well. Brad and our marriage have to come first now. Life is too precious and unpredictable. Too short to be miserable and unhappy. Even just for one day.”
“I don’t blame you. I remember when my dad was beaten by those men a couple of years ago, and then last year when Racquel stabbed Matthew. Tragedies like that really make you place things into perspective.”
“Brad and I have really grown apart, but that has to change. We can’t live like that anymore. If a husband and wife don’t make each other a priority, what’s the point of being married? Why be together if you barely see each other?”
“I agree.”
“I hope things get better for you and Phillip, too, because all the drama just isn’t worth it. Not if you really love someone. Even I was letting petty stuff like money come between Brad and me, and it’s just not that serious. I know Brad can’t continue throwing away thousands of dollars, but I also know I could have talked to him about it a lot differently. Over the last few months, we’ve yelled and argued so much, I don’t even remember the last time we had a normal conversation…the last time we even joked around or just laughed about something together.”
“I didn’t realize things had gotten that bad. I knew you’d said he was still working all the time and you were doing a lot of arguing, but I just thought it was something temporary.”
“No, things between us were headed toward divorce. I know that might sound strange, but we just haven’t been on the same page lately. We’ve been going our separate ways, and once you do that for so long, you get used to it. We were never together. But seeing him lying in this bed has gotten my attention. I don’t ever want to know what it feels like to be without him,” she said with tears in her eyes.
Alicia listened to her friend speaking from her heart and thought about her own situation—how lost she would be if she couldn’t see Levi or hear his voice again. But then there was also Phillip, whom she’d caused a lot of distress over the last couple of days. So what was she going to do? Levi had given her an ultimatum, and now she couldn’t get in touch with him. What if he’d changed his mind about giving her a month and had moved on already? Alicia didn’t even want to think about something that dreadful. At this point, all she could do was call him again when she left the hospital, hoping he would answer. Maybe he’d already tried her back or left her a text message. She wouldn’t check her phone in front of Melanie, but it would be the first thing she did when she got back to her car. She didn’t want to seem desperate, but she was. She wouldn’t be at peace until she talked to him.