Day 24

Andrew (cont.):

She shook her head disbelievingly. "Send me a copy of the contract," she said, after a short pause. "I'll look it over. This isn't me agreeing, or even thinking I'll agree. I just want to look at it."

I didn't smile. I very specifically did not smile. "Of course," I said. "You want to look through it. I can email you a copy - what's your address?"

She turned around, the legs of her own crappy metal folding chair scraping on the concrete floor as she did so, and fished a business card out of her purse. "Here," she said. "Everything you need to know is on here or the website. Don't be a creeper."

"I will do my best not to," I said, still being serious and professional while mentally dancing a stupid victory dance. "Thank you for taking the time to talk with me."

"Your friend was earnest enough that I felt bad," she said. "But if I ever have to deal with that smarmy git again I'm out."

"Note taken," I said. "I don't believe Nathan is even still with us in that position anymore, so you shouldn't have to deal with him."

"Fine," she said. "Good night." And she turned around and flipped the mirror lights off, starting to gather up her stuff. There wasn't a much stronger 'you should leave now' signal that that. I got up and left as discreetly as I could.The run through the chaos in the hall was a little hair-raising, but I survived. When I finally got back to where my group had been, I found Thomas standing, extremely confused, besides a shell-shocked-looking Morgan, with no one else to be seen.

"What happened?" I asked, walking up to them. "Where'd they go?"

"I honestly am not sure," Thomas said. "On either account."

I pulled out my phone, only to have it buzz in my hands as I received a new text. (what did I have Tammy text him?)

"Cale's having issues," I said. "Tammy went with him. Morgan, what happened?"

"I told you that Cale and I didn't get along," she said. Her voice sounded a little quavery. "I need to get back to my place, I've got some early morning meetings tomorrow.

That was an obvious lie, but I let it go. Something Cale had said had obviously upset her, badly. "You do that," I said, gently. "And trust me, Cale's a good guy normally. I'm sure you'll get along eventually."

"I'm glad you thing that, because I don't," she said, and walked away. I looked at Thomas.

He shrugged. "Don't ask me. I knew there was some sort of argument coming and I ran away. The coward's way out is sometimes the only way out that doesn't make everything that much more awkward."

"Yeah but now I have no idea what happened," I said. "And my girlfriend left with the guy who just made my boss look like someone had killed her cat."

"Just call Tammy," Thomas said. "You know she'll explain it to you."

"Good idea," I said. "Let's go back to the apartment."

Once we'd excaped and made our way into the fresh air, I dialed Tammy's number. It rand twice, then she answered, "Hey, Andrew. Sorry I just sort of left you there."

"That's fine," I said. "Thanks for the text. By the way, what on earth happened back there? I'd like to know if there's any particular reason to make sure those two never come into contact ever, ever again."

"Okay," she said. "But you have to promise me that you won't freak out. I've only heard Cale's side but it's pretty damn convincing, and I'm going to tell you what he told me."

"Fine," I said. "What happened?"

She told me about their relationship, about the sudden break in contact, the boot from the contract - all of it. "And she wouldn't even admit that she'd done it, when he was talking to her in there," Tammy finished, her voice having risen towards the end, anger filling her words. "She freaking broke him and she won't even admit she did it."

I was silent for a couple seconds. "That... doesn't sound like Morgan," I said, slowly. "If she wanted to dump someone, she'd tell him to his face. She'd not exactly one for avoidance."

"Still," Tammy insisted. "Cale, my best friend since childhood, was traumatized by that bitch." She took a deep breath that hissed over the connection. "Sorry. It just pisses me off. I don't like Morgan."

"Morgan's a good person," I said, weakly. My opinion of her still held, although there were some holes in it now that hadn't been there before. "I'll email her, find out what happened, for real," I said, growing stronger. "She won't lie to me. I'm able to scent lies from a mile away."

Tammy sighed, loudly enough that I could hear it over the phone."Andrew, I've known you for like a month now. And I can already tell that, sweet as you are, you have the social skills of a penguin. Really good mongst people like yourself, but outside of that specific context you're clueless."

"Hey," I said, offended.

Thomas leaned over from where he was walking next to me, and said, "She just insulted your social skills, didn't she?"

"How did you know?" I asked him, frowning.

"Because you don't have any," he said.

I heard Tammy laugh on the other end of the line. "No fair ganging up on me," I said to both of them. "There's only so many people I can fend off at once."

"In any case, Andrew, I don't know if you talking to Morgan about this is the best idea," Tammy said. The line was beginning to have a stronger hiss of static to it. "No offense, but you might give her the wrong idea."

"What would that be?" I asked, trying to hear over the crackle and pop of a bad connection. "Tammy?"

I heard her voice, breaking up over the line, and then my phone beeped obnoxiously in my ear. "Ow, crap," I said, pulling it away like I'd beeen stung. It read, 'dropped call.'

"There goes that," I said. I scrubbed my face with one hand, eyes closed, trying to wipe the sudden bone-deep tiredness away. "I'm going to have to talk to a bunch of people tomorrow. So much for days off."

Then Thomas stopped. "Uh, Andrew? Aren't we forgetting someone?"

I paused. Then, "Oh, shit, Grace!"

Luckily, we'd only made it a couple blocks. We still had our tickets on us, and the very understanding guard let us back in to rescue my sister.

There was the mild issue that both Thomas and I were guys, and she was supposedly still in the ladies room.

"You could text her?" Thomas suggested, eyeing the door like one eyes the pathway to Mount Doom. "I'm not going in there."

I pulled out my phone again, and tapped a message in. There was an awkward several minute wait, before I finally said, "Okay, I'm going to declare that that didn't work. What now?"

Because sometimes the universe is kind, one of the female staff at the Oyster came up to us then, and said, "Excuse me, do you two need anything?"

Because sometimes the universe is really, supremely cruel, I said, "We need to get into the ladies room, please." Both the staff member and Thomas stared at me. "My sister is in there," I said, realizing how that had sounded. "She had too much to drink, and I want to take her back home so she can puke in peace."

"Oh," the woman said, relaxing a little. "I see. I'll go in and see if she needs help, alright?"

"Awesome, thank you," I said. "She's the tall one wearing mukluks and a Grateful Dead shirt. If you can see that. A brunette."

"Got it," she said, and headed in. She came out barely a moment later. "Sir, she's unconscious."

I grimaced. "Figures." "Is there anyone that you could get to help her get out?"

"I don't know if that would be the best idea." The woman seemed uncomfortable. "To be completely honest, I'm not sure if she's completely alright or not."

I don't curse often. I cursed then. "Can you go check?" I asked. "Please?"

She nodded and went back in. When she came back out, this time a full minute and a half later, she said, "Sir, you may want to take her to the hospital."

I swore again. "Can you get her out here?" I asked. "I'd like to at least have her nearby when I have to deal with the ambulance dispatcher or whatever."

She headed back in, and I dialed 911 for the second time in as many weeks, for the second case of maybe-alcohol poisoning. I was going to pick up a name for myself, if all my acquaintances kept getting themselves drunk out of their skulls.

This time, the chaos was at least a little familiar. The staffer got Grace out of the bathroom and Thomas and I carried her to the curb. She was well and truly unconscious, and her pupils were doing strange things when I lifted her eyelids. It was just in general not good. By the time the ambulance arrived, I was getting well and truly worried. This time, at least, they let me ride with them, considering that I was both her emergency contact and closest living relative. Thank god for that.

This time, I was the worried family member who was trying not to freak out in the waiting room while the doctors were doing strange, arcane things in the back room. Thomas arrived about half an hour after I had, because he'd had to flag down a taxi at after ten o'clock at night, but show up he did. He'd known Grace as long as he'd known me, and she was like a sister to him, if I knew him correctly. We held a silent vigil for an hour and a half, the strange fluorescent hospital lights our candles, and occasionally muttered curses our prayers. We couldn't do anything except sit here and hope against hope that she was going to be perfectly fine.

Finally - finally - the doctor came back out. I was waiting with bated breath as he checked his clipboard. "Your sister was slipped something," he said. "As far as we can tell, it was a sedative, something that mixed poorly with the alcohol in her system." My heart constricted in my chest. "She should be fine, though," he continued. "Her stomach was pumped before too much of it got into her system, and she's extremely healthy otherwise. We'll be keeping her overnight, to make sure there are no unexpected side-affects, but other than an absolutely awful hangover tomorrow, she should be okay."

"Thank god," I said, going limp in my seat. "Just... shit."

The doctor nodded, understanding. He'd probably seen something like this way too often before. At least he'd had good news to bring back to me. "There is some paperwork that I need you to sign, sir."

"Could you bring that back in a couple minutes, or maybe just leave it with us?" Thomas asked. "I think he needs a minute."

"Of course," he said, and handed Thomas a sheaf of papers. "Give them to the receptionist once you're done."