Unfortunately, that rush didn’t last long.
I’d barely left Stilettos’ parking lot when I felt a familiar, dull ache behind my right eye. I tried to ignore it, but the pain continued to worsen as I got closer to my apartment and was almost unbearable by the time I made it home. I rushed inside and took a couple of ibuprofens, then made myself a hot bath, hoping it would settle the anxious feeling building in the pit of my stomach.
It didn’t.
I knew what that pain meant.
The stupid ticking time bomb in my head was growing or severely agitated. Either way, it wasn’t a good sign.
After soaking in a hot tub for almost an hour, I got out and dried off. After slipping on my robe, I headed to my bedroom but didn’t get far before I started feeling woozy. I stopped and tried to regain my balance, but it was too late. I was already falling and landed on the floor with a hard thud.
Seconds later, I heard Haleigh call out to me, “Rae? Are you okay?”
“Mm-hmm,” I lied. “I’m fine. Just stubbed my toe.”
“You did what?” Haleigh asked while peeking her head out the door. As soon as she spotted me on the floor, she darted out of her room and rushed over to me. “Oh, my God. Are you okay?”
“I’m fine.” I sat up and leaned my back against the wall. “I just lost my balance or something.”
Anguish crossed her face as she asked, “Are you sure this doesn’t have something to do with … you know ... the thing we dare not speak of?”
I had never told anyone about my aneurysm, so there was no way Haleigh could’ve possibly known. But there was something about the way she looked at me that made me ask, “What thing ‘we dare not speak of’?”
“You know.” She gave me a funny look. “The thing.”
“You know?”
“Yeah, I do.” She squatted down on the floor next to me as she admitted, “I’ve known about it for well over a year now.”
“But how?”
“First, it was all the crazy messages from your doctor. They were pretty insistent about you coming back in, so I knew something was up. I tried to ask you about it then, but you always shut me down any time I’d try to bring it up.”
“Yeah, I remember.”
“And then there was the day I stumbled across your planner. I wasn’t trying to be nosy—I promise. I was just checking the dates for that concert we went to last May, and I saw a few notes about the issues you were having.” A pained expression marked Haleigh’s face as she continued, “Then, there was the search history on your computer.”
“Oh, my God. You went through my computer history, too?”
“It was purely by accident.” She waved her hand in the air. “I had no idea what I was doing. I clicked something on the screen, and it just popped up. I swear.”
“So, you’ve known all this time, and you haven’t said anything?”
“No, I just figured you’d tell me when you were ready.”
“I can’t believe you’ve known all this time.”
She rolled her eyes as she shook her head and sighed, “Why do you think I go along with all your hair-brained bucket-list ideas?”
“I thought you liked all those things!”
“No ... I’ve never had any desire to go to a drag bar or parachute off a building or go rock climbing in the heat of summer. I did those things because you wanted to, and I didn’t want you to go alone.”
“I can’t believe you did that. I don’t deserve you.”
“No, you don’t, but you have me, and I’m not going anywhere. So, why don’t you tell me what’s going on in that head of yours? Why haven’t you gone to your follow-up appointment?”
“It’s hard to explain.”
“Try me.”
We spent the next hour going back and forth over my refusal to go back to the doctor. I tried to explain my need for some semblance of control, but no matter how many different ways I tried to explain it, she just didn’t understand. Haleigh thought I was making a mistake by waiting, and there was a good chance she was right.
And honestly, she was pretty persuasive.
She even brought up Lynch—a move that took me by surprise.
Apparently, Locke filled her in that we’d gone out, and she managed to put the rest together herself. It didn’t take much for her to realize that I liked him enough for her to use him against me.
It was a smart move.
For the first time in over a year, I actually considered the idea but didn’t let her know that. I simply listened and promised I’d think about it.
I’d planned to sleep in, but the next morning, I was unexpectedly awoken by a work call. Even though it wasn’t my weekend to be available, my boss asked me to come in and meet with a potential client. I didn’t have any plans for the day, so I agreed and headed into the office.