Page 16 of Other Woman Drama (Content Advisory #4)

Fourteen

How am I supposed to lose weight

when the best part of life is about food?

— Silver to Webber

SILVER

He never called, texted, or showed up at my place.

Needless to say, I didn’t know what to think.

What I didn’t do was text him, because I didn’t want to seem like one of those desperate girls that needed attention.

Instead, I went to work when they called and asked if I wanted to cover the shift of a few of the other day shift workers that had called in sick due to food poisoning from an office-wide party they’d had the day before.

That was seriously why I didn’t eat potlucks.

You couldn’t trust everyone’s kitchen.

Nor could you trust them to handle food properly.

I hadn’t eaten the food that’d been there for those reasons, plus the fact that it’d been sitting out all day.

And instead of taking my phone with me to work so I could check it every ten minutes to see if he called, I left it at home, sitting on my counter.

I walked to work today because it was beautiful out and I got to work within fifteen minutes.

I found that, despite my utterly depressed state, I was happier by the time I made it to the basement floor where IT was located.

I smiled and waved at everyone I passed, getting a bunch of chin lifts and small smiles in return.

I probably tried a little bit too hard to appear happy and light as I made my way into the depths of the hospital.

I always put on a smile, no matter how I was feeling, and got the reputation for having a sunny personality.

In reality, I only smiled because sometimes it was that or cry.

I didn’t want anyone to know that sometimes I felt like I got the short end of the stick.

I didn’t like people to know that my life wasn’t all rainbows and sunshine.

I didn’t want anyone to know that I questioned my life choices so much, and that I was constantly questioning whether I would ever make it to a point in my life where I was happy.

Happy was an illusion.

It likely always would be.

“Silver, thank God you’re here,” the head IT guy gasped when he saw me walk through the door. “We have a virus, and half of the hospital can’t use any of their computers.”

Fuck.

“What do you need me to do?” I asked.

For six and a half hours, we worked endlessly to remove the malware from computers all over the hospital.

I was dying of starvation and more than ready for a bathroom break when my work phone rang.

I ignored it twice before I finally answered it on the third try.

“Hello?” I asked impatiently.

“Jesus, what’s going on? You’re not answering any of my calls. You missed our shower talk,” she said.

I cursed under my breath. “I’m at work. There’s a virus affecting nearly fifteen hundred computers right now. I can’t talk.”

“Okay, love you,” she said.

“Love you, too.” I hung up.

Then I remembered another engagement I had today that I’d forgotten about.

Eedie.

I groaned, knowing that since I didn’t have my phone, there was only one option I could take.

I dialed the number of the only phone number besides my sister’s I knew by heart—as long as you didn’t count the pizza place on the corner.

“Dad,” I said reluctantly when he answered. “Could you relay a message to Eedie for me?”

Dad grunted. “What’s that? And why are you talking to her in the first place?”

I chose not to mention that I’d been talking to Webber at all, because that would only piss my dad off worse, and Eedie had to live with my father.

I knew how hard my dad was to deal with at the best of times. Him pissed off? Yeah, I wouldn’t wish that on my worst enemy.

That was the one good thing that came out of hurting my sister the way he did.

My sister didn’t have to deal with Barry Donahue’s attitude, temper, and bad moods.

If he didn’t like something, he would let everyone know it.

And anyone caught in the crosshairs of his bad mood was going to never hear the end of it.

“Can you ask her to call me at work?” I asked. “Give her this number, I’m extension two.”

“I’m not telling her anything without you telling me why you need her to call you,” he said. “Are you relaying something for her father?”

I prayed for patience before I replied. “No, I was supposed to go to the Jiu Jitsu gym today with her and I’m not going to be able to make it because I went to work.”

“Is that why you’re not answering any of my calls?” he asked.

I winced.

Of course he would try to call.

No wonder he was so argumentative right now.

“I’m at work, yes,” I said, trying to hide my impatience. “And I left my phone at home.”

That’s when I realized my mistake.

He’d never had access to my work before, and now he would have unfettered access to me anytime he wanted.

Shit.

“I’ll tell her if you let me use your car.”

I squeezed my eyes shut. “No. You have a suspended license, and that’s the only vehicle that I have.”

“I gave you that vehicle,” he snapped.

“You didn’t,” I said. “You made me pay you back for it, which I did. Two-fold because you charged me interest. It’s mine, fair and square,” I grumbled. “Don’t bother relaying the message, I’ll find a way to do it myself.”

I hung up, angry as hell.

My dad, always the douche bag.

No wonder him and my awful mother hooked up.

Angry now, I tried to think up alternate ways to let Eedie know that I wouldn’t be there, but a cry from Sabin, the head IT guy, had me glancing over.

“What?” I asked.

“This went from bad to DEFCON 1,” he said.

When I looked at my computer, I knew why.