Page 30 of The Wedding

After making sure no one else was coming, the attendant closed the elevator doors. “What floor, ma’am?”

“Oh, ground floor, please. My car is waiting out front.”

She opened her purse and pulled out a compact and a tube of lipstick. She spent the whole ride down touching up her makeup in the elevator mirrors, carefully stealing glimpses of Jamie – just like Jamie continued to steal glimpses of her.This is the kind of woman I should be. I want to lookthis confident walking around… wearing those clothes…

“You must be Jamie,” the woman said. “You’re a lovely young lady. I’m not surprised Etta would go for a woman like you.”

Jamie didn’t have time to confirm or deny before the elevator doors opened. The woman burst out, hustling to catch a car waiting for her just outside the revolving door. Jamie stood in the lobby, dumbfounded, phone in her hand as she finally finished texting her driver to meet her out front too.Who was that?The woman had looked familiar. Where had Jamie seen her before?

The wedding.

The woman who had caught Etta’s eye when dancing. Yes, that had to be her! How did she know Etta? How did she recognize Jamie?

There are more important things to think about. Jamie stood out on the sidewalk, clutching the stuffed cat and thinking positive thoughts.

Chapter 11

Jamie hated being at the doctor’s by herself. Especially when she had to go through exams and needles and all sorts of awkward questions from a man she still barely knew.I miss having a female doctor. When she started dating Etta, however, she highly recommended the private clinic she already used.Not a single female doctor is on the roster.That would teach Jamie to just go with whatever suggestion Etta made on a whim.

She wished Etta was there in the room. Even if she had to sit in a leather chair in the corner, bored out of her mind while she checked work emails, Jamie could at least have her comforting presence.

They took her blood and told her it would be about an hour before the doctor could make a final confirmation of where to go next. During that time, Etta joined her girlfriend in the doctor’s office, sitting with her in the private waiting area and trying not to stare at her phone.

“Miss Joy?” The nurse peered into the room. “The doctor will be here in about a minute.”

Jamie’s throat dried.This is it.Her fate would be sealed. She looked to Etta, who put her phone away. They both stared at the doctor’s rustic, cluttered office. Jamie was used to messy offices, but this made Etta’s one athome look perfectly well-to-do.Beatrice would have a conniption if she saw this place.This was the woman who once spent half an afternoon doing acrobatics trying to get to a ceiling fan so she could dust it.

Etta reached over to Jamie’s chair and took her shaking hand. Her touch calmed Jamie, but not enough. “No matter what happens, we’ll get through it.”

That, however, was not comforting at all. “You make it sound like it’s a trial we have to survive. A gauntlet. Ninja Fucking Warrior.”

“Well, it is a big deal. It’s going to get emotional. For everyone involved.”

“Even you?” Jamie looked at her stoic girlfriend. The thought of Etta getting emotional over anything, even cancer, was like imagining her waking up one day and going,“Hey, let’s go bungee jumping.”

“Jamie,” she said more than once. “Breathe.”

“You’re not the one who might have cancer.”

“Even so, you need to breathe.” She squeezed Jamie’s hand, harder. “You look like you’re about to pass out.”

“I feel like I’m about to pass out!”

The doctor emerged from a back door at that moment, carrying a manila folder full of Jamie’s test results. Oh my God, here we go.The old, white-haired man greeted them both again and sat behind his messy desk, suddenly swallowed by one more manila folder. Jamie stared at it, wondering just how much of her biological history was in there.I barely know my blood type. What else could I learn?Surely that and more.

“Ms. Joy… Ms. Coleman…” The doctor cleared his throat. “I have your test results.”

She let out a breath. “Okay…”

“Your levels are good and I don’t see any reason to refer you to an oncologist or any other specialist. There’s nothing from my exam or these tests that suggest you’re anything but a healthy young woman.”

Etta almost slid out of her seat in relief. Jamie, on the other hand,gaped at the doctor in utter disbelief. “How?”

The doctor was taken aback.That’s right. Explain my paranoia to me!He looked to Etta, who shrugged, forcing the man to tackle Jamie head-on. “…How? You mean how do you not have cancer? I mean, you can get a second opinion, of course, but it’s my professional experience that there’s nothing to worry about.”

Jamie snatched her hand out of Etta’s and slapped both on the doctor’s desk. He jerked back. “Then why did our home care doctor freak me out like that? Cancer is inallparts of my family!” She waved one reddening hand at him. “We’re rich. Run it again!”

“Ah… that would require another blood draw, and…”