Desperately Seeking Epic(77)

Clara is going to love this surprise.

And something tells me, Neena will too.





We put off the interviews for over a week or so to focus on Neena. I think the bloody nose incident paired with Dr. Jones’ extremely dismal news brought everything into focus. We’re in the final weeks of my daughter’s life. I feel lost but I power through like always. Bowman and Larry have stepped up and are helping with running the managerial part of the business and I couldn’t be more grateful. We need as much time with Neena as we can get.

I called hospice and they sent a lovely woman by the name of Karen over to meet with us. She has a daughter Neena’s age who also loves Masters of the V so she and Neena really hit it off. But last night Neena reminded me Paul and I had not finished telling the story of how we came together. She wants to know. Badly. She wants us to see Ashley again. Paul couldn’t meet with her today for some reason, but I agreed to. She insisted we meet earlier this time. We normally meet around five, but I didn’t question it.

“You holding up okay?” Ashley asks as I walk in. Before I can answer, she hugs me. Tight. Like a family member would. I can’t deny, I’m a little thrown off by it, but I hug her back. It’s been two weeks since Neena’s bloody nose issue and it’s happened several more times. Since then, she rests most of the day and has little bouts of energy here and there, but they are very short-lived, causing my worry to go through the roof. Paul and I have taken shifts, sleeping in the living room, but Neena has hated it.

“I’m okay.” Maybe if I keep saying it, it will be true. I’m okay. My daughter is dying, but I’m okay. It’s such bullshit.

“I know with everything going on, it must be difficult to do this, but . . .” She pauses and bites her lip as if questioning her next words.

“But what?”

Her gaze meets mine and she inhales deeply. “First off, I’m sorry for being so direct. I was hoping to have everything finished before Neena . . . passed away. She really wants to see this.”

Clearing my throat, I wipe at my nose. “Then let’s get this done. I want her to see it, too.”

We both take our seats and Zane clips my mic on.

“Where’s Mills?” I ask. It’s odd he’s not here. Although, I’m not sure I want to see him. Doesn’t he know my beautiful daughter has a crush on him and he needs to be nicer? I know it’s not his fault, but I hate that she feels the way she does about herself because of him.

“Couldn’t make it this morning. Had something to do,” Zane mumbles tiredly.

“We last left off after Paul kissed you.” Ashely’s mouth curves slightly. “What happened next?”

I have to chuckle a little. Not because it’s funny. What happened next wasn’t funny at all. But what else can I do but laugh about it at this point? “Paul left.”

Ashley looks as if she’s trying to touch the ceiling with her eyebrows; she’s so surprised. “What?”

“Yep,” I confirm. “For a month.”

Her mouth drops open in shock. “Are you serious?”

“Yep. I was so mad. But I wasn’t sure if I was mad at him for leaving after kissing me like that or for leaving me to deal with Marcus by myself.”

“Where did he go?”

“Brazil.”

“What happened when he came back?”



I’d told myself it was just a kiss. When it happened, I was a foolish woman and my insides had turned to goo. In his absence though, reality set in and I realized he only did it because he felt sorry for me or something. And that made me mad. Incredibly mad. I didn’t need his pity. I didn’t need a pity kiss. I may have been whining a little that night, but that was only because I was vulnerable. Now Paul thought I was pathetic and I hated that.

Being forced to work alone with Marcus didn’t help either. Paul never really stood up for me to Marcus, but he was at least a buffer between us and at times he played middleman, which eased the hostility.

It was a Wednesday, and hot as hell, and the office air-conditioning unit was down. After calling five HVAC companies, the soonest I could get a repairman out would be the following day. I ran to Walmart and bought six fans, but it wasn’t helping much. Marcus made it halfway through the day, then bailed on me. If it hadn’t been for a big group of women coming in that afternoon for a jump, I would have left, too.

I was heading to the front of the building, wanting to set everything up for that group so I could get them in and out of the sweatbox that was our office as fast as possible, when Sap walked in.

“Hey there, gorgeous,” he rasped, with a grin on his wrinkled face. “I have a surprise for you.”