Chapter 77:
Susan walked out of the curtain with vomit all over her and crossed admit to get to the supply closet. "I change my mind...ill stick to foreign objects." she said with a laugh going in to change her shirt. Susan noticed Anna looked a little distressed. After she changed she came and sat down next to her, not saying anything, just reading a chart. If she wanted to talk she would.
She looked up at Susan, she knew that she could trust her, Susan had been nothing but a true friend since Anna had started back at County. "I have the worst knack for bad timing. I'm single, alone; god only knows what he's going to think. I should have been more careful." She looked around the admit area as she wiped tears from under her eyes, "and I know I shouldn't be saying any of this out here for the world to hear."
As soon as Susan saw the tear under her eye she grabbed Anna's hand. "It's slow. We can hide out in the lounge for a second." Susan led the way; thankfully no one was in there at the moment. She sat Anna down on the couch and put her hand on her shoulder to let her know she was listening.
"I don't know what I am going to do, this can't be real. I can not be having a baby." She said as she buried her face in her hands. "I mean I am going to have to tell Doug but I don't know how, I don't even know what I want right now."
Anna's words almost blew Susan away. Doug was going to be upset, especially since they had just broken up, but she wasn't going to tell her that. "Well...I've know Doug a long time. I know he'll be behind you on whatever you choose to do...and just know that, this is your choice, not his." Susan rubbed her back for a second. It just seemed like nothing good had happened for Anna since she came to Chicago. "You just need to wait until you get under control, wait for the right time when you're both a little better and sit down and talk to him. I know he'll understand."
"I know he's going to be upset." She said remember there conversation at the sandwich shop, "cross that bridge when we get there. This is so messed up. I know I said I wanted to go up to the mountains, but I suppose snowboarding isn't something that I should be doing right now. And I need to work anyway. I need something to take my mind off this right now."
Susan just nodded. "Ok..." she said standing up."Hey I think I saw some fun cases in the rack. I'm sure they're still there since no one seems to be working today besides us." Susan said opening the door for Anna. "We can all get drinks sometime later with our guys...things will get better, they always do."
She stood up, "you and your guy. You don't think that I am dating Matt do you?" She asked looking at Susan.
Susan turned at the question. "Oh i thought you were. I...i mean he went home with you last night and you guys seemed close this morning...i think everyone thought you had a new guy." Susan meant Doug by everyone she just didn't want to say it.
"Well huh yeah we are close, we've known each other for forever. He's my best friend; I could never seriously date one of my brother's friends. I learned that when I was younger." She said walking towards admit, "We didn't do anything. I went home threw up a couple of times and he didn't want to be alone. We are more of hang out buddies than anything else. Oh man," Anna said as it dawned on her, "if you think that then Doug thinks that I, oh great."
Susan gave a weak smile. She didn't mean to make Anna have to worry about that too. "I'm sorry...he might not have even noticed. He was working at typing and all." Oh hell she didn't even believe that one. "You could always add that to your list of things to talk about." She said trying to joke. "Just call him later...it might be good for you two to talk a little."
"Yeah right." She said as she picked up a chart and headed off. The rest of her day flew by fast. She made her way to her locker a little after seven and headed home. She was supposed to be going out to dinner tonight. But she really didn't feel up to it. She called Matt and cancelled on him. She said that she would meet up with him later, saying that she was under the weather. She turned on the fireplace and sat down in front of it. She didn't know what she was going to do. Maybe she did just need to talk to Doug and explain that she and Matt were only friends. She had some stuff over at his house that she needed him to bring into work so that she could have it. She reached over and picked up the phone. She dialed his number, hanging up before it rang. She stared at the phone for what must have been another half hour at least. She wanted to call him and get things out in the open but she didn't know what she would say to him. She hated not coming out and telling him the truth now that she knew, but the time wasn't right. She needed them both to be level headed and able to carry on a serious conversation. That and she wasn't going to drop it in his lap over the phone. What she had to tell him was something that she needed to say to him face to face. She finally found the courage once again dialing his number and waited; if she was lucky she'd get his machine and wouldn't have to talk to him. Anna heard the familiar sound of his greeting on the machine, "Hey Doug, it's Anna, I was wondering if you could just bring what stuff I have left at your house to work and I can get it there from ya. I was also hoping that you could maybe put me down for a few doubles...I know that your budget is probably pretty tight, but hey uhm, I'm volunteering the hours. Anything over 40 is fine I can do it off the clock. I also have a feeling that you got the wrong idea about me this morning. You said we needed a break and I wanted someone to hang with, nothing more. I was hoping that maybe sometime in the next couple of weeks you and I can get together. There's some stuff that I need to talk to you about." She hung up the phone, tossing it on the coffee table, and laid back against the couch. It was warm in front of the fire place and she felt her eyes getting heavy. 'I'll just close them for a minute.' She said to herself as she drifted off to sleep.
Doug had gone home after Doc's. After he had gotten himself cleaned up he called the number on the card. He was surprised when the woman remembered who he was and agreed to have drinks with him later. Doug put on a nice suit and downed more pain killers then he should have. He really didn't want to go out with anyone, but he didn't want to feel lonely even more. After realizing that it hurt way too much to walk without his crutches he sucked it up and grabbed them. 'pride is an awful thing' he thought to himself as he made his way to the el. after two hours of drinks and flirting Doug had a date for Saturday with a pretty paralegal originally from new jersey. Scotch and pain killers weren't a very good combination and by the time he got home he wasn't feeling too well. Doug walked into his house and saw the message machine light blinking. Doug sighed as he listened to Anna's message. He looked at the clock; it was too late to call her back 'probably better' Doug thought as he headed for his bedroom. He would see her soon enough anyway. Maybe he would get Allison to have lunch with him tomorrow...he still didn't believe her about the guy. After lying in bed for a half an hour Doug couldn't fall asleep. He couldn't get his mind off of Anna. 'She sounded upset. What could she have to talk to me about?' he asked himself. As far as he was concerned, after the past few days, their relationship was over.