Erica lay with Sam on the bed, making out. "Let's take our clothes off," Sam suggested after awhile.
"No." Erica rolled over to face the wall. "I can't."
"Why not?" Sam sounded very annoyed.
"I...just can't. That's all." Suddenly she wanted desperately to be out of Sam's apartment. "Please take me home."
"Cock teaser," Sam mumbled as he straightened his clothing and went to fetch his keys.
"I'm sorry, Sam," Erica said. "It just seemed like things were going too fast and...I just couldn't."
Sam grunted. He said nothing as he drove Erica home.
Erica paid the babysitter, then walked to the girls' bedroom, where she quietly opened the door and looked in on them. They were both fast asleep. Toni was lying on her side, dark brown hair tumbling across her cheek, sucking her thumb, and Sonya lay on her back, sucking her pacifier. Erica had the urge to gather them both into her arms and hug them but didn't want to awaken them, so she quietly closed the door and went to her own bedroom.
That night she lay in bed with memories of the first time she and Yuri had made love coursing through her mind. It was one of her most precious memories. We're a family, she thought. We should be together.
Sunday evening Erica went to visit Carrie in the hospital. Carrie was Jed's wife of two years, and she'd given birth to their first child, a nine-pound, five-ounce son named Elijah, on Saturday.
"He's beautiful," Erica told her friend.
"Thank you," Carrie replied. "He looks just like his daddy, doesn't he?"
"I think he bears quite a bit of resemblance to his Uncle Matt as well," said Cheryl. Cheryl was Matt's fiancee. The two of them sat in chairs across from Erica. Matt grinned proudly at Cheryl's words.
"You're right," said Erica. "I believe he does."
"So how have you been, Erica?" asked Matt.
"All right, I guess."
"Have you been going out much?"
"Between my job and the girls, I don't have much time for socializing," Erica said truthfully.
"Met anyone new?"
"Not really." For some reason, Erica felt reluctant to tell her friends about Sam.
"I should really get you and my brother Steve together," said Cheryl. "I just know you two would hit it off."
"I'm not really interested in meeting anyone," Erica told her.
"Erica, you know Yuri's never going to get out of that Soviet prison, if he's even still alive at all," said Matt.
"Even so, he's still my husband," Erica replied.
Matt sighed and shook his head.
As Erica was leaving the hospital, she saw a commotion in the hallway leading to the emergency room. She glanced outside and noticed that the ambulance was still there with its lights flashing. A moment later, she saw a couple of paramedics wheeling a gurney down the hall.
"Drug OD," one of them called.
As the gurney got closer, Erica saw that the man lying on it was Sam! He looked to be unconscious, and there was an oxygen mask over his face.
"My God! What happened?" Erica asked the nearest nurse.
"Do you know him?" the nurse asked Erica.
"Yes! I work with him at the bank!" said Erica.
"Do you know what kind of drugs he's been taking?" asked the nurse.
"I didn't even know he took drugs!" Erica exclaimed.
The gurney disappeared behind a set of double doors. Shocked, Erica just stood in the waiting room, torn between wanting to go back home to her daughters and wanting to find out what was going to happen with Sam.
It was perhaps thirty minutes later that Erica noticed a woman who appeared to be perhaps several years older than herself enter the waiting room, sobbing hysterically.
"Please, can you tell me if Sam Nobles is all right?" the woman asked the receptionist.
"Are you a relative?" the receptionist asked warily.
"Yes, I'm his wife," the woman told her.