“Nah it was my fault actually. I messed up. I scheduled too many people off at once. I gotta double check next week’s, make sure I didn’t do the same thing. So I’ll need you to bartend today but not until Sarah gets here. I’ll have her take over your section.”
“Isn’t she here already?” Raul asked.
“No,” Angel wiped down the bar. “She was having breakfast with her mom this morning.”
“She was out in the parking lot when I drove in. I thought she’d be in here by now. Unless,” Raul smirked. “that guy whose arms she flew into stole her away.”
Angel turned and peered at Raul not sure if he was serious. He had the stupidest sense of humor sometimes. But apparently he was serious. “What are you talking about?”
“Some guy who got out of a cab and hugged your wife, man. He picked her up off the ground he hugged her so hard.” Raul pulled out the paper pad out of his apron’s front pocket and stuck a pen behind his ear. “I don’t know maybe he’s family. Does she have a brother?”
“No, she doesn’t.”
Raul shrugged. “She’s probably still out there.” He walked away to his first table of the day.
That was strange. Who would be visiting Sarah in a cab? Then it hit him. Something began to warm his insides just as he saw her walk in. He fully expected to see Sydney walk in behind her but she was alone. He met her by the hallway leading to the back room. As soon as their eyes met he knew something was wrong. “You okay?”
She nodded but looked away quickly and kept walking to the back.
“You sure?”
“Yeah, yeah, I’m fine. I’m just a little tired,” she said, sitting down with her hand over her belly.
“You should go home then, babe. I don’t want you working if you’re not up to it.” Then he remembered. “Who was out there with you?”
She seemed dazed and it unnerved him. “Huh?”
“Raul, he said he saw you out there. A guy in a cab hugged you.” He raised his eyebrow. “Picked you up?”
It was the strangest thing, she was looking at him and listening but it was as if she were a million miles away. She told him about Sydney swinging by between flights and how he couldn’t stay. If it hadn’t been for his concern over the way she was acting he might’ve been a little more ticked about the fact that Sydney had been so moved to see her he actually picked her up. Raul hadn’t been exaggerating since Sarah didn’t deny it. Instead he stared at her trying to figure out what this strange demeanor was about.
Angel got down on his knee in front of her and rubbed her belly. “Are you sure you’re okay, baby? You’re scaring me.”
Finally she looked at him and not through him like when she first arrived and smiled rubbing his hand on her belly. “I’m fine. But I think I will go home. I didn’t get very much sleep last night.”
“All right.” He stood up and held his hand out. “I’ll walk you out.”
Even after he knew she was home and safe in bed he couldn’t shake that feeling that something was wrong. Then he got the call.
Sarah was crying. “Please don’t be mad at me?”
His heart began to race. “About what?”
She sputtered out the rest so fast and he got most of it even in between the whimpering. She’d fallen just outside the restaurant but didn’t want to alarm him for nothing. His heart had immediately spiked the moment he heard her say she fell, but the last part nearly made him stop breathing. “I’m not feeling any kind of discomfort or anything but I had some pinkish discharge and my mom says I should go to the hospital just to play it safe.”
She hadn’t even finished saying it and he was already rushing through the restaurant with his keys in his hands. He called Sal who told him not to worry he’d take care of the restaurant for him. Memories of when Sarah had miscarried the first time slammed into him and he choked back the lump that was already forming in his throat.
~*~
It was pink not red. Sarah kept telling herself. Not like when she lost the first baby. And she wasn’t cramping or feeling any kind of discomfort. After checking everything, all of her and the baby’s vitals were fine but the fact that they wanted to keep her overnight for observation still made her very nervous. Were they not telling her something?
Sarah smiled trying to be brave and squeezed Angel’s hand. Everybody else that had come by, her mother, his parents, even Alex and Valerie had left hours earlier. Angel wanted to stay as late as possible but it was almost midnight and he looked so tired. “You should go home, honey. Get some rest.” His eyes were as anxious as she felt. “And try not to worry; the doctors said they’re just being cautious.”
He leaned in and kissed her. “No way, baby. I’m not leaving. I won’t get any sleep anyway. Not without you there by my side.”
She smiled. “But you have to. You’ll need to be rested so you can take me home tomorrow.”
He gestured to the recliner behind him. “I’ll rest right here. I’m not leaving you.”
As expected she had a hard time falling asleep. After a few hours Angel had knocked out on the recliner. The nurse came in to check her vitals. “So there really is no other reason why they’re keeping me, right?”
The nurse smiled reassuringly. “The fact that you spotted on the day you fell could very well be coincidental, but since it did happen on a same day, the doctor just didn’t want to take any chances.” The nurse touched her arm lightly and winked. “You’re fine.”