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And there it was…
That big old elephant came stomping right through the room to take a pachydermian-sized dump all over a perfectly good party.
Iris sighed. “So, I’m guessing everyone here knows about the Trystan thing?”
“Oh my God. I’m so sorry, Iris. You probably don’t want to talk about it. You don’t have to. I wasn’t going to mention it, but my pregnancy brain is a foggy bitch lately.” Ty palmed his distressed wife’s nape and appeared to give it a gentle squeeze. Vicki leaned against him gratefully.
“It’s fine, Vicki,” Iris said, keeping her voice gentle. Because it really was fine. Nobody in this room had any malice in their hearts toward her. She’d sensed that almost immediately, and she was so grateful Colby had persuaded her to join them tonight. “It’s impossible to avoid the subject and, really, this is the first time I’ve been out since… everything. And it’s unrealistic to think people won’t mention it, or be curious about it. I just hate that it’s probably going to be the most interesting thing about me from now for eternity.”
“Well, that’s bollocks,” Vicki said vehemently, and Bella and Colby—who had drifted over along with everyone else when the conversation had become awkward—made sounds of agreement. “You will not let what happened between you and that man define who and what you are, Iris. We refuse to allow that. You hear me?”
Iris’s eyes misted as the unexpected kindness from these lovely people threatened to completely overwhelm her. She inhaled deeply and said, her voice a little shaky, “So, Miles Hollingsworth is your brother? Small world, isn’t it?”
Iris had a wonderful evening. And when she and Colby finally left many hours later, everyone present had insisted she come to the next family night. Iris left feeling like she could become real friends with these people. It was an exciting, giddying prospect, and for the first time in weeks it felt like something in her life was going right.
Until it all came crashing down when—in the Uber on the way home—Iris’s phone started dinging repeatedly. Dread immediately started eating away at her stomach lining again, recent experience having taught her that when her phone started blowing up, it almost always signaled some new catastrophe or the other.
“What’s going on?” Colby asked and Iris shrugged.
“I’m not sure,” she whispered, digging her phone out of her handbag. At least twenty messages from her parents, Robbie, her former flatmates, and a few of her clients. In addition to five missed calls from her mother, one from Robbie and several from Chance.
This couldn’t be good.
Mum
Put on Mike Holmes. RHGT NPW!!
Robbie
ARE YOU WATCHING THIS?! ?? ???? ????
Nora
OMG, Iris. Are you watching H@H? Girl, this is epic.
The rest were of a similar vein. Not as awful as Iris had been anticipating but baffling nonetheless.
Colby’s phone started buzzing and beeping and pinging as well, and when she checked, she grimaced.
“I’m getting similar messages from Jazz and Vicki and the rest, and one from Chance, who says… and I quote—tell Iris to brace herself.”
“Iris, maybe we should wait for Chance to come home to fill us in, before we…”
“No, we’re watching it right now,” Iris interrupted her friend a little rudely—resolve and determination adding steel to her voice. Colby sighed, and sat down next to Iris on the living room love seat. She reached for the remote.
“It’s live, about half an hour into the show. Do you want to watch it from the beginning?” Iris hesitated and then nodded.
“Yes.” Her voice had lost all its resolve and now emerged on a nervous whisper.
Colby tuned in to Holmes @ Home and Iris tensed when the cheerful theme music came on as she realized that Colby was right. They should have waited for Chance to come home and tell her exactly what went down. Or at the very least, Iris should’ve returned her mother’s call before sitting down to watch.
That way she would at least be prepared for whatever she was about to see. Instead, she was a nervous wreck, an emotional mess expecting the absolute worst.
She was so preoccupied and anxious that she missed Mike Holmes’s usual hyper-enthusiastic opening chatter. She was staring down at the tightly clenched fists in her lap, barely recognizing them as her own, while she focused on her breathing in an attempt to remain calm.
“Iris?” Colby’s concerned voice penetrated Iris’s blooming haze of panic and jerked her back to the present.
“I’m fine,” she said on a soft exhalation of breath. “Just needed a moment.”
