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“Cheers,” everybody toasts in unison, and I clink glasses with Jane.
“And to your company’s success,” she adds in my ear, twisting the knife just a little deeper in the wound.
Swallowing, I angle myself toward Wade when I feel Jane leaning on me. I glance at her and notice that her skin has gone ghostly pale. Beads of sweat are forming on her forehead.
“Are you ok—”
Jane collapses onto me, and I catch her just in time. Shouts and murmurs erupt around us, and people are gathering around me, but all I can focus on is Jane.
“Jane, what’s happening?” I plead.
Her neck is now blotched with red circles, and her breathing is coming in quick gasps. She points to her throat with her right hand.
“She can’t breathe,” I yell to no one in particular. “Call 911!”
Marcie Rosemont kneels next to me. “She’s having an allergic reaction. What is she allergic to?”
“Seafood, shellfish,” I blurt. My mind whirls, trying to locate what she could have eaten with fish in it. There was none on the menu.
“I noticed drops of fish sauce on our plates,” Roxy says, a concerned look clouding her face.
“Oh, mon dieu,” Agnes cries, appearing out of nowhere. She looks more distressed than I’ve ever seen her. “I told zem not to put anything with seafood on ze menu. I was very clear.”
“Damn it. Look in her bag,” I tell Marcie. “She might have an EpiPen.”
Seconds later, she comes back empty-handed. “She doesn’t have one,” she says, propping Jane’s legs up.
I spring to my feet. “Anyone have an EpiPen?”
Jennifer, Max’s girlfriend, hurtles forward with a yellow stick. “Here.”
“I’ll do it,” Marcie says, as if seeing the panic in my eyes. Remembering she’s in med school, I hand her the pen. She probably knows how to use it more than I do.
I take Marcie’s place, lifting Jane’s legs up while caressing her hair, whispering that it’s going to be okay.
Marcie plants the stick in Jane’s thigh. At first, it doesn’t seem to be working, but then her breathing starts to slow, and she sucks in a deep breath.
My head falls on her chest in relief. I can’t believe I nearly lost her.
During the ambulance ride to the emergency room, I refuse to release Jane’s hand, and she gives me a little squeeze as we’re arriving, as if to tell me she’s feeling better.
Once the ambulance pulls up to the curb, the paramedics lift her up onto a gurney, and I follow as they wheel her inside. My heart pounds faster with every step.
“Colton,” Jane mumbles in a weak voice as we’re walking.
“Jane,” I say, coming closer. “It’s going to be all right. You had an allergic reaction, but we’re at the hospital now. They’ll take care of you. You’re going to be okay.” I plant a swift kiss on her lips, unable to bear the fact that my wife is being rushed into the hospital. She needs to know that I love her.
“Colton,” she whimpers again, her brows slightly furrowing.
“Don’t try to speak now,” I say. “Everything will be fine, and I’ll be right here. I love you.”
We cross into an examination room, and the nurses hook her up to IV fluids and elevate her legs. They tell me to wait in the corner, and that’s what I do. I only leave the room when I get a text from Wade.
“Is she okay?” he asks when I meet him in the lobby. He’s standing with Roxy, Andrew, Max, Jennifer, Agnes, and the Rosemont family.
I rake a hand through my hair. “I think so. Thank you for helping her,” I say to both Jennifer and Marcie. “They’re giving her fluids and monitoring her now, but it looks like she’s mostly out of the woods.”
They all sigh in relief.
