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“Okay, okay, I get it. She likes blue Gatorade the best and prefers saltless Saltines. I’ll never know why. Thank you for looking after her. Can you have her text me later today, just to check in?”
“As long as she’s feeling up to it, I’ll pass along the message.”
“Strict, aren’t you? I think Charlotte needs that. Well, maybe I’ll talk to you again sometime soon then. Bye, Hayden.”
And at that, the line went dead.
Phone in hand, I walked back to her room, already gone longer than I had planned.
Charlotte was reclining against her pillows, eyes closed. I hated to disturb her, but I knew she’d want to call her boss.
“Hey. Here’s your phone.”
I handed it to her as her eyes opened.
“Oh, thanks. Who were you talking to out there?”
Busted.
“Austin called your phone, it… accidentally got answered while I was taking it out of your bag. He was worried, so I let him know you were okay, and that you’d reach out later if you felt up to it. It looked like there might have been a lot of worried people on there, but take it easy with the outside contact. You need to rest.”
Charlotte nodded.
“I need to call Paula, and I think that might take a lot out of me. I feel so bad leaving her in a lurch on my project when we really need to replace all that money…”
“You rested and well will be more help than you would be today.”
She nodded. “You’re right. Okay, well, I better make this call.”
That was my cue.
“I’m going to go order some supplies. A doctor will be here to examine you in a little over an hour. I wasn’t sure you’d be up for leaving the house.”
Her eyes flew to mine. “You didn’t need to do that.”
“I know. Make your call.”
And with that, I headed to the kitchen to give her some privacy, putting in a delivery order for all manner of blue Gatorades and saltless crackers, as well as sending a text to Leslie to get me contact information for Charlotte’s boss. I may not have earned that full charitable committee duty yet, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t have influence with the big boss and how we directed our funds. I might be able to make one of Charlotte’s worries disappear.
And I won’t spend too much time dwelling on why I cared so much.
Chapter
Twelve
Charlotte
I wasn’t good at being sick on a normal day, but when I felt like my future at the IBA hung in the balance, it was especially difficult to have my body disobey me.
Paula was incredibly understanding when I got her on the phone. She forbade me from sending a follow-up email detailing the to-do items I relayed to her and told me she wouldn’t be answering any calls from me to check in until tomorrow. I wasn’t used to care and concern for my well-being from a role model. I once had to work at the bookstore with a 102-degree fever—pre-pandemic, of course—because my parents couldn’t find any coverage and they were away at a trade show. The store being closed instead just wasn’t an option in their eyes.
I was dozing lightly after my phone call when I heard a knock at my door.
“Charlotte? Dr. Nguyen is here. If you’re ready to see him?”
I pushed myself up in the bed so my back was against the headboards. “Yeah, sure, send him on in.”
Hayden moved aside so a kindly older man with greying hair, wire glasses, and kind eyes could walk into the room.
