Avery should have been on cloud nine, celebrating her accomplishments with wine, glitz and glamour, but instead she was stuck in a hospital bed. In Ann Arbor. With no vision. In hindsight, she should have known better than to get excited because, without fail, something always happened to douse her dreams with gasoline and light them with a match. It had happened with the ducks when she was a kid; it had happened today when she’d stroked out.
Swallowing, Avery tried not to cry again. But when she felt the wetness drizzle down her cheek, she accepted that she’d lost that battle.
“I’m scared,” she murmured to anyone and no one.
“I know.”
It was Jess. It was always Jess. And Avery was grateful because she had someone by her side. “Thank you for being here.”
She heard light footsteps approach the bed and instinctively turned toward them. The good news was that she wasn’t completely in the dark. She registered light and could vaguely make out a shadow standing to her left where Jess’s voice came from.
“I wouldn’t go anywhere, Avery. You have to know that.”
Jess was crying. Or had been crying. Avery couldn’t see her face, but the soft whisper and tremble in her friend’s voice told her so. “Do I look bad? Like, if you didn’t know I was blind, could you tell?”
Avery felt the cool tips of Jess’s fingers as they laced with hers. Squeezing her hand, Jess told her, “You look beautiful, girlfriend.” Jess smoothed a hand down the back of her head. “There. Now your hair is right back in place. I wouldn’t be able to tell.”
“I hurt El.” Avery didn’t want to imagine El’s face when she’d treated him so horribly earlier. He’d been there to help her, to support her, and she’d told him she hated him. It couldn’t be further from the truth.
“El knows you,” Jess said. “He’s not hurt.”
How could she know that? El was a master of the poker face. He was paid to not react, but she knew when things affected him, when he was touched by a patient or devastated by an action. She knew when he was angry. She didn’t have to see him to know that he’d been pissed when he left her. After all, he hadn’t been back. Granted, it hadn’t been long. As far as she could tell, it had only been a few hours since he’d walked out. But it was a few hours too long when she needed him.
“I didn’t mean it,” Avery said. “I was just frustrated.”
El had seen her at her best and at her worst. But she’d tried to never take her irritation with the people in her world out on him. He was too good for that. He’d only ever treated her with respect. He deserved more from her than her wrath.
Drawing her bottom lip between her teeth, she shrugged. No sense in worrying about it. He was gone, and it was just her and Jess. “What am I going to do, Jess?”
“You’re going to fight, Avery. This is temporary.”
“You don’t know that, Jess. I’ve studied medicine. The doctors don’t know. There’s no way to know. The longer I’m without sight, the...” Avery couldn’t finish the thought. Truth was, most people who lose their vision after a stroke didn’t fully regain their sight. Sure, she knew that some stroke survivors did experience some recovery but there was no way to tell if she’d be one of those patients. “What the hell am I going to do?”
Jess sighed. “We’re going to do everything we can. Call in specialists, go to OT. There are certain surgeries that can...we can do whatever has to be done.”
Avery turned away from the hopefulness in her friend’s voice. Closing her eyes, she finally let the sob that had been threatening to break free pierce the air. “I’m a writer. If I wasn’t a writer, I’d be a molecular freakin’ biologist or a doctor. All require vision. How am I supposed to turn in my scripts? How can I even do the legwork for my foundation? I can’t drive, Luke isn’t here and you have a job. Tell me how this is going to work, Jess.”
The tears were coming faster now. She felt them drizzle down her face to her ears. Even if she wanted to stop crying, she wasn’t sure she’d be able to. The sound that tore from her throat was more of a wail, almost as if someone was physically hurting her. Only there was no tactile pain. Everything she felt, the inner turmoil racking her body, was like someone taking a fist and squeezing the life out of her heart. Everything that she’d worked for was on the verge of going up in smoke.
Then Avery felt warmth as Jess wrapped her arms around her and held on tightly, rocking her back and forth, whispering broken words of comfort through her own tears. “Avery, it’s going to be alright. I’ve already talked to my boss. He has granted me additional leave time to stay with you. You’re going to be okay. You have to believe that.”
Avery didn’t have to believe anything. She just wanted to. Jess was the positive one. That positivity had remained even after the death of her husband, her first love. “Jess, I wish I had some of your positivity. But I know science. I know medicine. I breathed both for years. I know cell processes and codes. And I know how to write one hell of a cliffhanger.”
What she didn’t know was how to maintain her public persona, keep her job and do it without the world knowing she couldn’t see.
“You know the story, Avery. You don’t have to see to tell it. I’ll help you.”
The dread in the pit of her stomach prevented her from smiling, even as her heart welled with love for her bestie. “I know, Jess. You always help me. But you won’t be able to do that if you don’t get some rest. I thought I told you to go get some rest.”
It had to be late, or early the next morning. Hours had passed since the Black Celebratory. And Jess obviously hadn’t listened to her when she’d told her to leave.
“And I already told you I’m not leaving you here,” Jess countered.
Avery shook her head. “Have you reached my parents?”
“No, not yet. You know your parents don’t know how to work the wi-fi. With them being on the ship, I’m betting we won’t hear from them until they dock in Seattle.”
“It’s just as well. Let them enjoy their vacation.”
Even though Avery loved her parents dearly and they doted on her, there was really nothing they could do for her. She wanted them to enjoy their anniversary trip, an eleven-day Alaskan cruise. Being married for thirty-five years was nothing to scoff at, and she’d been glad to be able to send them on their dream trip. To see them still in love with each other after all that time warmed Avery’s heart.
Phillip and Janice Montgomery had Avery late in life. Neither thought they’d find love again after disastrous first marriages, but they had. They’d married, expecting to travel the world but...surprise! Avery had been the unexpected wrench in their plans. Yet they’d never made her feel unwanted. So she’d made it her mission to give them everything they wanted. That’s why she’d paid off their mortgage before she even bought herself a home. That’s why she’d always take care of them. Two months ago, her father celebrated his seventy-fifth birthday and her mother would turn seventy-one in October. It was high time for them to enjoy life.
“I’ll keep trying,” Jess said. “And I’ll make sure they get here. Don’t worry.”
Avery had finally convinced her parents to move to Atlanta with her a year ago. Her older siblings were useless and failed to even call their father to check on him. She felt better with her mother and father near her. Of course, they’d insisted on keeping their house in Ann Arbor for when they came back to visit friends.
“Why don’t you go home and sleep in a real bed,