Searching For His Omega - Harper B. Cole Page 0,20
it to his contacts. But as he always came into the Café Om, I’d never bothered getting his. Or was it because I was too shy? Didn’t want to admit that he’d burrowed into my heart and I needed to reach out even after he’d gone home?
My stomach rumbled, and I shuffled into the kitchen and grabbed a packet of crackers. But one look at them had me shoving my head over the toilet and heaving out what was left in my gut.
Collapsing into bed and huddling under the covers had me thinking I couldn’t go into work today. I’ve picked up a nasty bug. Probably that kid who sneezed on me at the laundromat. I hadn’t taken a day off since before filming started, so I was entitled to a sick day.
Though our episode of Chet’s program hadn’t aired, word had gotten around, and we’d had people from the surrounding towns gawking and taking selfies outside. I’d had the staff on the sidewalk offering samples of our baked goods. Our boxes of assorted cookies sold by mid-afternoon, and I’d had to increase our coffee order from the plantation.
And it wasn’t just Café Om whose business was booming. The B&B’s were fully booked and the gift and flower shops had hired more staff, while the local historical society was offering tours where participants took a carriage ride around town.
But as I typed a message to Charlie, my fingers hovered and froze over the phone. Ignoring the half-finished sentence, I did an internet search for the anxiety meds I’d been on and scrolled through the contraindications. And there it was! Shit!
‘May interfere with heat suppressants!’ Fuck my life!
Tossing the phone aside, I pulled the covers over my head. Perhaps if I hide from the world, it will go away. But an image of my therapist appeared, and she was saying how proud she was of the work I’d done since the accident. I couldn’t disappoint her, but more importantly, I couldn’t let me down. Pretending I wasn’t pregnant wasn’t going to improve the chaos in my belly and the mind-fucking that was happening in my head.
I texted Charlie and said I was taking two days off, apologized for the short notice, and asked if he could cope. He assured me he could and told me to enjoy myself. Right, like that was going to happen!
Next step, get clean and brush teeth. That took a while as I hauled a plastic stool into the shower cubicle and let the water wash over me.
There was no way I could wander into the local pharmacy and buy a pregnancy test. I’d only been in there once since I arrived, and by the time I left, the whole town knew what toothpaste I used, and I’d been informed when I was paying, I was using the wrong shampoo as I had dry hair.
By mid-morning, I’d managed to keep down a cup of tea and a piece of dry toast and was ready to visit not the next town, but one over an hour away. And during the drive, I listened to the local radio and refused to think about the one person I needed to contact.
Saying I didn’t have his number wasn’t an excuse. The production company card was in the café office or I could contact Abrar. No way was I talking to him. He was a smart businessman, but he also loved matchmaking, and if he had an inkling Chet and I had… he’d never let me forget it.
With a baseball cap pulled low and a pair of sunglasses perched on my nose, I snuck into the pharmacy having no idea where pregnancy tests were located or what they looked like. A young assistant appeared at my elbow and asked, “Can I help you?”
I grabbed the first thing on the shelf. Got six of them and squeaked, “No, I’m fine.”
The guy stared at the bottles in my basket and took a step back. “Okay, I’ll leave you to it.” That was weird. But as I peered at the words in huge letters that spelled out, ‘Head Lice Shampoo’, I understood. Good. Now people might leave me alone.
When I finally found what I was looking for, I shoved three different tests in the basket and sidled up to the checkout. The woman leaned back, and I guessed she was trying to put as much distance between the two of us as possible. She hardly took any notice of what I’d bought. I uttered a