Unexpectedly Expecting the Sheik's Baby - Elizabeth Lennox Page 0,48

settings and….”

Cassy followed Ella’s instructions and, a few minutes later, the call was apparently blocked. Hopefully she wouldn’t get any more of those calls.

“Great! Thanks for your help. Now tell me about your date last night. What happened?”

Ella groaned. “We went to a hockey game.”

“You love hockey. What’s wrong with that?”

She laughed. “No, you don’t understand. We didn’t go see the professionals play hockey. We went to see his four sons play hockey over at that ice rink off of Pickett Road. It was packed and there weren’t any seats.”

Cassy cringed. “Okay, so he has kids. Probably something he should have mentioned before last night but…was it fun?”

There was a moment of silence and Cassy waited, eager to hear what horrible thing had happened next. Obviously, good dating skills were not in their repertoire. “After the games…yes, plural…because each of the four kids had a hockey game, so we stood and watched four hockey games.” There was a moment of silence and Cassy could picture her friend pushing her blond hair out of her eyes and shaking her head. The woman really was more patient than a saint while in the moment, but afterwards, she would mumble cuss words for the next week. “Afterward, we went to the after-game pizza party.”

“Oh,” Cassy said, shaking her head. “Okay, so…”

“Yeah, so about a hundred pre-teen boys, pumped up on adrenaline, sugar, and caffeine, stuffing pizza in their faces – not always their own, mind you – and screaming back and forth about who shoved the hardest, who could stuff more pizza into his mouth, and, well, you get the picture.”

Cassy laughed. She couldn’t help it. Ella really did have the worst luck when it came to dating. “I’m sorry,” she said.

“I hear your amusement and I’m not impressed with your concern, my friend,” she admonished.

“I know. I’m sorry that I’m laughing. Your dates really do make the…” She stopped. Cassy was about to say that Ella’s dates made the rest of the male population look better, but then Nasir’s face popped into her mind and her heart ached again. “Well, yeah, you have bad dating luck.”

Cassy grunted but they moved on, talking about something else. When Cassy hung up a half hour later, she felt better and grabbed a book. It was only seven o’clock. How pathetic was it that she was in bed, trying to read but fighting to keep her eyes open?

The next thing she knew, she rolled over and her alarm was sounding. Looking around, she realized that it was five o’clock in the morning and she had to….

Rush to the bathroom again. Fast!

Just like yesterday morning, she emptied her stomach, heaving the contents into the toilet. It wasn’t as bad as yesterday, or at least, it didn’t last as long. But when it was all over, she sat back with her back against the tub and she stared at her toes, trying to will herself to move. Nothing happened. She just sat there, her mind trying to function slowly.

Pushing herself up, she showered and got dressed, eager to go into the office. She didn’t like taking time off, even if that time off was just a Saturday and Sunday. It revealed how pathetic her life really was because she didn’t have any hobbies, couldn’t get into reading a simple mystery novel and she was exhausted all the time. It was better to just bury her head in the sand. Or bury her head in work issues. She could handle work. Life? Not so much!

She munched on an apple as she walked into the quiet office. Tossing her apple core into the garbage can, she grabbed a mug and poured herself a cup of coffee, relieved that someone else had arrived before her and had started the coffee making process. Usually, she was the first one in each morning, but she’d been later than normal today because of her nausea.

She had just sat down at her desk when she took her first sip of the coffee.

And almost threw up again! It was horrible!

“Ugh!” she gasped and pushed her coffee cup away. She couldn’t drink that swill! Someone obviously didn’t know how to make a pot of coffee!

Her phone rang and she grabbed the receiver. At the same time, Cassy glanced longingly at her coffee cup but there was no way she could drink anything that bad. An hour later, she finally took a break and walked into the kitchen to dump her first cup of coffee so she could