“Olivia,” she says again, her eyes wide. “There is something you need to see.”
She holds up a manila envelope, which she then tosses towards me on the desk.
“Where did you find this?” I don’t want to touch it.
“Just shut your mouth and open it,” she folds her arms across her chest and I can’t help but notice how worried she looks. I reach out to grab it and gently push open the top allowing its contents to spill onto Caleb’s desk. Letter’s, pictures……I study them for a minute, before I feel shock waves pass through my body.
“Oh my gosh! Cammie?” I look at her shaking my head. I am so utterly confused.
“I told you so,” she says. “Read them.”
“Lying on the desk are pictures of me…and Turner. There is the engagement shot, the one that we had professionally taken after he proposed and a shot of us at the zoo together during our first year of dating.
“I don’t understand—” I say blankly and Cammie, dear, detective Cammie, points to the pile of letters.
“Am I going to be upset?” I ask biting my lower lip.
“Very.”
I pull at the first letter. It is written by hand on plain white sheet of paper.
Hello Jo,
I know you hate it when I call you that, but I can’t resist.
It’s a strange request that you’ve propositioned me with,
and I must admit my curiosity is peaked. I don’t know what
trouble you’ve gotten yourself into now, but if its anything
like high school…..I’m in!
Joking aside, I do owe you one. Superbowl tickets are worth
my firstborn, so if you want me to take a pretty girl out on a
date, I’m not going to complain.
Anyway, gorgeous I’ll keep you updated on the
status. She better be smokin!
Turner
My wail of anger starts out as a groan and gradually escalates until I sound like a fire truck’s siren. Cammie looks worried, so I calm myself and stop.
“Next one.” I hold my hand out to her, and she places another sheet of paper between my fingers.
Jo-Jo,
Can’t believe this is happening! I mean what the Hell?
I’m sure you’ll be happy to hear that we are
getting married. I finally took your advice and asked her.
Wow! I guess I should say thanks. Thanks!
I’ll be in Florida visiting her next month, maybe we can all
do lunch; your man and O and I. Won’t kill you to talk to her!
I know there’s some kind of sordid past between the two
of you, but whatever it is, she’ll get over it. You are the
force that brought us together after all. Let’s talk
soon.
The Engaged,
Turner
“Fuck,” I say.
“That’s an understatement,” Cammie walks around to where I’m sitting and flips open Caleb’s copy machine.
“She set me up! She somehow knew I went to Texas and she had one of her friends make moves on me—to keep me away from Caleb!” my voice is getting louder now and Cammie pats me on the shoulder sympathetically.
“Turner is Leah’s friend. She used him and he didn’t even know.”
“Well, she gave him Superbowl tickets. Those aren’t easy to come by you know,” Cammie pushes the start button and a whirring noise fills the room.
“I am engaged to Leah’s stogy.”
I feel like balling my eyes out and breaking her filigree egg at the same time. How could I have been so stupid? No, I wasn’t stupid. There is no way I could have known that Turner and Leah were connected. But, I should have known that she wouldn’t trust me to stay out of Caleb’s life and that she would take extra precautions. I was planning a wedding with her precaution!
“Let’s burn her house down,” I say standing up.
“Now, now, Lucy, this is Caleb’s house, too. No need to punish him for what Leah’s done.” Despite the fact she’s supposed to be Ethel, she uses a Ricky Ricardo accent.
“I just saved her from a twenty- year jail sentence,” I moan. “I defended that disgusting, evil, treacherous little bitch.”
“Yes. Too bad you’re such a kick ass lawyer huh? Anyway, there’s more bad news…”
“More? How could there be more?”
She pulls a stick out of her back pocket and places it in my palm.
“What is it?” I choke, blinking back my tears. Cammie rolls her eyes.
“A fertility monitor.”
“Huh?”
“It’s a test stick used to monitor hormone levels present in your urine…so you can get preggers…”
I flip my hand over and drop it.
“They’re trying to have a baby?” I gasp. Why hadn’t he told me that?
“She is trying to have a baby. I found that little sucker hiding out in a ‘secret’ shoebox with those letters,” she nods to Turner’s correspondence, “and a fertility chart. If they were both trying to have a baby, don’t you think her baby gadgets would be in the bathroom cabinet?”
I stare at her blankly.
“O-livia! She is trying to get pregnant because you are back on the scene She’s scared of losing him. Caleb doesn’t know! You have to stop them before he is trapped forever.”
“Why? I can’t—” I say, miserably slipping into the chair.
“A fertility chart,” I repeat and I have no idea what that is.