They sat across each other and he stared at the way Willa was staring at the menu with a smile on her lips. He sighed, he knew there were times he wanted to run away from home, away from the two most nagging women he had ever seen in his life, but the same way he wanted that, that’s how much he loved them. And it irked him to know that Willa was in pain but there was nothing he could do about that. He smiled when their eyes met and she put the menu across the table, “Do you remember when this meal used to be Mom’s favorite?”
She asked with a hint of laughter and Jack chuckled as he nodded his head, “How could I ever forget that time? We had to eat that meal almost every week, it was so tiring, and I can’t stop thanking the day she vomited after she ate it, because that was the day she officially hated the meal.” They burst out laughing and a few eyes turned to look at them. On the tables mostly were teenagers, some on a date while some with their friends as they ate all the junky foods their eyes could get on. And there were a few couple, he was certain some people will think he was a couple with Willa too, and that made him grin.
“What are you smiling at? Do you remember your girlfriend?” She asked with a hint of laughter and when his eyes turned to look at her, she winked at him.
He waved his hand dismissively at her as he laughed, “I don’t know what’s wrong with you. Has someone ever told you that your wink is the worst wink on earth? You’re not serious.”
When the waiter came to their table to ask about their order, they gave out Mom’s favorite with smiles on their faces and Willa was so persistent that Jack let her choose the drinks for them. “No, no one has ever told me that because no one was blessed enough to see the eccentric wink of Willa Roberts, you know? That’s not what we’re talking about…your girlfriend, do you remember her? Or perhaps you wished she were here with you?” She asked and grinned, Jack knew since she started this talk she would never let him alone until he said something about her girlfriend and if he said he didn’t have one, she wouldn’t believe him either. And he knew in some other ways, this was her way of stopping him from asking her what was wrong with her.
“I don’t know how many times I’m going to tell you that I don’t have a girlfriend, Willa. Why will I lie to you if I have one? I just thought that some people here will think that you’re my wife, seeing the bump on your stomach.” The chortle that escaped Willa’s lips forced some few people to turn to look at her and Jack wanted the ground to swallow him whole. “Willa!” He whispered, “Lower your voice please.”
Willa had so much trouble before she stopped herself from laughing and when the waiter brought their food, with a mouthful of food she replied him, “Whoever thinks that I’m your wife has got to be the most foolish person. How can I be your wife? The whole me? That’s even an insult.” She shook her head as if the thought is so ridiculous to even her ears, “The boy that can’t even bring out his relationship to his family, I feel insulted.” She punched his arm that was on the table and kept on giggling softly. It seemed as though what he had said had broken her out of her shell, it made it felt better.
“What did you say? And who’s the boy?” He wondered why Willa still saw him as the small boy she had grown up with. But seeing the way she was laughing and the way her face was glowing with so much happiness was enough for his heart.
“You’re the boy, I know you’re afraid of what Mom and Dad will say that’s why you haven’t told them that you love Clara, right?” The way she spoke nonchalantly about it was as if what she had said was not the secret Jack fought with his life to keep away from his family at all cost. He stared at her mouth agape, how the hell did she know about this?
“What are you talking about, Willa?” He palmed his face, placing down his spoon. “I mean, how did you find out?”
“You can’t hide a secret forever, Jack. I found out a long time ago, okay maybe not really found out, but I got some hints and I caught you guys in the kitchen the day you came back from Florida, remember?” He could only nod his head, the way Willa acted and carried herself in matters was beyond him, she hadn’t even shown a sign to him that she had seen them that day. And he was certain that if it wasn’t because she wanted to deviate his attention away from her, nothing could make her say these words out.
He sighed and she smiled at him, “Eat your meal before it gets cold, I won’t tell this to Mom, I promise.”
He did as she said and after a while, he figured that he had to talk about this to Willa since she had known, he had been holding up everything within him for so long. “I’ve loved her for a very long time now, Willa. I’m afraid of what Mom and Dad will say about this, especially him. They can fire her mother and that will be what I can’t forgive them for.”
Willa sipped her juice and placed down the cup, she stared at him with a soft smile and nodded her head. “You don’t want them to hurt her or her mother, right?” He nodded his head like the little boy she had always thought he was. “You want to protect her and at the same time, want her to be by your side?”
“How do you know about this all? It pains me a lot that I can’t publicly show my affection to her, her Mother doesn’t even know.” From where he sat, Jack heard a voice that was muffled with sadness and it felt as though he had known that voice. ‘Can you please bring me anything that has peanut and garlic?’ It was a woman’s voice, and she was speaking to the waiter. The way she sounded was enough to tell everyone that heard her that she had cried to her satisfaction.
He shrugged his shoulders, he didn’t even know why amidst all these voices around them, it was only her voice that got to his ear. “I don’t know what to say to you, Jack. But why don’t you be a man? Fight for the woman you love.” Willa’s voice brought him away from his thoughts and he let go because he knew if it was Anna, which his mind was telling him was her, she wouldn’t have ordered these two things knowing so well that she was addicted to them, right? She wouldn’t be that stupid at least.
“You know what Dad will do, Willa. He’d ask me to choose between Clara and my profession. If I choose her, then I’d have to work under him. If I choose my profession, he’d make sure that I’ll never see her again.” That would be the less mean way he would have to deal with him, they both knew.
They spoke about Clara for a few more minutes until Willa promised him that she would have to think about it, and they got talking about her preparations for welcoming her baby. Or better, she ranted about her plans for her unborn baby and Jack could undoubtedly see the love she had for the bump that wasn’t even there yet. “I want to go and check the gender but I’m nervous. What if it’s not going to be the one I want?” She asked with a soft gleam in her eyes and Jack was about to ask her which one she wanted amongst the two genders when he heard a shriek behind them, and he quickly turned.
“Ma’am? Are you alright?!” A female waiter was standing above her head and he couldn’t see the way that was coughing and panting for her breath. Two more waiters rushed toward them and one of them spoke, “Who is this woman? Is she alright?” That had caught the attention of everyone as she panted for her breath, coughed and they all knew that it wouldn’t be long before she passed out.
“Isn’t that Anna Brayden? Is she alright?” One among the customers asked, and that was when everyone’s attention got to her faces and the phones they had brought out as they started taking pictures and videos of her was their own way of confirming she was the one.
Jack didn’t know when he stood up and he rushed to the table, “What did she order for?” He asked frantically as he walked up to where she sat and placed his arms around her shoulders, she wasn’t even looking at him.
“She didn’t specify, she only told me that I should bring whatever has peanut and garlic and I…” he didn’t have time to even finish listening to what the waiter had to say. Jack pulled her face to his body to block the cameras from getting to her face and they turned their attention back to him. Who was this guy trying to protect her? They murmured and he knew he had to take her away from here, to the hospital before the paparazzi arrived.
He leaned down and scooped her into his arms as she frantically coughed, a few minutes away from losing her consciousness and when he saw the way she looked, he knew he had to rush her to the hospital so long as he wanted to save her life. “Willa, could you take the cab back home please?” He said Willa that was now standing beside him, she looked worried as well.
“Yes, Jack. Will you be alright? I mean, the two of you will be fine, don’t you need any of my help?” He shook his head as he maneuvered amidst the crowd and got out of the restaurant. He put Anna in the back of the car and ran to the driver’s seat. He kept turning to see the way she was as he drove so fast until he arrived at the nearest hospital and he scooped her back into his arms again, running inside the hospital.
“Hang in there, okay?” She painfully opened her eyes and stared at his worried face for a moment before she clasped them back shot and from the way her body slackened on his, Jack knew it was over, she had already her consciousness. He shouted at the nurse he had seen, and they wheeled her to the emergency room, he prayed that no paparazzi knew where she had been taken to, because he was certain the news will reach them.
He kept facing to and fro as the doctors tried so hard in saving Anna’s life, all that while he cursed himself for not turning back to see who had ordered for the combination because if he had, he would’ve been able to save her from getting hurt. The doctor walked out, and he stared at him, “What’s her condition now, Doctor?” He asked in one breath and the doctor tapped his shoulder to calm him down.
“Calm down, she’s fine now, out of danger at least. We’ve sedated her and she’ll wake up by tomorrow. But she has to be taken care of, because from what we’ve understood is that she ate those things she was allergic to because due to self-harm, so that means her mental health is at stake and someone needs to stay with her throughout the night. Because she might wake up in the middle of the night and anything can happen if she did without someone beside her and if we don’t reach her in time.”
They spoke with the doctor and Jack was surprised to know that all he wanted now was for him to see her and when the nurses wheeled her out of the emergency to the private VIP room, he found himself slowly staring at her pale face and his heart twitched with a pain he didn’t know of. What was wrong with Anna? Why would she want to harm herself?