Page 61 of Bridesmaid Undercover
I keep my arm on Brody, trying to prevent him from rolling around, but it feels impossible from the way Everly is driving. When she takes a quick turn, he comes to slightly, only to groan as his hand falls to his stomach. I’m worried he might puke. I’ve seen him puke before. I know he has a sensitive stomach, and the last thing I want is for him to throw up all over Everly’s car—which she clearly keeps pristinely clean given there is not one speck of dirt on the floor.
“Do you have a bag?” I ask.
“Only a reusable one,” she says.
“Hand it to me.”
She reaches in her glove compartment and pulls out a reusable bag. When she hands it to me, I quickly unfold it and open it up just as Brody groans again. Yup, he’s going to throw up.
“Buddy, if you can hear me, I have a bag right here by your mouth if you need to?—”
A bump in the road causes his torso to lift off the seat, his eyes flash open and, before I can even think of an escape plan, his cheeks puff and he unleashes vomit right on my chest.
“Motherfucker,” I shout as throw-up seeps into my shirt and clings to my skin.
Brody collapses back to the seat as Everly screams in horror.
“Oh my God, did he get it all over my car?” She rolls down the windows, the smell so putrid that I bring the bag to my mouth.
“No,” I say, trying to take small breaths. “He got it on me.”
I catch her glance over her shoulder for a moment, a look of horror crossing her features before she turns back to look at the road.
“Oh my God, that smells so bad.”
“Yeah, try having it cling to your chest hair,” I say as my stomach roils. “Fuck, I might puke.”
“Don’t. I can’t have two pukes in my car.”
“Trust me,” I groan as I stick my head out the window. “It’s not on your car. It’s on me.”
“Thank you,”I say to the male nurse who gave me a set of scrubs to change into. “I really appreciate it.”
“Not a problem,” he says as I head back into the waiting room where Everly is sitting.
When she looks up and spots me, a small smile crosses her face. “Better?”
“Much.” I take the seat next to her and slouch down.
The moment we brought Brody in, they put him onto a gurney and then took him into an exam room for testing. They knew right away that his appendix had burst, and they rushed him into surgery. We called Maggie, and she’s currently stuck in traffic, which is clearly her worst-case scenario.
“Just got off the phone with Maggie again. She’s about an hour away. Pretty sure she’s defying all speed limits to get here.”
“Yeah, I can imagine,” I say as I rub my hand over my jaw. “Fuck, I did not see that coming.”
“Me neither,” Everly says.
“I thought he was just being a dick. Like he was trying to egg me on or something during that whole meeting. Come to find out, the man was fucking delirious.”
“I mean, I guess it’s better than thinking he was being a dick.”
“True,” I say. “We need to somehow let Maple know about this, because that was a disaster, Everly.”
“It wasn’t great,” she says softly.
I sigh heavily. “She barely looked at me. She didn’t even give me the time of day. When we broke up, we talked about our futures and mutually agreed on what to do. I don’t understand why she’s so hurt.” I turn to Everly. “Did she tell you anything?”
“Not really,” she answers. “Just that she wasn’t really happy with how things ended.”
