Their bond had never dissipated, even though they’d found themselves pulled in different directions. Avery had been hell-bent on becoming a doctor, while Jess had her heart set on becoming an educator. Yet even though they’d run in different school crowds, they’d still managed to stay close. Avery had stood up at Jess’s wedding as her maid of honor. And when Jess lost her husband to a horrible accident mere weeks after her wedding, Avery had dropped everything to support her.
In recent years, Jess had turned her focus to empowering high school students hoping to attend the University of Michigan. As Director of Academic Success at the Ross Business School, Jess had been transforming lives and increasing African American enrollment at the college.
They’d saved each other countless times over the years, and Avery wouldn’t trade her friendship with Jess for anything or anyone.
Avery wanted to confess to her friend about El. Lord knew she needed to tell someone. But she didn’t want to hear what would inevitably come next. Jess wouldn’t be able to help herself. The other woman was firmly #TeamEl, and it would undoubtedly piss Avery off. The last thing she wanted to hear was her bestie waxing poetic about signs and connections and meant-to-be romance. That heartwarming love stuff was for romance novels. Avery’s life consisted of the heavy drama, lies and sex she had to dream up so that the viewers could get their dose on every Wednesday at eight o’clock. Yeah, no. She’d keep it to herself.
A tingling in her arm had her shaking it furiously in the air. She stood abruptly and swayed on her feet. When she took a step, a wave of dizziness stopped her in her tracks. She gripped the edge of the table.
I can do this, she told herself as she shuffled toward the bedroom. She had to be on her way to Detroit Metropolitan Airport within the hour in order to make the flight to LA.
“Have you thought about the position the school offered?” Jessica asked. “I think it’s a wonderful opportunity.”
“I thought about it, but it’s just not going to work for me.”
The University of Michigan had offered Avery an associate professor position in the Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing program when she’d arrived that morning. Although the idea was appealing on some level, she had no intention of taking it. With her hectic work schedule and establishing her foundation, it just wasn’t possible to add anything else to her plate. Besides, moving back to Ann Arbor at this stage in her career wasn’t an option for her, especially since her production company was based in Atlanta.
“I can’t take on anything else,” she continued. “Especially since I’m ready to hit ‘play’ on the Avery Montgomery Foundation we talked about.”
The paperwork had already been done and filed to start the nonprofit. But due to deadlines and shooting, Avery hadn’t been able to work on it.
Jess’s eyes lit up with excitement. “That’s wonderful. I’m so excited.”
One of Avery’s bucket list items included a foundation to help young girls fund and survive college. Although Avery had decided to go in a different direction, career-wise, the world needed more women in fields like molecular biology or biophysics. There were so many gifted young girls who wanted to attend college, but sometimes the lack of money—especially the prospect of overwhelming student loan debt—made it impossible for them to follow that dream.
Leaning against the wall, Avery sighed. “I’m going to need your help, Jess. This is huge. I purposely scheduled my vacation here so that I can get this going. I want Ann Arbor to be the home base for this project. When we get back from LA, I’m ready to hit the ground running on this, before shooting starts and I have to go back to Atlanta.”
“But wouldn’t it make sense to just cancel LA, rest a few days before you jump into this? You’ve been running too long and too hard, Avery. You can’t do everything. I worry about you.”
Avery smiled. “Don’t worry. I’ll have time to rest.”
As Avery neared the suite’s bedroom, she felt herself losing her balance. Forging ahead, she reached the threshold of the separate sleeping area and leaned against the door. Sucking in a deep breath, she glanced at her watch.
Jess’s voice was soft in her ear. “I can order you cottage cheese and crackers. Do you want tea?”
Shaking her head, she blinked up at Jessica. Only she couldn’t see her friend’s face. The only thing she saw was Jess’s eye. Panic welled up inside Avery. “Jess?”
“Yes?”
“I can’t see you.” Avery closed her eyes, then opened them again. There it was again. Jessica’s eye. “Seriously. I can’t see you.”
“Avery, that doesn’t make any sense. I’m right in front of you.”
“I know that,” Avery snapped. “Don’t you think I know that? I saw you a minute ago, and now I can’t see you. It’s like... I don’t know. My sight is gone.”
“We need to call the doctor,” Jessica said. “This isn’t normal.”
“Wait.” Avery closed her eyes. “No, I don’t have time to go see a doctor. There’s too much to do.”
“Avery, I think we should call El—”
“Hell, no. No way.”
“He’s on staff. He would know someone who can help?”
Sure, El worked at the university hospital, and so did most of his family of doctors, but she couldn’t see him again so soon. Their little encounter earlier had been painful enough. Hell, it was torture just thinking about him. It was better if she kept her distance.
Elwood was, for all intents and purposes, the love of her life. But she’d chosen to walk away from him. Their breakup had played out in such a way that had made him think she’d chosen her burgeoning writing career and the prospect of fame over him. Well, that’s essentially what he’d accused her of in the months after they split up. He had no idea that leaving him behind was the hardest decision she’d ever made, and being around him again would only open that wound.
El didn’t know the real reason she’d left him. He didn’t know that his brother, Dr. Lawrence Jackson, had played on her insecurities and she’d let him. She’d allowed another person to get into her head, to convince her that she wasn’t good enough, cultured enough, for El. In the end, she’d walked away from her heart because she’d actually believed it, and that was the greatest tragedy of all.
Finally opening her eyes again, she was mortified to find that she still couldn’t see more than Jess’s eye, but she kept her mouth shut. If she told her best friend, there was no way she’d be able to talk Jess out of calling 911.
The room swirled around her, and she let out a slow, shaky breath. “Jess?”
Then everything went black.
Elwood wasn’t a glutton for punishment. Usually he didn’t willingly put himself in harm’s way or make rash decisions that would affect his emotional wellbeing. He was a paid therapist, a medical doctor of psychiatry. It was his job to see to the mental welfare of his patients,
