You, Me, and Riley

chapter 2

I was sitting in my meeting when Sara knocked on the door and peeked her head in. "Mrs. Peters you have a phone call." She quietly said.

I squinted my eyes at her in confusion, Sara has never interrupted me over a phone call before. "I'm sure it can wait until after the meeting Sara, just take a name and number."

"But Mrs. Peters" she said shifting awkwardly "You told me you wanted to take this phone call no matter what you were doing. Are you sure you want me take a message?"

My head shot up fast as I remembered who the caller must be I can't believe I forgot! Not only had I been thinking of her nonstop, but every single day when I came home from work Hayden pestered me with questions begging me to tell her more about the 2-minute conversation we had. Part of me wished I had never told her!

"Brad do you think you can handle the rest of the meeting?" I said closing my notebooks and looking to my CFO. As I shut the door behind me I rolled my eyes at Sara and lightly shook her shoulder "Thank you so much Sara! I can't believe I forgot about that call."

"No problem Mrs. Peters" she said with a laugh "I left your phone on your desk.

I took a deep breath before I picked up the phone "Riley hi, how are you?" I said as softly as I could.

"H-hi Dana, I'm good." She stumbled out "how are you?"

"I'm doing really good sweetheart, especially now." I waited a pause before I said, "It's been awhile I didn't think you were going to call."

"That's because I wasn't going to." She said with a sigh. "And It's only been two days!"

"What changed?" I said chuckling.

"I got curious."

"About?"

"Why a billionaire CEO wanted me to call her. You have to admit coming from my position it's a little odd." She said with a laugh.

"I can see why you might think that." I said laughing with her. "What are you doing right now? I'm just about ready to go home for the night so if you're free to meet me at my office we can talk, and I'll explain why I wanted you to call me. We can maybe get something to eat"

The line went silent for what felt like hours before she said "Ok, I'll be there in 10." And hung up.

I quickly called Hayden and told her that Riley was on the way to the office and that she needed to bring food and herself to the building ASAP. I have never heard my wife so panicked before.

"Mrs. Peters you have a guest." Sara said knocking on my door 10 minutes later.

"Thank you, Sara, you can head home for the night." I said with a smile. I glanced from Sara to the small girl who was watching me from the corner of her eyes "Come on in Riley take a seat." As she sat down I noticed something off about her eye. "Is that a—Riley did you get hurt in that fight!?"

"It's not a big deal, I took an elbow." She said lightly touching her face. "just a black eye you can barely see it with concealer on."

"Follow me please." I said taking her hand and leading her to the bathroom connected to my office, "I want to take the makeup off and get a better look at it." Without thinking I picked her up and set her on the counter as I grabbed a towel to clean her face.

"Seriously Dana." She said as she got over the shock of being picked up and turned her face away "It's fine."

I wet the hand towel and grabbed her chin turning her face towards me "don't fight me on this." I said as I started to lightly clean off the makeup. "you will lose. Why didn't you tell me about this when I asked? Are you hurt anywhere else?"

"It's just a black eye Dana, and no I'm not hurt anywhere else." She said as she hid her hand behind her back.

I pretended not to notice that as I said, "Ok but you promise to tell me if you are."

"eye-ye captain!" she said with an eye roll. I pull her off the counter and lightly push her back into the room just as Hayden is walking in with our dinners.

"Hi babe." I said walking over to give Hayden a kiss. I was cheeked as Hayden passed me the food and sat in the chair next to a once again quiet Riley.

"Riley this is my wife Hayden, Hayden this is Riley." Hayden smiled as she stuck her hand out to Riley to shake. I watched as Riley slid her hand into Hayden's and winced as they shook. Neither Hayden or I missed it.

"Riley, I thought you said nothing else was hurt." I said gently she looked at us with big nervous eyes "please honey we just want to help."

"Can I look at your hand sweaty?" Hayden asked kneeling in front of Riley, "I'm a doctor up at the hospital, I might be able to tell if something is wrong from here." Riley slowly put her arm into Hayden's outstretched hands and watched as Hayden rolled up her sleeves. Hayden ran her fingers up and down Riley's arm before slowly turning it over to look at her wrist. "I don't like the discoloration near the bone." She said quietly to me "There's not too much swelling but that could be for any number of reasons. I don't want to ask her to move any fingers without the proper equipment to test it."

"So you're saying—" I said

"I think it needs to be looked at." She whispered rolling down Riley's sleeve and turning to her. "Alright sweetheart. I think we should eat our diner real quick and then we need to take a trip to the hospital."

"No please no." She said as tears began to fill her eyes.

"Why sweetheart? What's so bad about the hospital?" Hayden asked as I began to set up dinner. This was more her area of expertise if it was up to me I would just say suck it up buttercup and call it a night. Of course, then we might end up dragging her into the ER kicking and screaming—so like I said I'll leave it to Hayden.

"I just don't like it, it's so cold and it smells weird, and it's too loud. And I'm always alone." She said with tears in her eyes.

"Always?" I asked whirling around to face her. What does she mean by always? Has she been in the hospital before?

"Dana." Hayden said with a now is not the time look. "Well how about this, Dana and I will stay with you the whole time, we will make sure you have lots of blankets, and I'll even bring my headphones, so you can listen to music."

"Promise?" Riley asked after a few seconds of thought.

"Promise." Hayden said holding out her pinky finger.