When the phone rings again I jump up out of bed and rush down the hall. It’s a good thing the cameramen are sleeping or they’d have a nice shot of me in my underwear right now.
“Hello,” I bark into the receiver, not worrying about the person on the other end.
“Hi, I’m looking for Joshua Wilson.”
“This is Joshua, who is this?”
“My name is Edna and I’m calling from Cedars-Sinai to let you know that Jules Maxwell is in labor and she’s asking for you.”
I pinch the bridge of my nose, a new habit that I’ve picked up recently from being on set with my last film, and sigh. “I’m not the baby’s father,” I tell the nurse. “She needs to call someone else.”
“She did, Mr. Wilson, and no one has shown up.”
“I’m sorry, but I won’t be there either.” I hang up before she can try and talk me into doing something I don’t want to do. Being there for Jules is the last thing I want. It’s the last thing Joey and I need. We are only a few of weeks away from getting married and we should be focusing on us, not her.
“Hey,” Joey says as I come back into the bedroom. “Who was that?”
“A nurse from Cedars. Jules is in labor and she called to let me know.”
“Why?”
I crawl back into bed, but sit up against the headboard. My mind is racing a mile a minute and I know that sleep won’t be coming for me anytime soon.
“Because no one has shown up for her.”
“She’s alone?”
I shrug. “I didn’t ask.”
Joey snuggles into my side, making sure to keep the sheet up over her bare breasts.
“We should go, Josh.”
“No, we shouldn’t.”
“If the baby was yours, you’d be there. I would, too, even though I wouldn’t be welcome, but she wouldn’t be alone.”
Joey has a good heart. It doesn’t matter what people are saying about her, and in this case, I mean Jules and my mother, all she sees is that a woman is alone and going through something important and probably traumatic.
“Joey, if we go, she’ll think I’m there because I love her.”
She sits up and keeps a tight grip on the sheet, preventing me from seeing her breasts. Jules isn’t even here and she’s cock blocking me right now.
“I can imagine that having a baby is scary, but being alone or having to only depend on the hospital staff to help you is probably really freaking her out. Knowing that a friend is waiting for her in the waiting room will soothe her a little.”
“Joey,” I say, closing my eyes, “this isn’t a good idea.”
“Nothing concerning Jules is a good idea,” she replies, hopping off the bed. She disappears into her closet and when she comes out, she’s dressed in sweats and a T-shirt, and is in the process of piling her hair on top of her head.
“I’m going.”
“Joey,” I whine, throwing the covers off my legs. “This is a mistake.”
Cupping my face with her hands, she gazes into my eyes. I know she sees nothing but torment in them. “You’ll feel better knowing you were there, I promise. There was a time in your life when you loved her and I know she’s done a lot to ruin everything you guys had, but right now she’s scared and she called the one person she knows won’t come to her aid. She’s desperate, Josh, she has no one else.”
Deep down I know that Joey is right and if I hadn’t pushed for the paternity test I’d be at the hospital right now waiting for Jules to give birth. I kiss Joey and sidestep her to get dressed. When I come out, she’s in the kitchen talking to her mom.
“Morning, honey,” Ava says, handing me a travel mug of coffee.