After Lefting Me on the Bridge, He Lost His Mind novel · Chapter 1 of 24
Chapter 1: Check the Trunk
Bryce strands his feverish girlfriend on the George Washington Bridge to rescue his intern, and Sabina learns it was a bet; she takes the Austin transfer from an ER bed while he texts that he'll pick her up at nine.
Bryce pulled onto the shoulder of the George Washington Bridge and told me to check the trunk.
Rain was coming down so hard the windshield had gone white.
"I think it didn't latch, baby," he said. "Two seconds, I promise."
After seven years together, he had finally agreed to take me to meet his family for Thanksgiving.
Minutes earlier his phone had lit up on the dash with the name Mom.
He had flipped it face down. "She's just checking on traffic."
Then he picked up the second phone he kept for work and typed something with his thumb.
I had a fever of 102. He knew it, because he had checked my forehead with the back of his hand at dinner.
I didn't think anything of the trunk.
I pushed open the door and ran through the rain to the back of the car.
My palm touched the cold metal.
The locks clicked, the engine roared, and the car pulled away from me.
The taillights got smaller. Then they were gone.
My purse was in that car. My phone was in my coat pocket, and that was all I had.
I pulled it out to call him.
Kendall's Instagram Story was the first thing on the screen.
"Bet won! Bryce really did leave his boring girlfriend on the bridge so I could get my Chanel bag."
Someone had commented underneath.
"Bryce, you dumped Sabina on the GWB on the way to meet your mom? She's going to snap this time."
Bryce had answered in seconds.
"Relax. She can't leave me. I'll text her in a while and she'll come crawling back."
Then, in the group chat he shared with his friends, he wrote again.
"Kendall won. Somebody pay her. Her tire's flat and she's scared of thunder, so I'm going to get her."
Kendall was the new intern on his team.
I stood in the black rain with the Hudson roaring under my feet.
So the family dinner had never been the plan.
Pleasing her was the only thing that mattered tonight.
I opened the email to our building office and gave notice that I was moving out.
Then I deleted seven years of photos from my phone. I did not block his number yet.
I wanted to hear him say it.
I started walking toward the emergency call box, a mile away.
The fever had me in waves. My vision went dark and came back, and I held the guardrail with both hands.
My phone buzzed again.
One of Bryce's friends had posted a video to the group chat.
In it, Bryce stood in the rain and took off the gray jacket I had spent half an hour ironing that afternoon.
He laid it over Kendall's shoulders and pushed a wet strand of hair off her face.
Then he helped her into his passenger seat, the same seat I had been sitting in.
Another friend followed with a screenshot of a payment.
"Ten thousand, as promised. Tell Kendall to buy something pretty."
Kendall had posted a new photo.
It showed Bryce crouched by her tire, muddy water on his white cuffs.
The caption said, "Thank you, Bryce, for making me rich tonight. Hope some people learn that jealousy is unattractive."
She knew where I was.
All of them knew. I was the joke they had been passing around for an hour.
I called him.
It rang until the last second before it picked up.
"Sabina?"
It was Kendall, soft and sweet. "Bryce is in the shower. He got so wet, so I'm helping him..."
My teeth were chattering. "Put him on."
A few seconds later his voice came on, flat and cold.
"Kendall twisted her ankle. She's been crying. I just got her calm. Do you have to start something right now?"
I held the rail tighter.
"I'm still on the bridge, Bryce. I have a fever. A hundred and two."
"It's a cold."
"The bridge is closed to walkers. I'm going to be hit by a car."
"Then call roadside assistance," he said. "You're an adult. Kendall needs me right now."
"Every time she's involved, you suddenly feel sick. You don't have to be this dramatic to get attention."
He hung up.
My own white face looked back at me from the black screen.
Half an hour later, a bridge authority truck stopped beside me.
The driver climbed out, put a rain poncho over my shoulders and pushed a cup of hot water into my hands.
"Ma'am, your lips are blue. Get in the truck."
A stranger could see I was freezing.
Bryce had touched my forehead and still called it a cold.
At three in the morning I was in an ER bed with an IV in my arm.
Kendall had posted again.
Bryce stood at the counter of a luxury boutique, handing over his black card, and she hugged a limited-edition bag.
The caption read, "The best bosses take care of their people."
My coat was on the chair. In the pocket was the free plastic bottle opener he had slid across the table at the French restaurant before we left.
He had smiled. "You always say you like little surprises. Happy holidays, Sabi."
I threw it in the trash.
Then I opened my chat with Renee Abercrombie, the VP of our Austin office.
A month ago she had asked if I wanted to transfer.
I had told her I couldn't leave my life behind.
I typed, "I'll take the Austin job."
She answered almost immediately.
"Are you sure? Once you accept, nobody in your department can block it."
The hand with the needle in it ached.
I typed, "I'm sure. Please arrange it as soon as you can."
Then my phone buzzed with a text from Bryce.
"Cooled off? I'll pick you up at nine. My mother expects us at noon."
I read it once.
Then I asked Renee for the earliest flight out.
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