Henry ran out of the car and got into the elevator. He straightened his jacket and checked himself in the elevator mirror. He felt strangely excited such that his whole body was vibrating. The door opened with a soft ding behind him and he hurried down the corridor to her room.He took a minute to calm himself before knocking softly. It was unmanly to skip or show any expression other than what was appropriate, his father"s voice reminded him. It was a lesson his father had always taken pride to instill in him that happiness was just endorphins, nothing more. It felt strange that he was knocking on a door in his own house. Her voice was stronger when he heard her soft laugh before she said, "Come on in, Henry."
Henry was surprised to find several of Ellie"s friends had come by and had an intense game of Monopoly in session. From his quick a.s.sessment, Henry guessed that these were her sorority type friends. They are cooed in delight when he entered the room and whispered excited among themselves. Only Ellie was calm when his eyes met hers. All the ladies collectively turned to Ellie who shooed them all back to the game. Ellie was seated in his mother"s favorite chair looking regal and strangely incredibly delicate like a china doll out of its case. She looked just as uncomfortable as he did at her friends reactions to him. Although she did look brighter, Henry would have preferred if she had stayed in her bed.
Taking a look around at her friends, Henry could see their concern and attempts at distracting her from her true misery. He felt bad to break their time but he knew it was time, "I thought Ellie would need to head back to the emergency room. But instead my girl threw a house party and forgot to invite me. I spend all the day in the office and I thought all the while Ellie would need to go out to escape her boredom."
The girls collectively t.i.ttered. One with an enormous bun on her head spoke up, "We"re sorry for intruding on what should be newlywed honeymoon bliss. But I couldn"t help but see how my friend is doing. It"s been so long since we last seen her. She"s been dead on social media and has been avoiding our calls so we just kidnapped Nolan"s phone and found the address. You know this needed to be done."
Henry laughed with her. "It"s all right. I know Ellie needs some good company now that she is back on her feet again. It"s a treasure to have good friends and good people around. I"m glad she has some nice ones."
The woman spoke with continued grace, "Hey we"re here to make sure that you"re treating our queen well. We brought Bridal Monopoly here to teach our prude here how to get it on. But you know our Ellie is such a lady that she insisted on the NASCAR version that our friend Olga brought."
Olga smiled sheepishly. "I like to think that Ellie wants to get back to the track. She loved it so much that I know she wants to remember."