Previously…
– Loretta blackmailed Natalie into letting her stay in Natalie and Spencer’s home.
– Jason and Sabrina admitted their feelings for one another, and Jason asked her to go on a real date with him.
– Matt volunteered to donate a kidney to his ailing brother, Jake.

Rare beams of winter sunshine spill through the window on one side of Tori Gray and Zane Tanaka’s apartment, bathing the space in a warm glow that it hasn’t felt in months. Tori sits cross-legged on the worn, lumpy sofa, soaking up the sun as her fingers clack away at the keys of her laptop.

“What’re you working on this early?” Zane asks as he emerges from the back of the apartment, wearing jeans and a plain white t-shirt as he finishes drying his hair with a blue towel.

“More job applications.” Tori finishes a few more keystrokes and then looks up at him. “It’s so annoying how you have to, like, upload your résumé and then cut and paste the whole thing into stupid little boxes.” 

Zane groans as he drops the towel to his side. “I hate that shit. But have faith that one of these is gonna work out.”

“I hope so. I feel like I’ve applied to ten thousand jobs, and I barely hear back about any of them.”

“It sucks, but it’s a numbers game.”

“It just feels so impossible.” She sets her laptop aside and unfolds her legs. “I need, like, an in somewhere.”

“Luckily, you have all the time you need,” Zane says. “I’ve got a job, and I can cover us for a while. But someone is gonna be smart enough to recognize what an asset you are.”

He grabs a plaid shirt from his desk chair and slips his arms into it. Tori watches appreciatively as his biceps bulge through the shirt’s sleeves.

“Keep your chin up,” Zane says as he buttons up the shirt. “I promise, something amazing is gonna come along for you.”

“I hope you’re right.”

He flashes her a winning smile as he grabs his backpack. “Aren’t I always?”

“I don’t know about that…”  

Zane slips the backpack over his shoulders and then comes over to the sofa. Tori stretches upward to give him a goodbye kiss.

“I’ll see you tonight,” he says. “Love you.”

“Love you, too,” she says, and moments later, the door is closing behind him. She returns her attention to her laptop and is trying to format another section of her résumé when her phone buzzes atop the trunk that serves as their coffee table.

She glances at it casually and then stiffens when she sees her mother’s name on the display. Their interactions have been few and far between of late, so even a simple text message causes her heart rate to quicken. She grabs the phone and opens the message — and her stomach drops as she reads it.

Sarah Fisher Gray stares down at her phone, rereading the message that she just sent her daughter. She sits in a plastic chair in one of the hospital’s waiting areas, holding her phone in her lap as she awaits news that she knows is probably still hours away.

“Here you go,” Mia Davich Gray says as she returns with two paper cups with lids. She hands Sarah one of the coffees and then takes a seat beside her.

“I can’t believe it’s actually happening,” Mia comments.

“Me neither. And all we can do is wait.” Sarah takes a small, cautious sip to test the temperature of her black coffee, which is still piping hot. “How are you holding up?”

“I’ll be a lot better once we hear that Matt’s kidney is in Jake and everything went smoothly. But it’ll be hours before that.”

“Yeah. Not to mention dealing with everything that’ll come afterward.” Sarah turns in the chair to angle herself toward her sister-in-law. “Are you sure that not telling Jake who his donor is was the best idea?”

“I don’t know about best,” Mia says, “but I know I didn’t want to give Jake any reason to get wound up before the procedure. He should be thankful to have a donor. End of story. Besides, he’s barely been lucid enough to process what’s going on.” 

“I guess you’re right.”

Now Mia leans in toward Sarah. “I want you to know how grateful I am to Matt for doing this. For donating his kidney to Jake, for sparing Marcus the surgery… He doesn’t have to do this.”

“He wants to. It’s the right thing to do,” Sarah says, feeling a swell of emotion as she thinks of her husband, who is undergoing the removal of his kidney right now somewhere on this floor. “By the way, it doesn’t sound like Jake has said anything that would imply Matt pushed him out that window.”

Mia sucks in her lips. “I know. I feel awful for even giving voice to that. I was panicked.”

“Well, let’s hope this is the beginning of putting all this animosity to bed for good.” Again Sarah glances down at her phone, but there is no notification of a response from Tori. “I texted Tori to tell her that her father is having a procedure this morning. I wanted her to be aware, but I didn’t want to freak her out, either.”

Suddenly her iPhone lights up and begins vibrating in her hand. She looks at it and sees Tori’s name on the screen.

Mia notices, too, and immediately says, “Get that.”

“Okay. Yeah,” Sarah says as she pushes the green button to answer the call. “Tori. Hi. Don’t panic, but I thought you should know what’s going on.”

When Jason Fisher enters Thaw Coffee & Tea, he is happy to see sunlight shining through the floor-to-ceiling windows at the front of the café — but he is even happier to see the barista working behind the counter. Given the morning hour, the place is busy, so he waits in line, trading the occasional smile with Sabrina Gage until he makes it up to the counter. She wears the ice-blue apron that all the employees wear; he notices that her raven hair is a little shorter than the last time he saw her.

“Welcome back,” he says, his face as bright as the sun gracing them with its unseasonal presence.

“Thanks. It’s nice to be back,” Sabrina says. “The usual?”

“You know it.” He watches as she picks up a paper cup and marks his order on the side. “How’s your mom doing?”

“She’s recovering really well. The doctors said that it’s actually better for her to have the hip replacement now than it would’ve been in another ten years. Fewer complications with the surgery and recovery.”

“I’m sure.” Jason watches as she passes his cup down the bar and then hands her his debit card to ring up the order. “And I’m sure she appreciated you being there while she was going through that.”

Sabrina swipes his card through the reader. “I think she did. It was nice to have the time with my dad and her. Even if missing a few weeks of work was tough.”

“But you got to eat for free at their house, right?”

“Right,” Sabrina says with a laugh. She passes the card back to him.

“I won’t hold up the line,” Jason tells her, “but it’s really good to see you. And, as I recall, we have a raincheck to cash in…”

She is nearly beaming. “I haven’t forgotten.”

“Good. Then let’s make a plan for that…” He leans forward and whispers the word. “…date very soon.”

“I’d like that, Jason.”

“Me, too. It’s good to see you.”

“You, too.”

Another moment passes as they grin at one another over the counter. Finally Jason shuffles down to the other end of the bar, allowing the next customer to order, but he and Sabrina continue to trade sly looks. When his drink is called, he picks it up and heads for the exit that adjoins the coffee shop to Edge of Winter Arena — but before he leaves, he tosses a final wink Sabrina’s way. A current of excitement zips through his body as he returns to his office upstairs.

Back at the register, Sabrina does everything she can to keep her grin from overtaking her face.

—–

“Come on. Two more bites and you can go play,” Natalie Bishop pleads. She is stationed at the oval-shaped glass table in the kitchen of her home, right beside her young son, who has sealed his lips together tighter than should be possible for a toddler.

“You asked for waffles,” Natalie reminds him. “Once you have two more bites, you can go play and Mommy can ride her Peleton bike.”

Peter shakes his head but then quickly opens his mouth.

“Can I ride the bike?” he asks.

“You know you can’t ride Mommy’s Peloton bike,” she says, already spearing another piece of waffle with the fork just in case. “It isn’t safe.”

“But I want to ride it!”

“You can ride your bike later. Look how nice it is outside. We’ll go outside with your bike later… but you have to eat two more pieces of waffle.” 

Peter again closes his mouth, but much less forcefully than before. Natalie continues to hold the waffle piece on the fork, not wanting to make too sudden a move and spook him.

“Peter, don’t be such a brat,” a voice trills from the other end of the kitchen. “It’s so unbecoming.”

Natalie turns to see Loretta Ragan, in a flowing pale pink top and black trousers — and fully accessorized with what she calls her “daytime diamonds” — standing there.

“I don’t know that seeming ‘unbecoming’ is one of his big worries,” Natalie says.

“Well, it should be!” Loretta says as she sashays toward them. “Please, Peter, be a dear and eat your breakfast. For your Mimi?”

The toddler’s only response is to shake his head vigorously.

“What do you have there?” Loretta asks. Natalie grits her own teeth as her mother-in-law leans in. “Are those those trashy grocery store waffles? Those are hardly real food! You shouldn’t–”

“Loretta,” Natalie interrupts. “They’re organic whole wheat waffles, and they’re definitely real food that Peter should eat if he wants to go play or ride his bike. Don’t you agree, Mimi?” 

Loretta’s green eyes shoot daggers at Natalie, but thankfully, she nods in agreement.

“Yes, Peter should have a few more bites of his breakfast so he can go play,” she says.

Both women hold their breath until Peter, without further prompting, opens his mouth wider than necessary. Natalie moves the fork toward his mouth, and he happily eats one piece of the waffle and then another.

“All done!” he says, clapping his hands together. “Now I can play!”

“Go play in the family room,” Natalie says as she helps him out of the chair. “After Mom does her workout, we’ll go outside with your bike.”

Peter scurries out of the room.

“You know,” Loretta says once he is gone, “he might eat more like an adult if you were to treat him like one. When Philip was that age, we were taking him to five-star–”

“No offense, but I’m going to pass on taking tips from the parenting guidebook that produced a serial killer.”

Loretta lets out a gasp as Natalie pushes out her chair and stands.

“Do you really think it’s wise to speak to me that way?” Loretta asks.

Natalie stops at the sink, her back now to her mother-in-law. She gives herself a moment to let her face harden with rage before she speaks.

“Just because I agreed to let you stay here–”

“You didn’t agree, dear. You did as you were told because you don’t want your scheme to brainwash my son exposed.”

“Will you keep it down?” Natalie blurts out. She turns on the water and rinses Peter’s plate and fork.

“I have no need to mention our arrangement at all… that is, unless you give me a reason,” Loretta says. “But I’d like you to remember that I have the power to destroy all of this if I so choose: you having custody of Peter, your sham of a marriage to my son and all its perks — which I can tell you’ve grown quite accustomed to.”

Natalie lets out an annoyed huff through her nose before turning off the water.

“I’m sorry,” she says as she turns back around. “I was frustrated with trying to get Peter to eat his breakfast. I shouldn’t have snapped at you.”

With a curt bow of her head — and an unmistakable, menacing gleam in her eyes — Loretta rounds the large, marble-topped island and exits the kitchen. Natalie places her palms on the countertop and sinks downward.

“God, I know I don’t ask for much,” she says under her breath, “but if it isn’t too much trouble, could that woman please have some kind of unfortunate and not-super-messy accident?”

—–

“What about complications?” Tori asks as she twists a strand of her brown hair with two fingers. After hearing Sarah’s news on the phone, she rushed to the hospital, and now she stands in the waiting area with her mother and aunt.

“They’ll monitor him for them, but he should only have to stay in the hospital for two days or so,” Sarah explains. “After that, it’s about six weeks of recovery. And if anything seems off, we’ll get him right back here.”

“What about Uncle Jake?”

“This donation is his best shot at recovering,” Mia says. “Nothing is 100 percent guaranteed, but what your dad is doing for Jake — it’s literally life-saving.”

“Wow.” Tori processes this as she pushes the same strand of hair behind her ear. Then she shoots a pointed look at Sarah. “I can’t believe all this is happening and I didn’t even know.”

Sarah bites her tongue and takes a beat before responding. “Your dad didn’t want to drag you into it until things were done and we had more information. But I was sitting here this morning, knowing what was going on in the operating room, and it didn’t seem right for you to be in the dark.”

“No. It wasn’t.”

“Tori, we’ve barely been able to get you to return a text message,” Sarah continues, doing her best to keep her tone calm. “You come to see Billy when you know we’re out. The last thing your dad needed while he was going into surgery was anxiety about whether you’d show up or even respond to him.”

She sees a retort flare up inside Tori — somehow, she can see her younger (and not that much younger) self having the same reaction — but Tori also restrains it, at least somewhat.

“This is why things are so crappy right now.” Her words come out as little more than a mutter. “Everyone’s keeping secrets.”

“We didn’t want to keep anything secret from you,” Sarah says. “But this is — it’s an insanely complicated situation.”

“No kidding.” Tori folds her arms across the front of her pink North Face jacket. “Does Billy know what’s going on?”

“We told him that your dad had to go to the doctor. I don’t think he’d really understand more than that.”

“Your father is making a huge sacrifice,” Mia adds. “Marcus also qualified as a donor, but for Matt to spare him having to go through this — it’s a gift.”

Sarah watches that information work its way into Tori’s consciousness.

“Anyway, we should be hearing from the doctors in an hour or so,” Sarah says, checking the time on her phone. “I’ll let you know how everything turns out, but I’m sure there’s nothing to worry about.”

Tori unfolds her arms and stands up straighter.

“I’m staying,” she declares.

“Really?” Sarah and Mia ask in near-unison.

“My dad and my uncle are in there having major surgery,” Tori says as she places her purse down on a chair and unzips her jacket. “After everything that’s happened… I’m not leaving until I know they’re okay.”

As covertly as they can, Sarah and Mia exchange surprised looks. Sarah feels a sense of hope that she hasn’t truly felt in months; to have her daughter here — and without Zane attached to her side — with the family during a time like this moves her almost to tears.

“Everyone is going to be okay,” Sarah says as she takes a seat herself. “Everything is going to be okay.”

END OF EPISODE 1009

Will Tori reconnect with her family now?
How long can Natalie endure Loretta’s presence?
What kind of date will Jason and Sabrina have?
Discuss all this and more in the comments below!

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