I have been sitting outside of Hardin's house for twenty minutes now, and he hasn't come back yet. I know for a fact that the subway station that Hardin could be picking his mum and stepfather up from isn't that far from his house. No matter how much I want to go home and see my daughter that my mom is watching, I have to do this for Hardin and Tessa. Tessa wants him to have a nice night out, and I know it's going to be extremely difficult to convince him in any way.
"You really think I can do it?" I asked Nora as I made breakfast this morning.
"Honestly, I don't know, but I feel like you can at least give it a try. I'm taking Tessa out tonight with Kim, so I think Hardin should get out of the house too."
"I agree, where are you guys going?" I passed Nora a plate of eggs as she breastfed Addy.
"I have no idea, Kim planned the whole thing. All I know is I got reservations at Lookout for us, but after that I have no clue."
"Well, we'll see what happens."
"You'll do great, babe. If anyone can convince him to do something fun, it's you. Just use Tessa as leverage or something." Nora teased me. I walked over and kissed her forehead.
Nora's right. I'm pretty sure I'm the only one, besides Tessa, who can convince him to do anything. I'm his best bet for tonight.
Ten minutes quickly turns into forty-five minutes, and I think that Hardin and his mum might have gone out for dinner or something. I have called him at least six times, and he hasn't answered once. Typical. I try Tessa to see if she has heard from him, but she doesn't answer either. I try to call my wife too, but it just goes straight to voicemail.
"Great, no one has their phone." I say out loud to myself. I wish I knew Kim's number or Trish's, but I don't have them. I wish Nora knew where they were going tonight. She said Lookout, so maybe they're still there? I don't know what to do... Do I stay here and wait for Hardin to potentially come back, or do I go look for Tessa, Kim and Nora?
I am never doing anything like this again.
I pull out of the driveway and head towards Lookout. I keep trying to call Nora and Tessa, both still aren't answering their phones. I'm not surprised Nora isn't answering, but I expected more from Tessa.
It takes me twenty minutes to arrive at the restaurant, and to my luck there is a parking spot right in the front, but I'd have to parallel park. This is where I need Nora. It takes me another twenty minutes to park in this spot. I'm getting dirty looks from every single pedestrian passing me as I attempt to park on the street. I hate parallel parking so much, and I usually avoid it at all costs, but this was too good of a spot to not try it. I hope Tessa, Nora and Kim are all still here.
I walk into the busy restaurant, and see a waitress I recognize.
"Hey, Jess!" I wave at her, and she walks over.
"Landon, hi! What a coincidence, Tessa and Nora were both here just a few minutes ago."
"Were?" Damn it. "So they aren't here anymore?" I sigh.
"They left about twenty minutes ago."
I am smacking myself in the face right now. If I didn't take twenty minutes to park, then maybe I would have caught them before they left.
"By any chance do you have any idea where they're going?"
"I remember Kim mentioning something about a club, I don't know which one."
"A club in New York City... Great! That narrows it down." I sarcastically say.
"I'm sorry..." Jess apologizes.
"Oh no, it's okay. I'll find them. Thanks, Jess."
"Of course. Have a nice night." She walks back to a table to refill some water.
I am scrolling through all the clubs I know in this area of the city, and my mind is drawing a blank. Maybe it's because I have only been to a club in Manhattan a total of five times, and two of those times it was the same club. I left my phone there, so I had to go back to get it. Turns out I left in the cab, so thank goodness I was able to track it to the taxi company.
Wait.
How did I not think of this sooner!? I have Nora and Tessa on Find My Friends, so I can just see where they are. According to this, they are back at some hotel that I assume is Kim's. Thankfully, it's only a twenty minute drive, not on the complete opposite side of Manhattan.
I pull up to the Marriott, and I am really questioning why I am actually here. I should've drove back to Hardin's to see if he was back yet. How embarrassing would it be if I went up there, told Tessa I had no idea where Hardin was, we search everywhere for him, but end up going back to his house and he's there. I decide to drive back to Hardin's before I go in, just in case.
Not to my surprise, when I arrive back at Hardin's, his car is still not in his driveway. I have been trying to get a hold of Tessa, Nora, and Hardin for the past hour now, and I am losing my patience. I don't know what to do. According to Find My Friends, the girls are still at the hotel, so hopefully I can make it back in time before they leave. I don't know what the hell they're supposed to do, but maybe Tessa can call Trish to see if she is with Hardin. Who else could I call? My mom and Ken? Maybe they've heard something about Hardin.
"Hi, honey." My mom answers the phone.
"Hi, Mom. Have you or Ken heard from Hardin within the past two hours?"
"No, we haven't... Why? Is everything okay?"
"Yeah, Tessa and Nora wanted me to take him out, but I can't get a hold of him. He has gone completely MIA!"
"Oh, I'm sorry sweetie, but Ken and I have been with Abigail and Addelyn at the park for the past couple hours, and we both haven't heard anything."
"It's okay, Mom. How is Addy doing?" I ask while I have her on the phone.
"She's fine. Mostly sleeping."
My mom loves spending time with her granddaughter since she rarely gets to see her. It's hard living in New York away from my mom at such a crazy time in my life. Raising a newborn while both my and Nora's parents are far away definitely makes it more difficult, but I think we've been doing an okay job so far.
"Good, well let me know if you hear from Hardin or anyone."
"Okay. I love you honey."
"Love you too, Mom. Bye."
I hang up. I guess my next plan is to just drive to the hotel and hope that the girls are still there. I don't know what I'll do if they aren't.
Of course now everyone in New York City decides to be out on the road, so it takes me an extra twenty minutes to get back to the hotel. I am already exhausted, so if I find Hardin, I won't even blame him if he doesn't want to go out. Finally, I arrive at the hotel and walk up to the front desk.
"Hi. I'm looking for the Vance's room."
"One second, may I ask your name, sir?" The man at the reception desk asks.
"Landon Gibson."
He picks up the phone and dials a number. Thankfully, someone on the other end picks up.
"Hi... I have a Landon Gibson here requesting to know your room number... Yes... okay thank you." He hangs up the phone. "They're in room 503B."
"Thank you." I nod to him and head to the elevator.
Once I get to the room, I hear the TV blasting loudly. I knock on the door, and Christian opens it, inviting me in.
"Landon, to what do I owe the pleasure?" He asks. I see Smith and his daughter sitting on the couch watching some TV show about airplanes and trains.
"Sorry to just show up like this, I was actually hoping that the girls would be here."
"Oh, they left a while ago." Christian moves to lower the volume on the television, and gets a dirty look from the kids.
"How long ago?" I look down at my phone. "It says they're still here." I show Christian how the location on Find My Friends says they are at the hotel.
"Oh..." He walks over and picks up two phones that I recognize are Tessa's and Nora's.
"Shit..." I sit down on the chair.
"What's going on?" He sits across from me.
"I was tasked with trying to get Hardin to do something fun tonight, but I have no idea where he went. I can't get in touch with anyone! Hardin, Tessa, Nora, Kim, or Trish!"
"Well, let me see if I can call Kim, maybe she'll answer."
Christian grabs his phone off of the counter and dials his wife. Silence overtakes us as we wait for Kim to answer the phone, but of course she doesn't.
"She has her phone, I know she does." Christian tries calling her again as I place my head in my hands.
"That's so weird. Where did they see Hardin last?"
"All I know is that Tessa thought he went to pick up Trish and Mike from the subway station, but no one even knows for sure. It's been a while, and his car still isn't back yet."
"And he isn't answering?"
"Nope, I tried calling like twenty minutes ago, and nothing."
Christian seems just as lost as I am on what to do now.
"Smith, you haven't heard from Hardin have you?" He asks his son.
"No, Dad. I haven't." He doesn't take his eyes off the screen.
"I don't know this city, I have no idea where-" Christian's eyes suddenly dart to Tessa's phone on the table as it begins to buzz. "It's Hardin!" He points and I jump up to answer it.
"Hardin! It's Landon! Oh my god, dude! Where have you been?!" I say loudly into the phone, just grateful that he has called me back.
"Landon? Oh... It's Mike, Trish's husband." What? Why does Mike have his phone?
"Oh, Mike? Hi? Why do you have Hardin's phone?" I ask.
"Well, Hardin is currently in the hospital-"
"What!" I yell. "Is he okay?"
"He has appendicitis. He's in surgery right now. Trish made me drive to his house to get his phone and wallet. I tried Tessa first since hers is the only number he has for speed dial. Why do you have her phone?"
"She left it at Kim's hotel room. Which hospital is he at?"
"Uh... Brookdale? or something like that?"
"Brookdale University Hospital, yeah I know the one. We'll meet you there." I tell Mike, thankful that at least I know where Hardin is now, but then nervous because he is in surgery now.
"What happened? Hardin's in the hospital?"
"Yeah, he has appendicitis, so he's in immediate surgery."
"Oh shit!" Christian slams his hand on the counter. "We should go." He goes to pick up his daughter, who begins to cry because she wants to finish watching her show.
"Is Hardin gonna be okay?" Smith asks me as he puts his shoes on.
"He'll be fine. He just had to get surgery since one of his organs almost bursted in his body." I just realized how awful that sounds. "But people get this surgery all the time, so he'll be fine."
Smith's face pales, and I don't know why I just told him all of that. My mind is completely not focused on my filter at the moment.
"I'm gonna call Kim and hope that she answers. I am pretty sure she wrote down somewhere which bar she was going to. Can you check in the kitchen?" Everything is so chaotic. I hear Christian trying to console his daughter as he frantically gathers his things.
I run over to the kitchen. Thank god Kim left a note here with the club information she's talking about, and surprisingly I know where that is. It's only a ten minute drive from here.
"I'm gonna go to the hospital with the kids since I have to hail a cab. Can you pick them up?" Christian asks frantically as he grabs his keys. Grace is still crying in his arms over missing her TV show.
"Of course, yeah." I follow Christian out of the hotel room, sad that I have to interrupt Tessa's night with this news.
I wait with Christian while he speaks to Kim on the phone. I can tell he is extremely panicked. Surgery is kind of a big deal, and Hardin is Christian's son. I can only imagine what it must feel like to find out your child is getting emergency surgery, and you're not even there with them.
"Okay, Kim is going to tell Tessa now, and they'll be waiting outside when you show up." He tells me.
"Okay. It's going to be alright." I tell him to try and calm him down a bit. "Just tell the driver Brookdale University Hospital in Brooklyn."
"Thanks, Landon. I appreciate it. I'll see you there." He waves at me and walks to the curb, attempting to hail a cab. I walk to my car, start it up, and begin the drive to pick up a probably frantic Tessa.