Never Your Emergency Contact

In Lauren's phone, everyone has an identity — her best friend Jamie is saved as "Jemmy" — but Brett is only ten unassigned digits. She insists she knows his number by heart and that Jamie is like a protective little brother, so Brett lets himself believe being unlabeled means being etched too deeply into her life to need a marker.

Then a fever of nearly a hundred and four leaves him shivering alone. Lauren claims she is stuck at the office, yet he finds her at a twenty-four-hour pharmacy choosing allergy medication for Jamie. When he calls, she declines the unsaved number as a telemarketer. At home, the engagement invitations she let Jamie design bear Jamie's name in the groom's line, and the jacket she bought fits Jamie's shoulders. Lauren calls it a clerical error and asks him not to reprint.

At the emergency room, a nurse tells Brett his dependent coverage under Lauren Powell's employer health policy was terminated four weeks ago.