“That was Ben, you idiot!”
“Oh.” I feel the large ice boulder on my chest melt completely away. She’s not involved with anyone! That’s the chance I need. Now to make her realize her mistake. “Sure, I flirted with Felicia. But that was it. I’m guessing it was Jez who was hosting Felicia last night, considering it’s his room next to Sebastian’s and I was passed out in your bus last night after dragging you to bed.”
“But…you weren’t there when I got up.” There’s a look of doubt in her eyes.
“I woke up around five and dragged my sorry ass back to my bus.”
“Huh. So you didn’t…?”
“I didn’t… no.”
“And you’re not intending to?”
“Not intending on anything with anyone, if you and I are in the same universe.” I reach down and take her hand and she doesn’t wrench it away. “And you don’t have a boyfriend?”
“I don’t.”
“Huh.”
“Yeah, huh.”
“So, tell me again what the problem is?”
“Brad.”
“Because all I know is that it’s taken me eight years to find my way back to you, and I don’t ever want to leave your side again.”
“I…but Ben.” She shakes her head and pulls her hand away.
It’s a lot to process. And she’s had enough to deal with today. I can give her some space, if it means there’s a chance for a future. And I have an idea.
“Just…okay, just shush. Forget the you and me stuff for a while, okay?” I say, and relief floods her eyes.
“Okay.”
“Get some rest. I’m getting them to set up a cot for you in Ben’s room. I’ll be back tomorrow. With a surprise.”
“Oh God.”
“No, not God, Brad,” I say.
“Just go away, cheesy ball-sack,” she says, shaking her head, unable to hide the grin on her face.
“That’s my girl,” I say as I pull her into a hug, and ignore her playful struggling. She stops and lets my body warm hers for a moment, and I feel her body relax against mine when I say, “I mean it. There’s no one else in the world for me.”
Emily
Every sound during the night wakes me. Ben’s morphine wears off and he spends the night alternating between moaning softly in his sleep, calling out for me, and waking himself up whenever he tries to turn. With his arm slung up in the air to keep it still for the next twenty-four hours while his cast sets and everything settles, it’s hard for my baby boy to get comfortable.
Needless to say, when the sun rises, I’m awake to greet it.
But blaming my sleepless night on Ben and the hospital is as unfair as it is untrue.
It was Brad. Brad with his promises, Brad with his declarations, Brad with his way of making things right. Brad, with his eyes that barely need to glance at me to know what I’m thinking, how I’m feeling, what I’m wanting, needing. I presume it’s why the one night we spent together was so amazing. Even at eighteen, he knew how to touch me, when and where and how.
Now, as an adult, I can only imagine what he’d do to me if I let him.
And those are the thoughts that kept me awake.
“Mommy, is Brad coming to visit today?” Ben pipes up, as if hearing my thoughts, as embarrassing as that would be.
“Yes, sweetheart, he is. But he probably won’t be able to stay. He’s very, very busy. It was very nice of him to be here yesterday, but he will probably have to go back to work soon.”
“Ooh, do you think we can visit him there?”
“Well, let’s get you well first, okay?”
“I’m okay, Mommy. I feel better than I did last night. I don’t want to stay here much longer.”
“Well, we’ll see what the doctor says, okay?”
“Okay. I wonder if he’ll let me have ice cream again, if I’m a good boy.”
“You and your ice cream!” I ruffle the tuft of hair sticking up at the back of his head, my heart almost bursting with love for my little creature.
“Did someone say ice cream because…oh…wait, what? What is in this bag?” We hear a deep male voice call out to us from the room entrance.
“Brad!”
“Hey there, Benny Boy! How are you feeling today?” Brad asks, strolling into the room like he owns it. Confidence oozing from every pore. I can smell his cologne from across the room, and I wonder if they’ve approached him to advertise for them, because if every woman reacted to men like I was reacting to him, they’d make a freaking fortune.
“I’m super great! The doctor says the nurse is going to give me some markers today so I can get everyone to draw on my cast. Will you write something?” I hear Ben chattering away to Brad when I turn my attention back to them.
“Of course-it probably won’t be as good as what your mother writes, but I’m sure I can think up something. Now, weren’t you helping me get something out of that bag?”
Ben pulls a container out of the bag Brad puts in his lap. “It’s…oh! It’s…what does that say, Mommy?”
I lean over and read off the label. “It says…Dippin’ Dots.”
“What’s … deepy dods?”
Brad’s laugh fills the room. “Dippin’ Dots, just the best ice cream ever. And the salesperson even told me it’s extra good for growing broken bones. So, you better eat up, quick! Or else the doctor might find out, and he’ll want you to share with everyone.”
“Oh, that’s okay, I’m happy to share if it’ll help the other kids around here too,” Ben says.
“Dude. What crazy, well adjusted, mature, kinda kid did you give birth to?” Brad asks me and I can’t help but beam proudly.
“Brad? You wanna know the worst thing about my broken arm?” Ben asks.
“What’s that, kiddo?” Brad pats him on the head.
“I can’t pick my nose anymore, which is probably good, ’cause Mommy says it’s yucky and I shouldn’t.”
It’s almost a minute before Brad stops laughing and tells me, “Never mind.”
We watch TV with Ben for a few minutes while he eats his Dippin’ Dots and then Brad motions to me.
“You going to be okay in here by yourself for a moment, buddy? I just want to talk to your Mommy. We’ll go outside so we don’t disturb your Pokemon, okay?”
“Okay,” Ben says, eyes still glued to the TV.
I follow Brad out the door, cursing him as I notice how handsome he looks, as if he wasn’t affected by yesterday’s goings-on at all. “Stupid, sexy fucker,” I mumble under my breath, then accidently bang against his back, not realizing he’d stopped walking.
“What?”
“Um, nothing,” I say, although I can feel a hot flush rising up my neck and onto my cheeks.
“How are you?” he asks.
“I’m…I’m okay. I didn’t sleep much, but Ben seems to be doing pretty well. When the doc said that he can leave in a few days if he eats all his food and gets strong, he ate all his breakfast-even the yogurt, which he hates.”
“He must hate being all cooped up in the bed like that.”
I nod. “I don’t know who it’s worse for, him or the nurses!”
“So…let’s get him out of that bed soon, what do you say?” Brad says, and there’s a glint in his eye.