by Hazel Parker
“Can I help you find something?” he asked. His nurse’s badge said “Josh.” “Or someone?”
Brett nodded. “Is Anna…Dion working today?” Shit. He wasn’t sure about her last name; it had been a few years, and it hadn’t been listed on her name tag.
Josh frowned. “I’m afraid I’m not allowed to give out any schedule information,” he said, “so if you’re not here to see a patient, I’m going to have to ask you to leave.”
His scanning eyes turned a little more desperate, hoping that she’d turn the corner and rescue him, but that didn’t happen. “My grandfather is here,” he explained. “Eustice Riggs. Anna’s my…she’s his nurse. She told me to ask her if he needed anything.”
Josh visibly relaxed when he recognized the name, probably having been concerned that some creep had shown up to Anna’s work looking for her.
“In that case,” he began, “her last name is Diaz. And yes, she’s here. She had a bit of an incident with a patient, so she’s cleaning herself up. Is there something I can help with in the meantime?”
“Incident?” he asked. “Is she okay?” Josh laughed.
“Totally fine. A patient threw up on her; it happens. But she’s probably going to want to go straight home, so I’ll get your grandpa whatever he needs.”
Brett snickered. Anna was so uptight and always pristine-looking; he couldn’t imagine her enjoying a job in which things like that happened on the regular.
“I really wanted to talk to her, actually.”
Josh looked skeptical but shrugged. “I mean, I can tell her you’re here, but I can’t guarantee that she’s available. What’s your name?” Brett told him and then watched him walk off toward a room that said employees only. Figuring that it might be a bit, he strolled down the hall to room seven to check on Eustice. He knocked on the door and waited for the reply, opening it only when he heard a shuffling of blankets and a weak, “Come in.”
“Hi, Grandpa,” he greeted cheerfully. Eustice looked better than he had the previous day, probably some combination of IV fluids, pain medication, and rest. “How are you feeling?”
Eustice gave a wan smile. “Like I’m dying,” he replied, a morbid sort-of joke, “but what else is new?” He coughed instead of laughing. “How are you, my boy? Two visits in two days? That’s more than I’ve seen you in months.”
Brett laughed, but it made him feel a little guilty. “I’m fine,” he replied easily. “I wanted to introduce you to someone today.” That perked Eustice right up, and he sat up in bed.
“Oh?” he asked, looking to the door as if expecting her to make a dramatic entrance. “Is it that girlfriend of yours?”
“Yeah. But she had kind of a rough day at work, so I’m not sure if she’s going to—”
His excuse was interrupted by a knock at the door. “Brett?” Anna’s voice called, opening the door just a sliver to peek in but finding that she couldn’t see him on the side of the bed he’d chosen to sit at. “Sorry, Mr. Riggs. Josh said that your grandson was here, but I didn’t see him in the lobby.”
“I’m in here, babe,” Brett called, then basked in the pleasure of watching his grandfather’s face go through several layers of shock and confusion and finally elation.
“Come in, sweetheart; come in!” he welcomed. She opened the door, and Brett could see that her hair was wet, likely freshly washed. She’d obviously changed out of her scrubs, but it appeared as though she’d borrowed a hoodie from someone, as it was much too big for her, instead of putting on a spare set of scrubs.
“Hi,” she said softly, waiting for Brett to take the lead. “Sorry I’m late.”
“You’re not late; you’re perfect, dear,” Eustice gushed. “Brett, why didn’t you tell me that you were dating this sweet young nurse when she talked to us yesterday?”
Brett grimaced as if he hadn’t thought of an answer to that yet, so Anna spoke up. “I hadn’t told my coworkers that I was dating,” she lied, “so I asked him to keep it quiet until I had a chance. It was my request.”
Eustice nodded as if that made total sense. “Well, you won’t have to worry about me telling anyone anything,” he promised. “I’m just happy to see Brett with someone who’s got such a good head on her shoulders.”
Anna smiled, moving closer to Brett awkwardly. It was clear that she didn’t know how to approach this, and to be honest, neither did he. They should probably be close to one another, sure, but what else? Should they hold hands?
“Aren’t you going to offer the young lady a seat?” Eustice prompted, giving Brett a disapproving look. “She’s been on her feet all day.” He stood, almost embarrassed.
“Of course,” he replied. He hadn’t planned for them to sit and converse for this long, but he’d do what he had to do.
“Now, Anna, I don’t want to overload you with questions, but I’m curious. How did you two meet?”
Anna looked at Brett concernedly, and he nodded to tell her it was okay to give the real story; he hadn’t lied about anything too big, yet.
“Well, I rented the apartment next to Brett’s when I was in nursing school,’’ she said, “and we were…friends, for a while. And now, here we are!”
The story lacked detail, but before Eustice could pry further, there was another knock on the door, and without even waiting for an answer, Martha walked into the room.
“I knew I heard you up in here,” she greeted, seeming to notice the others after the fact. “And it looks like you’ve already got company.” Eustice reached out for Anna’s hand.
“Martha, this is Brett’s girlfriend,” he introduced proudly.
“Oh, grandpa, no,” she disagreed gently, coming closer like she was approaching a fearful animal. “This is Anna, your nurse, remember?” Eustice didn’t react well to the assumption that he wasn’t of sound mind and rolled his eyes.
“Yes, and she and Brett are old friends. They’ve been dating—how long did you say it was?”
“Three months,” Brett supplied quickly. “But Martha doesn’t want to hear about that.”
Martha looked decidedly like she did want to hear about that. “Anna, I had no idea! Brett, you should have told me that you needed a plus-one invitation.”
“A plus-one?” Anna echoed. “To what?”
“My wedding!”
Anna paled at the thought of this lie so much as leaving this room. “Oh, that’s…so nice of you, but—”
“She’d love to go,” Brett cut her off, squeezing her hand to cut off any excuse she might have been about to make. “But you’ve already got everything set up for the number of people who have RSVP'd, and we don’t want to make you change things around so close to the date.”
She shook her head immediately as if she already knew he’d object. “We purchased a few extra plates of both meal options just in case someone changed their mind last minute, and the tables aren’t too packed; we can move some chairs around to let her sit next to you. It’s no problem.”
Brett grimaced, and Anna could feel him tense a little, trying and failing to think of another viable excuse before nodding with a forced smile.
“Well, of course, we’ll both be there,” he agreed. “Anna, you’re free next Saturday, right?”
She was—she never really had plans for the weekends, unfortunately—and at this point, she didn’t know if lying would make things better or worse, but it looked like Brett wanted her just to take the easy way out and accept the invitation.
“Absolutely,” she agreed. “I’ll have to buy a dress, though.”
“I’ll pay for that, sweetheart,” Eustice offered. It was more of a command than a suggestion. She opened her mouth to argue, but he put a hand up to stop her. “Don’t worry about the money. I can’t take it with me, now can I?”
“I mean, I understand that, but—”
“Oh, honey, just let him pay,” Martha instructed with a fond smile. “He’s going to win this argument in the end, anyway, so you might as well save your breath.”
<
br /> Anna flushed pink with embarrassment, but she had to admit that she was a little relieved not to have to shell out a bunch of money so close to when her next rent check was due. “Well, thank you.”
Eustice looked nothing but thrilled to be able to help, and Anna took the moment to let it sink in that it was already Tuesday and she had almost no time to get ready for a wedding. Not to mention, she would have to face Brett’s whole family, which meant answering questions from curious family members and acting like she knew him better than she did, and he’d have to do the same for her. Maybe she could just fake the stomach flu…
“Not that we’re trying to get out of here, but Anna and I have dinner reservations,” Brett fabricated. He leaned down to kiss Eustice on the forehead, and as Anna turned to follow him out, he reached for her hand and held it gently. “We’ll be back to visit again soon, okay?”
“Yes, get to your reservation! Anna, I’ll see you tomorrow, dear,” he teased, winking. He seemed to have more energy now than he’d had all day, but perhaps that was just her imagination.
Brett waited until they’d left not only the lobby of the hospice center, but until they’d gotten all the way to his car to resume their conversation. It was still cold but no longer raining, so she hugged her jacket tight.
“What are we going to do about this?” she asked, watching Brett lean against the hood of his car. He shrugged casually, seeming unconcerned.
“I guess we’ve just got to get through it.”
She gaped. “Just ‘get through it?’” she parroted. “Brett, we haven’t seen each other in four years. I don’t know anything about you, and you don’t know me, either. There’s no way we can pull this off.”
Brett looked confused. “Of course you know me,” he objected. “We used to talk every day. We were best friends.”
“Yeah, four years ago,” she argued. “Don’t you know how much changes in that amount of time?” When he didn’t say anything, she paused. He still lived in the same apartment, she remembered. She’d assumed that’s where the similarities ended, but maybe she was wrong but as far as she knew Brett hadn’t gone to school, gotten a job, or even moved, and he was still just as much of a partier as he’d always been.
“You haven’t changed much, have you?” she asked, and he frowned.
“You say that like it’s a bad thing.”
Well, everything was relative. Once someone’s life was stable, with a good job and a family and a house, maybe that was okay, but Brett was now in his late-twenties. He was supposed to be working hard to set up the things he wanted in life, not acting like a perpetual twenty-two-year-old.
“Listen, this isn’t going to work if we don’t play our cards right, so humor me. Just…come over to my place tomorrow. We’ll take a crash course in each other. I’ll tell you the important things about me, and you can tell me the important things about you. Easy.”
Brett pulled a distasteful face. “That sounds like studying,” he noted, and she couldn’t help but laugh.
“I’m good at studying, and you used to help me, remember? We can do this.”
“I never knew any of the material, though. I just held up your flashcards and confirmed when you got an answer right, which was pretty much every time.”
She rolled her eyes, then leaned in and gave him a reassuring hug goodbye. “Don’t worry about it,” she told him. “I’ll take care of everything.”
Chapter Five: Anna
Anna was lucky that she’d watched a lot of couple’s game shows when she was in college or this task might be a lot more difficult for her. She spent a good portion of the night brainstorming every question that she could think of anyone asking them, from the story of how they met to the dates they’ve been on to their favorite movies and songs. The goal was to make it seem like they’d been in contact for years before finally getting together two months ago, and that wasn’t the easiest thing to do. All the little things that a person learns just by spending time with someone, like their favorite books, their political opinions, whether they want cats or dogs or kids: those were all things that she didn’t know about Brett.
Hell, she doubted that Brett knew all those things himself. He was the least mature grown man she’d ever met, and because of that, she knew that she was going to get the easier end of the trivia game. Most of the things that she remembered about him were still relevant, at least. He still liked video games and parties, didn’t have a real life plan, and “worked” the same job as a taxi driver whenever he felt like it, which was rarely.
Brett, on the other hand, was going to have a much harder time of things. While she didn’t think that he’d remember much about her, anyway, even if he did, most of his knowledge would be outdated. Fortunately, his family didn’t know her, so even if he got a few things wrong, it wouldn’t make too much of a difference, so long as they could keep their story straight.
She must have fallen asleep at the table—something she hadn’t done since she’d graduated—because she woke up with her head resting on her arms in the kitchen at two in the morning before she dragged herself to bed for a few more hours of sleep. Brett wasn’t supposed to come over until eight-thirty, which probably meant that he wouldn’t be over until at least nine, so she decided that it was okay to leave her questionnaire unfinished. Before she even had a chance to shut off her alarm, sleep claimed her once more.
At eight-thirty-five, there was a knock on the door and Anna leaped from her bed cursing up a storm. Grabbing a robe from her closet, she threw it over her pajamas and rushed to get the door. In the doorway, looking casual but put together in his ripped jeans and sweatshirt, stood Brett, drinking an iced coffee, holding a second cup in his other hand, and smirking cockily.
“Someone slept in,” he teased, offering her the hot cup. She took it gratefully and took a sip, not even caring that it was a few degrees away from scalding.
“Sorry,” she muttered, “thank you. For the coffee. And for coming over. I fell asleep late, and I guess I forgot to set an alarm.” He smiled, making himself at home by taking off his shoes and beelining for the couch.
“You’re the one who insisted that we start so early,” he pointed out.
“I know. I’m going to get changed really quick; then I’ll be ready to go, I promise.” Feeling embarrassed, she turned quickly down the hall before he could say another word and slammed her door shut. She felt vulnerable, like he’d seen her in a private, personal way that wasn’t something that she’d normally be comfortable showing to a stranger. Of course, it wasn’t the first time he’d seen her in pajamas. Sometimes they would run into one another taking out the trash before bed, and every once in a while, she studied in them after a long day of classes.
However, that was a much different time in her life. Anna had been a bit of a mess as a student, rarely sleeping and never caring what other people thought of her appearance, but now she was too old for that sort of thing. She wanted to convince everyone that she had everything together, and she was normally good at it, save for this one small slip. Luckily, Brett hadn’t seemed to mind. He’d always been more laid-back than she was, especially now. She rummaged through her closet for a cute sweater and skirt outfit and changed quickly, twisting her hair into a messy bun and brushing her teeth before going back to the living room.
“Alright,” she began, walking right past him to get to her notes that were still in the kitchen, “we have a lot of material to cover and only a day to do it.” It was already Wednesday, and the wedding was Saturday. Anna had to use Thursday to buy a dress after work, and Brett would be busy on Friday with the rehearsal, so they needed to make today count. His face showed an odd combination of intrigue and fear.
“Exactly what are we doing?”
