by Claire Angel
“Mr.Franklin?” a nurse asked me, holding a chart in his hands.
I stood up. “Yes, that’s me,” I confirmed.
The nurse flipped through the chart. “You’re here with... Miss Heatherington, is that correct?”
The suspense was killing me. “Yes, Erika Heatherington,” I tried to say as patiently as I could.
The nurse just kept looking through the chart, making noises to himself here and there. Finally, he looked up at me. “She’s awake now, you can go in and see her if you’d like.”
If I’d LIKE?! my thoughts screamed at me, but I didn’t let them escape my lips. “Thank you very much, yes. What room is she in? What happened to her?” All of my questions were coming out at once, it seemed.
The nurse sighed. “Had a bad case of the flu, fever over 105, her body shut itself down because it needed a chance to recover. Get cases like this all the time. She’s in room 305,” he said nonchalantly as he walked out of the room.
I was so shocked and relieved that I didn’t move for a moment. But then my brain kicked in and I flew after the nurse and down the hall to room 305.
When I pushed the door open, Erika was lying on the bed, still looking rather unconscious. But when she heard me, she pulled her head up and looked at me. “X...Xavier,” she said warmly, smiling through her fever. “Thank you for pulling my sorry butt here when I was too stupid to do it myself!”
I let out a relieved laugh. “You’re very welcome,” I said as I walked over to her bedside. She was in a surprisingly nice room for being in a big city hospital. It had a window, and while it was overlooking nothing more than the parking lot, it was still better than being in a windowless closet the way most rooms were. There was even a moderately comfortable looking chair that I could sit in to visit with her, which I took up immediately.
“Did Natalie send you to come collect me?” Erika asked. “I knew that if anything truly bad happened to me she would notice that I was gone, so I was fine.”
“What?!” I practically shouted at her, but stopped myself from doing it fully because I knew she didn’t need that right now. “So you just let yourself fall apart at home because you thought that at some point your best friend would notice you were missing and would come get you?”
Erika looked at me like I was crazy. “...Yeah? What else was I supposed to do, call you? We don’t have that kind of a relationship.”
Now, I was even more worried than before Erika had woken up. “Erika,” I said seriously, “please, please call me. I don’t care what kind of a relationship we have, I always want you to call me when you’re not feeling well. I don’t even care if it turns out to be nothing, just promise me that from now on you’ll call me even if you fart in a way you’re not used to.”
I hadn’t meant to make the last part of my lecture comedic, but when I realized I had, Erika and I both started laughing. When we were both able to catch our breath, Erika said, “So what you’re saying is... I might have made the wrong choice by staying at home alone and going unconscious when there was no one there?”
I felt the urge to lecture her again, but I thought I had done that enough already for one day. “I believe that you did, yes,” I answered her plainly. “But I also believe that I made the wrong decision in forgetting to call Natalie, because I think she’ll probably be about ready to kill me for having not updated her by now.”
Erika’s eyes widened. “You didn’t call Natalie? My god, man, do you value your life at all? Go fix your error right now!” she cried, and I obeyed my orders and escaped into the hall to update Natalie on the situation.
While she was annoyed at what I had done by not updating her, she was mostly relieved to hear that Erika was being taken care of at the hospital. She offered to come and relieve me, but I wasn’t ready to leave Erika’s side just yet, so I told her that I was fine for the time being. She said that she would come and switch off with me in the morning then, and I agreed to that.
Erika spent most of the rest of the day recuperating and sleeping a lot, which was well warranted. I tried to make myself look very busy with my phone, but the truth was that I spent most of my time watching her and making sure that she was comfortable. I was still finding it hard to believe that she hadn’t felt comfortable enough to call me, but I knew that wasn’t a conversation for right now. What she needed was rest, peace and attention.
Chapter 13
Erika
When I finally woke up from what felt like my seventeenth nap of the day, it was dark outside. The machines they had me hooked up to were softly beeping away and I could hear people outside my door moving around. It took me a moment to remember where I was, but when I did, I looked to make sure that Xavier was still there which of course, he was. He had finally fallen asleep in the visitor’s chair that was beside the bed, and he did not look comfortable. He was all scrunched up and his head was bobbing up and down as he fell into and out of a deeper sleep. I watched him do this for a minute until I made a decision.
I crawled carefully out of bed so that my wires were still attached but not tangled, and then gently pulled him towards me. He woke up a little bit and said, “What’s happening? Is something wrong? Do you need anything?”
I shook my head to reassure him. “No, everything is fine. You’re just so uncomfortable,” I explained to him.
Xavier proceeded to stay in that sleepy state while I guided him to the bed and encouraged him to lie down. He protested at first, saying, “No, no, there’s not enough room, you need the space.”
“There’s plenty of room,” I reassured him. In truth, there wasn’t, but I wasn’t about to let him spend a miserable night on that horribly uncomfortable chair. And so I positioned him in such a way that I could curl up against him and we could both lie on the bed. It was so comforting to be inside his embrace that for a moment I forgot I was even in the hospital. Everything was comforting and warm, and I didn’t want to leave his side ever again. I was so grateful that I had been rescued, but more importantly that it was him who rescued me. I was gradually discovering just how important this man was to me, and I was hoping that Xavier felt the same way about me.
We both fell back asleep almost instantly, and only awoke when the sun blinded us. Xavier stretched reflexively when he woke up, and in doing that very nearly pushed me off the bed. I made a sound to remind him that I was there, and when he realized where he was and what was happening, he sprang from the bed.
“Oh my god,” he said, rubbing his eyes, “did... did I crawl into bed with you last night? I’m so sorry, I’m so embarrassed, I can’t believe that I”-
I started laughing, and when I did, Xavier stopped panicking. “I pulled you into bed after you looked absolutely miserable in that god forsaken chair,” I explained to him. “There was room enough in the bed for both of us, so I wanted to make sure that you didn’t have to suffer for any longer.”
Xavier took another beat to wake up a bit more and then a lazy, goofy smile found its way onto his lips. “So... what you’re saying is... we shared a bed last night?”
I rolled my eyes. “Yes, if you’re being a child, we shared a bed last night,” I said, jokingly unimpressed.
“How are you feeling this morning?” he asked, changing the subject.
I felt my forehead. It felt practically normal, and none of the body aches and pains that I had been experiencing the night before remained. “Much, much better,” I reported to him. “I hope that they’ll see that I’m well enough to let me go home today.”
Xavier gave me a doubtful look. “You’ll stay for as long as they tell you to. You could probably do with some rest anyways, you’re going to need it for our big day,” he reminded me.
I chuckled and sat up more in the uncomfortable hospital bed. And then, Xavier snapped his fingers and said, “Speaking of which...”
He reached into the pocket of his pants and produced a small jewelry box. I looked at him, baffled, until he opened it. Inside wa
s the most beautiful engagement ring I had ever seen. It had a green gemstone in the middle and it was encircled by diamonds that glimmered in the sunlight. The gold band made it look even more expensive and fancy, and when he took the ring out of its holder and handed it to me, he said, “I thought this might be a bit nicer than the wine bottle wire one that I gave you before.”
I looked at him, and then back and the ring. “Xavier,” I whispered, slowly slipping the band onto my finger. “This... this is too much. We’re not even really getting married, you didn’t have to go to all the trouble of”-
“It was no trouble,” Xavier said hurriedly. “In fact, I wanted to do it. You’ve done so much for me over the last few weeks, the biggest thing being that you agreed to get married to me in a fake ceremony to help re-build my business and make my ex-wife and brother jealous. And so... I wanted to get you something to show mu appreciation.”
I kept looking at the ring as though it were going to disappear from my finger if I glanced away for one moment. It was the most beautiful piece of jewelry that I’d ever seen.
“Th...thank you,” I said, practically rendered speechless. “This is such a lovely gesture, but you know that I’m not just marrying you to help you, I’m marrying you because”-
And at that moment, a doctor walked in and interrupted us. I was very grateful that he did, because I had started that sentence without thinking about what I was saying. Had I been given the chance; would I have said that I was marrying him because I cared for him... or because I loved him?
That was a new revelation that I had come to at some point in the night. When I was lying there curled in his embrace, I couldn’t figure out why I was pushing this man away from me when all he had done since the beginning of our relationship was care for me, treasure me, respect me and he’d made me feel like the most important person in the world. I knew now that I had to tell Xavier how I felt about him, and soon, before we went through with this wedding. If we didn’t, I would feel like I was duping him into something... even if that something wasn’t real in the first place.
It turned out that I was doing quite well this morning, and so the doctor gave me permission to be discharged from the hospital. Xavier helped me to get ready, and he was the perfect gentleman and left me to change when I needed to take my hospital gown off. When I was ready to go, we started walking down to the parking garage and I started thinking about when a good time to tell him about my feelings would be.
However, my thoughts were aborted when Natalie suddenly appeared in front of me when the elevator doors opened. “Erika!” she cried, flinging her arms around me. I still wasn’t feeling all that strong, so I did almost collapse when she hit me, but she immediately felt what had happened and stepped away. “Oh my god, I’m so sorry. I was so happy to see you that I completely forgot how ill you are.”
I chuckled. “Don’t worry about it, I’m doing much better now thanks to this guy,” I said, gesturing to Xavier. He looked quite pleased with himself. “What are you doing here?”
“I came to visit you, you dingo!” she replied, taking out a huge bouquet of flowers from behind her back. Then, she turned to Xavier and said, “Remember? I told you last night that I would”-
Xavier put his face into his palm. “I’m so sorry, Natalie,” he said apologetically. “I completely forgot to text you and tell you that Erika was being released today. If you hadn’t shown up just now, we would have missed you completely and it would have been entirely my fault! I apologize.”
“Xavier,” she growled, “I was able to forgive the fact that you kept me waiting for hours before I was able to know how Erika was doing last night, but then you forget to text me about this this morning? You’re on thin ice sir, very thin ice indeed.”
I gave Natalie a playful swat on the arm and said, “Stop it, Nat. He’s gone through enough in the last twenty four hours that I think we’re allowed to cut him a bit of a break.”
I looked over to Xavier and he was already giving me an appreciative look. But it seemed like there was something more behind his eyes... I just couldn’t tell what it was.
“Fine, fine,” Natalie relented, pushing the flowers into my arms. “But the least you could do is let me take her home, ok?” She gave Xavier a look that said not to test her, and so Xavier obeyed her well. However, we did all travel back down to the garage together, and when we got to Natalie’s car, I noticed that she got into it rather quickly. She was obviously giving us a moment alone, and for that I was very grateful.
I turned back to Xavier. “Thank you so much for... well, for basically saving my life,” I said gratefully. “From now on, I promise you that I will call you whenever I feel like I’m in trouble.”
Xavier seemed very pleased with that promise. “Good,” he replied happily. “But you know, you can just call me whenever you’d like. Anytime. Day or night.” He winked at me and my stupid heart fluttered, and then he said, “Could I come by later? Just to, you know, check up on you?”
I nodded vigorously. “Yes, yes please,” I agreed. “I’ll order some food for dinner and we can”-
“No,” Xavier denied me. I was momentarily annoyed, but then he explained. “You’re not going to lift a finger. I will bring dinner, and if you’re feeling up to it, we can discuss some more details for the wedding.”
I protested for a moment, but then gave in. “Ooookay,” I said obediently. “See you later.”
And then, Xavier leaned in and gave me a kiss on the lips. It was quick, unexpected and nerve-wracking, and it was obvious that Xavier felt as nervous about it as I did because he quickly retreated in the direction of his car. He didn’t look back and he didn’t say anything else to me, so I just stood there behind Natalie’s car for a moment, bewildered. Did... did he really just kiss me? Unprompted? With no promise of any sort of sexual relations afterwards?
Thoughts began swimming in my head, but they were quickly thwarted when Natalie honked the horn at me. I jumped about a foot in the air, but then quickly scampered over to the passenger side door and hopped in the car.
When I did, Natalie looked over at me, paused and then burst out laughing. “What?” I said defensively. “What is so funny?”
But Natalie just kept laughing. “Oh honey,” she finally said when she’d caught her breath. “You say that you’re marrying this man in a fake ceremony to make his ex-wife jealous and to grow both your companies? Are you sure it’s not just because you’re both head over heels in love with each other?”
I scoffed. “Head over- no. No, we are not in love in any way, shape or form. That would be hilarious. We’re getting married for exactly the reasons you said! Nothing else.”
Natalie made a ‘pfft’ sound and then started driving out of the garage. “Heatherington, you’re saying that as if I didn’t just see that independent, grown man lean over and kiss you on the lips before he left. If you’re telling me that there isn’t something between the two of you, I’m never going to believe another word you say in your life.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I spat back at her, still not wanting to confirm what she was saying because I was afraid that Xavier wouldn’t return my feelings. “The only type of love between us is... is... friendly love, and that is all it ever will be! He kissed me because he was so relieved I had recovered after last night.”
Natalie finally started to back off a little. “Alright, alright,” she said, “I won’t tease you any more about this. But so help me if I am right, then the two of you are naming your first child after me.”
I laughed at the thought of that, but feared that when she did find out my true feelings for Xavier, she would make me stay true to that threat.
Natalie dropped me off at home and then stayed with me for a few hours to make sure that I was doing alrigt. No matter how many times I reassured her that I was fine, she didn’t leave until she heard Xavier was on his way. “I’ll go now, I’ll go,” she said finally. She raised her
eyebrows at me though and continued, “but you’d better give me an update tomorrow morning about what happens with Xavier here tonight.”
I rolled my eyes at her from my position in bed. “And why do you want me to update you tomorrow morning and not later on tonight?” I asked her.
“Because,” she responded, “you’ll be having so much mad hot sex tonight that you won’t have time to text me, and then Xavy Baby will stay over till tomorrow morning. I’d put money on that one.”
I took my box of Kleenexes and chucked them at her. They soared well over her head, but she still ducked and covered her head with her hands. “Don’t kill me, don’t kill me!” she cried as she scurried out the door. “Just remember to use condoms so that you don’t end up with a billionaire’s baby inside of you!”
I threw more things at her as she shrieked with laughter and ran from the room. She finally left, and I was at last allowed a moment to myself before Xavier arrived.
The problem was, I was actually getting quite tired. I tried to fight my tiredness for as long as I could, scrolling through Instagram and Facebook while I waited for Xavier. But then I made the fatal error of shutting my eyes ‘just for a minute’... and I was out like a light.
Chapter 14
Xavier
When I let myself into Erika’s condo a few hours later (she’d given me an extra key at the hospital), it was as silent as a tomb. I was pretty sure that she was sleeping so I did my best to be as quiet as I could. I got dinner all set up in the kitchen and set it on a tray so that I could take it in to her in the bedroom. I decided that I should probably check and make sure that she actually was sleeping and she wasn’t having any problems like she was yesterday.
I snuck into her room, and when I saw her peacefully curled up in bed, I let out a sigh of relief. I was glad to see that she was getting enough rest because she really, really needed it, but I was also really looking forward to when she was awake. But I decided to let her sleep for a little bit longer and so I crept out of her room, but when I did, my foot caught the door, pushed it before I could catch it and it knocked over a bowl that was sitting precariously on the edge of Erika’s desk. It hit the carpeted floor with a dull thud and I winced. I held my breath, hoping that it wouldn’t wake her, but of course, it did.
