“I caught an elbow to the face or something along those lines. Hurts like a motherfucker.”
Janae leans in closer and inspects my face. “I’m calling Mal to take you home. You’re not driving anywhere.” She picks up her cell phone and, before I can say anything, she telling him to come to the club right away.
“You didn’t want to tell him why he was coming back to the club?”
“If I told him that your pretty face was all beat up, he would have taken his time. This way, he rushes over here.” She smiles, proud of herself.
I try to roll my eyes, but parts of my face hurt that I wasn’t aware would hurt. “Can I get an ice water?” I ask her.
“No straight up booze?” she quirks an eyebrow. “To dull the pain any?”
“I don’t think alcohol helps with swelling,” I reply dryly. I would love a drink right now, to take the edge off and to also make some of the pain go away, but I know that won’t help me any.
Five minutes later, Mal comes in through the back hallways. He looks frantic and looks around the space.
“Why are we closed? Where is every— Holy shit! What happened to your face, man?” he says quickly as he approaches. Mal starts to reach for my face but my hand blocks him.
He then looks to Janae and back to me, waiting for someone to answer his questions.
Janae decides to recap. “Some guy grabbed Trina off the stage, and Amanda reached after her and got dragged off too. Both girls fell to the floor and some assholes mauled them and then a fight broke out. This guy” —she jerks her thumb at me— “thought to be a superhero and dove in the middle of the mess. The staff was freaking out, the patrons were pissy and started peacocking, and security had their hands full. Police reports were taken, refunds were issued, and then we closed up for the night.”
“I checked in with everyone and they’re okay. Trina has a twisted ankle and Amanda has a concussion from being knocked around a bit, but overall they’ll be okay,” I add.
“And you look like shit,” Mal confirms.
“What you’re saying is that I wouldn’t win any beauty pageants right now?”
“Depends on what someone would count as beautiful, mate. C’mon, let’s get you to the hospital. Text Cam and tell her where we’re heading,” he instructs me, as he grabs my arm and helps me up.
“Nah, she’s sleeping. I’ll see her in the morning.” I follow behind him.
“Arsehole. She’s your girlfriend, yes?” Mal turns to me, stopping me just before the back door.
“Uh, yes?” I know that Cam and I said we weren’t putting a title on us, but I have to admit that Girlfriend sounds pretty fucking nice.
“Is that a question? Look, I’ll give you this one pass. For future reference, the rules of relationships include: when certain things happen, like your face looking like that, or bigger events like going to the hospital, thou shalt call and/or text her. Not keeping the girlfriend in the loop on these things is grounds for the doghouse. And you don’t want to be in the doghouse. Trust me.” He unlocks his car and we slide into the seats.
I text Cam with basic details.
Me: Fight at the club. I’m going to the hospital. Fill you in at home.
I don’t expect an answer right away and pocket my phone. It’s after midnight anyways; she’s usually asleep by now but my phone goes off and I pull it back out.
She’s calling.
“’Ello?” I answer with a wince.
“I think I need more details than that,” she says, her voice full of sleep.
I gave her the bare details as it was starting to hurt to talk.
“Shit. You right?” She sounds more awake.
“I am. I’ve got a bruise but I’m fine.” I downplay the injury so it won’t make her worry.
“He looks like the elephant man!” Mal yells for Cam to hear.
“What the hell?” she screams into the receiver.
“Calm down. I’m fine.”
“Then why is my brother driving you to the hospital.”
“Because my nose is swollen and has been swollen for a few hours now. It’s likely broken.”
“Where is he taking you?”
“Valley. Stay home, get some sleep, and I’ll wake you when I get home.”
“Don’t be dense. Doghouse,” Mal whispers.
“Fuck all. I’ll see you there.” She hangs up, not giving me the chance to respond.
I pocket my phone again.
“So, she’s on her way.”
“So is Beck,” Mal admits.
“I don’t need a welcoming committee,” I say.
“Did you let the paramedics check you out?”
“No.”
“Arsehole,” he mutters as he pulls into a parking spot. “How have you managed to survive this far in life?”
We get out of the car and walk through the doors to the nurse’s station. We approach the counter where a tired-looking, middle-aged woman sits. She’s looking down at whatever is in front of her and we’re not spared a glance. Instead, she hands us a clipboard and gives us instructions to have a seat and fill it out. Mal sits beside me and plays on his phone while I fill out the forms. When I turn it in, the same nurse finally takes a look at me. She leans to the side to look at Mal and then leans closer to me.
“That fellow you’re with, he’s not the cause, is he?” she whispers.
“No ma’am. He’s my business partner. This resulted from an altercation at our club.”
She nods, smacks her gum and then looks at her clipboard.
“We’ll take care of you soon. Take a seat. How’s your pain?”
“A dulling seven. I’ve grown used to it by now.”
“Take a seat, darlin’, I’ll see what we can do.” She winks at me.
Cam and Beck enter the emergency room doors at the same time in a hurry. Both wear worried looks as they search the room for us. The room goes silent when those two beauties walk into it and everyone turns to look at them. Men cradling their head with a head wound turn to stare, women who were crying moments before become silent, and even the fidgeting children still as they attempt to figure out what the big deal is. When Cam and Beck spot us, they quickly cross the room toward us. Cam crouches down between my legs and inspects my face, and Beck observes her seat by Mal’s side.
Cam reaches for me and, with a light touch to my temples, she turns my head from side to side, inspecting me. Her mouth falls open and her eyes look worried as she does her own examination.
“The fuck you do to yourself?” Cam asks quietly.
“I didn’t do this to myself, love,” I say, while attempting an expression I hope looks like a smirk.
“You put yourself in between something and another something. Foot to the face? Knee?” she guesses.
“Elbow. I think. It could have been anything. It happened so quickly.”
“Idiot.” Beck laughs. “You know security, those guys get in between the fights, that’s part of their job description. They get paid for that shit.”
That reminds me. “Speaking of which, we should rearrange the security posts and have a meeting about what took place tonight, how we can prevent it from happening again, and such. I’m going to encourage a workers comp claim from Trina and we’ll likely have to answer a series of ‘why’ questions,” I say, turning my gaze to Beck.
She nods and then smiles. “We’ll worry about all this tomorrow. Let’s get you checked out and then we’ll discuss the next steps. Were police reports taken?”
“Of course.” I nod.
“Refunds given for the rest of the shows that were supposed to happen or the remainder of the night?”
“For those who started to show up. Security gave them the option of a refund or show tickets for another evening. A few of the guys were going to stay until the original start time of the final show and hand out rain checks or whatever it takes to turn the disappointment of a cancelled show into a positive experience.”
The four of us fall into e
asy conversation for the next two hours while we wait for my name to be called. Cam rests her head on my shoulder with her hand in mine as Mal and Beck sleep in their chairs across from us.
My name is called from somewhere up front. Slowly, I maneuver as best as I can to not wake up Cam, but she wakes up. I stand and she takes my hand. I squeeze it in return.
“Be back,” I say quietly.
I have a broken nose.
The doctor wanted to wait for the initial swelling to go down, but when I explain that it’s been at least six hours since the injury occurred, he manually realigns the break, inserts an internal splint and packing, tells me to call my primary care doctor for a follow up appointment in a week, then tells me to take over-the-counter pain meds for the pain. I am in and out in under an hour, after waiting for what felt like forever. I approach everyone in the waiting room – they’re all sleeping sitting up or leaning against one another – and lightly wake them. Cam’s eyes blink a few times and then she smiles. Beck and Mal slowly begin to rise.
“Well, it would seem that we hired someone right in the knick of time. Do you think she can handle a few nights alone?” I ask.
“There’s no better way to find out other than to throw her in,” Mal says, stretching.
“Good. I’m going to take a few nights off. But if we can plan two meetings during the day that would be good.”
“What kind of meetings?” Mal asks.
“I want the security meeting that I mentioned. I think we need to up security, have them positioned differently, and then once we have that, I want an all-staff meeting – front of house and back of house. We’ll go over new security measures and just generally check in with staff. Trina will be out for a few days, so we’ll need to get someone to fill in for her. And I want another check in with Amanda, to make sure she’s good. If we can send flowers to her and Trina too, that would be good and—”
Beck interrupts me. “Okay, slow your roll, buddy. We’ll get this all ironed out later. I think that’s enough business for right now. It’s late, we’re all tired, and you need some sleep. Skype with us tomorrow, but for now you need to go home and rest. We’ll talk later,” Beck instructs with determination.
“No funny business. He needs sleep.” Mal shakes his finger at his sister.
“No funny business,” Cam repeats, nodding as we go our separate ways.
Once we’re in the warmth of her car she turns to me. “Thank you for texting me.”
I look over at her over and try to smile. I take her hand and squeeze it just in case the gauze on my face obscures my smile.
“If you came home like this, and I hadn’t known what was going on, I would have freaked out. I might have even hit you inadvertently and hurt you even more than you currently are.” She smiles.
“So, I’m your first real relationship?” I ask, leaning my head against the headrest of my seat, looking at her as she starts the car and pulls out of the parking space, puts the car into drive and heads in the direction of home.
“Mmmhmmm,” she confirms.
“Were you planning on telling me this?”
“Mmmhmmm. Eventually. I mean it’s not that important, is it?”
“I would tend to think so, yes.”
“Well, since you have a few nights off, maybe we can take this time to get to know one another a little better on a different level than we did as you being my brothers friend? I mean, I think we know the surface stuff, but it can’t hurt to go deeper,” she says offhandedly.
“Works for me. Unexpected days off, spent with you – I couldn’t ask for anything more.”
Chapter Twelve
Cam
When we get home from the hospital, I tell Jacks to have a seat while I get him a glass of water. I walk back into the living room to find him asleep in the recliner. He had been ordered to sleep sitting up for a few days to ensure no further swelling took place in his nose, so I didn’t try to move him.
Since he’s sleeping in the living room, I lie down on the couch beside his chair and fall asleep just as quickly as he did.
Sometime later, I’m woken up by Jacks brushing the hair off of my face. I blink my eyes a few times and a smile comes to my face as I take in his appearance. Even with two black eyes and his nose bandaged up, he is still gorgeous. He tries to smile, but I can see the slight grimace, which tells me the movement hurts him.
“You fell asleep,” he says.
“You did first, so I followed suit.”
“You could have slept in our bed. You didn’t need to stay out here with me.”
“I wanted to be close, just in case you needed me.”
“You’re sweet. I ordered some Uber Eats,” he says.
“Yeah?” I start to sit up.
“Yeah, I hope you like pho.”
“Never have had Pho before.”
He extends his hand to me, so I slip mine into his and he pulls me to a sitting position.
“So, when were you planning on telling me that you haven’t had a relationship before? I mean that seems like it’s some big type of news that you would want to disclose when you’re having the relationship conversation, it could help me understand where you’re coming from.”
“I didn’t think that it was important to bring up.” I shrug.
“I kind of feel like it’s a big deal, I feel like it’s a big step for anyone to have their first boyfriend or girlfriend.”
Is he pissed off at me? His bandaged nose makes it hard to tell by his tone.
I’m not exactly sure how to approach the topic of my dating history, and I find it even more daunting to tell him that he was my first and has been my only.
“So, maybe we should talk about it now.” It wasn’t a question.
“I mean, you know now, so there really isn’t much to say on that topic anymore,” I lie.
“Something is telling me there’s more to discuss. We’re in a relationship, Cam. We’re also living together. I mean, those are each good reasons why we should be pretty honest with one another. I may be rusty on being somebody’s boyfriend, but I’m quite sure that is how it goes.” He has a point. If watching romantic comedies taught me anything growing up, it’s that if you’re not honest in a relationship, it can end in disaster.
“Okay, so there’s more.” I say. “We should maybe wait for the food to arrive so we’re not interrupted.”
I know I shouldn’t try to postpone the conversation, but I’m not entirely sure how to approach the conversation since it’s new to me.
Ugh. I wish I had more practice in this.
Do I though?
“I know what you’re trying to do, Cam.” He smiles. “We’ll wait until the food comes, but we’re having this conversation tonight.”
We don’t have to wait long for the food and, once it arrived, I keep my mouth busy by shoving the noodles and meat into my mouth. Jacks watches with an entertained expression until we are both finished.
“Pho is good.” I wipe my mouth.
“It is,” he agrees with a nod.
“It’s pho-king good.” I smile.
We’re sitting side by side on his couch. He looks like he’s in pain but he hasn’t said much about it since we’ve been home.
“Spill it, Cam. We’re not putting this conversation off any longer,” he starts. “Why didn’t you mention when we were talking about relationships and defining what we are, that you’ve never been in one before?”
“I’m not sure. I didn’t see it as being of any importance to mention how naive and inexperienced I was. You’ve got a lot more experience than I do, and just saying it now makes me feel significantly younger than you.”
“I don’t look at you and think of how old you are.”
“There’s a four year age difference. To some that’s not a small difference.”
“Are you trying to make it sound bad? I see nothing wrong with our age difference,” he questions.
“Not intentionally. I’m sorry.” I look to my hands, whi
ch I’m wringing in my lap. He covers my fidgeting hands with one of his.
“You don’t have to apologize for feeling or thinking a certain way. Look, we like each other, and we’re together. I want us to be completely open with each other. That’s what you do when you’re in a relationship, at least one that you want to go somewhere.”
“And you do?” I ask with a tinge of fear.
“Of course I do. I wouldn’t have even thought twice about throwing my thoughts of staying away from you any longer since the night of the club if I didn’t. I was hoping there wouldn’t be a risk with your brother and my friendship, because your brother is my family and I didn’t want to lose that. But I know now that he’s happy for us and would have been all along.”
“Then why didn’t you act on us being a thing until that night from the club?”
“I was scared.”
“Scared?”
“Look, my friendship with Mal is huge for me. When I said he’s my family, I meant it. I don’t speak to my own family, so he’s really all I’ve got. Him and Beck. So with being family comes trust and honor.” He clears his throat. “There’s an unwritten rule about mates and little sisters, but I violated the mates code that night after the wedding. I was terrified of what would happen if anything else came of the two of us. But then I realized that we could have something good together and Mal would want that for both of us. And that brings us to now.”
“So, I guess I should tell you more about my inexperience.” I swallow a lump then continue. “I am also inexperienced in the bedroom.”
“Okay. I’m not following.”
“I’m inexperienced in the bedroom, meaning that I’ve had a limited number of partners and by limited, I mean only one.” I watch his face as that information sinks in. His facial features don’t change much.
“I know.” He says simply.
“How?”
“Other than the physiological way, I’m not going to explain sex to you. But I don’t remember that part of our first time together. Mal told me.”
“Gross. I can’t believe my brother shared that information with you.”
“He assumed that I already knew. How much of that night do you remember?”
The Night Moves Boxset: (Stripped, The Hook-up, The Night Manager) Page 22
