by Alyse Zaftig
“Thank you, gentlemen.” One of the cops had opened the back door.
“Happy to help. Good luck in there. Go straight to the ICU. It’s on the second floor.”
“Thank you!” Riley called as I pulled her into the hospital. She was hurrying as fast as she could, but she had put her heels back on. I wanted to sweep her off of her feet again, but I had a feeling that the hospital staff would frown on it or make us use a wheelchair or something.
We got into an elevator to go up one floor.
“He’s going to be fine.” I repeated it to Riley, as if by repeating it I’d make it true. I refused to consider the idea that he would be anything else.
When we got off of the elevator, we went up to a desk. Nurses were walking around everywhere, and I could hear beeping coming from various machines. I hated the smell of cleaning supplies. I cleared my throat. A nurse who was typing away on the computer looked up at me. I saw her eyes dilate when she saw me.
“Hello there.” I flashed a grin, relaxed for Riley’s sake. “We’re looking for Paul Jenkins.”
“He’s just over there.” She was smiling back at me. “Let me know if you need any other help.”
As I turned around, I could hear excited giggling behind me. If I weren’t with Riley, I would’ve taken advantage of the situation. But I was with Riley for as long as she’d have me.
We went into the room that she’d pointed to. I felt like I’d been sucker punched.
“You’re his family?”
“Riley.” She was shaking hands with a woman wearing blue scrubs.
“I’ve been taking care of him.”
“He’s asleep? Resting?” I extended my hand. “Desmond, his emergency contact.”
“He’s in a medically induced coma. He’s in pretty bad shape.”
I could see that one of his legs was in traction. His face was all cut up. There was a cast around his left arm.
“Is he going to be okay?”
“I can’t say.” The nurse shook her head. “I’ve been a trauma nurse for a long time. After they made wearing a seatbelt in cars mandatory, I stopped seeing as many young men like this. But this young gentleman here was riding a donor-cycle, so…I can’t say.”
Riley was crying. I held her close. I knew that the nurse was just being honest, but it wasn’t what Riley wanted to hear.
It was my fault. If he hadn’t ridden off on his motorcycle after finding out about me and Riley, he wouldn’t have been run over by a semi. If he didn’t make it, Riley would never forgive me.
My phone chimed.
“I’m sorry, sir, you can’t have that in here. It interferes with our equipment.”
“Of course. Excuse me.”
Zara’s Return
Desmond
Through a side door, I escaped the hospital, with its twin smells of death and cleaning agents. I answered my phone.
“Hello, sir. Ordinarily I wouldn’t call you about this, but we need your signature for something that’s time sensitive. The window is going to close in a few hours. Do you think you could email me back your electronic signature?”
“Sure.”
“I’m sending it to you now.”
I opened up my inbox. It was a contract about an investment in a nearby brand-new club. It was a rooftop club that offered a stunning view of LA, called Rooftop. Riley had asked me to invest in it on her behalf. I was an accredited investor, and she was nowhere near achieving that status. I’d been putting her paychecks into a little fund, waiting for this day. I was putting in a little money of my own.
I put in my digital signature before sending the file back to my lawyer.
“Done.”
“Thank you, sir.”
“Night.” I hit the red button to end the call.
“Desmond!”
I turned around to see Zara Rodriguez behind me. Her lipstick was smeared around the bottom of her face and her hair was a mess.
“What are you doing here?”
“You know, I could ask you the same thing.” She ran a hand through her normally flawless hair. “Or were you also using some of the on-call rooms with a delicious doctor or two?”
I shook my head. “Same old Zara.”
“Hard for one man to keep me satisfied, what can I say?” She licked her lips. “But you came close.” She walked up to me and rubbed her body against mine. “Don’t lie to me. I know that you can remember what it was like. We were dynamite together. You know you deserve someone like me, not an innocent little girl who doesn’t know the first thing about pleasing a man like you.”
Her ruby-tipped hand went behind my head as she forced my head downward. I jerked away, but not before she somehow managed to connect our mouths.
“How could you?” Riley was screaming from the door. I looked at her. Her face was flushed from anger. “My brother is half-dead in there, and you’re making out with Zara in the parking lot?”
“We were doing a lot more than making out, darling.” Zara was smirking at her. I looked between them and was revolted by a thoroughly used Zara and distraught Riley.
“Well, you’re free to have sex with him. I never loved him anyway.” Riley threw her words like knives.
“Riley, baby, it’s not what it looks like.”
“She has sex hair and her lipstick is smeared everywhere. What kind of idiot do you take me for?”
“Let’s leave this little infant alone, darling.” Zara put a hand on my arm.
“Is that what you want? You want me to leave you here with your brother?”
Riley nodded even though I could see that she was crying.
I considered my options. When I’d gotten rid of Zara the first time, it obviously hadn’t stuck. Riley was freaked out enough tonight without me trying to convince her that Zara had slept with someone else. I needed to wait for her to cool down.
“Okay.”
With just one word from me, Riley went back into the hospital. I knew that I’d broken her heart. Maybe she’d broken mine. My chest felt like there was a black, gaping hole in it.
“Now that you’re done with that little side bitch, we can get down to business.” Zara’s hand tightened on my arm.
“Fuck off, Zara.”
She gasped. “How rude!”
“Zara, you know that there’s nothing between us. You just took advantage of an opportunity to undermine Riley’s self-esteem. Go home. You smell like sex.”
Zara stomped off. She was already a non-entity as I thought about how to make everything up to Riley.
Paul’s Motorcycle
Desmond
ONE WEEK LATER
I was sitting in my car. The billing department of the hospital had called me to let me know that Paul had been discharged just now. I was covering his bill, which was really the least that I could do.
I’d gotten my hands on Paul’s mangled motorcycle and had it fixed up. I paid through the nose for a rush job so that it’d be ready when he got out of the hospital. I was sitting in my car across the street from their apartment building. I knew how much it meant to him, since Paul had gotten it from his dad when he turned 15 and a half and gotten his learner’s permit for his motorcycle. It was one of the things that they hadn’t yet sold off to cover their parents’ debts.
I watched as a taxi came up to their door. Riley paid the driver. Paul was on crutches and Riley helped him get on his feet, in just the right direction to see my present.
The guys at the garage had put a huge red bow on it. I’d attached a note saying one word: sorry. Paul went over to it and looked at my note. He tore my note off of the handlebar and let the paper drift down into the grass.
Apology not accepted.
Riley was saying something to him as she gestured towards the door. I watched as Paul made slow progress towards the front door.
I guessed that my peace offering wasn’t good enough for fucking his sister while he hovered between life and death.
Riley was looking at the motorcycle. I
knew that she knew that I’d done it. She knelt to pick up the note. She wiped her eyes, like she was crying. I knew that I’d left things a mess after Zara lied to Riley. But Riley had ended it, and I had to respect her decision, for at least a little while.
She went inside and I knew that I had to get out of there before some nosy neighbor called the cops on me. I started my car, the engine coming to life as I pulled out and drove home.
When I got in the door, I swallowed hard. I could smell Riley everywhere in here, which was probably in my head. She’d only been here once. We’d had a single night together. But I couldn’t get her out of my head.
I’d had a lot of meaningless one-night stands with girls whose names I couldn’t remember. Riley was the exception. I could remember everything about her, the noises that she made when I bit her, the way her mouth tasted when we kissed. I was slowly going crazy staying away from her, but she didn’t want me. She’d cried, but she said that she didn’t care. Fuck Zara for trying to mess everything up. Kissing Riley was five million times better than fucking Zara. I knew that it was too soon to propose, but from the second that I’d taken her virginity, I knew that she was mine forever. I just had to figure out how to make her understand that.
Groceries
Riley
When I got back into our apartment, Paul said, “I’m starving.”
“I’ll make something.”
I went to look in our fridge and pantry. We didn’t have anything. I’d been in and out for the week that Paul had been in the hospital, since Desmond had let me take unlimited leave while Paul was recovering.
“We don’t have anything to eat.” I dug out a Klondike bar from the back of the freezer.
“Oh, yum. A freezer-burned Klondike bar.” He took it, though. Healing took a lot of energy.
“I’ll just run to the store right now and figure something out.”
“You need some money?”
I looked at my wallet. I hadn’t picked up any of my paychecks from Dez, since I’d asked him to invest them in that club. “Yeah.”
Paul whipped open his wallet and handed me a hundred-dollar bill. “Get stuff that’s easy for me prepare. Microwave-friendly food, okay? You don’t need to cook for me.”
“Okay. I’ll be right back.” There was a Target just across the street from where we lived, so it’d be simple to buy some food. I took two of my nature-friendly grocery bags and tucked them under my arm.
I locked the front door as I walked outside. I could see Paul’s bike on the side of the road. It looked like it hadn’t been touched, but the red ribbon bow meant that had obviously been fixed. It was a lot easier to fix a bike versus a person. Paul’s bones would be healing for a few more weeks.
I thought about the note that Paul had ripped off of it. Just one word. I knew that it had been Dez who’d gotten the bike back and fixed it up. So thoughtful, but I was still mad at him for kissing Zara in the parking lot. I didn’t think that he seemed like he was into it, but what did I know? Maybe I should text him later…just to thank him for the bike.
I pushed open the doors at Target and felt a rush of cold air conditioning hit me. It felt good to grab a cart and go inside. I just grabbed whatever would be easy for Paul to eat, like chips, pretzels, bread, sandwich stuff like ham and cheese, and his favorite coconut water. I had to make sure that everything was under $100, so I was standing next to a price checker when she came up to me.
“Oh, little Riley! What a pleasant surprise to find you here.”
I knew that voice. I turned and saw Zara, Desmond’s ex-flame.
“Zara,” I said.
She air-kissed me on both sides. “How funny to run into you here. I didn’t know that you lived in Torrance.”
“Yep.” I wanted to get out of here, but I was trapped by politeness.
“I hope you’ve gotten over your little fling with Desmond.” She played with her hair with one hand, with that cursed diamond ring winking at me. “He and I have been re-establishing our connection.” She put a little emphasis on the last word, as if it were a double entendre.
I didn’t want to hear about Desmond being with anyone else. He’d had me once, and that’d been enough. He hadn’t texted or called. He’d gotten Paul’s motorcycle fixed, but he didn’t care about me.
“Excuse me, I have to go.” My vision was getting blurry from tears.
“Cheer up, little one. One day, you’ll be good enough to keep a man like Desmond. One day, you’ll be as good as me.”
She was twisting the knife. I didn’t say anything more as I hurried through a self-checkout lane so that a cashier didn’t see me cry. I put everything into my re-usable bags and sniffed hard as I walked outside. I couldn’t cry on the street.
I hadn’t gone back to work since the accident, and I’d need to send something to HR about taking care of Paul for the next few weeks. School started right after Labor Day, and there was just no way that I’d be able to afford to go there. I needed to stay with Paul for now, anyway, so maybe it was a blessing in disguise to lose my job at Desmond’s company. I’d just stay at ElCo and be here to help out. SoCal was beyond my reach, but at least I’d be with Paul, the only person I had left.
Club
Desmond
SIX WEEKS LATER
At seven, I put on one of my favorite Brioni suits, one with a large, discreet pocket for a certain box, and got a haircut. I was going to see Riley and Paul for the first time tonight. I’d sent them invitations to some extravaganza or something that Rooftop was having.
It’d become the hottest club in the city overnight, for no apparent reason. Apparently the view of LA at night was good or some shit. I didn’t get why people paid exorbitant cover fees and paid a couple times that to get VIP bracelets, but the club was making money. A lot of money.
Riley’s paychecks hadn’t been much, but the club’s return on investment had been off the charts. We weren’t even talking about hockey stick growth here. It was more like meeting a steep cliff. She wouldn’t have to work for a year, maybe two if she was careful.
They could stay home tonight. I didn’t know if they’d show. But I bet that they would come to an extravaganza named after them.
When I got to the club, I saw Paul already inside, sitting at the bar. I winced when I saw the walking boot.
“Paul!”
“Hey, man.” He turned around and gave me a smile. “Good to see you.”
I felt something loosen between my shoulder blades. “Glad to see you here. What are you drinking?”
“It’s called the Dez…Guinness with Glenfiddich mixed in.” He lifted his glass to me and took a sip.
“Should you be drinking? Are you on any meds or anything?”
“Basically done. They want me in a walking boot for a little longer, but my arm has healed.” He shrugged. “I’ve been working from home a little bit. Riley’s been helping a lot.”
“How’s she been?”
“She’s…fine, I guess. She’s bummed about calling SoCal and telling them that she won’t come.”
“I need to talk to her about that.”
Paul shrugged again. “She already had a counseling appointment at ElCo so that she could register for her first semester’s classes. We checked with SoCal to make sure that they’d transfer. Come hell or high water, we’ll get there as soon as we can.”
“I’m glad that you’ve let her go.”
“Not all the way, but it’s the right thing to do. Over the past couple of weeks, she’s taken care of me. For the first time, I’ve realized that she isn’t a little kid anymore.”
“Good.”
“I know that I overreacted. After I got out of the military, nothing went right. And you stayed in…and you translated your work in the counterterrorism unit into actual skills and started writing deep learning shit to protect the nation. It was hard for me to tread water when I saw what I could’ve been.”
“I invited you in.”
“Yeah, but it was the w
rong time.” Paul drank a little more. “But my time will come. Cheers to that.”
I clapped him on the back and motioned to the bartender to bring me a Roy Rogers. He knew that I didn’t drink on the job.
I lifted my glass to Paul. “To your recovery and your business.” The clink of the glasses filled me with hope. I thought that I had my best friend back.
“I hate to say anything…”
“Yeah?” Paul drank a little more.
“But where’s Riley?”
“She’s somewhere around here. Maybe dancing.” He motioned to the bartender for another drink. “But I’ve had my eye on the blonde girl over there, so I haven’t paid too much attention. I think she’s into me.” He winked at a girl who was alone at the bar. She winked back.
“Later, man.”
I didn’t know if Paul cared that I took my drink and walked over to the dance floor. Riley was short, so it was hard to see her. Then I got an idea.
Stage
Riley
I was covered in sweat, but I was happy. Paul was finally out and about. He was going back to work. I needed to save money for college, but one night of splurging wouldn’t hurt anything too badly. The company that had employed the semi driver had covered everything that Dez hadn’t, and they’d sent some fancy lawyers over to our house to settle before we even got started on a lawsuit. It wasn’t a fortune, but it had given us some time to cover our expenses before Paul went back to work.
I heard the music stop before the music stopped. A booming voice came over the speakers. The DJ said, “Put your hands together for our majority owner, Desmond Barton!” The lights on the stage were turned on. I saw Dez standing there, wearing a suit. He was still so handsome that he almost made my heart stop. It hurt to think that he was Zara’s again.
