Best Friend Billionaire

by Lexi Banks

  “Yay, Parker is here!” one of the new children, Cassie, called out. “How are you, Parker?”

  “I’m good.” I wiggled my tool bag. “Come to fix everything that needs fixing. Can you lead the way?” As she took me towards the playroom, I saw the bald patch forming at the back of her head. That always got me, every single time. No child every deserved any of this. “And how are you, Cassie?” I asked quietly. “Feeling good?”

  She turned and smiled at me, showing me the inner tenacity that I had come accustomed to seeing more on this ward than anywhere else in the world. These kids and their inner strength was something else. “I’m okay, thank you. I started on those new tablets today, and the nurse said I’m going to feel really good.”

  I didn’t even need to ask what tablets she was talking about, it was the pills that had been created with Madison’s research. All the families here who were eligible had signed their kids up to the experimental treatment once they’d seen the positive effects that the dug had on the first set of kids, it was a miracle. Knowing that I was a part of that, but more importantly, Madison was a part of it, made my chest swell with pride.

  “Well, I’m very glad to hear it. I love to see all you kids getting better day by day.”

  As I stepped into the playroom it filled me with joy to hear so much noise and laughter. I never noticed it before, but when it was a hall used primarily for Bingo, it was always so quiet. We still did that every now and again, we’d have a game when all the kids were shattered, but it had become something so much more.

  “It’s my turn!” one of the boys yelled. “I want to play the car racing game now. It’s got to be my turn.”

  I surveyed the scene with a smile on my face, knowing that I had made an improvement to these kid’s lives. They deserved much more, but this was what I could give them. I was glad that they liked it. Even as I looked I thought about more I could bring to them, ways I could make this even better; it was a constant journey.

  “Hey, Parker.” I felt someone tugging lightly on my trousers, and I glanced down to see Lizzie staring back up at me. Her face was full of color, her hair growing back in patches, she really was a miracle.

  There was a time when it seemed like she wasn’t going to make it. She just kept getting sicker and sicker. I started to regretfully accept that she wasn’t going to make it, which destroyed me. I really didn’t ever want to say goodbye to anyone, but this was a little girl that I’d bonded with. I knew it was going to be hard. Maddie tried to support me through it all, but I felt inconsolable, like I would crumble when I got that news.

  For a couple of days, I didn’t even come to the research center because I was so scared, but then Maddie reminded me that I would hate myself even more if I wasn’t strong enough to say goodbye. So, I forced myself.

  But then her parents signed her up to the experimental treatment. They were desperate enough to be one of the first ones to do so, and the results were phenomenal. She made such a good recovery, and everything else seemed to fall into place after that. She was a miracle and gave me hope once more. Thank God, I needed that.

  “Hey, Lizzie, how’s it going?” I ruffled the hair she had, making her laugh. “You all good?”

  She nodded enthusiastically. “I am. The doctor told me that I can go back home soon because I’m in remission.” She must have been able to see my face inadvertently fall at the news. I wasn’t disappointed that she was better, of course it was preferable for her to leave me in this way, but still, I would miss her. “I’ll still have to come back for outpatient appointments though, so I can see you and all my friends then.”

  I glanced around the room as she said that, seeing it in a different light. Much as me and Tina had bonded over something terrible happening, I wondered if these kids would have a lifelong bond built upon their time here too. No one else their age would be able to understand them and their journey, so surely that was something which would solidify them. I liked the idea of them all in adulthood recalling their time when they were in the hospital. I just hoped that they wouldn’t have only negative memories of the time. I wanted to change that. I wanted to change the perception of the hospital for them entirely actually. I didn’t want them to see it as only this scary place where the doctors and nurses hurt them. I wanted them to view it as how they got better.

  “Well, that’s wonderful news, Lizzie, and you make sure someone tells me when you’re coming in because I want to see how you are doing.” I forced a smile through the unexpected emotion. I suppose this was something that I would need to get used to if I would continue to volunteer here. There had to be some bad side. “Now, unless you’re too busy today, do you want to come and give me a hand? I could use someone with muscles as big as yours.” She flexed her arms at me. “Exactly, so I take it you’re in?”

  “I’m in.” She nodded determinedly. “Now, what do we need to do?”

  As me and Lizzie got to work, I knew why Maddie loved this so much. I mean, it was something that I’d been aware of for ages, but every now and again I really felt it. She was using the loss of her mother and almost the loss of herself to help others, to save lives. Her mom would have been very proud to see what she’d done. Without Maddie, Lizzie and many of the others wouldn’t have been alive. There weren’t many people in the world who could say that. I’d worked with the most intelligent people I could find, I’d seen the most ruthless businessmen in action, they thought the world belonged to them, they assumed they knew it all, but really what they did was nothing. They needed to come and spend some time in here for a dose of reality.

  “So, Lizzie,” I asked her smilingly. “What are you most looking forward to when you get out of here?”

  “School,” she replied very seriously. “I know now that I want to be a doctor. I want to save lives.”

  I was taken aback by how someone so young could have this revelation that was only really coming to me now. She was clever; she would do it, she would continue on with the cycle started by Maddie.

  “Well, that is amazing. You will make an incredible doctor. I hope if I ever need someone to look after me, not that I’m planning to get sick any time soon, but if I do, I hope it’s you.”

  “But you have Maddie.” She gave me a confused look. “Won’t she always look after you?”

  To these kids, Maddie was as much of a superhero as she was to me. “You know what? You’re right. She will. I guess I’m just very lucky to have her as my girlfriend.”

  “Do you love her?” Maddie pushed. “Are you going to marry her? Can I come to the wedding?”

  God, she was blunt, I loved that about her. “You know what, if I ever do marry Maddie, you can come.”

  “You should marry her. She’s great. She will be a lovely bride.”

  Hmm, she was right. I’d thought about it before, but it seemed much too soon. I wanted to wait until the moment was right. I suppose everything had been back to front between us, but maybe this was the one thing we could keep normal. Something had to be traditional, right?

  Or maybe not... only time would tell.

  Epilogue – Madison (One year later)

  “So, things are going well with Jay then?” I asked Tina with a smile. “It’s nice to see you so happy with someone. He’s such a nice guy; I honestly thought that you would get bored before now.”

  “Oh, stop it.” She slapped me playfully on the arm. “I’m not that bad!” I gave her a look. “Okay, so maybe my type wasn’t amazing before, but this guy is amazing. I think he might be the one.”

  “Ooh.” I couldn’t resist teasing her. “The one, hey? I never thought that term would come out of your mouth.”

  “We can’t all fall in love with our best friend from childhood, okay?” She rolled her eyes in an over the top, dramatic fashion. “Speaking of which, how are things with lover boy? You enjoying living together?”

  “We practically lived together anyway, so it wasn’t that much of a step... but I have to admit, it does feel good. At fi
rst, I didn’t want to give up my bolt hole in case it all went wrong, but now it’s awesome.”

  “There’s no way the two of you are going to split up. After everything that you’ve been through.”

  I nodded, knowing that she was right. Me and Parker just continued to go from strength to strength; it was awesome. Even when problems crossed our path we handled it as a team, tackling life head-on. I hadn’t ever had a relationship like it before, and I adored it. Mom was so right. I should have listened to her sooner.

  “I suppose you’re right. Well, we can’t now anyway! I’ve given up my apartment. If it all goes tits up, I suppose I’ll be living with you.” I nudged her in the side. “You’re totally okay with that, right?”

  “There’s no way you’re living with me! I can’t stand the crap you watch on TV. You got to make it work.”

  She glanced at her watch, just like she had been doing over and over again all morning long. This was supposed to be our time, having a cup of coffee together before going to work again. “You got somewhere to be?”

  “Oh no.” She smiled, but it was much too serene for my liking. “I just don’t want to be late.”

  “Late for work? Why are you so concerned? You have plenty of time, don’t you?”

  She was being weird, all of a sudden, I got a strange feeling from her. I narrowed my eyes and folded my arms across my chest while I waited for her to explain. There was practically a bee buzzing under her bonnet and I damn well needed to know what was going on. She wasn’t the best at keeping secrets, so I had a feeling I could make her crack if I sat and stared her down for a while. I wasn’t going to stop until she confessed all.

  Tina slung her coffee back rapidly, drinking the dregs of it as quickly as she could. I had a feeling that was because she knew that she was about to burst. “Come on, let’s go now. I need to do something first.”

  “Do what?” I demanded. “Come on; you can’t do this to me.”

  “Please,” she begged me. “Just come with me. Don’t make this harder for me than it already is.”

  Much as I wanted to stand my ground, intrigue grabbed me, and I did as she commanded. I knew I would eventually find out what was going on with her anyway. It seemed like I was about to see.

  “Alright fine, I’ll come with you, but just know that I’m not impressed with you right now.”

  Tina rolled her eyes but continued to walk out, refusing to say anything else. I followed behind her, curiosity growing by the minute. As she walked through the hospital doors and headed straight towards the children’s ward, I was even more confused. I hoped this wasn’t about to be some other award thing. Much as I felt grateful, I didn’t want to keep being recognized for my work. This wasn’t why I did it. I could already feel myself getting tense at the possibility, especially if I was going to have to speak. I’d already proven that I sucked at that.

  “What’s going on, Tina?” I grabbed onto her arm. “Is something about to happen here?”

  “Just trust me,” she replied reassuringly. “I wouldn’t do anything to upset you now, would I?”

  I wasn’t convinced, but I tried to trust her. I walked through the doors into the children’s ward and felt my heart stop dead in my chest as everyone cheered. This was just what I feared, more attention all on me. A heat filled my cheeks as I felt all eyes upon me, I wanted to kill Tina... that was until I started to recognize some of the faces surrounding me. People I didn’t think I would ever see in this hospital again. Lizzie, who had all but fully recovered these days, Cassie, and Olive with her family. I hadn’t seen since her mother got the all clear. It had been touch-and-go for a while, but she’d pulled through and was so far well. The fact that Olive was here and looking much more grown up than the last time I saw her made me think this was even more serious. I couldn’t help it, I held out my arms for a hug and embraced her hard as she crashed against me.

  “Oh, my goodness, Olive, what are you doing here?” I gushed. “It’s been ages.”

  “I came to see you,” she replied as if it was obvious. “I missed you.”

  I wanted to catch up with her, to find out how she was doing, but I needed to know what was happening here first. I rose to my feet and glanced around searching for answers. Thankfully, at that moment Parker came around the corner to make everything a little bit clearer. Well, not much, but I felt better.

  “What is going on?” I demanded with my hands on my hips. “This is crazy, Parker.”

  He stepped closer to me with his hands outstretched. I took them, but my heart continued to thunder painfully in my chest as I did so. I felt all nervy inside like something dramatic was about to happen. Whatever Parker had planned I needed to discover it before I fell apart.

  Then, Parker fell to one knee in front of me, and a strange sense of understanding overcame me. This was huge and life-changing, just not in the way that I had expected it to be. I could hardly believe it. I half expected this day to come along eventually, but I certainly wasn’t expecting it right now, it was wild.

  “Maddie,” Parker started, actually beginning to sound a little nervous himself. “I want to start by saying thank you. Thank you for always being amazing, you are honestly the best woman I’ve ever met in my life. You light up my life in every single way and every day is perfect with you.” Someone standing behind Parker made a cooing sound, but I couldn’t take my eyes off of him for long enough to work out who it was. “Before we fell in love, you were the best friend I ever could have hoped for. Then I started to fall in love with you and everything got better. My whole life improved one hundred percent.” I could see tears welling in his eyes, which made my heart go out to him. He’d clearly organized this so well, and I felt utterly grateful for it. “I want to keep trying my hardest to make you happy every single day; I want to spend the rest of my life loving you...”

  I couldn’t take it anymore. It wasn’t traditional, but I fell to my knees with him, and I cupped my hands around his cheeks. I needed to support him, to help him through this, we were a team after all. He gratefully rested one of his hands on top of mine and smiled, seeing what I was doing for him. We shared this moment of intense eye contact where I could see everything that we’d shared dancing behind his gaze. Much as the room was filled with people, it felt like just the pair of us, loving and enjoying this magical moment.

  “So, erm... I need to get on with this,” Parker continued which caused a tinkling of laughter to burst up everywhere, but it was still more background noise than anything else. It was still just him and me. “Madison, the short story is I want you to be my wife, so will you do me the honor of agreeing to marry me?”

  Even though I knew this was coming, it still took my breath away to hear those words. After all this time, Parker wanted to marry me. He actually did want me to be his wife which was amazing. Everything that I’d ever hoped for. Even during my darkest time, the wedding to Parker was the one thing I didn’t want to tell anyone that I was scared to miss out on. Back then, it would have been way too soon to confess, but now the time was right.

  “You need to give me an answer here,” Parker said with an edge to his voice. “Don’t leave me hanging!”

  I didn’t even realize how long I’d remained silent for, lost in my own thoughts. It was time to put Parker out of his misery. “Of course I will! I couldn’t imagine anything better than that.”

  He slid the ring onto my finger, making me suck in a deep shocked breath. It was a princess cut diamond on a gold band which looked amazing on my finger. Like it belonged there. I couldn’t stop admiring it; it looked awesome. And it also signified that me and him were going to go the full distance. He wanted me forever.

  Once the ring was on, Parker stood us both up, and he embraced me hard while everyone cheered around us. This moment was perfect, absolutely amazing, and it was made even better by the amazing people surrounding us. People who we’d helped, people who had helped us, everyone whose lives had been touched in some way. It wasn’t until I look
ed around properly that I saw Buster and Lola here too. There really was everyone here.

  I pulled back and crashed my lips against Parker’s, showing him my gratitude for creating this wonderful moment. It couldn’t have been better. My whole chest swam with sheer joy.

  “I love you,” I murmured as we finally pulled apart from one another. “So damn much.”

  “I love you too,” he replied, his eyes shining with love. “And I can’t wait to make you my wife.”

  I leaned my head back and stared up towards the sky to my mom, hoping that she could see me now. I’d given her everything that she wanted, and I hoped that she was proud.

  “So, when are you going to lock me down then?” I said with a smirk. “When’s the ball and chain coming in?”

  “Now that part is entirely up to you. I would take you down the courthouse or fly you to Vegas and marry you today, so I will leave that decision up to you.”

  My mind wandered, it started to daydream about all the possibilities for our future. Excitement grew in my chest the entire time. “I don’t know any of the details yet, I’ll be honest with you about that, but I want everyone here to be in attendance. That’s my one stipulation. All the people I love must come.”

  “Oh yes, of course. These are the people who have helped us on our journey to our happy ever after. They have to be.”

  This really was it, my future forever, and it truly felt wonderful. I would always be the luckiest woman alive.