The New Year Boyfriend

by Zoey Gong

  16

  Kai paced in the hallway. He wasn’t sure he should still be at the hospital. He wasn’t Winnie’s boyfriend, and this seemed like a family situation. He needed to be there while Winnie wasn’t, to fill in for her, but now that Winnie was here, he wasn’t sure of his place. Besides, he had his own problems to work out. How was he going to get the money to pay the fine? Even if he worked as a taxi twenty-four hours a day, he wouldn’t earn enough. He needed to find another job. But who would hire him without a reference? Rad Phoenix was the longest, most stable job he’d had in his field since he graduated college. If he left it off his resume, he’d look unqualified for any job he applied for. If he included it, anyone interviewing him would want to know why he left. He needed another way to make money. He wondered if he could somehow start his own business. But he didn’t have any capital. He still had a little money left from the Whirlwind payoff, but he needed to make that last. Maybe he should go back to Whirlwind. After all, they were the reason why he was fired and fined. They had money. And jobs. They should hire him after he risked everything for them. He looked at the clock. It was early morning. He’d been at the hospital all the previous day and all night. He should be exhausted, but he was energized by his new plan. He would go to the Whirlwind offices as soon as possible. He looked up and saw Winnie heading toward him. He greeted her with a smile.

  “Hey,” he said. “How is Lingling?”

  “I’m not sure,” Winnie said. “I can’t tell if she is under some sort of duress or just exhausted from the operation. My mom won’t let me examine her. ‘Let the doctors do it,’ she says.”

  “Are you sure you don’t want to tell her that you practically are a doctor,” Kai asked. “If it could help your sister…” He trailed off.

  Winnie shook her head. “I don’t want to make things worse right now. But I wanted to ask you one more favor.”

  “Ouch,” Kai said jokingly. “I’m not sure I can handle another one.”

  Winnie smiled. “This one will help you, I think. I’m going to pay my sister’s hospital bill, but let my parents think that you took care of it.”

  “Why?” Kai asked, immediately running through the many things wrong with this plan in his mind.

  “So they will think you were the one to swoop in and save the family in their time of need,” Winnie said. “So they will love you instead of Chang. So they will stop pressuring me to marry Chang and might accept that I’m with you.”

  Except I’m not really with you, Kai thought bitterly. What was the point of making her family love him when he wasn’t her boyfriend either? He knew that this was going to end badly, one way or another. But Winnie had so much hope on her face, he couldn’t refuse her. After all, it was her life, her choice, her mistakes. He would let her do what she wanted and support her as best he could.

  As any good friend would.

  “Sure,” Kai finally said. “Sounds like a good plan. Let’s go see how Lingling is doing.”

  For the first time since she had arrived, he thought that Winnie had a lightness to her step. He wasn’t sure why. He wondered for a moment where she had managed to get the money for the hospital bill. Sure, she had hired him to be her boyfriend, but she wasn’t rich. She was a student. But his thoughts were interrupted as they approached Lingling’s room and Winnie’s father came to greet them.

  “I just spoke to someone from billing,” her father said. “They said that the bill had been paid and that Lingling and the new baby could stay as long as they need to.”

  “Th-that’s great,” Winnie said, but something in her voice told Kai that this had not gone to plan.

  “You wouldn’t know anything about it, would you, Wenwen?” her father asked, looking at her with a raised eyebrow.

  “Umm, actually, it was Kai,” she said. “He covered the bill.”

  Her father’s eyes went wide and he grabbed Kai’s hand, shaking it vigorously. “Thank you, Kai. Thank you so much. You have no idea what this means to us.”

  “Don’t mention it,” Kai said, smiling uneasily.

  “What’s going on?” Winnie’s mother asked, coming out of Lingling’s room.

  “Kai paid the hospital bill,” Winnie’s father said.

  “Oh!” she gasped, putting her hands to her mouth. “I...I’m sorry for doubting you. Thank you.”

  “Please,” Kai said, not enjoying the undeserved praise. “It’s nothing. You don’t have to thank me.”

  “But I do!” Winnie’s mother said. “I was so worried we were going to be kicked out. The baby’s life is at stake! We owe you so much.”

  “No, really,” Kai said, looking to Winnie. But she nodded for him to keep up the rouse. “I just want to help.”

  “What’s going on?” another voice cut in. Chang. Kai immediately felt his irritation rise. Why was that guy here?

  “Kai here just helped us with the hospital bill,” Winnie’s father explained. “We were just very grateful.”

  “Really?” Chang asked, raising his eyebrow, and Kai suddenly felt sick. He shot a look to Winnie, and the panic in her face told him the truth. She had gotten the money from Chang. And then she gave Kai the credit. Oh, this was going to be bad…

  “Mr. Zhou?” a nurse said.

  Chang turned to her. “Yes?” he asked.

  “Your receipt for the bill,” she said, handing him a piece of paper before quickly walking away.

  “Thanks,” he said as he opened his wallet and put the receipt in it without saying a word.

  Winnie’s parents looked at the nurse, then at Chang, then at Kai, then at Winnie, then at each other. Kai was frozen solid as he watched the realization of the situation fall on their faces.

  “Chang paid the bill?” Winnie’s mother asked her. “But you told us--”

  “You’re a real jerk!” Winnie shot at Chang. “That was not the agreement.”

  “I never agreed to let Kai take credit for my good deed,” Chang said.

  “What credit?” Winnie asked. “You shouldn’t want recognition for doing the right thing.”

  “Then why let them think Kai paid?” Chang asked.

  “None of your business!” Winnie yelled. “None of this is your business!”

  “Well it is now,” Chang said, holding up his wallet.

  At that, the whole family started yelling at each other. Winnie’s mother was yelling at her while her father was trying to calm his wife, and Winnie and Chang were still yelling at one another.

  Kai took a few steps back and bumped into Lingling’s husband, who was standing in the doorway of Lingling’s room, biting his thumbnail.

  “It’s best to always stand back once the screaming starts,” he told Kai.

  Kai wondered just how often the family’s disagreements devolved into screaming matches. He then heard Lingling coughing again, and her husband went to her side. He tried to calm Lingling down, giving her water, but the coughing seemed to continue.

  “Winnie,” Kai said, trying to get her attention, but she couldn’t hear him in the din of battle. “Winnie!” he tried again. He wasn’t used to having to yell to be heard, so he finally placed a hand on her shoulder and pulled her away. “Hey, Winnie!”

  “What?” she screamed, turning to him.

  He stepped back, shocked she would rail on him like that.

  “Sorry!” she said quickly, her hands going to her mouth. “What is it?”

  “Lingling,” he said, pointing to the room.

  At that, everyone stopped yelling and went into Lingling’s room.

  “Hey, Lingling!” Winnie said, rushing to her sister’s side, placing her hand on her forehead. “What’s wrong? Are you in pain?”

  “Yes!” Lingling yelled through her coughing, then she grabbed her stomach and screamed.

  Winnie pulled the blanket back and everyone gasped in horror at the sheer amount of blood that covered the front of Lingling’s gown.

  “Get a doctor!” Winnie yelled, grabbing a sheet and applying it to
Lingling’s stomach. “Her incision has ruptured. She needs to get into surgery. Stat!”

  Lingling’s husband ran out of the room, shouting for help. Winnie’s mother ran to Lingling’s side, helping her lay back.

  “My baby! My baby!” she cried.

  Winnie’s father stood back, his hand to his mouth like he was trying to keep from crying or vomiting--probably both.

  But Winnie was in pure doctor mode. “We just have to staunch the bleeding and keep her internal organs in place until we can replace the stitches,” she said. “You’re going to be fine, Lingling.”

  At that, the doctor and several nurses rushed into the room.

  “She has a ruptured C-section incision,” Winnie explained.

  “Thanks,” the doctor said. “We will get her into surgery.”

  One of the nurses took Winnie’s place staunching the bleeding while two more nurses worked to wheel Lingling into surgery, the doctor following them.

  Suddenly, the family was left completely alone in silence, Winnie’s hands covered in her sister’s blood. Kai watched as the family looked from one to the other, each unsure of what to do or say.

  “She’ll be fine,” Winnie finally reiterated. “It happens sometimes. The wound reopening. But the coughing...I need to find out what the cause is--”

  “Go clean up,” Winnie’s mother said. “We will just have to wait and see what the doctor says.”

  Winnie nodded and then left the room. There was a bathroom in Lingling’s room, but Winnie apparently needed the space from her mother. Kai went with her, just to see if she needed anything.

  “I...I don’t know,” Winnie said when she found a sink and began washing her hands. Kai took a towel off a nearby cart and handed it to her. “I’m not even sure what is happening. Why were we fighting? What caused the rupture?”

  She was mumbling, so Kai thought she was talking more to herself than him. When she finished washing and drying her hands, Kai led her to a nearby waiting area that was mostly empty.

  “Just breathe,” he said. “That was pretty shocking. Just take a minute.”

  “Yeah,” she said as she slumped into a chair. “I just need to think.”

  “No,” Kai said. “Stop thinking for once. Just be glad we are in a hospital and your sister is going to be okay. You were amazing back there. You stayed calm and did what had to be done. You might have saved her life.”

  Winnie shook her head. “Years of training in practice is all that was,” she said, leaning forward and running her hands through her hair. “There is something I’m missing, though. But what?”

  “Don’t worry,” Kai said, taking her hand and giving it a squeeze. “Just have a rest. It will come to you.”

  Winnie looked at their entwined hands. Kai realized he probably shouldn’t have touched her, but it was too late now. And she didn’t pull away. He was just comforting a friend.

  “I’m sorry,” she said softly. “About what happened back there. With Chang.”

  “Don’t…” Kai said, but his voice trailed off. The whole situation was a mess.

  “I mean it,” she said. “I didn’t mean to make you lose face in front of my parents, or Chang.”

  “It doesn’t matter,” Kai said. “I knew it was a bad plan. I should have stopped you.”

  “But you didn’t,” Winnie said, and then she laughed. “You always let me make my own mistakes and then help me pick up the pieces.”

  “Umm...you’re welcome?” Kai said.

  “I mean it,” Winnie said. “My parents. Chang. My sister. Everyone just wants me to fall in line and do as I’m told. You let me find my own way. Make my own mistakes. It might seem stupid since I’m sure to fall on my face, but I appreciate it. It’s...freeing.”

  Kai wrapped his arm around her shoulder and squeezed. “I’ll always help you back up when you fall,” he said.

  Winnie looked up at him, and their faces were inches apart. Kai felt his mouth go dry and his heart beat rapidly in his chest. She leaned toward him, and he reached up and cupped her face. Their lips met, and it was like he had been plunged into a hot spring. The warmth enveloped him and permeated to his very bones. He had wanted this for so long, and it felt so right. But then it also felt so wrong. They were at the hospital, moments after Winnie’s sister nearly died. Kai pulled back and Winnie turned away.

  “Sorry,” she mumbled. “I’m not sure what came over me.”

  “Don’t be sorry,” he said. “I’ve wanted to kiss you for a long time.”

  “I know,” she said. “I could feel...something happening, but I was trying to deny it. It’s all so…”

  “Complicated,” Kai finished for her.

  “Yeah,” she said.

  Kai pulled his arm back from around her and they both straightened up, clearing their throats.

  “We will figure it out later,” Kai said. “After Lingling is okay.”

  “I’d like that,” Winnie said, then she sat up and gasped. “I got it!”

  “Got what?” Kai asked.

  “I know what’s wrong with Lingling.”

  17

  Winnie paced outside her sister’s operating room. How could she have missed the signs? The coughing, her coloring, her clamminess. There was a blood clot in Lingling’s lungs. That’s why she was having trouble breathing, which caused the coughing. She coughed so hard she burst her C-section incision. She must have been in so much pain! How could the doctors not have caught it? Well, she knew why. Even now, in the middle of the morning, hardly any doctors could be found. They were all with patients or in surgery. The doctors were spread too thin. Winnie’s mother had said that it had been hours since a doctor had seen Lingling. Plenty of time for the clot to form and cause complications. The question was if the doctors who were repairing her incision knew about the blood clot now. If they were only focused on repairing the incision, they might take Lingling back to her room without addressing the clot, which would only cause more problems--and probably kill her. Winnie had to make sure the doctors were aware of the situation.

  Winnie knocked on the door of the surgery room, but no one answered. She went to the nurses’ station and asked to speak to the doctor heading Lingling’s surgery, but they said the doctor couldn’t be disturbed. Finally, Winnie went to the administration wing and asked to speak to the head of the obstetrics department, a woman named Dr. Hu.

  “Miss Li,” Dr. Hu said, already exasperated first thing in the morning as she was grabbing her white coat to head out to another emergency. “I’m sure my medical staff are doing everything they can for your sister. I ask you to be patient.”

  “I’m sure they are,” Winnie said, following the doctor. “But I must insist. I believe the doctor is only treating Lingling for her ruptured incision, not a possible blood clot in her lung.”

  “I understand that you are a nurse, and the best person to advocate for your sister,” Dr. Hu said, “but the doctor--”

  “I’m not just a nurse,” Winnie said. “I’m an obstetrics intern at the University of Sydney.”

  At that, Dr. Hu paused and looked at Winnie. “Go on.”

  “I’ve seen this in patients before,” Winnie said. “I know what I am talking about. The discoloration of her tongue, the pain, the fever, her sluggish heartbeat. All signs of blood stasis in the lungs. Please, just alert the doctor to the possibility. That’s all I ask.”

  Dr. Hu nodded and pulled out her phone. “I’ll call him right now.”

  “Thank you,” Winnie said, breathing a sigh of relief. “Thank you so much.”

  Dr. Hu nodded as she spoke to someone on the phone, walking away from Winnie for some privacy.

  Winnie leaned against a nearby wall and wanted to cry, she was so thankful that Dr. Hu listened to her. She was sure that she just saved Lingling’s life. And yet, she couldn’t tell anyone. Well, she could tell Kai. He was the only person she could be honest with. The only person she could share her life with. And what was with that kiss? She could kick hers
elf. That was so stupid. Kai was just a friend! Just the “New Year boyfriend,” not a real boyfriend. She didn’t have time for a boyfriend. Plus, she lived in Australia! And they were both broke after this disaster. She’d spend the rest of her life paying of Chang, and Kai was forever paying for his mother’s cancer treatments. It was crazy to think they had the time or money or energy for a relationship. No, she needed to tell him the truth. Now was not the time. They could be friends, but nothing more. Not for now. Maybe later, in a few years…

  “The University of Sydney?”

  Winnie turned around and her eyes went big when she saw Chang standing there. “W-w-what?” she asked.

  “You told the doctor that you are an intern at the University of Sydney,” Chang said, stepping closer.

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Winnie said, stepping past him, but he reached out and grabbed her arm.

  “I thought you were a nurse here in Shanghai,” he said. “Your parents think you live here. What are you doing? If they find out, they are going to kill you.”

  “They aren’t going to find out,” Winnie said, ripping her arm out of his grip and glaring at him. “They don’t need to know anything.”

  “Winnie,” Chang said. “They have to know. You can’t keep this a secret from them. If you don’t tell them, I will.”

  “I’ll kill you if you do!” Winnie nearly shrieked. “Why would you sabotage me like this? Why are you in my life? Just go away!”

  “I can’t, Winnie,” he said. “We are in this together now. Our families are still counting on this marriage. My family paid to save your sister’s life. Now, I’m the only one who knows the truth about this secret you’ve been keeping. Stop fighting it. We are a team now.”

  Winnie’s head was spinning. How had this happened? How could she have gotten so deep into the “relationship” she didn’t even want? This was what her mother had been planning all the time. She had hoped that by bringing Winnie home, she would get so tangled up with Chang, she couldn’t refuse his proposal--and it had worked. Despite everything Winnie had done to find a way out, she was trapped.