Page 13 of I Need It

“Yes, ma’am.”

“The blood pressure could be because you’re in pain, but your temp shouldn’t be up. I’m gonna call the head nurse and let her know. Most likely, they’ll wait to see if it goes down on its own. When we check again, if it’s still up, they’ll probably take blood and put you on an antibiotic.”

“Okay.”

“Do you need anything other than your pain meds?”

“No, ma’am.”

“Okay. Take your pain meds, baby. Don’t wait until you’re hurting. Stay ahead of it.”

She nodded as the nurse left out of the room. I was quiet for a moment, wondering if I had her worked up by my proposal. I was so fucking insensitive. The woman was in the hospital. I slid my hand over my face and stood from my seat. “I’m sorry, Mya. I didn’t mean to irritate you. I’m gonna go so you can get some rest.”

“You didn’t irritate me, and I don’t want you to go. I’m sorry I can’t be what you want.”

I rubbed my hand over her head and stared into her eyes. After giving her a soft smile, I kissed her hand and sat back in my seat. I was probably just trying to move too fast. We’d just met yesterday, technically early this morning, and I was already trying to pressure her into something similar to a relationship.

I supposed I was just ready. My brothers were both happy and now fathers. I craved that and thought I would have it with Janay. It felt like life was being cruel and torturing the fuck out of me. I wasn’t meant to be single and ho-ing around like this. With a woman, I was affectionate and soft… just like Rylan and Jakari. I couldn’t tease them, because with Janay, I was the same way. I constantly touched her and kissed her. Damn, I missed her.

“You okay over there?”

I lifted my head to see Mya staring at me. “Yeah. But how are you? Do you feel lightheaded or anything?”

“No. Can you help me to the bathroom?”

“Yeah. Do they have one of those things to catch the urine in case they need a sample?”

“Yeah, there’s one in there,” she said as I stood.

She sat up and turned her body to where her feet were hanging off the bed. When she did, I noticed the blood in the bed. It wasn’t a lot, but there shouldn’t have been any, at least not to my knowledge.

“There’s blood in the bed.”

She slowly nodded. “Yeah, and now that I’m sitting up, I do feel lightheaded. Maybe I should lay back down until the nurse comes.”

“That’s probably best if you can hold it.”

“Yeah.”

She lay back in bed, and I walked back to my seat. My phone chimed, so I pulled it from my pocket. Courtney was texting me already. I’d left my business card there, and she’d texted me so I could have her number. I didn’t know why she was texting again so soon. Opening the message, I saw exactly why. What time are you heading back? Can you stop by?

I slightly rolled my eyes. The sex was good, but I didn’t feel anything beyond that for Courtney. I surely didn’t want her to think I did because I was breaking her off whenever she wanted it. But shit, I wanted it. She knew from earlier that I’d knock the lining out that box. Right now, until I found the right one, I was just like Mya. I was a playa and all about my paper.

Taking a deep breath, I messaged her back. I’ll message you when I’m on my way home.

I looked up to see Mya staring at me. Before I could ask her what was up, the nurse came back in to give her the pain meds. She told her she was lightheaded and that she needed to use the restroom. So after injecting her pain meds through her IV, she helped her to the bathroom. I really felt like Mya was the one, but she wasn’t feeling that shit right now, and I had no choice but to be okay with that and possibly move on.

When they came back from the bathroom, another nurse came in to take blood and change her bedding. I watched her intently, and she looked like she was about to pass out at any minute. “Mya, you good?”

She was blinking slowly but nodded. As soon as the nurse was done, they helped her to the bed and took her temperature again. It had climbed to 101 that quickly. “Let me get those antibiotics. It has to be an infection of some kind. At least we can start that until they figure out what’s going on.”

One nurse quickly left out while the other stayed here to watch Mya. She seemed so out of it all of a sudden. I stood from my seat and went to her bedside and grabbed her hand. “Baby girl, you look like you about to pass out.”

“I feel so weak. Plus, I had the pain shot. It’s about to take me out.”

I chuckled. I’d forgotten that quickly she’d gotten something for pain. Within seconds, she was out. The light snore that left her made me chuckle again. I sat in the chair and just watched her sleep. I didn’t know why this woman had me acting like this, but I supposed I’d better get over it.

They came back in and took blood, and Mya barely opened her eyes. “What did y’all give her for pain?”

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