Page 55 of Reaching Hearts

Chapter Thirty-One

Brendan

Breath: breathable, and better yet, kissable. Mark: Not the person I was expecting to see.

Walking out of the bathroom, I’m holding the IV pole, and Mark takes one look at me. I hold up my hand. “Stop. Don’t even say it.”

“Nice dress.”

“Fuck. You said it.” I shake my head and finagle myself into the bed again.

Mark watches my slow progress with his arms crossed in front of him. “Dude.”

“I know, right?” Leaning to get the blanket and pull it up, it takes me longer than I’d like it to. “Don’t help me.”

“Do I look like I’m moving?” His eyebrows go up.

I squint at him from the corners of my eyes. “Well, you could try to help.”

He laughs and stays put, knowing I’m messing with him. “So, what happened?”

With the blanket finally where I want it, hiding my naked, humiliated legs, I lean back on the bed. I’ve been keeping it tilted up for back support pretty much all the time, lowering it only to sleep. I feel better upright. More strong. Less like a victim.

“How was New York?” I throw back.

He walks over and grabs the chair, sees Annie’s purse on it and moves it to a table while he says, “Oh, I saw Strawberry in the hall. She said she was going to get a coffee, but since this is here, I’m guessing her money’s in it.”

“She’s not coming back?”

He looks over at me, pausing, and considers my face as I cover and transform it to blank apathy. “She’ll be back in a bit,” he says with a calculated look in his eyes. “I think she wanted to give you a chance to tell me… oh, I don’t know – how the fuck you got shot!” His volume elevates at the end, comically, and he plops down in the chair, leaning forward with his forearms on his knees. “Now what happened?”

I tell him everything, intercepting questions and statements from him as I go, like, “In the bar? Nice,” and, “He came in when you were naked? Holy shit,” and, “You saw him about to pull the trigger? Fuck,” and, “Wait a minute. Wait a minute – how’d she get the gun away?”

And finally, “Rebecca walked in on you guys??!!” Mark whistles and leans back. “I bet that went over well.”

“Not at all.” We stare at each other and when I see the laughter sneak into his eyes, I can’t help but join him and soon we’re laughing pretty hard, with me holding my bandage and trying to control my shaking gut. “It’s not funny!”

He says, through hearty laughter, “It’s really not. But it so is.”

Struggling to control myself, I switch the subject, “So New York went well?”

With a grin, he nods, wiping his eyes. “Couldn’t have gone any better. I still have to find an investor for my app, but it’ll work out. I know now that it’s desirable. The investor I was meeting with?”

“Yeah?”

“He wanted it, but I turned him down because he dicked over one of Nicole’s friends.” Mark leans forward to twist around and move my jacket, flatten it out so he can lean against it more comfortably. “It’s not worth it. I’ll find another one.”

I nod, once again admiring my friend for his integrity. It’s something I’ve always used as a barometer – would Mark do this? – then making a decision based on if he would or wouldn’t. It’s gotten me far. My dad was a good guy, but he wasn’t a lady’s man – he was with just my mother his whole life. Plus he was an introvert, something Mark and I definitely are not.

“Someone’ll come through for sure.”

“Yeah. So…” He looks at me, waiting.

“Don’t even start.” I look away. “I don’t want to hear it.”

“This Annie is pretty good for you, isn’t she?”

Shaking my head that he went there, I won’t look at him. I’m looking at the blanket, fixing it, looking at the window through the shut curtains, at the IV pole, pulling on the cord like I’m checking it. “What? She’s nice. We went through a lot so...”

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