Page 46 of Forgot to Tell You Something

Stefani slides the basket of bread across the table, offering me a rueful smile.

“Beautiful carbs, how I’ve missed you.” I grab a roll and slather it with butter. Screw dieting. My heart hurts in too many places for a salad to heal.

“You don’t need to diet. You’re tiny, Lu.”

“It’s because I diet. I’m five feet tall. If I ate what I wanted, I’d blow up like a beluga.”

“I highly doubt it,” Stefani snickers. We’re across the street from the hospital in a pub-style eatery, frequented by medical staff. She’s working today, but I haven’t drummed up the courage to walk into the unit yet.

I took a few days off to handle my father’s injury, but I’m mostly avoiding Owen. It’s safer for my heart this way. My hormones aren’t speaking to me at the moment, but no matter. My brain is riding shotgun, and it knows that Owen and I are too cosmically connected when we’re in the same room.

Hence, avoidance.

“How’s your Dad?”

“He has to go to rehab for a few weeks, but they don’t think there’s any permanent physical damage.”

“Did he know you?”

I shake my head, tears filling my eyes. “He didn’t seem to.”

“Lu, he might be having a bad day.”

I nod, but we both know the truth. The fall knocked any remaining remnants of my father’s personality from his body.

Stefani toys with her napkin. Oh, I know what she’s about to ask. Joy of joys. “So...Owen. What’s happening there?”

I shrug, grabbing another roll. Diet, sit down, and shut up. “Nothing.”

“Just nothing? He told me he’s called you countless times, but you don’t answer. He texts, but you don’t respond. He stopped by your apartment last night and the night before, but you weren’t home.”

None of this is news. Okay, the visits are a surprise, but my phone is fully aware of how many times Owen called. “I fell asleep at the hospital, so I got home late. Besides, it’s better if I don’t see Owen. Seeing him only muddies an already precarious situation.”

Stefani swigs down her soda, tapping her fingers on the table. “We’ve been friends for years. Best friends.”

“Ride or die.”

“But I have no idea why you won’t date doctors.” She holds up her hand, preventing my interruption. “I know, you dated one, and he screwed you out of a job. Lu, that doesn’t even make sense. Doctors don’t hire nurses, and nurses don’t directly report to doctors. You’re not telling me the entire story. So, if you want me to have sympathy for your plight, spill it, girl.”

But I can’t spill it. Not today, possibly not ever. The only person who knows the truth of the situation is Beth, the manager at the women’s shelter where I volunteer, and it only spilled out during a drunken crying fit.

I run my hand along my right side, feeling the raised areas, now covered by ink. No, Stefani doesn’t need to know this ugliness.

No one does.

“I have rules, Stefani. Those rules, however ridiculous they may seem to you, have kept me safe. I’ve been taking care of myself for as long as I can remember. My parents did the best they could, but Mom was fragile, and Dad was always working. When you grow up alone, you learn to walk the straight and narrow, because when you don’t, should you fall, there’s no one to catch you.”

Her hand reaches across the table, squeezing mine, her eyes bright. “But if you never leave that path, you won’t see all the people there waiting to help you. I’m always here, Lu. That bastard deserves no more of your time or energy.”

“Owen? You’re right, so he’s not getting any of either.” Am I deflecting? Absolutely. Am I lying? Oh, hell yes.

“Sure. That hot, tattooed body hasn’t been running through your dreams the last few nights? I know a load of crap when I hear one.”

“He’s gorgeous. Delicious, in fact. But he’s off-limits. It’s in the rule book.”

“It’s your life—and your rules, Lu, but the man is crazy about you. Maybe you should reconsider those rules as they apply to Owen?”

That’s the problem. I have considered it, but I can’t get over the crux of the issue. “He lied, Stefani.”

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