Page 20 of Sully

“But you hit your head?”

“Hard,” Bonnie agreed.

“And you have a boyfriend named Sully you haven’t told me about?”

“Court…”

“No. No. I won’t pester you now. Go let that man take care of your head. You know, orgasms are really good for pain—“

“Thanks, Courtney. Bye!” Bonnie was quick to talk over her boss before hanging up the phone. “My boyfriend?” she asked, not quite making eye contact.

“Figured we are gonna need an explanation for why I am suddenly around all the time,” I told her. “This is the easiest way to brush it off.”

“But what if she doesn’t…”

“Doesn’t what? Believe it? Why wouldn’t she?”

“Because you’re…” she said, then gestured vaguely at me.

“I’m what?”

“You’re not someone she would expect to see me with,” she said, talking to her lap, her voice a small squeak.

She was feeling… insecure?

Seriously?

Did she not have a mirror?

I was pretty sure I was the ugly one in our dynamic.

But I’d spent a fuckuva lot of time with women in my life. And I knew that some of those insecurity wounds ran deep. No hollow reassurances were going to change her mind.

“Then maybe we will just really have to sell it,” I suggested, watching the color rise in her cheeks again. “Okay. How about you come in the bathroom with me, so I can clean that head of yours?”

She followed without saying anything, closing the toilet lid, then sitting down with her back to me.

“So, are you one of the people who want a blow-by-blow about what is going to happen, so you can mentally prepare, or do you prefer to be in the dark?”

“Leave me in the dark,” she said, her hands curling into fists on her legs as I dug out the first aid kit.

Under the mercilessly bright bathroom light, it was easier to see the damage. She’d gotten whacked really good, but the bleeding was from a relatively cosmetic cut. It wasn’t going to need any sort of closing, just to be cleaned up.

“Out of curiosity,” I said, wetting some gauze with saline solution and starting to dab at the wound and the blood in her hair around it, “when was the last time you had a tetanus booster? Since we don’t know what you were hit with,” I explained.

“Less than a year ago. Courtney wanted me to get one just to make sure if I got scratched or bit, I didn’t have anything toworry about. The dogs all have updated boosters for rabies and whatnot, but tetanus is always a concern.”

“Then we have nothing to worry about,” I said, setting the gauze down when I’d gotten most of the blood out of her hair. “As for the concussion… are you feeling dizzy?”

“Well, when I stood up. But I haven’t eaten since lunch yesterday,” she explained.

“Any blurred vision? Ringing in the ears? Memory loss? Confusion?”

“No.”

“Sensitivity to sound or light?”

“The light in here feels like ice picks to the eyes,” she said, dragging a surprised chuckle out of me.

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