Page 13 of Arden and the Girl Downstairs

“Okay. I’ll stay.”

A knock at the door diverts my attention.

“Come in,” Yasmin answers. In walks the young doctor I met earlier today. Well, kind of met.

He walks up to give Yasmin a hug; it’s obvious they know each other.I’m just not sure why or how.

“Sorry I’m late, I had to work on Julia’s discharge paperwork. How are you feeling?” He turns during the last part of his sentence, directing it at me. I briefly wonder who Julia is and why he’d mention another patient by name. Maybe Yasmin knows Julia?

That would explain why he and Yasmin know each other.

He looks me over with kind eyes—the type you’d hope your doctor would have. He looks young to me though, and apparently my filter is even more broken when I have pain meds in my system.

“How old are you?” I blurt out. This just causes both Yasmin and Dr Andrews to chuckle.

“I’m 28, and yes, before you ask, I am old enough to be a doctor. I’m still training in my specialist field, but I like general medicine and emergency medicine as well, so I practice that too.” He makes his way over to me and sits at the end of the bed.

“I’m going to go and wait outside so you can talk. I’ll be in the hallway if you need me.” Yasmin stands and heads towards the door.

“Yasmin?” I call to her retreating back. She turns to look at me. “Thank you for sitting with me.”

“You’re welcome. I’ll be back when you are done,” she says, then walks out of the room and closes the door behind her.

I look back at Dr Andrews. “What happened today?” I ask, my voice worried. I think I know. I just don’t want to say it out loud.

“I was hoping you could tell me that. One minute you were slamming the door in our faces, and the next minute you were passing out. Does that happen a lot?” he asks, concerned.

“Not usually, but it’s been getting worse recently.” I look at a poster on the wall to distract myself.“It comes from nowhere and takes me by surprise. The pain meds haven’t been working anymore.”

“Do you know what it is?” His tone becomes calm, yet professional—he’s in full doctor mode now.

I shake my head, unable to find the words to explain how frustrating this all is. I’ve done this song and dance before, and it never leads to answers. Just more questions.

“Okay, so I’ve looked at your file, and do you know what you were missing in the past?” he asks. I shake my head again.

“Me. Now, here’s what we’re going to do.”

Ella

Two days later, I’m being discharged from hospital. Yasmin messaged to tell me that Ralph would pick me up. They still don’t know for sure what is going on with me, but after speaking to some specialists, they decided to run a complete workup. I’ve had more blood tests than I can count, and they’ve done some scans to see if they can get to the bottom of things.

Dr Andrews, who now insists I call him Caleb, has been to see me every day. He’s taken over as my primary doctor and is overseeing my diagnosis and treatment. He pulled some strings to make sure he could stay on my case, and I’m thankful. It’s nice seeing a friendly face and having someone on my side, even if I suspect Arden is behind it.

I’ve been started on some meds that are helping with the nausea, and I have follow-up appointments in a few weeks to go over the test results.

In all honesty, I’m happy someone finally wants to figure out what’s going on with me. But I’m also excited to go back to work tonight—I miss Grumpy’s and Chad. Chad came to see me yesterday and told me not to worry about anything. He’s paying me whether I was there or not. Again, I have a feeling Arden is responsible for that.

I can’t stand the fact he is taking over. I’ve been doing this on my own for long enough, and I don’t need him and his stupid bow tie to come and rescue me. I’m not a damn princess.

“Ready to go, Ms Hughes?” Ralphie’s gruff voice in the doorway startles me. He has a wheelchair in front of him.

“Ralphie, give a girl some warning. You damn near gave me a heart attack,” I say as I clutch my chest in a dramatic fashion.

“Apologies, Ms Hughes.” Ralph moves the chair further into the room.

“Call me Ella, Ralphie. I feel like we are going to be the best of friends.” I make my voice extra sweet, just for him. I’m still annoyed he’d suggest what he did, but he has checked on me since I’ve been here, so I kind of forgive him for his stupid idea.

He narrows his gaze at me before letting out a laugh. I should be scared of Ralph; he’s big, muscular, and intimidating as hell. But, for some reason, he doesn’t frighten me. I kind of want to wrap my arms around him and give him a hug. Which is exactly what I do.

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