Page 47 of Heart Strain

18

Jameson

“Hey there, handsome. Where’s your partner in crime this morning?” Luwanna asks as I approach the entrance desk in the hospital. She’s remained a constant friendly face since Drix has been here, much like the crew at the Dunkin Donuts we stop at each morning. I hold up my hand so she can see the tray containing only my and Drix’s coffees this morning.

“As a matter of fact, I’m not sure. All Holden said is he has something to take care of this morning and he’ll meet me here. I promised I’d come at normal time to keep his brother company.”

“Mmhmm… his brother sure is a looker.” She leans her elbows on the desk in front of her as she flutters her lashes.

“Wait. What? Luwanna, did you go up and meet Drix?” I ask, trying my hardest not to laugh.

“Of course, I did, child. After weeks of watching you two drag yourselves in here day in and day out to watch for him to wake up, I figured he must be pretty special. I had to meet him for myself.”

“He is special. He’s the best. I wish you had told me you wanted to meet him. I would’ve brought you up and given you a proper introduction.”

She waves me off, and scoffs, “That’s not necessary. I’m no one important. I popped my head in real quick and introduced myself and let him know he was on my heart, that’s all.”

My insides soften toward this wonderful lady even more. “Well, I think you’re pretty important. I’m pretty sure anyone who has to come in here on a regular basis to see their loved one is happy when they see your face back here.”

She winks at me as she says, “Yeah, Drix did tell me he thought you have a crush on me. He says you go on and on about me. But child”—she leans across the desk toward me, voice dropping to a conspiratorial whisper—“in case you missed it, I think you and that cutie you come in with most mornings have a little thing going on, or haven’t you noticed?”

Immediately, I feel the heat rise in my face, and Luwanna waves her hand toward me again while cackling. “You don’t have to tell me anything, but don’t think I haven’t been watching you two. And don’t think I didn’t notice something changed right around the time his brother woke up. Mmhmm… you men, always making more out of things than there needs to be. It’s all really quite simple.”

“It is?” I ask, as much as I don’t want to encourage her—Holden is Drix’s brother, after all—but yet, seeing his hair down and his face contort with pleasure had been…

“It is. You like boy; boy likes you; you date. Simple as that. Life is too short to be tiptoeing around the people you care about.” I open my mouth to reply, and this time I get the hand, as in the stop sign version. “Don’t even try to fool me.” She tilts her head from side to side, reminding me of Peanut when he’s on the floor at Holden’s feet trying to figure out why Holds isn’t leaning right down to pick him up and put him on the couch with him. Eventually, her shoulders start moving and her eyes twinkle. “You guys are trying to pretend you don’t like each other, aren’t ya?”

“He’s Drix’s brother,” I say as if that explains everything; honestly, to me, it does.

“You’re never going to fall in love with someone who isn’t someone’s brother, or father, or son, or best friend. It’s kind of the way it works. Remember when I told you I had a good feeling about your friend getting better?”

“Of course.”

“Well, I was right, so you listen to an old lady. I’ve been around a long time and I’ve seen many things. I’ve watched people fall in love, out of love, avoid love, and embrace it. I’ve had the pleasure of observing happiness that I wouldn’t have believed if I hadn’t seen it with my own two eyes. But I’ve also seen grief that feels like it’s physically cutting me to the bone. Sitting here at this desk, I get to see so many different types of people; bitter, optimistic, grieving, rejoicing, enthusiastic, and apathetic. One thing I know for a fact after all my years of growing and people watching is this—the happiest people are the ones who embrace where they are right now. They grab onto the good things and overcome the bad, but they never deny where they’re at and they never stop striving for better. You got your friend back, before you know it you’ll have your job back, so what are you going to do about your heart?”

“I—”

She laughs, cutting me off, and hands me my visitor’s badge. “You go on up and see your friend. I’m assuming one of those coffees in the cupholder you have there is for him. You don’t want it to get cold.” As she shoos me away with a flick of both wrists, I stumble toward the elevator. I’ve never left Luwanna feeling confused before. Usually, she’s one of the clearest, brightest spots of my day, but today I feel as if I just flew down a roller coaster at two hundred miles per hour.

When I arrive at Drix’s room, one of the kinder nurses brushes by me as I’m entering. She rolls her eyes good-naturedly as she passes, wishing me a good morning. Bemused by the eye roll and her not stopping to chat, I get to the foot of Drix’s bed and see why. The term grumpy gus flits through my head as I observe his scowling face, brow furrowed and lips puckered as if she’d squeezed a whole lemon straight into his mouth. Instead of my normal good morning, I ask, “What’s your problem?” as I set the drinks on his tray.

“I woke up to you and Holden going on and on about how wonderful all the staff is here. Ha! Masochists, all of them. They come to work to torture me!” he says, voice rising as he speaks.

Nurse Caroline’s voice comes from behind me as she whizzes in. “Drix, why are you scaring my nurses this early in the morning? You need to behave,” she scolds.

“Me?” His brows shoot to his hairline, but the sneer drops from his mouth as his lips go into a full pout, bottom lip poking out and all. “She’s been in here poking and picking at me since she woke me up this morning. First, she jabbed all over me, and left me with this.” He holds up his left arm. They’ve moved his central line from his right arm to his left, more near his hand which can’t be comfortable. Bruising—shades of black, purple, and yellow—dots up and down his arms. “Then she took blood, and she must have drained half my body. Seriously, man,” he appeals to me, “you should have seen how many of those little tubes she filled up. She kept going and going and going. It was like a blood drive for vampires in here, and I was chosen to feed a whole coven or something. That was all before I got my shitty breakfast.”

Before I can ask if he’s on something new and hallucinating, Nurse Caroline speaks up, “Don’t you start. Your last central line was bad. You want to be poked each time we need to give you something else? You’re still building your strength back up and it’s going to take a while, so you need different meds in your IV and you still need fluid. All those vials were needed this morning anyway, so the very sweet Joanna came in and changed it out instead of having the even sweeter Paul get trash talked by you, again, trying to do his job and come in and get blood. We’re running out of room on places to jab ya—”

She’s winking at me as Drix cuts her off, “Well, it’s not like that’s the only thing she did. She made me put that damn mask on this morning and breathe. I’m fine. I’m sitting up and talking and everything else. This is all because I can’t get up and run away,” he says, crossing his arms over his chest and staring up at the ceiling, the pout back in full force. It occurs to me I should be recording this temper tantrum for blackmail later, a three-year-old wanting a cookie couldn’t top these theatrics.

“Good luck with this one today.” She finishes fussing around the instruments near his bed, pats him on the shoulder, and winks at him. “Don’t forget, Drix. You’re right; you’re doing better, so the therapist will be in today to work with you some more.”

“I’m moving fine,” he says loudly. She doesn’t stop to argue with him, though.

“Um… okay, how about you have your coffee? Geesh. You’re worse than your brother before his.” I grab my own coffee and settle into Holden’s normal chair. After getting comfortable, I notice Drix hasn’t moved yet, but his intense gaze is focused entirely on me. “What?”

“How do you know how my brother is before coffee?”

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