Page 42 of Love Resurrected
“Thank you so much for everything. I’ll keep you posted on how she is.”
“Thank you.” I lean in and kiss his cheek, then do the same to Sadie’s forehead before straightening and heading for the door.
“Hang on,” Brad whispers. “I’ll walk out with you.” He says his goodbyes to Ethan and the two of us leave after barely having been there an hour. It’s amazing how freaked out you can get about someone’s health, only to find them doing better than you’d expected. I always assume the worse when someone is in the hospital. For me, hospitals mean death. But I suppose with this group of women I’ve been hanging around with lately, I should associate them with birth instead.
I laugh at my thoughts.
“What?” Brad asks.
“Oh, nothing.” I wave my hand dismissively.
“No, really, what? Why did you laugh?”
“It’s just, I usually associate hospitals with death, and I realized that with these girls in San Soloman all procreating so often, I should associate them with birth.” I know as I retell it, it’s not that funny, but he gives me a small courtesy laugh anyway.
It’s his own fault for asking.
Still, I feel as though I’m not interesting to him.
Get a grip, Tenley. You aren’t this girl. The one that worries that she can’t connect with her best friend any longer because of a pregnancy, or who isn’t found interesting by some random guy who doesn’t really matter.
I steel my shoulders and raise my head higher as we near the exit doors. The air outside still has a slight chill that will burn off soon with the mid-morning sun. Mostly, summer in San Soloman comprises mild temperatures, but every so often, we’ll get some hot days in the mid to upper nineties. It’s looking like today will be one of those days.
“Hey.” I nudge Brad with my elbow. “Do firemen still turn on the hydrants for kids to run through on hot summer days, like in the movies?”
“California is in a drought.”
“So, no?”
“No.”
“Oh.”
“Where did that question come from anyway?”
“I don’t know. I was thinking about how it will probably be hot today and it reminded me of seeing that in movies, which then made me think of you being a firefighter and that you’d have the key to turn on the hydrant.”
“They don’t use a key.”
“Oh. Well, whatever then.”
“A pentagon-socket.”
I look at him, surprised he’s offering additional information.
He continues. “Most hydrants, definitely all the ones in San Soloman, require a pentagon-socket to open. And close.”
“Well, learn something new every day, I guess.” I smile.
“You haven’t eaten that yet?” He motions to the brown paper bag with the breakfast sandwich he’d bought for me.
“No. It felt weird eating it in the room. And now we’re here . . .” I offer by explanation.
He nods. “Want to go grab a bite to eat?”
“You mean, like breakfast?”
“Yeah.”
