Page 11 of Storm Bound
His voice was calm, soothing almost, despite the rush in his movements.
I watched him get back on his feet, go around the kid, and place his fist on the kid’s abdomen. He started thrusting.
Watching him perform the Heimlich maneuver gave me the confidence that he had been telling the truth about being a doctor, and believing him now also seemed to awaken the nurse in me again as I took my cell phone out and called 911 while also trying to keep the mother calm.
“Try and cough, little bud. It might help,” Adam said as he kept pushing at the kid’s stomach.
The kid listened to him and started coughing until the piece of food came out of his mouth and dropped on the ground in front of him.
Adam stopped and stepped in front of him again, asking him questions and checking on his breathing.
The paramedics arrived at the scene a few minutes later and took over, but the kid was fine. They still checked his chest and gave him plenty of water to drink.
“Thank you so much,” the mother said to us. Adam held her hand and squeezed it with his other.
Since we weren’t needed anymore, we stepped away and continued our way to our gate.
“Why didn’t you tell me you’re a doctor?” I asked with a smirk.
He shrugged.
“I don’t know. I don’t like to advertise it,” he said. “Things tend to go a weird way when I tell people.”
He didn’t look offended by my question, so thankfully he realized I wasn’t annoyed with him or anything like that.
“Different how?” I asked.
“Oh, you know. Guys can get clingy because ‘I’m rich,’ or they think I need to be this macho type of man. Or they just think I’m less of a man because I’m a geek and…”
He never finished his sentence. He just let the words hang in the air, and if anything, I wanted to know more than before what kind of man he was and who had hurt him with these insulting statements.
“I’m sorry people are dickheads,” I said and nudged his hand with my elbow.
He looked back at me and smiled a sweet smile that could make me melt all over. Jesus, he was cute. Just the way I liked them.
“Thanks,” he said as we reached the bus.
It was full and almost ready to leave but thankfully hadn’t yet.
God knew what kind of pain I’d be in with Luke if I’d missed the bus. Especially when he’d be making so much effort coming to pick me up in the middle of the night.
However, when we got on, we realized there wasn’t much in the way of seats, so we had to sit in separate rows.
“I guess we got lucky with the other journeys,” he said to me as he offered me the first available seat and then walked to the next one three rows down.
I watched him stock away his bag, giving me a perfect view of his round ass and strong arms. If I were a cartoon, I’d probably be licking my entire face with an exaggerated, elongated tongue, but seeing as I wasn’t, I just licked my lips. He sat down and glanced at me with a sweet, innocent smile that made me feel like a creep for staring. There he was being all cute and sweet, and here I was, thirsting after him.
Jesus, get a grip, Charlie.
I sat back and put my earphones on, but when I rested my hands on my stomach, I realized I needed the bathroom.
Fucking great. I meant to empty the bag at the restaurant, but with our geeky chat and how nice it was talking to him, I forgot. Now I had to do it in the bus restroom, which was the most sanitary place on earth. Not.
As the bus set off, I got to work emptying my ostomy bag. A job that usually took five minutes took a lot longer in the tight, confined bathroom, so of course, when I came out some fifteen minutes later, Adam stopped me on my way back to my seat.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
“All good,” I said.
