Page 11 of Gravity of Love
“Davies,”Caleb stated plainly, loud and clear.
Davies?That was the second time Liam had been called Davies.
When he first entered the room, Frankie thought she heard Taylor call him Dr. Davies, but she second-guessed herself. She was so freaked out she figured she must have heard it wrong. But there was no way she’d misheard Caleb.
Why are they calling him Davies?she asked herself as she crouched behind the cabinet.
His last name was Sterling. He and Dr. Sterling never got along when Liam was growing up, and as far as she knew, he hadn’t spoken to his dad since his mom’s funeral. Was that why? Was it because he’d changed his name? Or did he change his name because he hadn’t spoken to his dad since his mom’s funeral?
Questions flew around Frankie’s brain like bats trapped in a cave as her heart pounded so loudly against her ribcage it shook her entire body, booming in her head. It was so loud she was convinced that everyone in the room must be able to hear it. Shepressed her hand to her chest, hoping to mute the sound, as she heard the squeaks of rubber-soled footsteps leaving the room.
“He’s gone,” Taylor said loud enough that Frankie heard it over the ba-thump-ba-thump-ba-thump-ba-thump.
Frankie remained behind the cabinet but slowly rose up so she could peer over and scan the area immediately outside of the room. Just because he’d left this space didn’t mean he was gone, gone.
“Are you sure?” she asked both Caleb and Taylor.
They nodded with assurance.
Careful not to stand, she moved out from behind her hiding spot but stayed low, just in case she was still in his eyeline.
“Are you okay? Do you want me to call security?” Caleb questioned with genuine concern in his voice.
“Security? No! I’m notscaredof him.” She waved her hands frantically as she tried to come up with a way to explain her odd behavior. The last thing she wanted was to draw more attention to herself. “I just… he can’t see me like…I don’t want him to know that…”
Out of habit Frankie touched her left hand, where she’d worn Liam’s mother’s wedding ring, the one Tristan had given her, except she no longer had it on her finger. Did Liam even know she had it in the first place? Did Liam even know that she and Tristan were engaged? She had no idea, and she didn’t want to wait around to find out.
Another wave of panic crashed over her. “Just…which way did he go?”
Taylor lifted her arm and pointed to the right. “That way.”
Frankie nodded and then tried to make herself as tiny and invisible as possible as she slinked out of the room to the left and pressed her back to the wall, trying to disappear against it. Her David Blaine act would have gone a lot better if she wasn’t a pale redhead wearing an oversized emerald-green novelty t-shirtwith bold white letters that read: Hold on, let me overthink this. She wasn’t exactly blending into her environment. In fact, she stood out like a sore thumb against pale yellow walls.
“Please, please, please, don’t let him see me,” she prayed as she stealthily crept along toward the exit.
She wished so badly that she’d grabbed her gray zip-up hoodie. She’d pay a thousand dollars for a gray zip-up hoodie that she could put over her bright orange hair. As she came to the T in the hallway, she stopped. The exit was on the other side of the intersection.
Her breath was ragged as she peeked her head around the corner. There was a lot of commotion at the very end of the corridor, which was about twenty yards away. Or maybe ten, she wasn’t great at distances. There were at least eight people in the room, but she instantly recognized Liam, despite his back being turned towards her. She knew him just from his neck, his shoulders, his frame, and the way he moved. Seeing him again, even from this distance and this rearview, was so surreal.
What was he doing in Pine Ridge General Hospital? Why hadn’t her brothers, who still spoke to him, btw, ever told her that he was there? Why hadn’t they told her he changed his name? Why had he changed his name?
No.This was not the time nor place to go down the why-rabbit-hole. She had to focus.
She leaned back out of sight and stared at the double doors of freedom. She had to get to the other side of the T to get to the exit. As she stood, staring at her only escape route, she knew the hallway would expose herifLiam happened to turn around while she was sprinting. She felt like she was playing a real-life game of Double Dutch or Frogger, but the stakes were much greater than losing a turn on the playground or a life in a video game. Her pride, her ego, and her self-respect were on the line.Not known for her patience, Frankie thought, “Fuck it,” held her breath, closed her eyes, and sprinted.
When she got to the other side, she imagined herself breaking through the doors like a marathon runner through the finish line ribbon or a football team through a paper banner held by cheerleaders, that did not happen. Instead, she crashed into them pancake-style, like Wile E. Coyote running into the side of a cliff. She’d assumed they let people out who wanted to get leave, but apparently, you had to be buzzed both ways. Exposed and vulnerable, panic swelled in her as she began lightly tapping on the glass window so as not to attract any attention from the end of the hall.
Finally, after what felt like an eternity, the nurse sitting behind the computer glanced over her right shoulder. She didn’t acknowledge that she’d seen her, but she pressed the button beneath her desk. When Frankie heard the blessed sound of the buzz, it may as well have been the heavens opening and the angels singing the Hallelujah chorus.
The second the latch released, she stumbled into the ER waiting room, found her footing, and rushed out of the sliding doors into the emergency vehicle turn-around. She didn’t look back until she was safely behind the wheel of her Papou’s Jeep in the parking structure.
Once inside, she sat for a minute and tried to catch her breath. She realized that wasn’t going to happen, because there was a very good chance she was hyperventilating. So, giving up on regulated oxygen, she texted Yaya. She didn’t want her grandma to get back with Arthur, ask where she was, and get Taylor’s version (which would not be nearly as cool as the albums of the same name!) of events, which would be something like, “Um, Frankie,well, she freaked out when Dr. Davies came in, hid behind a cabinet, said a bunch of words that didn’t make sense, waited for him to leave, asked which way he went, andthen Tomb Raider-style side-stepped against the wall down the hall in the opposite direction as if that would make her invisible.”
Frankie ignored the fact that she was now seeing stars and typed a text to Yaya explaining she wasn’t feeling well so she was waiting for her in the jeep. She instantly got a reply asking if she needed 7Up and crackers, Yaya’s catchall remedy for anything that ailed her. She responded, saying she did not.
With that taken care of, she focused on what her next move was going to be. She needed to make a list of priorities. Find out why Liam was in California, not just California, why he was working in a hospital thirty minutes from Yaya, and why the hell had he changed his name?
She tried Zion again, just to see if he might have service. He didn’t. It went straight to voicemail. The tea she needed to spill was piling up faster than laundry in the Duggar family house.
