Page 206 of Off the Pitch

Chapter Thirteen

#flowers #romcomrevelation

Jordan

“Hello?” I asked, sliding out of Nan’s room and into the main ward.

“Are you still at the hospital?” Félix sounded concerned, and in the background, I heard the chatter of voices and the sounds of traffic.

“Yeah, the doctor’s just in with my grandma.”

“How is she?”

“Okay, I think. She had a mild stroke, and they’re still waiting to see the full extent of the damage.”

Félix sighed, and it sounded almost like one of relief. “That’s good. I’m glad. Which ward are you on?”

“Wait, are you here?” I asked, completely bewildered. What the fuck was Félix doing here?

“Yes. It’s North Middlesex University Hospital, right? In Enfield. Did I come to the right one?”

“What the fuck? Why? You know what, don’t answer that. Where are you?”

“Outside the main entrance,” Félix said. He sounded confused, like I’d expected him to be somewhere else. Which I had. If I was honest, I’d expected Félix to find something else to amuse himself with for the evening, but maybe that was wrong of me. “Stay there. I’m coming down.” I ended the call and shoved my phone into my pocket. This had the makings of a complete shitshow. I just had to make sure I stayed in control of everything. I stuck my head around the room door. Doctor Ayoola was chatting to my dad, and Liam sat in his chair.

“Liam,” I called, in a half whisper. “I’ve just gotta nip downstairs. I’ll be back in a minute, alright?” I didn’t wait for his answer. Instead, I made a vague note of the ward number in my head before tracing my footsteps back downstairs towards the front of the hospital. I still had no fucking clue why Félix had turned up here, but I couldn’t deny I was oddly touched by the gesture. Even if I really, really fucking wished he’d called first. If he had, I’d have told him to stay at his hotel.

Not because I didn’t want to see him, because I actually really did, but because this was one more thing I didn’t know how to deal with, and having him, Liam, and Dad all in one place was a recipe for disaster. If this was a Hollywood movie, there’d now be some stupidly elaborate scene where I attempted to hide them all from each other. Although it wasn’t like I had a better plan.

This would probably have been a fuck ton easier if I’d told everyone months ago. They always said hindsight was a wonderful thing. Much bloody good it was doing me now.

I couldn’t see Félix in the hospital foyer, so I stepped through the front door and out into the cooling night air, looking around for his familiar figure. It was already getting dark, so we’d obviously been at the hospital longer than I’d thought. I was tired and stressed and hungry, and that probably wasn’t making me feel any better. My emotions were swirling like a tornado, ripping through everything in their path. It suddenly felt like I had no control over anything, and I hated that. I was almost tempted to tell Félix to go away because I couldn’t handle this right now. This was wildly unfamiliar territory for me, and I was being forced to explore it without a map or a chance to consider where I was even going. I was starting to get the nasty feeling I’d stumbled into something with Félix that I wasn’t ready for.

Félix stood under a streetlamp not far from the door. He was holding a shopping bag in one hand and a bunch of flowers in the other. I stopped dead as my heart dropped through my stomach and out through my trainers. It was almost as if I’d forgotten what he looked like, and now here he was, looking like a fucking model and holding a bouquet of roses. Everything in my mind went blank, and I was suddenly wondering why the fuck I might’ve been upset at him showing up.

“Hey,” he said, giving me a small smile that ignited a raft of fireworks in my chest. “I’m sorry for dropping in on you. I realised it might be inappropriate.”

“It’s, um, it’s fine,” I said, swallowing as the tornado in my brain began to dissolve. “Thanks for coming.” I shuffled awkwardly, painfully aware I had no fucking clue how to handle this situation or my sudden feelings for Félix. I wanted him here, and I was so fucking glad he’d come. I just didn’t know how to tell him that. Was it weird I felt this way? Would he hate it if I told him? After all, we weren’t supposed to be anything to each other.

“It’s not a problem. These are for your grandmother,” he said, holding up the flowers. “And this is for you,” he continued, handing me the shopping bag. Inside I could see several bottles of Coke, some sandwiches, and a selection of snacks. “I didn’t know how long you’d been here, and I thought you might be hungry. I’ve never found hospitals to have the best food.”

“Yeah, me neither.” There was another awkward pause, neither of us knowing what to say next. It was like a weird game of chicken—one of us waiting for the other to admit something neither of us knew how to put into words.

“Well,” said Félix, breaking the silence, “I should probably leave you in peace. Let me know if you still want to meet for that dinner.”

“Wait, you’re seriously gonna come all this fucking way and then leave?” I didn’t know why I said it. Five minutes ago, I’d been terrified about him being here. But now that he was here, I didn’t want him to leave. I needed him to stay… even if I wasn’t quite sure why. I just knew I needed him here because right now I felt ridiculously out of control, and for some reason, Félix being here made me feel like I could handle everything.

Screw Liam. I’d figure out how to deal with him later. If this was how he found out, well at least he was too polite to make a scene in the middle of a fucking hospital. And my dad? Well, he was a pretty relaxed guy. I didn’t think he’d bat an eyelid.

“I thought it would be best,” Félix said. “I mean, it’s not like I know your family.”

“It’s fine. You could meet them,” I blurted out. “I mean, if you want to. No pressure. But you could come up. It’s just my Dad and Liam. And it’s not like I can tell them I got the flowers here. Where’d you get them anyway?” The flowers in question were artfully wrapped in brown paper and ribbon, and I’d never seen that many roses in one bouquet before. The whole thing was an explosion of tiny roses, each one full of colour.

“Oh, I asked the hotel concierge to get them for me. I think they came from a local florist. I didn’t know where else to get nice ones.”

I stared at him and then burst out laughing. “Oh my God, man! Tesco! You can get flowers at fucking Tesco. Or I mean like Waitrose if you wanna be posh! You’ve gotta come upstairs now, everyone’ll be far too fucking suspicious if I turn up with them, and I can only lie so many times. Come on.” I reached out and grabbed his hand, pulling him into the hospital. His skin was warm under my touch, and a little shock rippled through me, almost like static electricity.

As we reached the lift, I suddenly realised I hadn’t given Félix any option. I had this weird realisation that I was suddenly okay with Liam knowing we were hooking up. I had to rip that plaster off sooner or later. I didn’t know if Liam would recognise him from his club visit in February, but Liam wasn’t stupid. He’d put two and two together pretty quickly, and I didn’t really have another excuse for how I knew Félix. After all, I did everything with Liam, and I told him everything.

---