Page 99 of Maybe in Another Life

“OK,” she says. “Go for it.”

I breathe in deeply. I close my eyes. I speak. “Henry, I know this sounds crazy—”

“Nope,” she says. “Don’t start with that. Never start with ‘I know this sounds crazy.’ Come from strength. He’d be lucky to be with you. You’ve got an extraordinary attitude, a brilliant heart, and an infectious optimism. You are a dream woman. Come from strength.”

“OK,” I say, and then I look down at my legs. “I don’t know, Gabby. I’m crippled. This isn’t my strongest moment.”

“You’re Hannah Martin. Your weakest moment is a strong moment. Be Hannah Martin. Let’s hear it.”

“OK,” I say, starting over. And then it just comes out of me. “Henry, I think we have something here. I know I’m a patient and you’re a nurse, and this is all very against the rules and everything, but I truly believe we could mean something to each other, and we owe it to ourselves to see. How often can you say that about somebody and really mean it? That the two of you have potential for something great? I want to see where we end up. There’s something about you, Henry. There’s something about us. I can just tell.” I look at Gabby. “OK, how was that?”

Gabby stares at me. “Is that how you really feel?”

I nod. “Yeah.”

“Go find him!” she says. “What the hell are you doing practicing on me?”

I laugh. “What do you think he’ll say?”

“I don’t know,” she says. “But if he turns you down, he’s such a massive idiot that I’m pretty sure you’ll have dodged a bullet.”

“That doesn’t make me feel better.”

She shrugs. “Sometimes the truth doesn’t,” she says. “Now, go.”

And so I do.

I wheel myself out of my room and speed down the hall to the nurses’ station. I ask where Henry is, and they tell me they don’t know. So I get into the elevator, and I go to the top floor, and I start wheeling the halls. I won’t stop until I find him.

It’s Saturday night. Gabby and I are watching a movie. Charlemagne is lying in her dog bed at our feet. We ordered Thai food, and Gabby is eating all the pad Thai before I can even get my hands on it.

“You know I’m pregnant, right? I should at least get a chance to eat some of the food.”

“My husband cheated on me and then left me,” she says. She’s not even looking up. She’s just shoveling noodles into her mouth with her eyes glued to the television. “I don’t have to be nice to anyone right now.”

“Ugh, fine, you win.”

The phone rings, and I look at the caller ID, stunned. It’s Ethan.

Gabby pauses the movie. “Well, answer it!” she says.

I do. “Hi,” I say.

“Hey,” he says. “Is now a good time?”

“Sure. Yeah.”

“I was thinking I would come over,” he says. “Now, if that’s OK. I can stop by.”

“Yeah,” I tell him. “Absolutely. Come by.”

I hang up the phone and stare at Gabby. “What is he going to say?” I ask her.

“I was just going to ask you. Whatdidhe say?”

“He said he wants to come over. He said he’ll stop by.”

“Which was it? Come over or stop by?”

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