Page 42 of Friends Rucked Up

“What? There must be some mistake. He was planning on spending the night in my apartment. What could he have possibility have done?”

Just like that our perfect evening snaps away. Harlan doesn’t always make the sensible choice, but how much trouble could he have got into?

I’m already buttoning my shirt up knowing our romantic evening is over. I hope Harlan isn’t hurt too badly.

“I’m not sure. The nurse said he was at The New Selby War Memorial Hospital. I’ll finish washing up and then let myselfout.” Antony already sees that we’re not planning on sticking around.

“Thanks,” I say.

I grab our coats and make our way to my car. It’s a good job I didn’t have that second glass of wine like Saylor did.

We quickly make our way to the hospital and locate Harlan in one of the bays. His hand is wrapped in bandages, and he’s busy flirting with one of the nurses.

“What happened? Are you okay?” Saylor asks, hugging him.

“I’m fine. Just a cooking accident” He waves his hand in the air.

“You scared the hell out of us,” I say. Other than the bandage he looks totally fine.

“Why did you have us race down here?” Saylor asks, unable to hide the hint of irritation in her voice.

“Nurse Betty insisted I called someone to take me home.”

She gives him a puzzled look before excusing herself. I’m guessing that wasn’t the whole truth, but I don’t call him out on it. We’re here now, and at least Saylor isn’t worrying about him.

“You do realise we were enjoying our date. Couldn’t you have called an Uber? You’re lucky Alfie’s only had one glass of wine,” Saylor scolds.

At least he has the decency to look guilty. “I’m sorry. Maybe I overreacted.”

“I thought you were okay with me dating your sister?” I ask.

It’s going to take him a while to get used to the change in our relationship, but burning himself is a bit extreme. I don’t actually believe he did it on purpose. He didn’t have to leave such a cryptic message for us, though.

“I am. I’ve been injured and need sympathy.” He wraps his arms around Saylor again.

Ruining the end of our first date doesn’t suggest he’s fine with us going out. I’m hoping eventually our friendship will go back to normal.

“Have they discharged you? Are you able to go home?” Saylor looks at the paperwork on the trolley.

“Yes. I’ve just got to come back for my dressings changing in a few days.” He waves his bad arm in the air again.

“Okay. Let’s go then,” I say.

We walk out in silence until we reach the car park.

“I’m sorry for ruining your date,” Harlan says.

“You didn’t. I had a fantastic time,” Saylor says, surprising me.

I glance at her, and we share a secret smile. We don’t have to let this ruin our whole evening. Up until this point it was going perfectly, that’s all that matters.

“Where did he take you?” Harlan asks Saylor.

I didn’t share my plans with him because I didn’t want to rub it in his face. We’ve been fine since he found out my intentions with his sister, but we’ve not discussed our relationship.

“To a cute little cottage not too far away. Antony Clive cooked for us. The whole thing was so romantic.” Saylor grabs onto my arm and gives it a squeeze and we smile at each other.

“How long were you planning on staying there?” Harlan asks.

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