Page 48 of My Fearless Fake Fling

I punched him. Just in the shoulder and it clearly didn’t hurt him. But I had to prove a point. A silent point. That being, up until this morning, I’d thought he was my fake boyfriend and thus it would’ve been inappropriate for me to call him attractive.

Yes, I figured all that could be conveyed through a punch. For good measure, I threw in, “And youaresuper hot.”

My mother invited us to sit down, so Len and I sat on the two-person beige vinyl loveseat in between her chair and my dad in the bed. As we talked, Dad kept looking over at Len. He’d cock his head and squint his eyes, as if concentrating, then after a few seconds, he’d shake his head and try to rejoin the conversation.

The third time of him doing this, my father finally asked, “Do I know you from somewhere, Len?”

Len started and a strange expression crossed his face, but it withered away to be replaced by a genuine smile. “No. I just have one of those faces. People always think they know me from somewhere or other.” He waved off the comment with a flick of his hand.

In the background, the beeping machine keeping track of my dad’s heartbeats, blood pressure, and all that other stuff I didn’t fully understand, became the fifth member to our party. My dad looked so frail in that bed, his color pale instead of rosy. The wrinkles seemed more prominent. As did the gray in his hair and beard. Dad never looked his age, and now he didn’t just not look his age, but he looked several years older. At least a decade.

Tears welled in my eyes. I wouldn’t cry, at least not in front of him. Not without knowing how my tears would affect him. Len looked at me, then reached over to take my hand in his. The gentle squeeze helped more than he’d ever know. It was funny. We’d been together such a short time—wow, how weird to think we were actually together? All that time I’d thought we were playing—and he knew me, knew when I needed that added support.

A knock sounded on the door and the nurse poked her head in. “It’s time,” she said as she pushed the door all the way open. Two nursing assistants accompanied her. A woman pushing the gurney and a man walking along next to the woman pushing the gurney.

Worry flashed in my dad’s eyes. I couldn’t blame him. We all worried. Sure, heart surgeons put stents in clogged arteries all the time, but it was still a major surgery.

My mother attempted to stifle a sob unsuccessfully. My dad, to his credit, lifted his hand to grasp my mom’s. He brought it slowly, while wincing, up to his lips to kiss her knuckles.

“I can’t lose you,” she said to him. “I can’t. I buried my boy…” Mom’s lips quivered as the tears flowed freely.

I didn’t want to leave, but at the same time it felt like an invasion of their privacy. This was a moment meant for a long-married couple and not for anyone else’s ears or eyes.

Totally oblivious to the moment my parents were having, the nurse broke in. “We’ll take good care of him.”

Though I supposed a huge deal for us was simply business as usual for them. The female assistant locked the wheels of the gurney next to my dad’s bed and the three of them transferred him. Next, the guardrails went up and locked in place. At that point they let us get close to Dad before they took him away.

I bent in and kissed his cheek, dampening both our cheeks from crying. “Love you, old man.”

Once I moved out of the way, Len stepped up. He patted my dad on the shoulder. “Sorry to have our first meeting be under these circumstances. I’ll be thinking good thoughts.”

“Thank you, son. For what it’s worth, I’m glad I got to meet you.” Dad took a second to catch his breath. “It’s a lot to ask of a man you just met, but I’m asking anyway. Take care of my girls. They’re sensitive and will need a strong shoulder to cry on while their waiting on me to recover.”

“You have my word, sir.” Len gave that same shoulder a squeeze. “Take care,” he said, then stepped back.

At that point, we both let my mom have her moment with him without listening in. At first his arm slid around my shoulders, but when they pushed the gurney out of the room, my mother walking with them holding my dad’s hand, Len turned me into him so he could full-on hug me. I never appreciated his strong arms as much as I did at that moment.

Brian had been great after my brother passed. We’d only been dating six months when it happened. Then with all the stalking and harassment that followed from Leo, Harrison’s brother, and I had to move, he moved too—gave up a job and everything. Albeit, a crappy minimum wage job that he didn’t mind leaving as it provided him the opportunity to find a much better one in the field he wanted to work in. But he did it for no other reason than so we wouldn’t be apart.

Len’s hug felt like an absorption of everything. My dad’s surgery. Losing my brother. Leo. And even Brian. The man clearly had no clue what he was getting himself into when he’d decided to date me for real.

The staff allowed us to stay in the room because it had been assigned to my dad and they’d be bringing him back here after his stint in recovery. Mom appeared in the doorway, bottom lip quivering, but she stayed strong. Too strong for the situation, in my opinion.

“Mom, have you eaten today?” I got to her side in only a couple of steps.

But she moved past me to sit down in the chair next to the empty bed. “I’m not hungry.”

“How are you gonna take care of Dad if you aren’t taking care of yourself? Please, let me get you some soup or something.”

“Okay, sweetheart. I’ll eat some soup.” She agreed far too easily.

I beckoned Len over with my finger. As he reached me, I pulled him in to a private conversation. “She needs to eat. Can you sit with her while I go?”

“You want me to go, baby?”

Shaking my headno, I used my eyes to gesture for him to look at her. “Her husband went to surgery and she’s not crying. That’s not right. She’s being strong for me. You stay, please. Give her a safe place to let go.”

“If that’s what you want.”

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