Page 53 of You Loved Me Once
Dr. Grant, please come to the nurses’ station, the loudspeaker blares.
I look over to Westin who gives one nod. “Go, we’ll be fine,” I tell him.
“I’ll be right back.” He touches my arm and then leaves.
Allison clears her throat, watching me with a smile that indicates she wants to say something. “Boyfriend?”
Oh, God. I can’t girl talk with her, but I can’t be rude either. Why is my life suddenly so difficult? I really liked when it was simple. Not sure what exactly the right thing to do is, I give her a little, hoping she’ll drop it. “I guess you could call it that.”
“Sorry if I’m overstepping.” She chews on her lip.
“You’re fine.”
That’s a lie. None of this is fine. I send a prayer out for my name to be called so I can get out of here without saying something dumb.
“It’s the way he looked at you, it was clear that there’s something going on between you guys.”
Dropping it is not happening.
I look back at the door wondering what she picked up on. We were fighting not even two hours ago.
“It’s not like that...”
Allison laughs. “Nothing ever starts like that, does it? But he’s really good looking...and a doctor.”
I move over to the side of her bed, and check the lines of her IV. “Yeah, he’s a good guy.”
Please drop this or let the ground swallow me up, either would work.
“How long have you been together?” she asks.
As much as I may hate this, Allison is sweet and I don’t really have an out right now. I can be aloof or choose to be the person I am. I love my patients and I believe healing isn’t only about medicine. People have to want to fight and be willing to put up with an immense amount of struggle in order to feel better.
Going through hell is an understatement.
I’ve prided myself on being their friend through it all, and Allison deserves the same thing.
“It’s been a few years, but nothing serious until recently,” I admit.
“Ahh...” She pushes her hair back. “...I see.”
“See?”
“I’m assuming he finally decided to shit instead of getting off the pot. Men are so stupid when it comes to women. Peyton was that way.” Allison rolls her eyes. “I swear, it was like pulling teeth to get him to finally pop the question.”
Now I’m suddenly interested in this conversation.
“Oh? Why is that? You guys seem so happy,” I say in spite of myself.
I should never have asked, but I don’t know when I’ll ever have this opportunity again.
She leans in, playing with the edge of the blanket. “I was never supposed to really marry Peyton. We were childhood friends, and our parents basically arranged our marriage at infancy. Both of us come from traditional families, but we never seemed to get the timing right. I always loved him. I was that stupid girl with big eyes for the hot guy, but Peyton never saw me that way. I was just the annoying family friend.”
My pulse pounds in my ears as she tells me the story I’ve wondered about. Did he fall in love with her right after me? Were they kept apart because he met me? Then I wonder, why had I never heard about her when we were together? I sit on the edge of her bed, waiting for anything she’s willing to share.
“We both ended up going to Penn State, which is where I bumped into him after years.”
Penn State.
