Page 100 of While You're There
Her husband had been drinking in excess. Her husband had been hiding his drinking. And last night, her husband chose to get wasted at a bar, then he chose to get behind the wheel.
“The icing on the fucking cake is that he did all thatknowingthat your appointment was today. I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to forgive him.” The words came out low and sincere, the room suddenly feeling heavier than it had all night.
“Let’s go find the nurse,” Jake suggested, gently pulling her to her feet. Every part of her body ached, from her head to her feet, from her midsection to her low back, from her stomach to her heart. But at least the physical and emotional pain was a distraction from the actual procedure she was about to endure.
She let him lead her to the door but froze in place when she glanced back and thought she saw Rhett move. “Wait,” she whispered, pulling on Jake’s hand in protest before he could exit the room.
“V…” Rhett rasped out as he attempted to sit up in bed. She almost tripped over her own feet as she staggered back across the room to reach him.
“Shhhh,” she soothed, running her hand through his hair on the uninjured side of his head. “I’m here, I’m here.”
Tears streamed down her face as she watched him struggle to come to. His face contorted into a grimace that only seemed to get worse with each inhalation. She hadn’t even thought about all the internal injuries he may have suffered. He’d had surgery on his spleen for sure—how big was the incision? Did he have bruising or any cracked ribs?
She had been so angry—she still was so angry—but seeing him hurting like this awakened the desire to wrap him in her arms and kiss it all better. She wanted to crawl into his lap and consume all of his pain.
She knew they didn’t have much time, though, so she settled on letting her palm rest on the side of his face. She stroked her thumb against his cheek, willing him to feel some sense of comfort. On contact, he relaxed into her touch. Finally, he opened his eyes.
“Tori?” It was a question. It was a testimony. It was an apology and a plea.
“You’re okay,” she promised through unrelenting tears. “I’m here, Ev. You’re okay.”
“Where…” he tried in vain to scoot up the bed. But his left arm was in a sling, and his right wrist was wrapped in a brace with an IV that inhibited his range of motion. He couldn’t move. He wasn’t going anywhere. She watched as his body seized up in panic as that realization dawned on him. He started to breathe heavier as he continued to struggle.
“Hey, don’t. Don’t try to sit up. You have a concussion. It’s okay. You’re in the hospital. You’re safe.”
“What happened?” he pleaded for clarity.
Did he really not know? Or did he need someone else to spell it out for him?
“You crashed my fucking car, bro.” It was the first time Jake had said anything since Rhett had woken up. He was hovering by the door, giving them their space. She could tell he was seething by the way he was positioned, one foot resting against the wall behind him with his arms defiantly crossed over his chest.
She didn’t know if Rhett could see him clearly from where he laid, but that was irrelevant. Jake's tone was enough; his anger was palpable.
Rhett closed his eyes and sucked in a shaky breath, no doubt still processing what had happened and where he was. She wondered what it must be like, to wake up and not have any clue about the damage he had caused or the destruction he left in his wake. Had this happened before? Had he woken up so unaware that he had to piece back together the consequences of his choices?
She didn’t know. But she should have known.
“Baby, you’re going to be late,” Jake reminded her. She had forgotten about the whole procedure over the last two minutes as she poured herself into Rhett’s pain. It was so easy to lose herself in him. It was too easy to only worry about him when he was like this.
She closed her eyes and steeled her spine, nodding without turning around to face their friend. She thought seeing Rhett awake would calm the anxiety that had found a home in her, but instead it had the opposite effect. She hadn’t stopped touching him since he woke up. Her body craved the reminder that he was alive.
“I have to go upstairs now. I have to go to our appointment…”
Tori watched in horror as Rhett groaned and attempted to swing his legs over the side of the hospital bed. His efforts were in vain as his body refused to cooperate. She didn’t know if it was the grogginess from the anesthesia or the haziness from the alcohol that held him strapped to the hospital bed.
“You have to stay here, Rhett. You can’t go with me,” she explained.
“But I’m supposed to be there. I need to be there for you, and I have an appointment, too,” he choked out.
Did he really think he was going to be able to participate in the embryo freezing process now? Was he really that disconnected from the reality of what was happening, what he had done? He had been in a serious car crash hours ago, and he had just come out of surgery. His blood alcohol level was probably still registering over the legal limit.
There was no way Rhett could leave this room, let alone go to his appointment. And that was on him. He did this. He was the reason that their plan to freeze embryos wasn’t going to happen today. She was disgusted by the cruel irony of the whole situation. She’d felt so alone through everything over the last two weeks.
“You can’t go with me,” she repeated.
She watched as her strong, normally steady, always stable Golden Boy let defeat wash over him. He closed his eyes in anguish. She knew the depth of his pain because it matched the bottomless pit of her own.
A single tear tracked down his cheek. “Jake,” he croaked, calling on the only support he could provide by proxy.
