Page 5 of Meet You Half Way
“We’re going to do everything to make sure he’s okay,” the paramedic told me. “And that’s thanks to you.”
That was when the tear slipped from my eye, this warm comfort from this kind man. I nodded and then shifted out of theway as the two of them knelt beside Dante, taking over when I had nothing left to give.
“Do we need the defibrillator?” the other paramedic asked as he placed the machine beside them.
“Yes, he’s in cardiac arrest. Can you charge it up?” The paramedics were moving in synchronisation, shifting Dante on his back and clearing the area. They popped open the buttons on his shirt and placed electrode pads on his chest as I watched helplessly in the background. “No pacemaker. You’re good to go, Bill.”
“3-2-1 clear,” Bill called.
“Again.”
They shocked Dante three times until the machine indicated a steady heart rhythm and I breathed a sigh of relief, my heart racing, hands shaking. The paramedics continued their work efficiently and methodically, manoeuvring Dante onto the ambulance cot. Then they were strapping him in, the two of them working like a well-oiled machine as I hovered uselessly in the background. Dante’s eyes flickered open then, landing on me and I stepped forward, instantly at his side again.
“Mateo,” he rasped.
“You’re going to be fine,zietto,” I told him.
“That’s right. We’re going to get you to the hospital now,” the kind paramedic said. I followed behind them as they wheeled him out to the waiting ambulance, the metal frame sliding easily onto the bed of the vehicle.
I stood on the pavement, arms wrapped around myself as I thought of Dante’s wife, Giulia, and how worried she would be. Would I have to be the one to tell her about her husband?
“Do you want to come with your friend to the hospital?” I glanced up at those words, the kind paramedic looking down at me from the back of the ambulance. The kind paramedic who was also insanely hot. I hadn’t even noticed while we were backin the kitchen and really it was not the time or the place to be noticing now. But his jaw was square cut like what you see on superhero comics and he had the sexiest dimple I’d ever seen. Add in the windswept, short brown hair, kind blue eyes and a ripping bod, and well, he really was quite nice to look at.
He was also waiting for my answer, eyebrow peaked in the sexiest way.
“Ah, yeah, I will,” I said, dashing over to lock the office door before I was back at his side. I climbed into the ambulance, the first time I’d ever seen anything like this up close.
“Strap in,” he said to me, chin pointing to the seat and its adjoining seatbelt. I did as he asked, my hands still notably shaky before I managed to clasp the two ends. Dante had closed his eyes again, whether from unconsciousness or tiredness I couldn’t tell. I took hold of his hand, squeezing to let him know I was there.
“Is he …” I asked, unsure how to voice my concerns.
“He’s asleep,” the paramedic told me. He was still busy settling Dante in, fiddling with wires that linked to machines that were busy beeping at us. I knew enough from binging on episodes of Grey’s Anatomy what the heartrate line looked like and I grimaced at the elevated waves I could see showing up on the EKG machine.
“He’s one lucky man,” the paramedic said, eyes on the machine.
“I should … I should call his wife,” I admitted, swallowing roughly at the thought of what I would say to myzietta.
“I think she would appreciate that,” he said to me, his calm presence trying to transfer itself onto me.
“What should I tell her?”
“You should tell her Dante has suffered likely cardiac arrest. We’ll have to run tests at the hospital to confirm but from my experience this looks like a textbook case.”
I could hear the other paramedic talking on the radio as he drove with wailing sirens in the direction of the regional hospital.
“Looks like we’re going to have to get up to Wollongong,” he called back. “The facilities nearby have no capacity.”
“Shit,” I cursed. That was a good hour and a half from Esperance and I felt myself start to panic again.
“It’s okay,” my calm paramedic told me. “He’s in great hands here. His heartrate is steadying and I’ve got him all monitored. The Wollongong hospital is the best one around to treat him.”
I blew out a breath, trying to borrow some of the hot paramedic’s calmness.
“He’s important to me,” I said on a sigh. I glanced up, the paramedic’s blue eyes on me, a kindness in them that I wasn’t used to seeing.
“I can see that,” he nodded at me. “I promise we’re taking the absolute best care of your friend. I’m Jamie by the way.”
“Mateo,” I replied, sharing the briefest of smiles with him. Jamie. He looked like a Jamie. Whatever that meant. But the name suited him and I liked that I had something to call him other than hot paramedic. I’d been objectified all my life so I should know better.
