Fragile (9 page)

“I’m sorry, Lu. How can I get you to forgive me for my stupidity?” I could only stare at him. He was sincere as he always was and my chest hurt just looking at him. Nothing good could come from us being together. Regardless if we were friends or not, but I wanted it while I could have it.

“You could be my friend again,” I whispered.

“Your best friend.”

We got some coffee and Rick asked if I could move back in with him. I agreed and he took my things back to the apartment when he left.

When I got back to the apartment Aiden greeted me happily. “He really missed you. He was miserable, cried and everything.” Aiden had jumped up on the couch and his head was on my lap but it was probably due more to the pizza we were eating than me.

“I know. Your Dad brought him by the hospital.”

“Is that why you came over that day?”

“It gave me an excuse to come over, yeah.”

“When’s your next house viewing?” Rick reached over me and picked up a piece of pizza.

“A few days but it’s an apartment this time.” I reached over and took the last piece of pizza from the box.

“I’m sorry you missed your last viewing.”

“Don’t sweat it, Dr. Douche bag picked it out anyway.” I took a bite of my pizza, pretending to ignore the look of disbelief on his face.

“You let him pick out a home for you?”

“He was there when I was looking, and he said it looked good.” I shrugged.

“It was probably horrible anyway,” he announced, sitting back on the couch and pulled me closer to him. “Maybe you should show me this apartment online first just in case.”

“Sure, I’ll go and get my tablet.” I got up from the couch and started for the stairs.

“You got it?” He asked as I sat back down on the couch. He rested an arm around my shoulders, drawing me closer to him. I turned the tablet on and passed it over after I found the apartment.

He whistled when he saw it. “Nice, it’s pricy but it’s nice. Can you afford this?” He placed the tablet down on his lap and looked at me.

“I’m a successful Neurologist,” I said with as much cockiness as possible.

“Well then,” he said with sarcasm dripping from voice. I laughed and took the tablet back, searching more apartments.

When I was ready for bed I walked into bathroom and found Aiden passed out in the middle of the bed. I knelt and gave him a shove but he didn’t move. I tried again but got the same response. I sighed and went to find Rick for help.

“Rick.” I knocked on his door before I open it slowly.

“Yeah, Lu.”

“Aiden’s stolen my bed,” I laughed out of frustration. “He won’t budge over, and he’s too big for me to move. Can you try and get him off?”

Rick moved over in the bed and made some room, “Come here, Lu.” He pulled the blankets back, and I slid in the bed beside him. I knew as soon as I did it, that it was the wrong thing to do. I should have insisted that he moved Aiden but when I felt Rick put an arm around me, all my doubts disappeared.

“Coffee… coffee… coffee,” I sang in the kitchen the next morning as I looked at the machine. I was trying to figure out how to use it without breaking it.

“There you are,” Rick said as he came down the steps and into the kitchen.

“Here I am,” I chimed. “Did I wake you?” Rick pressed a button on the machine and it started chugging away and started to pour coffee into my cup.

“No, the bed was empty.” He got a cup down for himself too.

“A thought occurred to me last night.” I said as I grabbed my cup from the machine and put Rick’s in its place.

“What was that?” He asked through a yawn.

“You’re still tired. Why don’t you go back to bed?”

“I’m up now, I won’t be able to go back to sleep. What were you thinking, Lu?”

I dropped my eyes away from him and brought my coffee to my lips, “That I don’t have anything to put in my new home.”

Rick tilted his head to the side, “You don’t, do you. Well we’ll have to change that.” He looked serious for a moment. He started to say something but thought better of it.

“What is it?”

“It’s nothing,” he said with a shake of his head, instead he took a sip of coffee.

“Tell me, Rick.”

He took a deep breath and sighed. “I’m just worried about the price of the apartment. I know you’re successful, but it’s a lot to fork out for an apartment. I didn’t pay that much for this place.”

“If I pay an insane amount of money for somewhere to live, it gives me something to stay for,” I said softly and honestly.

“Ok then.” Rick drunk his coffee as we cooked breakfast together then got ready for work.

I slammed the front door as I entered the apartment later that night, and Rick immediately came into view “What’s wrong?”

“I don’t want to talk about it.” I stormed past him, went up the stairs and into the bathroom. I started to pour the bath and as I watched the tub fill there was a knock at the door.

“Lu?” Rick’s worried voice came through the closed door. I walked over to it and opened it a crack to see Rick looking just as worried as he sounded. “Talk to me,” he pleaded.

“It’s stupid.”

“Tell me anyway.”

“The apartment I wanted to see is already under contract. I got the call earlier today. The real estate agent said it was first come first serve.”

“You’ll get the next one,” Rick tried to assure me.

“Yeah,” I whispered, not believing it. Rick placed a finger under my chin and lifted my head up.

“Hey, you’ll find one.”

I sniffed back tears and wiped my hand under my nose, “Sorry.”

“Don’t apologise for being upset.”

“I just don’t have the freedom to say I can see it today. My days aren’t routine and...” I trailed off as I began to cry harder. Rick wrapped his arms around me and pulled me into his chest.

“You’ll get one.” He whispered into my hair.

I nodded and wiped the last of my tears away as Rick left me to have my bath. When I got out, Rick had something ready for me to eat, then I fell asleep on the couch and I woke to see Rick carrying me to bed, placing me down gently and covering me up with blankets.

“Up.” The side of the bed dipped, and I felt a hand on my shoulder. Aiden growled, “Watch it, dog. I feed you.”

“Don’t threaten the dog.” I rolled over to see Rick fully dressed and I squinted up at him. “You got plans?”

“We have plans. You have five minutes before I come back and dress you myself.” That was all he said before he stood up and left the room, closing the door behind him. “Four minutes, Lu!” Rick yelled from the other side of the door.

I turned my head to face the door. “You are so not counting from the hallway!”

“You just wasted another minute arguing with me. You’ve now got three minutes. Don’t think I won’t come in there and dress you myself!”

“You’re bluffing!”

“Two minutes!”

Realising that he was serious with his threat, I got up and quickly dressed. “One minute!” he yelled. I stood in the middle of the room and waited for him to get to zero. “You’re out of time, Lu!” I stayed silent, waiting. “I’m coming in!” The door opened, and I threw a pillow at his head. Caught by surprise, the pillow hit him in the face and dropped to his feet.

“Seriously?”

I nodded, unable to hide the smile plastered on my face.

He looked back down at the pillow, picked it up, and looked at me. “Don’t. You. Dare.” I pointed a finger at him. His smile grew as the pillow left his hand and flew across the room. I dodged it but it hit Aiden who lifted his head to see what was going on before he simply laid his head back down on the bed and ignored us.

“Let’s go.” Rick came over to me, grabbed my hand and pulled me out the door.

“Where are we going?” I inquired as we walked down the steps.

“You’ll see.” I was pulled through the apartment and out to the car. Rick drove while ignoring my insistent questioning as to where we were going. He eventually pulled up to a building, parked the car, and got out. He came around to my side and opened the door.

“What are you doing?” I whispered, unsure as to why he had brought me to a real estate office.

“We’re going to get you a home.”

“You’re kicking me out now?”

Rick’s gaze shot up to mine. “No, but it’s your day off, so we’re going to be the first to see some places.”

We met with a woman who called herself Hayley. She had a list of places lined up for us to view. We climbed into her car and started our day.

“This one, I think this is the one.” I walked around the open space one more time. I had a good feeling about the apartment we were standing in. It was large and open and the kitchen was beautiful. Even though the bathroom needed work, it wasn’t too bad.

“This is the one?” Rick asked.

“Yes, this is it. I’ll have to re-do the bathroom, but yes, this is it.”

“Let’s go and tell Hayley then.”

We spent the afternoon filling out paperwork and when we got back home, I collapsed onto the couch and closed my eyes. I was exhausted. Rick passed me a beer that I gratefully took before he lifted my feet and put them in his lap, and began rubbing them.

“You’re going to stay here while your bathroom is getting re-done.”

“Thank you, Rick. It means a lot.”

“You’re welcome, Lu.” I sat up and pulled my legs out of Rick’s lap and up to my chest.

“Who do I call to get a bathroom renovated anyways?”

“I’ll make a few calls on Monday and let you know.”

LUCY

“That’s all?” I asked over the phone.

“Yep, they can have it done in four weeks. All you have to do is tell them what you want, and they’ll get it delivered and install it. They’ll take care of everything.”

I tapped my pen on the chart in front of me, “I don’t know what I want except a big bath like yours.” When I saw the bathroom in my new apartment, I knew it needed to be renovated. It had a shower over the bath, and that wasn’t acceptable. All I knew is that I wanted a large bath tub to relax in.

“We’ll look into it, Lu. Don’t worry.”

“I don’t know what I’d do without you, Rick.”

“Suffer endlessly, I imagine.”

“Sounds about right,” I said as I laughed.

Rick chuckled through the phone, “What are you doing?”

“Going through a chart for Dr. Douche...” I inhaled quickly, “Dr. Hunter I mean.” I tried to cover my slip but was too late. Rick broke out into laughing “You called him Dr. Douche bag at work.”

I shut the chart and started to walk away from the nurse’s station. “No, I didn’t.”

“Did he hear you?” I could hear the laugher in his voice as he spoke.

“No. Oh shit, there he is.” I bit my lip to stop my smile when I spotted Dr. Hunter coming out from around the corner. “I can’t look at him.” I turned away from him, hoping with all hope that he hadn’t seen me. Rick was laughing over the phone as I tried to find a way to get away from Dr. Hunter.

“Dr. Jackson.” Dr. Hunter said and I turned around and smiled. “Did you have a chance to look over the chart?” Dr. Hunter asked me. He was apparently completely oblivious to the fact that I was on the phone. I held up the file to signal that I had it with me.

“What do you think?” He asked still not caring that I was obviously on the phone.

“Good, just...” I held up a finger to signal that I needed a moment. “I’ll call you back,” I harshly whispered into the phone and hung up on a still laughing Rick. “Yes, William, I’m looking over it now.”

“From what you’ve seen, what do you think?”

“I’m about to talk to my interns about it, but I can see it being done. I need to look over it more and do new scans to get a definite idea of what is going on in Sam’s head.”

“I don’t mean to rush you.”

“I know. I’m doing it now.” I walked past him, deciding to take the steps instead of the elevator. I took the file to my interns and spent the rest of the day avoiding Dr. Hunter by hiding out in the ER and leaving as soon as I could.

“How was Dr. Douche bag today?” Rick asked when I stepped into the kitchen after walking in from work.

“Seriously? That’s the first thing you ask after a twenty-four hour shift?”

He simply smiled. “Yep.”

I shook my head at him and knelt down to give Aiden a hug. “At least someone cares how tired I am or how sore my body is.”

“I care,” Rick whined. I stood up and raised an eyebrow at him, “I do. I also care if Dr. Douche bag asked you out again.” Rick took my bag from my shoulder and placed it on the kitchen table. “So...did he?”

“No, he didn’t. He wants me to cut a chunk out of a man’s brain instead.”

“That’s lovely dinner conversation.”

“Yeah, well, you asked.”