Tangling Hearts

70. Brendan

Chapter Seventy

brENDAN

B reath: breathable, and better yet, kissable. Mark: Not the person I was expecting to see.

W alking out of the bathroom, I’m holding the IV pole, and Mark takes one look at me. I hold up my hand. “Stop. Don’t even say it.”

“Nice dress.”

“Fuck. You said it.” I shake my head and finagle myself into the bed again.

Mark watches my slow progress with his arms crossed in front of him. “Dude.”

“I know, right?” Leaning to get the blanket and pull it up, it takes me longer than I’d like it to. “Don’t help me.”

“Do I look like I’m moving?” His eyebrows go up.

I squint at him from the corners of my eyes. “Well, you could try to help.”

He laughs and stays put, knowing I’m messing with him. “So, what happened?”

With the blanket finally where I want it, hiding my naked, humiliated legs, I lean back on the bed. I’ve been keeping it tilted up for back support pretty much all the time, lowering it only to sleep. I feel better upright. More strong. Less like a victim.

“How was New York?” I throw back.

He walks over and grabs the chair, sees Annie’s purse on it and moves it to a table while he says, “Oh, I saw Strawberry in the hall. She said she was going to get a coffee, but since this is here, I’m guessing her money’s in it.”

“She’s not coming back?”

He looks over at me, pausing, and considers my face as I cover and transform it to blank apathy. “She’ll be back in a bit,” he says with a calculated look in his eyes. “I think she wanted to give you a chance to tell me… oh, I don’t know – how the fuck you got shot!” His volume elevates at the end, comically, and he plops down in the chair, leaning forward with his forearms on his knees. “Now what happened?”

I tell him everything, intercepting questions and statements from him as I go, like, “In the bar? Nice,” and, “He came in when you were naked ? Holy shit,” and, “You saw him about to pull the trigger? Fuck,” and, “Wait a minute. Wait a minute – how’d she get the gun away?”

And finally, “Rebecca walked in on you guys??!!” Mark whistles and leans back. “I bet that went over well.”

“Not at all.” We stare at each other and when I see the laughter sneak into his eyes, I can’t help but join him and soon we’re laughing pretty hard, with me holding my bandage and trying to control my shaking gut. “It’s not funny!”

He says, through hearty laughter, “It’s really not. But it so is.”

Struggling to control myself, I switch the subject, “So New York went well?”

With a grin, he nods, wiping his eyes. “Couldn’t have gone any better. I still have to find an investor for my app, but it’ll work out. I know now that it’s desirable. The investor I was meeting with?”

“Yeah?”

“He wanted it, but I turned him down because he dicked over one of Nicole’s friends.” Mark leans forward to twist around and move my jacket, flatten it out so he can lean against it more comfortably. “It’s not worth it. I’ll find another one.”

I nod, once again admiring my friend for his integrity. It’s something I’ve always used as a barometer – would Mark do this? – then making a decision based on if he would or wouldn’t. It’s gotten me far. My dad was a good guy, but he wasn’t a lady’s man – he was with just my mother his whole life. Plus he was an introvert, something Mark and I definitely are not.

“Someone’ll come through for sure.”

“Yeah. So…” He looks at me, waiting.

“Don’t even start.” I look away. “I don’t want to hear it.”

“This Annie is pretty good for you, isn’t she?”

Shaking my head that he went there, I won’t look at him. I’m looking at the blanket, fixing it, looking at the window through the shut curtains, at the IV pole, pulling on the cord like I’m checking it. “What? She’s nice. We went through a lot so...”

Mark doesn’t say anything until I look at him again. “She’s nice,” he says, his lips pursed. “Welcome to the club, I’m just saying.” His hands go up.

“She’s just a woman like any other woman, Mark. Let it go.” I close my eyes.

“There’s nothing wrong with…”

Peering from behind tiny slits, I interrupt him. “Just because you fell in love doesn’t mean it’s contagious. Don’t get all foofy on me. Come on.”

He runs his hands through his hair as a slow smile builds. “Foofy?”

With my left hand, I reach back behind my head and throw my pillow at his smirking face.

He catches it easily. “Careful now, gimpy.”

A knock at the door turns my head, and I make the mistake of looking too fast, and with a little too much interest. He points at me, his chin lowered with a look that says, I saw that.

Annie pokes her head in with a smile and I can’t deny it – seeing her does something to me. Something I haven’t felt in a long time, if ever. I don’t remember wanting to see someone as badly as I want to see her. Suddenly I wish he wasn't here. I want to be alone with her. Kiss her. Talk with her. Find out why she has this pull on me. Get to know her. Anything.

“Hi. Did I come back too early? I forgot my purse… so I was just waiting out there with nothing to do. Felt kinda dumb.” She looks from one of us to the other, half of her still out in the hallway. “Do you need more time? I can just grab that,” she points to her purse on the table, “and come back later. It’s really no biggie.”

Mark’s clocking me and he rises up out of the chair, still holding onto my pillow, which I want back. “No, come in. I was just leaving. So hey, B-man, did they say how long you have to stay in here?”

Annie walks in and closes the door, standing beside it. I want her over here .

“Yesterday, the doctor said I could probably go home tomorrow, but I’ll need to come back a few times and check how it’s healing. They’ll want to take out these Frankenstein-like metal staples they’ve got keeping me together.”

Mark nods, thinking. He hands me my pillow as he looks to Annie. “Brendan tells me your bar’s getting repaired, yeah? Cool place, sorry to hear about all that.”

I situate the pillow behind me, staring and wondering what his game is. He’s got that friendly, I’m-gonna-make-the-world-a-better-place face on.

Annie smiles, glancing to me. “Thank you. The contractor is meeting me there tomorrow.”

Mark purposefully avoids my eyes. “Well, I was just thinking, since the bar’s in limbo, and you’ve probably got some time on your hands, maybe you could drive my buddy home tomorrow? And maybe get him back here for check-ups, stuff like that. I have to work nine to five, so…”

Annie’s eyes dart over to me again, but quicker this time, making me think she doesn’t want to do what he’s asking. He’s putting her on the spot, and she’s not interested in carting around a virtual stranger. “Oh, umm…”

“Mark!” His eyes cut to me. “You don’t have to, Annie. We just met. I get it. He’s just being a…”

She cuts me off, her hands flying up. “No! I want to! If you want me to help, I’d love that. I just didn’t want him talking for you.”

Mark laughs and I can’t help but grin, relieved and very, very amused at her frankness. “You see that! She gets it better than you do!”

He holds his hands up, surrendering. “Okay. I was just trying to look out for you. So do you want her to help?”

He looks at me, waiting and loving every fucking second I'm squirming. They’re both looking at me. I’m on the spot and the fact is, I can’t say no or twist his game around on him, because… I want her to do those things. The excuse to spend time with her is exactly what I want.

I shrug. “If you’re not too busy.”

“She just said she’s not busy, B.”

I cut my eyes to him again, telling him to shut his trap. Glancing back to Annie, I see her waiting with her body tight, her hands held together in front of her. She’s nervous. The sight of it makes me relax. “I'd really like the help. Please. I’d appreciate it.”

Mark reaches down, smacks my leg, grabs my knee, and shakes it. “Glad you’re not dead, B-man.” He looks at me like he’s not talking about the gunshot. “I’ll catch you back at home tomorrow night then.” Like an innocent man, he walks over to Annie and grabs the door. “I’ll be seeing you.”

She glances up at him from under her eyebrows. “I guess so.”

He leaves and she walks to sit on the edge of the bed by my side, scooting her butt a little to get comfortable in the small space. She points her thumb in the direction of the door. “Does he think he was subtle? Because he was so not subtle.”

All of the tension he infused, is instantly defused by her – a phenomena that seems to keep happening. “You call it like you see it, don’t you, Freckles?”

Her hands slide around my neck. She laces her fingers into my hair and puts her forehead against mine. “Yep.”