Chapter 5
Chapter Five
Annika
I can’t believe I’m doing this.
Going to a near-stranger’s hotel suite could win the gold medal of all my questionable life decisions.
As if to reinforce my misgivings, rain lashes against the glass walls in wild, frantic rhythms that drown out our footsteps. The air is cool and carries a faint, metallic tang.
Is it a bad decision though, a small voice pipes up—the voice that Martha said I should encourage, the one that fights the narrative that all my decisions lead to disaster
For one thing, Dr. Cross isn’t a stranger. For eleven months, we talked on the phone about Martha practically every day. The only reason I haven’t met him is because every time he visited her, Arthur, his cousin who lives two towns over, would relieve me earlier.
Second, with Rahul and Zach loving each other up, I have no place to go tonight. I’m stuck in a cupid costume, which looks more stupid than slutty.
Nor will I pretend that this is purely the damsel saved by the doctor situation.
All these months of hearing that deep voice on the phone, I developed a little crush on Dr. Cross. And he’s better than I imagined.
Sexy as sin, considerate, and, through a bizarre twist of fate, interested in knowing me.
Still, this is just a blip in my timeline, I tell myself as we walk beneath the covered skywalk. Nothing I do tonight will change the plans I made for the next few months.
Beginning with unraveling the mountain-sized heap of lies I’ve told my family.
They think I’ve been at nursing school for the last three years—not true.
They think I’ll graduate this summer—refer to the above.
They think I’ve been working part time at the very hospital I just left behind—not true.
They think I’m going steady with my boyfriend of three years.
My steps falter as I mull over this one—I don’t even know why I made it up. It’s not like they were going to set me up with someone. Growing up, all I heard was “financial independence before love and marriage.”
Then I remember. I needed an excuse for not going home for two Christmases, especially since my two older brothers and my sister were home. Which was that I was visiting “Rahul’s family.”
They think I use the monthly allowance they give me, but I haven’t touched a dollar in three years. Okay, so that one isn’t too bad. Although I do cling to their health insurance like it was my threadbare baby blanket.
Still, my own mind boggles at the complexity of the lies I’ve woven and maintained.
In a few weeks, I’ll move back to Seattle and slowly begin the work of unraveling it.
I’ll start with the fact that I got accepted into the School of Nursing at UW. With a full ride. It’s possible that Mama and Papa will be so happy that they will forget my lies.
Maybe we’ll all laugh about how it’s just a timeline problem.
Maybe they will apologize for all the numerous ways they’ve hurt me since I was a kid, and we’ll turn into a happy family.
The heel of my stiletto snags against something. I stumble, my head stuck in that impossible scenario of my parents admitting that they played a part in the mess I’ve made of my life.
“I’ve got you,” Dr. Cross says, in that deep voice.
The warmth and comfort in it seep into me, making me feel less alone in the moment. Nodding, I let myself pretend that a man like him will fit into the messy jumble of my life for more than one night.