Chapter 20
Simmons
The car accident was so sudden that I have no idea where I am when the beeping beside my head startles me awake.
“Fuck,” I groan. Opening my eyes, they feel crusty and my sight is bleary.
A soft touch on my shoulder has been turning my head, which feels full of cotton and foggy.
A red-headed, short woman in scrubs is looking at me with concern.
I blink a few times, noticing my tongue feels rough and swollen in my mouth.
When was the last time I drank something?
The woman is talking, but I barely register, still wondering why everything hurts, especially my wrist and forearm.
Movement from the corner of my eye makes me look up. I’m so disoriented that I take a moment to see that it’s a man by the door. At first, I think it’s another person in scrubs, having deduced from the clinical smell and outfits that I’ve woke up in a hospital. But, no.
I blink more, trying to swallow, then when my eyesight feels normal again I look at the door. Is that…? No, it can’t be.
For one, I don’t think he lives in the same city that I do, and second, why would he even be here? We barely know each other.
Those eyes, though. They seek mine and my heart pulses in my chest so loudly I swear I can hear it over that irritating beeping. He stares back, but only briefly. A curtain flies closed and shuts him out, so I tilt my head to see around it, but I can’t see anything but a sea of blue material.
The nurse notices and comes over, opening the water on the side table and passing it to me with a straw. I thank her and take small sips. I groan with relief as the icy cold water wets my tongue and soothes my throat immediately. She slowly explains to me what happened.
A crash, the speeding driver flew through a red light and hit my side. I vaguely remember the feeling of being thrown, but that’s it. The severe knockout must have caused me to miss the rest and wake up here several hours later.
With no next of kin listed, they were unsure who to call.
With my mom’s dementia and the fact that she’s in a residential home for the elderly, there was no point calling her.
My dad lived north about two hundred miles with my stepmom, so there was no call to them either. So, my best friend was called instead.
Visiting hours long gone now, so it would be early morning before he could come and see me, but he was assured that I was doing okay. Knowing Arnie, he probably got a lot more information out of them about my current state than any other person would have gotten.
Sitting up with a wince, I eat the toast that someone brought in and take some medication that’s sat next to it in a little white cup once the nurse leaves me.
She didn’t say I had a concussion, but I still can’t wrap my head around seeing Freddie here with me.
It had to have been someone who looked like him.
With my head feeling heavier than lead, I close my eyes and let myself float back to sleep.
Arnie visits first thing. I’d put money on him being the first through the door at visiting hours.
Thankfully, he knows me well and stopped by my apartment to grab me a bag of clean clothes, the book I’m currently reading so I don’t off myself from boredom, and the pack of emergency gummy bears I secretly love but for some reason Arnie knows about.
“So, when will they send you home?” Arnie asks, sitting on the creaky wooden chair by the bed.
While he isn’t as big as me, his large frame is still squashed uncomfortably into it. He’s opened my bears and is making a mess by throwing them up to catch them with his mouth. I scowl every time another one hits the linoleum flooring.
I shrug one shoulder. “I don’t know. They said they wanted to keep me in and run some more tests. Something about the crash being so bad that this couldn’t have been my only injuries.” I try to wriggle my broken wrist to demonstrate, but it hurts. I clench my teeth at my stupidity.
“Well, I can keep you company for a bit, then I’ll come back tonight.
Are you sure you don’t want me to call out of work?
I really don’t mind.” Such a good guy is Arnie, but I don’t see the point in him taking time off to basically just watch me have tests taken, then sent on my way.
It was nice of him to offer, but I really felt okay.
“I’ll be fine. Have my book and it’s gotten to this really great part about Elysian Fields,” I grin as I speak about my latest read, knowing that Arnie hates the genre. He sticks two of his fingers in his mouth to show his real feelings, and it makes me laugh and wince at the same time.
We talk some more. Arnie has brought me in a proper coffee and a pastry from my favourite cafe, but all too soon it’s consumed and he’s leaving with the cups and boxes for the bin. A promise not to check my phone for work emails and a wave, then I’m alone again.
The curtain provides enough privacy as I lie and watch the staff outside the ward window.
I think back to last night, to Freddie. Was I dreaming?
I must have been. They gave me pretty powerful painkillers, so I was in and out of it most of the night.
But something niggles around inside of me, telling me that no, he was here.
He watched me sleep like a twinky arch angel.
I laugh at my description of him. Freddie.
I missed him, but didn’t know how it was possible.
We had only texted a few times since the gift.
We’ve both been so busy with the end of the year coming up that it was only a message here or there.
Nothing deep, just a little flirty. Maybe once I got released, I would send him a real message.
Get to know him properly instead of just trying to pursue him from a lust-only angle.
Reading takes up a good portion of the late morning into lunch, and once I’ve consumed a moderate meal that was better than I would have thought, I decide to nap again until my doc comes for me.