Chapter Twelve
Twelve
“I DON’T WANT TO BE PRESUMPTUOUS, BUT DO YOU HAVE any interest in going to my place to watch a movie?” Will asked as they walked out of the restaurant over an hour later. “Or maybe a sitcom we’ve each already seen ten times?”
Emma tried not to show how utterly thrilled she was at the prospect of taking things to the inside-each-other’s-apartment level. “That depends. Friends or Seinfeld ?”
“Ah. The Sophie’s Choice of our generation.”
“What if we went rogue and—”
Before Emma could finish her pitch, her right leg collapsed out from under her and she screamed in pain. “Oh my god! Oh my god!”
On the ground, Emma could see that her right kneecap was poking out the side of her leg. It was both disgusting and excruciating.
“Are you okay?” Will crouched down next to her, confused and shaken.
“I think I need to—”
WHACK. In one fluid motion, and completely on instinct, Emma hit her right hand against her patella, shoving the dislocated knee back in place. She felt immediate relief as the pain went from an eleven to around a six. She could handle a six.
“What just happened?” Will asked as if he had just seen an alien abduction or the passage of universal health care in America.
“I think my knee dislocated.” Emma lifted herself into a seated position. She tried not to think about the fact that she was on a disgusting city sidewalk.
“Is that normal?”
Emma laughed, a little hysterically, as tears from the shock and pain started to roll down her face. “I don’t think so.”
“Okay, so we will get you to a doctor. Yes. That is what we will do.” Will’s panic was clear despite his new robotic-sounding voice.
Emma could only nod her agreement because she was now fully sobbing. She was keenly aware there were globs of snot coming out of her nose, but she didn’t have the energy to do anything about it. If Will couldn’t take her at her most vulnerable, well, she would understand.
“Can you stand up?”
“I can try.” She put her arm out for Will to help her up. Her right leg felt weak and definitely injured, but with Will’s support she was able to hobble.
“I’m parked like a block this way. Can you make it, or should I come back to get you?”
Emma’s heart sped up at the thought of being left alone—even for a few minutes. What if a murderer came and she couldn’t run away? Given how many terrible things had happened to her in a row lately, she couldn’t risk being bludgeoned to death on a sidewalk.
“I can make it. We just have to go slow.”
Will nodded and tightened his grip around her waist. It was the most physical they had been with each other so far, and even though Emma was still reeling from her dramatic collapse, she couldn’t help but notice that her shirt had bunched up and his fingers were touching her bare skin. Even through the moderate pain, she knew she wanted more of this later.
“My car’s not huge, but maybe we can fit you in the back seat.” Will stopped in front of a dark green, two-door Mini Cooper.
“That’s your car?”
Will laughed at the obvious surprise in her voice.
“Sorry… It’s just very small. Like maybe it’s not even a car at all.”
“I assure you it is in fact a car. With a manual transmission, if it impresses you that I drive stick. But it only has two doors so getting you in the back seat might be a little tricky.” Will watched as Emma assessed the situation and tried to put on a brave face.
“Maybe if you pull the passenger seat all the way up—”
“Better plan. Where are you parked?”
About fifteen minutes later, Will was expertly driving Emma’s SUV toward the nearest urgent care center while she was spread out in the back with her leg up. The immediate shock was wearing off and Emma had officially stopped crying. For now at least.
“How you doing back there?”
“Good. It doesn’t hurt if I don’t move it,” Emma said just as she shifted and winced. “Thank you so much for driving me. I know this isn’t how you planned to spend your evening.”
“You keep things exciting,” Will replied. “Has this ever happened before?”
“Kind of. My left knee subluxated a few times when I was younger, which is when the patella pops out but then goes back in on its own. But this is the first time I’ve had an issue with my right one. And I’ve never had a full dislocation before where it pops out and stays out.”
“How did you know what to do?”
“I didn’t. It was pure instinct.”
They caught eyes in the rearview mirror. It felt sexually charged despite Emma’s puffy face and disheveled appearance. Maybe that even added to it, like how couples always got hot and heavy in disaster movies despite all the dirt; forced proximity and coursing adrenaline was a hell of a combination.
“I’m impressed. I would have just lied there in shock.”
“No, you wouldn’t have. You would have tried to make the pain stop.”
“I don’t know. I think there’s a large chance I would have just wailed like a little baby until an ambulance showed up. We can’t all be brave like you, Emma Whatever-Your-Last-Name-Is.”
“Uh-oh. Are you going to try to look at my medical forms to find it out?”
“No. I’ll respect your strange no-last-name policy,” he said as they locked eyes again. “But once you do tell me, I’m doing a full internet deep dive.”
Emma tried not to convey her horror at the idea. It would probably be less painful to dislocate her knee again than have her entire internet footprint combed by someone she actually liked.
***
“Oh my god, are you okay?” Debbie nearly shrieked as she and Alan barged into one of the patient rooms at Beverly Hills Urgent Care. Both of Emma’s parents were too distressed to notice Will seated by the door.
“Were you hit by a car?” Alan asked rather accusatorily.
“Dad, I already texted you what happened. My knee dislocated as we were walking down the street.”
Upon hearing the word we , Alan and Debbie whipped around to take in a tired but friendly Will. He stood up to properly greet them.
“Mr. and Mrs… .?” Will looked to Emma for guidance she didn’t want to give.
“Nice try. You can just call them Alan and Debbie.”
Will gave Emma a playfully annoyed look before reaching out to shake her parents’ hands. “So nice to meet you, despite the circumstances. I’m Will. This is my second date with your daughter, but I swear I won’t let her get hurt on the next one.”
Emma was incredibly pleased to hear there was going to be another date. Apparently a major medical emergency followed by prematurely meeting her parents wasn’t enough to scare him off—this boded well for their future.
After pleasantries were exchanged and Debbie sneaked Emma a thumbs-up, Alan turned his interrogation tactics on Will. “Was she doing anything that could have caused this? Because you don’t want to lie to the doctor just to avoid a little embarrassment.”
“Dad, we were just walking! Don’t be gross.” Emma covered her face with her hands as Will looked confused. It took him a moment to realize Alan was implying Emma might have been hurt in the bedroom. But instead of being embarrassed at the implication, Will laughed and caught her gaze. Emma was impressed with his ability to appear so confident in front of her father. Maybe parental approval wasn’t important to him given his background.
“Emma’s telling the truth. We were walking to my car from the restaurant and the next thing I knew she was on the ground screaming.”
“That must have been terrifying,” Debbie said as she perched on the table next to Emma and stroked her hair.
“I almost had a heart attack. But Emma was a hero. She whacked her kneecap right back into place.”
“Emma, you’re not supposed to do that! You should wait for a doctor if you dislocate.”
“How was I supposed to know that? It’d never happened before,” Emma argued before realizing she didn’t want to revert to a petulant teenager in front of her potential future husband. She wanted to wait at least another month or two before he saw that side of her. “I didn’t even think about what I was doing.”
“It was pure instinct,” Will added for her benefit.
Emma’s cheeks felt warm at the thought of their charged moment in the car.
“Where is the doctor?” Alan demanded.
“I don’t know. They put us in here over twenty minutes ago.”
“I’m going to go talk to someone.”
“Dad, you can’t—”
But he had already stormed off. Alan always preferred to take action over ruminating in his feelings. Between him and her overly private mother, Emma wasn’t sure how she had ended up being so open with her emotions. She probably had her anxiety disorder to thank for being so comfortable crying in public.
“Just let him go. You know what he’s like.” Debbie sighed. “Will, I’m sure you’re exhausted. We’re happy to take it from here if you want to get home.”
“Oh,” Will said with an adorable touch of surprise.
Emma and Will exchanged glances, but they were too early in whatever was happening between them to know what the other person was trying to convey. Emma hoped her eyes said, You can totally go if you want but I’d much prefer you to stay .
“I guess I should probably get out of your hair,” Will said politely as he walked over to Emma. Debbie did a pretty good job of pretending to give them privacy by turning to read a sign on the wall about the Heimlich maneuver. “Can I call you tomorrow?”
“Yes, please. Sorry about…” Emma gestured to the lower half of her body.
“Never apologize about that,” he whispered in her ear before giving her a kiss on the cheek.
Emma fought off a full-body shiver so as not to embarrass herself.
“Great to meet you, Debbie.”
“You too. Maybe we can take you out to dinner soon as a thank-you for all your help?”
“I’d love that. Assuming Alan doesn’t get arrested for assaulting a doctor.”
Both women giggled like schoolgirls as Will waved and walked away. As soon as enough time had passed for them not to be overheard, Debbie squeezed Emma’s hand and declared, “Lock him down.”
Emma was certainly going to try.