Chapter 4
A Wedding Gift
The excitement I’d built up for the trip to Finland – based on how much I’d enjoyed the last visit – crashed against the rocks of a gray reality.
The weather was disappointing, the landscape wasn’t the same, even the sea wasn’t as I remembered.
Most of all, I couldn’t shake Lily from my thoughts.
What was happening with her? What was she doing?
Did she think of me – even for a second?
Two days after I got back, I ran into Lily by chance at the hospital entrance.
“I brought you a gift,” I blurted, feigning casualness, as we stepped into the same elevator we had taken the day we first met. My pulse started to race.
“For me?!” She looked surprised. I nodded.
“You bought me a gift? I was sure you’d forgotten me,” she answered, and I was stunned to realize she’d even thought about me at all.
“You told me you had a boyfriend, that you were getting married, and I told you I was leaving for two weeks.”
“Right … you did mention something about a trip,” she murmured. An awkward silence fell between us.
“So, when’s the wedding?” I asked, just to break the tension – even though it was the very subject I most wanted to avoid. The elevator started going up, along with my heartbeat.
“There’s no wedding!” she burst out. The shocking news landed like a jack-in-the-box popping out.
“What do you mean, no wedding? Who backed out?” I blurted without thinking.
“Me,” she said quietly.
“Must’ve been because of me.” The words slipped out uncontrollably.
“Tell me, who do you think you are?” Lily raised her voice slightly, offended.
I realized I’d crossed an invisible emotional line.
Thoughts swirled in my head in rhythm with my pounding heart.
Did I have a chance now? What was I supposed to do next?
The wave of excitement surging through me only grew stronger.
The hope for another chance suddenly felt real.
Still rattled, I pushed open the department’s entrance door – and immediately saw Shira in front of me. She raised her hand and waved hello. We both waved back, almost absentmindedly. Only afterward did it strike me: she had never done that before.
“Did you come for the test results of your last visit?”
I recovered and tried changing the subject. “Hey, were you waving at me or at her?” I asked, curious.
“At both of you. From a distance, you two actually look like a pretty good match … a surprising one, but still a match.”
“Shira! Please, this is a hospital, not a matchmaking office,” Lily protested, then added,
“Besides, I’ve already figured out he manages just fine on his own.” She glanced at me with a half-smile, half-scolding look.
“Dr. Whitney?” Shira’s eyes widened.
Shira quickly pulled a printed sheet from one of the trays on her desk.
Numbers covered the page. We could all feel the tension in the air.
She was holding Lily’s lab results. Technically, it was just data – but data meant only for the doctors.
The fact that Shira was the one standing there with the sheet, ready to brief Lily, showed how senior she really was in the department, even if not formally.
She gave me a meaningful look. I got the hint and stepped back. Lily stayed put. By the time I reached the doctors’ room, Lily had caught up with me.
“So, when can I give you the gift?” I asked.
“If you give me your phone number, I promise I’ll call.
” When Lily said that, I knew there was a God.
If we’d been anywhere else, I would’ve jumped with my fists in the air and shouted “Yes!!!” at the top of my lungs.
But given the place and the risk of embarrassment, I settled for a silent “Yes” in my heart.
I hurried back to Shira’s desk – she was gone.
I grabbed a scrap of paper and a pencil and scribbled down the phone number of the apartment I shared with David, my excitement spilling onto the page.
“See you,” I said, still shaken, as I shook Lily’s hand warmly. She promised again she’d call in a few days, and I left, thinking about the wheel of fortune – hers and mine.
“Don’t you want to know her results?” Shira asked me a few hours later, maybe out of pity.
“What? She looked perfectly fine.” I glanced at the results and couldn’t believe my eyes.
“But you should face it – she’s not healthy,” she stressed.
“Her hemoglobin’s down to 9.5, and her urea and creatinine are slightly up,” I muttered, half to myself, half to Shira, still in disbelief. I also knew I was inexperienced.
“It just doesn’t add up – how can someone that sick look so vital?
Just look at her…” Suddenly a spark of hope lit inside me.
Maybe Lily wasn’t really that sick? Maybe the prognosis – two years to live – was a mistake.
I wanted so badly for that to be the case.
But it could also just be a temporary improvement from the treatment she’d gotten. My head was spinning.
“Did the boss give her something?” I pressed.
“Yes. She was off meds for a while, and now he’s put her back on steroids, 5 milligrams a day.”
“That’s it?” I asked in surprise.
“That’s it,” she whispered, then added, “So, what did you get her for a gift?” The abrupt switch in topic was jarring.
“I take it she told you. You won’t tell anyone, right?” I lowered my voice, even though no one else was around.
“I promise!” Her eyes lit up.
“A pair of glass candlesticks,” I revealed.
“For the happy couple?” she teased cynically.
“I was thinking of giving her one and keeping the other for myself. Maybe, just maybe, one day they’ll come back together.”
“Wow, what a romantic,” Shira exclaimed, kissed me on the cheek, and walked off.
The surprise of running into Lily, the bombshell news, and that tiny crack in the wall between us – all of it turned an ordinary workday into a day of hope.