1
DONOVAN
When I walked into my office much later than I usually did, my assistant, Maeve, took one look at me and stood up to follow me to my desk.
“Donovan, that was nuts. Are you okay?”
Truth be told, once the craziness of the situation had died down, I was feeling a little shell-shocked by the events that had transpired over the past ninety minutes. As I drove to work, I witnessed an accident on the east end of Main Street, the main thoroughfare in my small South Carolina town. I was at a four-way stop sign waiting when a car just blew through it and clipped a man riding a bike. The guy flipped over the front of the car and landed in a real funny position. I hit my emergency lights and jumped out of my car, pulling out my phone to call 9-1-1. Before I hit send, I was temporarily distracted by a woman rushing across the sidewalk. She had scrubs on, so no better person for the situation, I supposed. When I got closer, I realized I knew who she was—well, kind of knew. It was one of Maeve’s best friends. She had been to the office plenty of times, but seeing her once was enough to remember. You could neverforget someone as arrestingly beautiful as Audra King. I recognized her as soon as I saw her face, but I wasn’t sure if she would recognize me. Sure, I would say hello when she came by, which was often, but from day one, it seemed like the smart idea to keep my distance whenever she was around. I felt more physical attraction towards her than I had towards anyone in a long time. But the town was too small, and I was too jaded to entertain any thoughts about a beautiful woman who lived here. Besides, Maeve was pricelessly valuable to my office. I wasn’t about to risk losing her by doing anything foolish to jeopardize that, and breaking her best friend's heart just might fall into that category. But I had to admit, I enjoyed it when that sunshine and rainbow woman stopped by the office, even if I stayed behind my door.
The call connected, and I went right up to her, announcing my arrival. “Hi Audra, I’m Donovan. I’m on the phone with 9-1-1.” There was a moment of recognition, then relief.
“Hi Donovan, thank you for calling. Can you put it on speaker?”
Following the directions, I listened to her speak all the medical jargon to the operator. The injured man was conscious but appeared to be in traumatic shock. I mean, bones were poking through the skin on his arm, so it made sense. My stomach was pretty iron-clad, but this was even making me a little squeamish. Audra, however, was a champ, looking utterly unfazed by the entire thing. A nurse was a good person to know all days of the week.
The call ended, and the paramedics were a couple of minutes out. Covering his legs with a blanket she sourced from a different onlooker, she continued to talk to the man in the steadiest, kindest voice possible, and ran the show until the help arrived. When the back door of the ambulance closed, Iwas in my own state of semi-shock at it all. The police had everything blocked off, and they were talking to the driver who hit the man.
“Audra, that was … are you okay?” I asked her as she stood up, unsure if she actually remembered me or was just grateful for help at that moment, I followed up with a reminder of who I was. “I’m Donovan Wright. I work with Maeve.”
“Um, yes, I know who you are,” she tilted her head and chuckled, like I was foolish for clarifying who I was. Then, she smiled a warm smile that lit up even my surly insides. “Good to see you, Donovan. Thank you for calling 9-1-1. I’d shake your hand, but,” she held up her hands to show me all the blood. Not only did the guy have an open fracture, he also had a head wound that bled a crazy amount, like most head wounds do.
“Got it. Thanks for that,” one side of my lips tugged up. “Um … can I help you with anything? Like, do you need a ride or something?” Rarely was I at a loss for words, but I didn’t know what else to say to the woman standing in front of me. She was covered in blood, and she wasn’t even blinking an eye. I was completely taken aback.
“Oh, no thanks. I have to stay on scene anyway. I’m going to talk to the police next. That was pretty crazy.”
“It was,” I answered back. “I can’t believe that person just blew the stop sign like that.”
“You saw it too?” Her voice took on a different tone, softer and more concerned, not unlike the way she was talking to the victim. “Areyouokay, Donovan?” She asked, narrowing her eyes at me. “Nothing about that was easy to see. You probably will need to stay to give a statement, too.”
“I did see it. That’s my car,” I said, pointing to my Navigator that was half blocking the road. “I’m fine. But I can’tbelieve you’re asking me if I’m okay. All I did was call 9-1-1. Areyoualright? You’re the one up to your elbows in blood.”
“Would you believe that’s not the worst thing I’ve seen today?” She sighed as her shoulders dropped the slightest bit. “I just got off my shift, and apparently, a nice, relaxing morning was too much to ask.”
“How about coffee?” I blurted out. “I’m going to get coffee from Savvy Sips. What can I get you?” There was the urge to offer this woman something, anything, to try to break some of the tension of the situation.
“Actually, yes, I would greatly appreciate that. A vanilla chai latte would be fantastic. I can Venmo you when this is all wrapped up. But I’m not sure you can leave the scene quite yet.” She looked around, biting her bottom lip like she knew for certain I wasn’t supposed to take off, but she didn’t exactly want to say that to me.
That had me chuckling, “I got this round, Audra. And I’ll even take care of it without leaving the scene.”
Venmo me? When was the last time someone offered to pay me back for anything? And six bucks, no less. It was more amusing than it should have been. First off, I’d have to have friends. And second, it’d have to have a lot more zeros behind that six to even begin to register. I pulled out my phone again to call Maeve, and I asked her if she could bring coffees, but I left out that the latte was for one of her best friends.
Ten minutes later, as Audra was being interviewed, Maeve strolled up with the coffees in her hands. “Look, Donovan, I stomach being your coffee bitch because I like you and this job, but don’t get in the habit of requesting coffee for other people, too. Are you trying to lazily woo a lady…” I just pointed to Audra. Maeve looked at me, and back at her, and then at me again. “What’s happening? Is that blood?”
Panic crossed her face, but I put my hand on her shoulder to reassure her. “We witnessed an accident, and the guy had his bone break through his skin. I’ve never seen anything like it before. Audra took charge of the whole thing, and I wanted to buy her a coffee.”
“Okay, that’s an acceptable use of a coffee bitch,” Maeve laughed. When Audra finished her interview, she turned around, broadly smiled at the two of us, and headed straight over. She went too slow for Maeve’s liking, who ran up to her and stopped right before she hugged her, remembering the blood. Though she had wiped most of it from her skin, it still covered her scrubs.
“It’s your turn, Donovan,” she said as they made their way to me. Saluting the pair of them, I stepped away to give my witness statement. When that was all wrapped up, I looked around for them, but they were gone. After texting Maeve, I learned Audra was desperate to get home to shower, and Maeve had gone back to the office.
The good and the bad about working on Main Street in our little town was that everything that happened took place on this five-block strip, so I’d be back at work soon.
In one of the biggest surprises of my life, I loved it here. Savannah Springs was an idyllic little town in South Carolina. It was unique because we had the best of all worlds: mountains, a lake big enough to create a significant shoreline, and the ocean was only a day trip away. When you closed your eyes and thought about small-town Americana, this was it. I didn’t think I was going to enjoy it here, but I was so very wrong. After growing up in New York under a microscope and bouncing around to other places, this was supposed to be a quick in and out for me. I came intending to build an adventure resort that I’d been toying with for years, and this uniquelandscape fit my bill. Mountains paired with a huge shoreline, compliments of the largest lake in South Carolina, gave me the opportunity to have the best of all worlds. It was going to be a tribute to my friend, and the goal was to open it and take off again, but something about this place held my attention. It’d been fourteen months, and I wasn’t crawling out of my skin to leave, so I had no immediate plan to.
Making my way towards my office, I had injuries on my mind and a mental checklist a mile long. Step one? Quadruple-check our accident insurance for the resort.
2
AUDRA
