I'm just about to step into the elevator when Samson calls out again. “He didn't come by. Just in case you were wonderin'.”
My shoulders droop the slightest bit, but I try to hide it by switching my bag to the other side. I didn't even realize I was hoping he had come by until this moment. But he's not coming after me, and I need to convince myself that that's a good thing. He needs to work on himself, and so do I.
What if something happened to him?
No. I push those thoughts aside because if I let them take over, I'll end up at his apartment, and nothing will change.
“Thanks, Samson. Have a good night.”
CHAPTER 41
CAMPBELL
It's funny what a month of no alcohol will do to a person. I swear the skin on my hand looks smoother than I remember it being.I guessI could simply be imagining it. But it's not the only change. I actually feel betterall over, like I'm not constantly bogged down by a dense weight. A complete contrast to that first week.
Moving my sights from my hand to my phone, I try hard not to let the thumping in my chest drown out the noises and voices in my surroundings as I wait for a text reply. I don't want to miss hearing Jasmine's voice, just in case she happens to be in the area.
We talked about her job when we were together, talked about her patients, the other nurses, and doctors, but never the exact area of the hospital she worked in.
Several minutes pass by after my text asking what area she works in changes from “delivered” to “read” with no response.
Me: Please.
Instead of sending a reply, Graham calls a moment later, and after sucking in a breath, I lift my phone to my ear and answer. “Hello.”
“It's been a while,” he says as a greeting.
“I've been figuring some shit out,” I reply, sitting further back on the bench seat.
I feel like a different man from the one I was when I met him.
“Yes, well, the last time I told you where she was going to be, she ended up a heaving mess when she came back into the restaurant. I don't want that again.”
Irritation and pain still surge through me whenever I think about that whole encounter. “You did me dirty, sending me there when she was with some other fucking guy.” After my mind had cleared and I'd started thinking more rationally, I realized that she probablywasn'ton a date, especially if Graham had been in the restroom. But at the time, and in the state I was in, making me believe that shewasonly added to the torment I was feeling and sent me over the edge into desperation.
It's silent on the other end for a beat before he speaks again. “I thought I was doing the right thing. Getting you guys together to talk, but I didn't know everything at the time. I gave you a chance to win her back when I shouldn't have, but you blew it.”
Leaning forward, I prop my elbows on my knees and look to the ground. “I wasn't ready.”
“And you are now?”
I hear some quiet mumbling through the line, like he's covering the receiver and talking to someone else there, then it goes quiet again.
“I told you I've been figuring some shit out. Working on things to get her back.”
“Are you sober?”
The muscle in my jaw pops as I clench down on my molars. The truth is, this is the longest that I've been sober since I was eighteen. But I hate that he's asking me that question. Jasmine has obviously shared some information with him, and no doubt he told her about our meeting in the men's room. It had taken a few days for it to hit that Jasmine had also mentioned the incident I had after drinking and driving, which means she knew all about it probably the entire time.
Embarrassment, mixed with shame, has me almost wanting to hang up, but I swallow down the jagged pill and answer him instead. “Yes. Listen, I'm going to see her today. And either I walk up and down every hallway in this hospital calling her name, or you just tell me where she is. I just want to talk to her.”
He lets out a heavy sigh, leaving me hanging for a torturous moment. “Fine. Butdon'tupset her again.”
“I'm not planning to, man.”
We hang up after he finally gives me the information I wanted, and then I head straight inside to talk to my girl.
My palms feel sweaty, and my heart is back to thumping against my rib cage again. But my mind is clear.
