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Past done, actually.
“Any sign of the two guys who saw me fall?” I asked hopefully. “Tall. Dark. Handsome. One had a closely-trimmed beard… the other maybe a goatee, or—”
“No,” the doctor shook his head. “I haven’t even a clue what you’re—”
“Never mind then,” I said, reaching for the IV line in my arm. “Thanks for everything, doc. I’m sure the billing department will be in touch.”
The man watched incredulously as I carefully removed the IV, stowed the lines, and reapplied the medical tape bandage on my arm. As I grabbed my phone and punched up my Uber app, he looked so shocked I thought his Styrofoam coffee cup might drop from his fingers.
“Can you hand me my clothes?” I pointed. “And pull the curtain?”
“Ms. Gallo!” he cried. “You can’t just—”
“Leave?” I chuckled. “Sure I can. Watch me.”
I hopped down from the bed, onto the cold tile floor. Damn, why did hospitals keep the floors so cold all the time? Couldn’t they spring for some underfloor heating?
“But you’re not discharged!” the doctor scowled. “You still have to wait for—”
“A different doctor from the next shift, to come look at my chart for a third time?” I finished glibly. “Another set of redundant blood tests?”
“You can’t just—”
“Should I wait two hours after that for my discharge papers?” I laughed. “Another hour for someone to find an unoccupied wheelchair and an orderly to bring it up here?”
“But—”
“Yeah, all that bullshit’s gonna take six or eight hours,” I said. “And that’s at the minimum. I won’t get home until dinner, and I’m already starving.”
I reached for my jeans and slipped them on right in front of him, pulling them up beneath my open-backed hospital gown. By the time I reached for my shirt, he’d turned bright red.
“My way’s better,” I said, finishing the rest. “Believe me.”
Trapped on the other side of the room, the doctor had nothing to do but look at the floor until I’d finished dressing. I winced as I gingerly pulled my shirt and sweater over my head, then slipped into my sneakers and dropped the gown unceremoniously onto the bed.
When the man opened his mouth one last time, I cut him off before he could even start.
“Lots of rest, plenty of ice, and stay off my feet for a while,” I chuckled. “Right?”
“Well… yes, but—”
“But what?”
He pointed downward, to the empty chair where my clothes had been. Only it wasn’t empty.
“I was just going to say, you forgot your jacket.”
Sitting in the middle of the laminate-and-steel chair was a large black leather jacket. It had studs on the shoulders too, exactly like—
Exactly like the guy holding the little girl wore, back at the aquarium.
“That’s not my jacket,” I said reflexively.
“Well it definitely came in with you,” the doctor shrugged. “I know that much.”
I picked it up, shocked by the sheer size and weight of it. It smelled like leather, and oil, and steel — all manly things. Cologne, too. The scent was virile, without being overpowering. Sweet and musky and delicious.
Still feeling a little chilly from the thin hospital gown, I slipped it on. The sky beyond the window had faded from purple to blue, with a yellowish tinge.
“That coffee’s from the shop downstairs, isn’t it?” I asked. “Is it any good?”
By now the doctor was on autopilot. He shook his head slowly.
“Never mind then, I’ll figure something else out.”
