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“Seriously, Vic. She needs something. Pain meds, stitches for sure.”
“Jesus, Ben! Oh my God, you need to stop!”
“He needs to do his job.” Lola turns to me with that chiding, annoyed look on her that I usually love. But right now, it’s tainted with a piece of gauze covering her eyebrow and the glaze of pain in her eyes.
“Benjamin!” she says through gritted teeth.
If it were any other situation, it would be adorable.
“It’s fine, seriously,” Vic says. “I know Ben.”
“He’s a friend, babe.” Lola blinks then her head moves back to Vic, who is smiling at her with a kind look in his eyes. Her head moves back to me, probably to yell at me, but my eyes are locked on Vic as I glare at him, waiting for him todo his fucking job.
“He’s not looking like he likes you very much, doctor,” Lola says under her breath, and it takes everything in me not to let the humor of her words crack through my frustration.
“Gabi’s gonna love this,” Vic says, tipping his head toward me.
“Let's worry about meet and greets after you fix her?” He just laughs, ignoring me and lifting the cotton that the nurse put on Lola’s head.
“Okay, Lola. So it looks like the bleeding has stopped, which is great, but I still want to do a few stitches to make sure it doesn’t scar too badly. You’ll probably have a small spot where your eyebrow will be sparse, but we’ll see what we can do, okay?”
“I can pierce you! Cover it up!” Hattie says. I have no idea how she weaseled her way into the ER room with us, but it’s very on-brand for my nosy best friend.
“Absolutely not,” I say. “You aren’t getting near her with a needle.” Lola, God bless the woman, looks over at me with those wide eyes.
“Really? Why not? I was thinking about getting something . . .” The look in her eyes says more than I want anyone in this room to know.
Then she smiles.
This fucking woman will be the death of me.
“You get anything, it’s me doing it,” I say, face stern and voice cold, but even at this moment, with her barely avoiding kidnapping, I see it.
The look in her eyes.
The tease.
“Oh yeah?” she says, lips turning up at the corners.
“And that’s my cue,” Vic says, lifting his hand in the air as Hattie laughs out loud. He turns to me. “You’ve got your hands full with this one.” I just glare at him, though he’s not wrong. “Okay, I’m going to get a few things, and then we’ll get you all patched up and sent home, okay, Lola?”
Lola nods, and then Vic makes his way out the door, but the peace doesn’t last for long.
Forty-Four
-Lola-
Ben’s friendis only gone for mere moments before there’s a noise in the hall, and Hattie speaks.
“Fair warning, I think the cavalry has arrived,” Hattie says, dipping her head out the hallway to check what the noise is. I groan.
The cavalry comes in the form of my father, trailed by a group of advisors, a security guard or two, and my baby sister.
I can see him smile from the doorway of my hospital room, flashes going before he shoos them off, probably to go document some other horror story they can spin into a feel-good tale for the five o’clock hour.
“Hey, baby, how are you?” my dad says, the politician mask dropping and the dad mask going on. The last time I saw my father, I was arguing with him, begging him to take care of a situation that had put my sister and me in danger.
And it escalated exactly how I thought it might.
