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I hoped Del would be on ten days from now.
Good-natured and very healthy. Hm. I’d take it. I was, in fact, glad she noticed.
I texted Hannah, who said she’d be right there, and then changed into the scrubs provided by Del. My poor white sweater was splotched with blood, but hopefully the stains would come out.
“How are you feeling?” Hannah said when she got here. “You look very hot with that metal in your eyebrow. Very 90s punk, very Goth.”
“Thank you,” I said. “Bring me home, Grimaldi.”
“Yes, my queen.”
As we walked through the ED, I didn’t see Delilah. I waved to Irena, getting a wave back, as Hannah told me about the party after my departure, who had made the best comments about my pants, my thong, and how her father almost fainted once her mom was done fainting. “I think he’d had one too many candy cane martinis, really. It’s not like him to get so weepy.”
“About those martinis,” I said.
“Yeah. Never again. I still have candy cane stuck in my teeth.”
We went outside, and there was winter in all her nighttime beauty. The snow clung to the branches, bending the hemlocks. We stopped for a minute, taking in the quiet hiss of falling snow, the fat flakes so happy and fast, the pinkish lights from the streetlamps and the mystery of being awake when most people were all snug in their beds, vision of sugarplums, whatever those were.
“Wow,” I said. “Hope we don’t lose power. I’ll have to work OT on Christmas if we do.”
“Become a teacher,” Hannah said. “I have vacation until January third.”
“Your job is way scarier than mine.”
She linked her arm through mine, and we started off to her car.
“Hey, um, Sam?” came a voice. We turned, and it was Delilah.
“Hey. Did I forget something?”
“No, no.” She stood there a second. “I just wanted to say Merry Christmas. Happy holidays. All that.”
“You too, Del.”
“Let me know how you’re doing, okay? I…I wrote my number on your discharge instructions.”
“Oh. Okay,” I said. “I definitely will.”
“Great. Well. Bye.”
“It was great to meet you,” I said. “Happy holidays, Del.” My smile was huge. Delilah gave a cute wave and disappeared back inside the hospital.
“Somebody likes you,” sang Hannah. I didn’t deny it. Just smiled. “I like her much more than Judith,” she added.
“Whom I dumped an hour ago, by the way,” I said.
“A Christmas miracle!” said Hannah. “Tell me everything. No. Wait till we get to your place, and I’ll make us scrambled eggs with cheese, and then you can tell me everything.”
I stopped. “I love you, Han,” I said.
“Love you, too,” she said, and in that moment, I had everything I ever wanted…a great friend, a beautiful town, a loyal cat waiting for me, a workforce who’d make merciless fun of me for the rest of my life…
And maybe…probably, even…a really cool woman who liked me.
It was going to be a very happy new year. I already knew it in my heart.
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