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“Don’t blame Danny for this!”
“Look, we lost the job. That’s over. But there’s no reason we still can’t try to salvage something here. I could still get him to look at Branches. And he still saw your writing. He could still recommend you for other jobs in the industry.”
“We both know he isn’t going to recommend me for anything now. Don’t be so stupid.”
“Don’t fucking call me stupid when you’re the one who tried to come to set when you should be at the hospital.” I raised my arm to hail a passing cab; she wasn’t getting out of this again.
“Leave me alone, Jake,” she said.
“No.” The cab stopped, and I opened the door. “Get in. We’re going to get your arm looked at.”
She didn’t argue. Maybe the pain was getting to her, and I couldn’t be happy about that fact, but if it meant she was finally going to do the smart thing and go to the hospital, I couldn’t exactly be upset about it, either.
The cab pulled away, and she stared out the window. I could tell she was refusing to look at me or speak to me.
That was fine. I didn’t have anything to say to her right now, either.
All I wanted was to get to the hospital and get this over with so we could go home and return to pretending none of this had happened.
Chapter 21
OLIVIA
Iwastheluckyone when we got to the hospital. My burned arm afforded me my own private room, while Jake had to be seen in a public examination area. It was a relief to get away from him. I had been worried that he was going to continue following me around, that he would insist on staying in the room while I was treated to make sure I wasn’t doing or saying anything he disagreed with.
I probably had the legal right to have him sent away, but I couldn’t be sure of that, and I was too exhausted to keep fighting with him.
He had argued that he didn’t need to be examined. “There’s nothing wrong withme,“ he had insisted. “I wasn’t anywhere near the fire when it started. She’s the only one who was burned.”
“But you were both stranded on an island for three days?” said the nurse checking us in. “You were both involved in a plane crash prior to that?”
“Yes, we were,” I told her firmly. I wanted Jake to be taken away from me. I’d relax when we weren’t forced to be around each other anymore. “We were both in the plane when it went down. Either one of us could have injuries we don’t know about. And we’re probably both malnourished and dehydrated.”
Jake shot me an exasperated look, which I completely ignored.
The nurse nodded. “You should both be examined. You can follow me, Mr. Wallace. I’ll find you an examining station.”
And he did follow her, glancing over his shoulder at me with an expression I didn’t recognize.
It threw me for a moment. I wasn’t sure what to make of how he had looked at me that way. It wasn’t anger. Anger was what I expected from him right now. But this was something else.
Another nurse led me to my exam room, unwrapped my bandages, and looked at my arm. “This is very serious,” she said. “You might have some scarring.”
“Can you do anything about it?”
“We can try. But to be honest with you, I wouldn’t get my hopes up too high. Burns like this usually do leave scars. I don’t think it’s going to be too severe, but it will definitely be noticeable, I’m afraid to say.”
“That’s all right.” I didn’t mind that much. The past few weeks had left me scarred in more ways than one, and my arm wasn’t my primary concern at the moment. As long as the injury was treated, a scar was something I could live with.
My arm was treated quickly. It was cleaned with an antiseptic and rewrapped much more neatly than it had been on the beach. The whole process was excruciating, but it didn’t take very long, and I was able to breathe through the pain and keep telling myself that it would soon be over.
And soon enough, it was. I lay back on my pillow and closed my eyes. The pain wasn’t gone, but the wrappings around my arm shielded it from the air and made it feel a little bit better.
The doctor stepped out of the room, leaving me alone with the nurse.
“Is he coming back?” I asked, wondering if they were finished with me.
“Yes, he will,” the nurse said. “He’s going to check on another patient while I do some routine things, and then he’ll be back to talk to you.”
