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I threw my hands in the air. “Can someone please explain to me why you quit fighting when there are still options left? Because I’m apparently the only one in this room who doesn’t belong to the club.”
Gram squinted at me. “Don’t raise your voice. I don’t care if you’re over thirty and I’m dying. I’ll whip your ass.”
I blew out two cheeks full of hot air and shook my head. “I need a minute. I’m going to take a walk.”
***
“Hey.”
My eyes opened to find Nora staring at me. I must’ve nodded off while she was sleeping. I sat up and wiped my cheek.
Nora smiled. “On the other side.”
Shit. I rubbed the other cheek, but the smirk on Nora’s face told me I was wasting my time. “There isn’t any drool, is there?”
“Nope.”
I chuckled. “What time is it?”
Nora’s eyes lifted to the clock on the wall opposite her bed. I’m not sure if I’d even noticed it there before now. “Almost three AM.”
I looked around. The ICU rooms were all glass pods, but Nora’s curtain was partially drawn now. It was the first time I didn’t feel like we were sitting in a fishbowl.
“Much cozier,” I said.
“The nurse told me my boyfriend was handsome and then drew the privacy panels.”
“Oh yeah?” I stretched and stood. “I’ll have to bring her flowers. Move over. You’re hogging the bed.”
Nora smiled and scooched to one side. The shitty hospital bed was probably a single or a twin, so my right shoulder hung off the edge. But it was the best spot I’d sat in for days. I nudged Nora to sit up a little and wrapped my arm around her, nuzzling her to me. “Come here.”
She rested her head on my chest and looked up at me. “Thank you for coming,” she whispered.
“Of course.”
She smiled sadly. “I think I’m going to push up my moving date to California.”
“To when?”
“As soon as I feel up to it.”
A sense of panic washed over me. “Why leave? All your doctors are in New York.”
“I just think it’s best.”
“Best for who? Me or you?”
She looked away. “Me.”
I wasn’t sure I believed her, but it wasn’t the time to argue. I sighed. “Can I ask you some questions about your health? I mean, I feel like I’m almost qualified to operate on my own after all the reading I’ve done the last few days. But I’d like to understand it from your point of view.”
Nora nodded. “I told you my mother died when I was little. She had cardiac rhabdomyosarcoma. Some people just get one tumor once, but others like us get lots of them, and they come back. Most cases are actually not hereditary, but some people have genetic factors like we do.”
“When were you diagnosed?”
“The day after my prom. I was having a lot of trouble breathing. It sort of felt like someone was sitting on my chest, but I’d been drinking prom night so I didn’t say anything for a few days. I thought it was the world’s worst hangover. A few days later, I was so exhausted, I couldn’t even walk. My dad, William, took me to the ER, and they admitted me. I was diagnosed the next morning. I had chemotherapy and radiation, and I went into remission a few months later. The majority of patients with localized rhabdomyosarcoma can be cured. But mine came back two years later. And the tumor brought friends. That was the first time I had surgery—open-heart at twenty. The tumors had to be resected, cut out. After that, I was good for three years, I think. Then another surgery. And then a year later, it was back again. I’ve had three open-hearts in the last ten years, and three rounds of chemo and radiation.”
“Jesus.”
