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“I didn’t know you were sick. You would have done the same thing too.” Before he could answer, Dante began coughing violently and couldn’t stop. “I’ll get you some hot water to ease that cough.”
“Look for the keys,” he managed to say in between the coughs. There was one place I didn’t search, and that was under the bed. I went to the floor and looked and then that was when I saw his keys.
“I have the keys. And here are your pants. Put them on while I get the water.”
When I returned, Dante was sitting with his head down when I handed him the warm water. “Now drink this. Drink it all and don’t be such a cry-baby. You act as if nothing has ever happened to you. I could tell you stories.”
After he’d drunk the water and got a respite from the incessant coughing, he stood with my help. “I’m too sick to hear your stories, Rom. When I’m well I’ll listen. Get me to the emergency room now.”
Chapter 6
Romeo
When the doctor finally got around to Dante, they placed him in an area and the doctor came to the room to talk to me. “Are you his son or his partner?”
I didn’t think he’d mind if I said I was his partner. “I’m his partner, Dr. Kelley.” I read his badge. “What is wrong with him?”
“He has a case of acute pneumonia—”
“How did he get that? And can I catch it?”
“No. I’m going to give you a prescription for antibiotics and breathing treatment. It’s a good thing you thought enough to bring him here because you may have had a very sick man on your hands and he could have died from this if it weren’t caught. The x-ray pictures showed his lungs were filling up with fluid and the medication is to get all of that out.”
“How long is it going to take for him to feel better?”
“That’s not the problem. The problem is he’s a sick man and you have to take care of him. He can’t go out in this weather for a time until the coughing stops and he can’t eat certain types of food.” That meant I had to take care of someone whose only desire was self-preservation, and if it meant after I’d took care of him and then he got an order from his psycho brother to ‘take care of me.’
I would take care of him and then when I thought he was okay, then I would leave in the car and get home as fast as I could. He didn’t know anything about me, and as much as I talked, I knew when to shut up.
Walking into the exam room, I glanced over at Dante. Never had I seen him so vulnerable. He appeared weak from coughing and blowing his nose. When he glanced up at me, I saw the softness of his eyes. The apology coming. His dark eyes I’d seen that had concern and love in his heart for me once upon a time. I stood waiting to see that again. Maybe not today, but I hoped it would return and I could feel whole again.
“Let’s go, baby,” I said with the doctor standing near watching us. With my hand draped around Dante’s shoulder, I felt him shudder when those words crossed my lips. I felt his shoulder and it dipped.
“Your partner, I’m sure, will take good care of you,” Dr. Kelley said to Dante. Dante’s eyes dropped as we passed him and headed for the main waiting room. Dante’s pace quickened as he moved through the door and to the outside. He made no move to get behind the wheel, but stepped into the passenger side and then he crossed his arms looking away from me.
“What the fuck is wrong with you?”
“Nothing.”
“Are you sulking? I didn’t know a harden—”
“Criminals like me. That’s what you wanted to say.”
“But I didn’t say it.”
“Can we leave before someone sees us arguing and think—”
“Think you’re fucking me,” I said. “You know it could be the other way around. I’ve known big men who have their lovers inside them instead of the other way around.”
“Can you stop with that conversation.”
“What? It makes you uncomfortable? You weren’t uncomfortable telling someone to kill me and arranging to bury me in your basement, but it’s painful to think that someone could imagine you with me in a relationship.”
Starting the car, I realized that this conversation wouldn’t be over and it was just getting started, and for once I stayed quiet.
“Where are you going now?” I’d parked the car before I answered.
“To fill your prescription.”
