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Chris gapes at me before focusing back on Fabian, who mumbles something as his eyes droop. I grab his chin, and his eyelids flutter.
“Two units of packed red blood cells to Resus, right now!” Chris shouts. “Step on it!”
“You didn’t have to do this, why did you do this? I’ll talk to you, you nut.” I hear urgent feet in the corridor, the bed rattling toward us.
Vacancy is stealing his focus. “Just wanted to make sure,” he slurs as his eyes finally close.
24
Fabian
My eyes flutter open to white-and-green walls.Fucking hell. Someone chuckles from next to my bed, and my head jerks to discover Janus in ripped denim shorts and a light-blue vest, one leg resting across his knee.
“Why did she call you?” I say, my voice like sandpaper. “I’m so fucking mortified.”
He laughs. “Oh, come on, when have I not been there for your most spectacular incidents? Apparently, you slashed an artery open and declared undying love to her in her place of work,” he says, grinning from ear to ear, and I try to shift, to move my hand, but nothing happens, and I look down to find it wrapped like a mummy, fingers protruding slightly from the end. My arm must weigh a hundred kilos.
A sharp pain shoots through my shoulder. Wires and tubes have me linked to what appears to be every machine known to humankind.
“The staff are besides themselves,” he continues. “They’ve never had anything so exciting happen here, and that is saying something given this is the emergency department. Mind you, I think your woman is pretty embarrassed about the whole thing. She’s been dragged in to speak to the head of the hospital, the head of the ED, her rotation program director …”
“Fuck.” My hand curls into a fist, and I tip my head back on the pillow. “She wouldn’t fucking talk to me.”
“Couldn’t you have done a poem and flowers like a normal guy?”
That’s absurd: Who does that kind of low-maintenance crap?
“Not my style,” I say, and he snorts.
“Not sure I can stomach all the drama that’s going to unfold between you and Kate if this relationship carries on.” And I glance at him to see a smile playing around his mouth.
“I don’t think you need to be too worried about that. What with Nadine and this”—I try and lift my arm—“she’ll probably never speak to me again.”
Janus leans forward, eyes narrowing. “I think you’ll find that she likes the craziness. She doesn’t want a regular guy; she wants you.” His lips curve up in a smug smile, and I rub my hand up and down the blue hospital blanket covering my thigh. Does she? Even after all this?
“Bullshit,” I say.
He shakes his head, and I stare at the machine closest to me. If I rip the sensors off my chest, will it … and without any warning my stomach goes into freefall.
“I’ve got no money to pay for this,” I groan, trying to sit up, but Janus waves his hand at me.
“Don’t be a fucking idiot. What do you think’s been happening with all these hospital visits? You’re covered.”
What the fuck? “I don’t want handouts from you.”
“You’re on my company’s health insurance policy.”
“What? Since when?”
“About three months ago, when I realized how often you were going into the ER. We can’t have something happening to you.” He pats my leg.
“Stop patronizing me.” I try to put my head in my hands, but I can’t move my arm. “Another fucking thing I owe you.”
Janus rolls his eyes. “I’m bored with this conversation. You oweme? You remember that small incident of you saving my business?”
“I think you’ll find I caused that,” I mumble.
A voice picks up outside the door, and I catch a glimpse of Kate through the clear glass circle. She’s nodding, talking to someone, and my whole body tightens as I watch her blonde hair gleaming under the lights. I’m desperate to see her and dreading it at the same time. Is she going to kick me to the curb, finally fed up with my crazy decisions and less than balanced behavior? As she opens the door and studies me, her eyes are guarded. She doesn’tlookfurious, but she doesn’t look as though she’s exactly feeling warm and cuddly either. Black clouds settle around me. Janus stands, grins at us both.
