She didn’t respond to his question at first, as if she was still holding that private conversation inside of herself, and she scrunched up her face. Then she shook her head. “I don’t understand men,” she finally said.
“What don’t you understand about us?”
“How somebody could be intimate with one woman on Friday night, and then a completely different woman the very next night. I know that’s how people do it, but I thought we . . .” She almost let her true feelings slip, and that terrified her. She looked at Harrison, hoping he didn’t notice it.
But she could tell in his grassy-green eyes that he noticed everything. He appeared to be searching her eyes. “I’ll never hurt you, Jayda,” he finally said to her. “That’s why you will remain the only woman I didn’t use protection with.”
But that only made her frown. “What does that have to do with anything? Why is it always about sex?”
He didn’t want to go there, but she seemed even more pained than she had before he spoke. “It shows your vaulted position in my life,” he admitted. “It shows that it’s you that I favor.”
But that didn’t help matters either. She frowned even more. “I don’t want your favoritism,” she said as sat back up. “That sounds like something you’d say to a lap dog or to somebody you pity. I don’t need your pity and I’m nobody’s lap dog.”
Harrison knew he had put his foot it in this time. He was trying to be too cute by half: give her some red meat she could chew on, while keeping his heart a good distance away. He sat back up too. “I didn’t mean to offend you,” he said. “And I’llnever view you as any dog. Nor do I pity you. What I meant to say is what I said: I’ll never hurt you.”
But Jayda gave him a hard look. “I thought we were going to be honest with each other.”
He felt as if he was being unmasked. Exposed. “I think I am being honest with you,” he said, knowing, on his end, that it wasn’t entirely true. He had feelings for her he didn’t want to have because they were forcing him to confront what he’d always feared. He had no intentions of giving himself completely to somebody else because he’d seen that pattern too often: Fall in love and then you fall. He refused to fall. And apparently the very perceptive Jayda Robinson was picking up on his deception too.
But before they could go any further with it, the door to her hospital room opened and the doctor, followed by Vincent, walked in.
“Hello, Mr. Bainbridge,” he said as if he had run to her room. He was extending his hand as he hurried to the bed. “I’m Dr. Lessinger.”
Harrison found it annoying that he would address him instead of his patient. Making her invisible the way she had said, the first time he laid eyes on her, that he had made her feel. “And this is Miss Robinson, your patient,” he said without shaking the doctor’s extended hand.
“Yes, of course. Hello Miss Robinson.”
“Hello Doctor.” Jayda shook his hand since it was still extended.
“She’s been in this emergency room for nearly four hours and you haven’t met with her yet?”
The doctor cleared his throat. “I was seeing other patients, sir, but I was going to get to her. Eventually.”
“You ran tests?” Jayda asked him. What was the point of all of this spilled milk talk?
“Yes, we ran tests,” the doctor responded. “And I’m very happy to report that all of her tests. I mean, all ofyourtests, Miss Robinson,” he said, directing his response to her instead of Harrison, “were negative.”
“Thank God,” Jayda said with great relief.
Harrison exhaled. He was relieved too.
“You don’t know how glad I am to hear you say that doctor,” Jayda continued. “They were saying that I could have internal bleeding and all kinds of problems that you can’t see on the surface. But it’s all negative?”
“Yes ma’am. Every test was negative.”
“Whew. Thank God, thank God, thank God. So that means I can go home now, right?”
“Well. Not exactly, no ma’am.”
Harrison looked at him too. “But why not?” asked Jayda. “You said all the tests were negative.”
“They were. They absolutely are. But because of the fact that you lost consciousness at some point during your ordeal, it’s prudent that we keep you overnight for observation.”
Jayda was disappointed. “But couldn’t I just go home and observe myself?”
“No,” said Harrison. “If they missed something or something happens, I want you to be where they can do something about it and do something about it right away.”
“That’s exactly why we want to keep her overnight,” said the doctor.
