Katya texted back a sad face emoji, followed by several questions about Addie’s status. While I texted back, Addie shifted in the bed, sucking in a breath as she tried to move and resting her uninjured hand over her broken ribs.
“Ow,” she said.
“Stop that,” I said. “Or let me help. What can I get you?”
“A time machine? Psychic abilities to see the asshole before he mowed me down?”
“Fresh out of both.” I reached in my purse and pulled out a tin. “Mint?”
“Absofuckinglutely,” she said. “It tastes like I’ve been chewing on blood.” Our eyes met. “Oh.” She winked with her good eye while I rolled both of mine.
The nurse on duty brought Addie a snack and snuck me one too. We talked, swapped Jell-o, my green for her red, watched sitcoms while she drifted in and out of sleep, and then I kissed her good cheek and promised to be back in a few hours after tending to her cats.
With Addie’s prognosis good – the doctor tentatively announcing she’d be able to go home in a couple of days – I didn’t feel too terrible telling her I was planning to fly out the following Sunday.
“Unless you want me to stay, of course,” I said. “I have a couple jobs lined up but I can cancel if you need me. Seriously. They’re not big names.”
“Snob,” she said. “But you don’t have to stay even that long. Promise to come back soon though? This does not count as a visit.”
“Agreed. You’ve been a shit conversationalist. Plus, Gomez won’t stop staring at me and I think Morticia is jealous.”
“You may be gorgeous but rest assured, Morticia is not jealous nor threatened by you. She is merely tolerating your presence and waiting for you to leave.”
“Fair enough.”
“Have you seen your folks?”
I recalled the brief phone call I’d had with my mother the day I’d gotten in.
“Just wanted to let you know I’m in town,” I’d said. “In case someone sees me, takes a picture, and posts it online, I didn’t want you to think I was avoiding you.”
God how I wished I could avoid her.
“If Addie’s in the hospital, surely you have time for a dinner with us, Lior,” she’d said.
I’d taken in a long, measured breath and let it out slowly.
“My best friend for nearly three decades has been in a serious accident. I can assure you, I don’t have time for a dinner. Next time, Mother.”
She didn’t bother hiding her sigh of annoyance.
“Fine. What hospital and room is she in? We’ll send flowers.” She’d paused then, and when she spoke again the bite had left her voice. “I hope she’s okay.”
“Thank you.”
As much as she irritated me and spoke like she didn’t care, I knew, if need be, my mother would offer to pay for specialists for my friend should she need them. She was an odd combination of indifference and caring. One should cancel out the other – but somehow didn’t.
“Addie-Boo,” I said, patting my friend’s hand and giving her a wry grin. “This trip was hard enough without seeing my mother’s pinched face and ice-lady eyes scouring my body for things to pick apart.”
“Liorzibet,” she said and I snorted at the newest nickname. “I’d argue with you, but yeah. No one needs that when they’ve had to see this.” She gestured to herself. “I ran into Cal a few weeks ago though. He looks happy as ever.”
Cal was my stepdad and one of the most decent human beings I’d ever met.
“I will never comprehend how that man ended up with that woman,” I said. “He must’ve done something truly horrific in a past life.”
“Nah. He’s just a saint. And possibly in it for the money.”
I snorted indelicately. I knew for a fact my mother had insisted on an ironclad prenup. Any man who wanted to be married to Lilian Flynn better come with his own significant wealth. Her money was hers and she wasn’t sharing – unless it was your birthday, an anniversary, or Christmas. And then she went all out, so no one could ever say she wasn’t generous.
