I clear my throat. “O-okay, and what does that mean?”
“It means you’ll want to plan to stick around for a while. After the surgery, we’ll need you here for two weeks. For your hospital stay, and for a follow-up appointment to make sure there’s no post-op complications.”
“T-twoweeks?” I repeat.
“Only to make sure you’re recovering the way you should. If you leave and a complication were to arise, you could end up in the emergency room. We want to make sure you’re healing nicely after a surgery such as this one.”
I swallow the thick wad in my throat, nodding, because I don’t know what else to say. My brain is whirling with all the what-ifs.
“This is only if your bloodwork comes back as a match, of course.”
“Okay,” I rasp.
Dr. Hammond is saying his goodbyes before he leaves the room, but my mind is already a million miles away, unable to hear him. There’s too many things going on. My heartbeat. The ringing in my ears. The sound of the door closing behind him as he leaves.
“What am I going to do about classes fortwoweeks?” I whisper, barely audible, once we’re alone again. “Maybe more than that, depending on how this goes.”
“You can get a doctor’s note, something, you’ll be fine,” Maeve murmurs, placing her hands on my shoulders and giving them a squeeze. “Don’t worry about that part, okay?”
“But what if it pushes me back?” I ask, peering over at her. “What if I can’t graduate on time? Or worse…”
Her hands slide from my shoulders to my cheeks, cradling my face in her palms as she gives me a knowing look.
“And you have to go,” I rasp, frowning at her, realizing for the first time that I’ll be all by myself. Two weeks alone to sit with this. There’s nothing I would hate more.
“I know,” she says softly, “but we can talk. FaceTime. Text. I promise you.”
I nod, over and over again. I’d never ask her to stay, and I wouldn’t want her to because I know she’d get behind after two weeks. Her career is important to her, and that’s important to me. The predicament just…sucks, is all.
But when it comes to anything dealing with my mother, when has itnotsucked?
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
MAEVE
Thursday, December 30th
After settling back into our hotel room after Tate’s bloodwork yesterday, we did the math with the dates and when classes start for the new semester, and determined that I’d need to head back to Pennsylvania two days after New Year’s to be there in time.
He’d stay behind for as long as he needed, and just turn in doctor’s notes to all of his professors. He’d be fine. At least, that’s what it took twenty minutes to convince him of before he ultimately decided to trust what I was saying. From what I understood, he’d never missed class a day in his life. It was something he prided himself on, so I could understand why he was fretting about this so much.
It was after that when we agreed to make tomorrow a good day.
Well,today.
Tate wanted to show me around Seattle, from places he had visited often as a child to his childhood home. As good as we agreed this day should be, I knew that today would be the day he’d be opening up to me about his past. It just felt like the rightplace and time, considering I was about to see where it all took place.
But the before was good, at least. He showed me the Space Needle and the waterfront, the snow falling down on us in fluffy white flakes, clinging to our hair and eyelashes. It was cute watching him show me something I’d never seen before, the way his eyes would dart to me every so often to catch my reactions. Did he notice that I was only really paying attention to him?
There was a moment, a really small moment, where my eyes lifted to look at him for the hundredth time, catching him at just the right angle. Snowflakes dusted in his brown hair, stuck to the front of his glasses, as he gazed up at the Space Needle, his mouth open just slightly, in awe of something he’d probably seen a million times. And then something bloomed in my chest.
Very minuscule at first. I just thought they were butterflies, ones I’d felt over and over again lately when I was with him, but this time was different. It bloomed warm in the center of my chest before spreading like a wildfire through my veins, lighting up every limb, raising every hair on my skin, and making me hold my breath in anticipation of… Well, I wasn’t sure.
I’d never felt it before. Well, never likethat.
I’d felt something similar with Landon, back when I was so sure that he was the love of my life. Before I realized he was… I felt like that for him, but it was weak compared to this. It was never this warm. I felt like I was cracking like a glowstick, glowing so bright that I might burst. It scared me so much that I excused myself to go find a restroom to hide in until the feeling subsided.
Because I’m good at avoiding things, you know?
