“It ain’t that simple.” Fred sighs, and something about the sound suggests he has more to say, so I turn to face him while drying my hands.
“It is simple. Most things are.”
Fred shrugs, unable to meet my eyes. “She’s a good woman. She’s kind and sweet and the things her voice does to me when she’s angry is incredible. She makes me laugh. She doesn’t take my shit. When she smiles, I’m always wanting her to smile at me.”
Initially, I thought Fred wanted to get laid, but this is different. He’s talking like a real person for once. “But?”
“But…” He sighs deeply. “Look at me. I ain’t man enough for a woman like that.”
Fred, cocky Fred who loves to hold favors over people’s heads, who loves to brag about the money he makes and drops cases he finds too boring on anyone’s lap just so he can go home early, thinks he’s not good enough for someone.
I never thought I would see the day.
“I don’t have much in the way of advice,” I reply quietly, “but if I know anything, it’s that you should let her make that choice. Don’t do it for her. If you like her, then respect her right to choose. She’s been here long enough that I’m sure she’s well aware that you’re an asshole.”
“Fuck you.” Fred snorts. “But true.”
“Exactly. It might work out, it might not. You won’t know until you give it a chance.”
Fred’s attention drops back to his hands under the water and he doesn’t reply.
Just as the urge to fill the silence creeps up, my phone blares to life within my locker so I stoop down to grab it.
“That was a good surgery, Fred,” I say, gazing down at my phone. “Catch you later.”
“Bye.” He doesn’t even lift his head.
Maybe I gave him too much to think about.
“Hello?” I press my phone to my ear.
“Xander Thomas?”
“That’s me.”
“I’m calling on behalf of Auriela. I have you noted down as her emergency contact.”
I trip over myself in the corridor and halt, gripping the phone tightly as my heart lurches. “Auriela? What’s happened? Where is she?”
By some stroke of luck, Auriela was brought to my hospital rather than a clinic and I find her in a private room on the top floor.
She’s tucked up in the bed with an oxygen mask over her face and her knitting resting in her lap.
“Auriela!”
“Xander?” Her eyes widen so much that her wrinkles smooth out for a second. “What are you doing here?”
“You put me as your emergency contact and they called me.” I reach for the chart at the end of her bed. “What happened? Are you okay?”
“It’s nothing,” Auriela croaks. “A lot of fuss over nothing.”
“It’s not nothing.” I skim her chart and fight the sudden tightness in my chest by taking a deep, calming breath. “Chest pains and trouble breathing are not nothing, Auriela. Is this the first time this has happened?”
“Don’t fuss,” Auriela scolds. “I’m fine!”
Closing her chart, I move to the side of her bed and sit. “This isn’t the first time, is it?”
She can’t meet my eyes.
