And dear god, so comforting.
“You’re doing amazing, Atlas.”
Atlas. He knew my name? How did he know my name?
“I see you breathing, you fucking champion. Fuck yeah. Sorry for the swearing, though I heard one of your songs earlier, and you dropped a lot of f-bombs, so I figured you wouldn’t mind.”
I wanted to laugh. I tried, but I couldn’t seem to exhale more than soft breath through my lungs. I pushed at whatever was in my mouth with my tongue, and suddenly, it was gone. I still couldn’t move the rest of me, though my fingers did twitch. I was a thousand pounds of lead weights.
“You with me?” A bright light was suddenly in my eyes, and I wanted to smack it away, but I couldn’t lift my arms. “Yeah, I see those pupils. Amazing. Can you squeeze my fingers?”
His cold hand was in mine, and I could feel it. I let my fingers twitch.
“Yeah, baby. Look at you go. You’re gonna be just fine. How about here? Can you kick me?”
Was he…oh. He must have been touching something near my feet, but I couldn’t feel it. Something in the back of my mind told me that was bad. Very, very bad. Terrible, in fact. But I didn’t know why.
I couldn’trememberwhy.
“Hey, babe? How we looking?”
“It’s gonna be at least forty-five minutes with all this shit. We can call Life Flight.”
“He’s stable for now.”
Me? I was stable for now? What did that mean? I managed to poke my tongue out and lick my lips, and one of my eyes opened a little more. Suddenly, my entire field of vision was flooded with a man. A very good-looking man, in fact. He wore aviator-style glasses perched high on his nose, and he had full lips, freckles on his cheeks, and the softest golden-brown eyes.
“Hey, Atlas.”
I made a small noise, and he smiled widely.
“Yeah, I knew you’d be a fighter. Squeeze my hand again?”
There it was, back against my palm. “Second…date…first,” I managed to murmur.
He blinked, then threw his head back and laughed. “Yeah? You write all those sexy songs about blowjobs, and you want a second date before we hold hands?”
I tried to shrug, but all I managed was a twitch. Those three words had taken everything out of me. I breathed in and out, slow and steady. The ambulance was moving a little, but I had a feeling it wasn’t enough.
I took another breath. “Am I…”
He waited patiently, his hand still holding mine. I squeezed his fingers, and his face brightened.
“Dying?”
“Not on my watch. You have more sad songs you have to write.”
“You…were…” I searched for the strength to make my mouth move. “There?”
“So my partner—she’s in the front seat driving—we were eating at the little kebab place near the bar you were playing at. They ran out of Diet Coke, and she wouldn’t be able to navigate through all this bullshit traffic without it, so I had to run to the bar to get her some. I saw you onstage.”
“Saw?”
He laughed and squeezed my fingers. “And heard you. You were gorgeous, you know. I can’t believe I have a real-life celebrity holding my hand right now.”
“Not.” Suddenly, the ambulance began to race, spinning around in a circle. Was it the ice? Was—oh. Was it me? There was a warm palm on my cheek and two fingers pressed against my neck.
“…with me, okay? Stay with me. Breathe, Atlas. Slow and steady.”
