I closed the door quietly behind me and moved to sit down beside her, first planting a kiss on her forehead. We were lucky to get a private room. It was only because Crowhill Cove Hospital was so small; in a bigger city where they had to cram in more wards, we’d never have been offered a private space like this. Given how long Daisy had been here, it was a blessing.
“How’s the food?” I asked, giving her a sideways look and a smile.
“Ugh!” she replied, predictably, and we both chuckled. She reached out to hit me and then wheezed, a sound that always made me tense up. Every time, I wondered if she was about to launch into another devastating coughing fit. Every time, I wondered exactly how many breaths she had left before her lungs failed her completely.
She cleared her throat lightly and fixed me with a deliberate look, one that told me to stop worrying so much. “So, you said you had something to tell me about this weekend?”
I nodded. I hung my head slightly. “I’m sorry. I’m going to miss our usual visit on Sunday.”
“Sunday Funday!” Daisy croaked in dismay. Then she smiled and shook her head. “Okay. How come?”
I didn’t deserve her. She was so accepting. I’d been six years old when Daisy was born and I immediately took my role as her big brother very seriously – I still remembered our parents’ pleased reaction when I solemnly swore I would look after her forever. It was one of my earliest memories.
I held that promise dearer than anything in the world. If I could have given her my lungs, I would. But she would only take them if I was already dead, of course. And I didn’t think Daisy would ever forgive me if I left her alone in the world just to make sure she could stay in it. We had to wait for a donor – and in the meantime, she needed surgery to repair the lungs she had as much as possible. That was why she was here, and as soon as she was well enough to operate, they would.
But as soon as that happened, I would have to pay a huge bill – and while we were hoping she could get it by the end of the month, I’d tried as much as I could to hide from her exactly how hard that bill was going to be to pay.
“I’ve got some work,” I said. I didn’t mention the date part. If Xavi could lie to people about what we were doing, then so could I. And anyway, I told myself, it wasn’t really a lie. This was strictly business. “It’s an event – a wedding. Two thousand dollars for a weekend’s work.”
Daisy’s eyes popped open wider. “What are you doing, striptease?”
I chuckled. “No, nothing like that. Just helping out guests.” One guest in particular. “It’s a big hotel at the edge of town, that fancy place. I couldn’t say no.”
“Maybe they’ll ask you back for more work,” she suggested.
I tilted my head. “It’s possible,” I agreed. Maybe Xavi would want to carry on the façade at more events with his friends. Big dinners or trips or more weddings in the future. Or maybe he’d wait a couple of months and announce that we’d broken up.
“Okay, well, you better bring me back something,” Daisy said, giving me a cheeky grin. Even with the wires coming out of her nose, constantly giving her air, she was beautiful. “Maybe a monogrammed napkin or a hand soap sample or a champagne glass.”
I laughed incredulously. “I’m not going to steal from my job to get you a souvenir! Anyway, where would I hide it? My suit pocket?”
“Ugh, this would be so much easier if I was going with you,” Daisy complained, throwing her head back against the pillows. “I could just throw the champagne glass in my purse.”
I shook my head, still chuckling. On the inside, my heart squeezed painfully. She was twenty years old. She should have been going to weddings and parties and getting in trouble and dancing and getting her heart broken. But she was here. And until we could get the money to make sure she could take her medicine more regularly – even after our insurance took the bulk of it off our shoulders and the surgery was paid off– she would keep coming back here.
One day, they were going to tell her she was no longer a viable candidate for a lung transplant because she’d treated hers so badly, and it was all going to be my fault. I couldn’t let that happen. No matter what I had to do, I had to keep bringing in every single dollar I could to pay off everything she needed.
“If you threw a delicate champagne glass in anywhere it would probably break,” I pointed out trying not to let her see how upset I was on my face. “So, it’s a good job you’re not coming with me, after all.”
Daisy pouted. “Rude,” she said. “Oh, well. Maybe being at a wedding will give you some ideas.”
I squinted at her. “Like what?”
She swatted at me with an open hand, not really trying to hit me. “Don’t pretend you don’t know what I’m talking about,” she said. “I’m just saying, maybe you’ll meet someone new. And hot. And the wedding fever will get you in the mood…”
I screwed up my face, waving my hands in front of it. “Okay, enough. There are things a brother should not discuss with his sister.”
She rolled her eyes at me. “Like you have anything to discuss,” she said.
“Okay!” I repeated, standing up from my chair. “I think that’s my cue.”
She was right about there not being anything at all to discuss when it came to my love life. But how could I have a romantic relationship when I was working every hour of the day that I wasn’t here, visiting with her? It was almost a shame I had to pay rent. It wasn’t like I spent any time there for anything but a few hours of sleeping.
Then again, it wasn’t like there was a family home I could move back into. Since our parents were gone, it was just me and Daisy. Unfortunately, even though her rent was considerably higher, it wasn’t like we could move in together.
Two thousand dollars in cash was going to make a lot of difference. I wouldn’t have to pay tax on it, and I could use it for groceries and medicine and other necessities and let my salaries sit in the bank until the hospital bills came due. It would even make up for the fact that I was missing three shifts over the weekend. I’d managed to convince my other jobs to let me have the time off at short notice – a fact I was grateful for, because I would hate to gain a quick cash injection but lose a long-term job.
There was just one exception: my regular Friday evening shift. They still wanted me to work from 5:30pm to 8pm, but I had checked the times and it would all work out. I could still get to the Crowhill Cove Hotel for 9pm and meet Xavi for the rehearsal dinner. If the traffic was good, I might even have ten minutes to spare.
