"Maybe I met some rich, generous guy?" I forced a bitter smile, half-joking.
"Right." Aiden rolled his eyes. "What rich guy wants a weird girl who doesn't even try to look pretty?"
"Thanks for the compliment, dear brother." I flicked his forehead. "Point is, don't worry. Your job is to get better, not interrogate me."
Aiden stared at me for a long moment. Finally, he sighed and sank back against his pillow, eyes glistening.
"As long as you're okay." His voice dropped. "Harper, you're all I've got. If something happened to you, there'd be no point."
My throat tightened. I turned away fast, pretending to arrange things on the table.
"Quit being dramatic." I sniffled. "Just eat your cake."
Right then, the door slammed open with a bang that made both of us jump.
A woman in a neon green fur coat and four-inch stiletto boots blew in like a tornado.
Rihanna. My childhood best friend and professional chaos agent.
"Hey there, Aiden baby!"
She blew him a kiss first. "Looking good! You're actually sitting up and eating!"
"Hey, Rihanna." Aiden nibbled his cake slowly, clearly used to this. "Nice coat. Very radioactive warning sign."
"It's called fashion, you peasant." She whipped off her sunglasses, her heavily lined eyes locking onto me.
"Harper Evans!" Her voice shot up eight octaves. "I called you a million times! You ignored me?"
"Shh—!" I lunged to cover her mouth. "This is a hospital! Want the nurses to throw us out?"
Rihanna swatted my hand away and looked at it with disgust. "Talk! Why didn't you answer? I thought you jumped off a bridge last night because you didn't deliver that stupid card!"
"Card?"
Aiden's ears perked up. He glanced at me frantically signaling Rihanna, then narrowed his eyes at her.
"What card? For whom?"
"Oh my God, she didn't even tell you?" Rihanna discovered new gossip gold, plopping onto the bed and ignoring my dying glares.
"Harper's been crushing on a guy! At that nursing home where she works!"
"Rihanna!" I covered my face in agony.
"Don't interrupt!" She pushed me aside and kept briefing Aiden. "I snuck over to see him once. Total specimen. Six-three, Russian, broad shoulders, narrow waist—straight out of a magazine."
Aiden gaped, then turned to look at me with new, complicated eyes.
My face burned. Rihanna's voice carried like a megaphone. I could practically feel nurses and patients stopping in the hallway.
The whole ICU probably knew by now—some delusional fat girl fantasizing about a male model.
What they didn't know was reality was even more absurd. Kirill wasn't just a model. He was dangerous. Someone like me, invisible even on the street, had no business with someone like him.
I took a breath and cut them off.
"Listen, there's no card. No crush anymore." I stared at my shoes, voice hoarse. "I never delivered it. And I never will."
