She listened to the man next to her snoring and settled in to do her final twenty-four hours before she could leave and go back to work, to calm herself down.Dr.Aquilar had ordered four days of hospitalization, but there was no way that she was going to stay that long.
The new doctor on the ward took a look at her stitches and pronounced that she could be discharged before dinner, and she was all for it.
When she signed the paperwork and got dressed, there was an extreme sense of relief.
She gathered her phone and left the hospital twenty-four hours after being brought in by ambulance.
She got a ride share and headed home.She just wanted to heal her face and put this all behind her.
* * * *
Tosh got the call fromEtienne Aquilar, and he sat straight in surprise.“What do you mean she’s in the hospital?”
“Her father beat her, ruptured her spleen and appendix.She’s a friend of yours, and my dad is looking for someone to stay with her.”
“Fuck.Right.I am on my way.”
“Hold on, I will find out where she is.”Etienne was silent.“Never mind.Do you know where she lives?”
“Sure.I have picked her up once or twice.”
“She managed to manoeuvre herself into a discharge.”
“But she just had surgery.”
“Correct.And she’s an omega, which I didn’t think she was, so I have been telling my dad that she isn’t my type.”He growled.
Tosh got his shoes on and headed for his car.“Did you let her know that?”
“Fuck.I have her address.Meet you there.”
Tosh wondered how Etienne was going to walk back any comments he had shared with Dex.She seemed the type to take no as a definite no.
For two years, he had been taking every chance to go down to her shop and talk to her, and she had simply taken his shoes, smiled, and gotten to work.When he returned to pick them up, she had shown a little insecurity as she waited for him to try them on and take a look.The relief she had expressed had been strange when he smiled and thanked her.
Security and management at the performance hall had been tense, but no one was saying anything.They had simply been left to wonder at what had happened.Tosh still didn’t know, but the contract party was over before he arrived, and there were murmurs about Vincent and Dex’s father attacking her and her defending herself in the back yard.No one was sure how, but she had kept him at bay until the police had arrived.According to other company members, her face was swollen on one side, and she had been moving stiffly.Whatever had happened to her had been between when he saw her at three and seven in the evening.
He was five blocks over and made it in a few minutes.
* * * *
Dex finished orderinggroceries and went to take a careful shower with the same gel she had used the last time she had an open wound.She took down her ponytail and washed her hair.It had been driving her nuts.
She towelled her hair dry on one of her black towels and brushed it.She needed to touch up the dye.
Dex wrapped herself in one of her soft robes and moved carefully to the kitchen to make a coffee.She was standing in her living room, trying to figure out how to sit comfortably, when the doorbell rang.
With her coffee in hand, she went to the door and looked through the window to one side.She opened the door and frowned.“Tosh, what are you doing here?”
He looked at her and cursed.“Fucking hell.Who did that?”
“Oh.My dad.”
“May I come in?”
“Sure.I don’t have any food, though.I missed shopping day yesterday, and I am waiting for an order.”
“Wholesome fruits and veggies?”
