A short later we were walking into a loud restaurant/bar decorated with all sorts of neon signs, surfboards, and liquor bottles. And when I say loud, I mean we couldn’t even talk. People were standing next to high tops, dancing as they ate. Some went out to the dance floor to break it down and then returned to their food in intervals. The DJ was trying to hype up the crowd and bring out people to dance, and they obeyed, dancing to a mix of Top 40 while shot girls walked around.
“This is what you thought I’d like?” I asked, getting close enough for Harvey to hear me, which was a struggle since he was a good 8 inches taller.
“It’s our divorce party!” he said, and I laughed, giving him a high five. Now I got it. It was going to be that kind of night.Well, bring it on.
I did a bit of dancing while we ate food at the high tops, but I danced by myself this time. I rolled the dice and had a drink, and soon enough we were both dancing to Rihanna and Pitbull with the rest of the crowd. It was all energy and physical stamina, and I loved sweating it out. We were keeping it a foot apart at all times, and I had a feeling that maybe Harvey was also uncomfortable with how close we’d been dancing earlier in the day. When the shot girls passed by, Harvey ordered us two each. We grabbed one in each hand, clinked them, and yelled, “Cheers!”
We were nowhere near the rowdiest at this place. I was flabbergasted at the type of dancing people around us were doing. My concern about dancing too close with Harvey would have sounded silly to those people, who were pretty much having sex in all different positions (with their clothes on). I gave Harvey several appalled looks with wide eyes. He also looked shocked, though I think he was more pretending for my sake.
It was in the early hours of the morning when we gave up— after drinking with strangers, watching two guys fight over a girl, dancing on stage in a contest (which we were shamefully eliminated from right away), and yes, even dancing a little close. It was only for seconds at a time, and I would pull away almost immediately, but the important thing is that we were both having fun. We were forgetting the rest of the world and our cheating spouses. As I stumbled outside, Harvey helped prop me up with one arm, while waving for a taxi with the other.
We were inside the taxi, and I looked over at him, glad to see that last night’s anger and frustration had disappeared. When he looked at me, I quickly gazed outside, watching the town fade away to darkness. I turned my head back to him and realized he hadn’t stopped watching me. It was strange— otherworldly, almost— but I couldn’t look away, and neither did he.
Similar to the other day, we locked eyes, and the seconds stretched out beyond what was socially acceptable. My drunken state was not helping, and I was in a heightened state of recklessness. I felt giddy, alive, and on fire as I drank in his stare. Neither one of us moved an inch, but in my mind I already had his hands all over me, ripping at the button of my shorts, and touching me through my increasingly wet panties. I was praying he couldn’t read my mind— what a shock he would have gotten.
I turned my face away, feeling ashamed, and rested my head back, closing my eyes. “Everything is spinning,” I said, trying to break the spell. He shifted in his seat and handed me a bottle of water. I took it and sipped from it, if only to give me something to do besides linger in the awkwardness of the earlier moments.
He must have an inkling of an attraction for me— that much was clear in his stare, how his eyes bored into mine earlier. Clearly, it was a mixture of alcohol, rebound/revenge, and his celibacy from months past. The thought of using someone else purely for sex seemed like a wonderful idea whenever I looked at Harvey, but it would never turn out well for our newfound friendship, which I valued above everything else at the moment.
As I tried to focus what little brain power I had left on making it to the room, my phone vibrated in my purse. It was my mother calling me, which was strange since she knew it would be long distance charges. I picked up, worried and wondering what had happened.
“Mom, what’s wrong?” I said as a greeting.
“Sweetie, hi. I don’t mean to upset you. He’s fine right now, but your father had a heart attack this morning.” I froze in the middle of the hallway, holding my arm out to prop myself up against the wall.
“He’s stable now according to the doctors, but they had him in emergency surgery right after it happened,” she said and then continued to give me medical jargon and anatomy lessons over the phone. I said nothing for a good long while as she spoke in a soft tone, explaining what they’d been through in the past few hours.
“Mom, you should have called me sooner,” I said.
“I tried, sweetie, but it just went to voicemail, which I left you several. I left a message at the hotel too,” she said in that same eerily calm voice. There must not have been cellular service at the club.
“I’m going to book a flight to go there as soon as possible.” I was sobered up, and I had to continue to be so to deal with changing airline tickets and finding my way to the airport.
“He’s been sleeping most of the day, but I know he’d like to see you,” was her response. I wiped a tear away and said goodbye.
Harvey was already in the room, packing stuff. “Harvey, you don’t have to leave, too,” I said, grabbing my suitcase.
“Well, what’s the point of me staying here by myself if I’m just going to be dwelling on bad things… plus worrying about you.”
I don’t think I’d ever felt so touched. “But, you’re not coming to Harper Fields are you?” I asked, referring to our hometown.
“I need to make sure you get there safely. Besides, I get no peace from my mom who wants me to visit, so I’ll stay with her a few days, and I’ll be close by if you need me.” Thoughts of how Greg wouldn’t be with me at a time like this because he ruined our marriage nearly set off the crying again. Even if we were still on good terms, he probably would have been too busy with work to accompany me (had we not been on vacation).
A few hours later, I was on an airplane back to mainland USA. Harvey had taken care of everything at the ticket counter. I saw him arguing a good amount, and I should have gotten involved, but I was grateful to have him with me to help out right then. I was trying to fight away the migraine that finally came, on top of the fact that my father was lying in a hospital bed with a high chance of a recurring heart attack. That’s what my mom had said— It might not be over yet, and he’d have to make drastic lifestyle changes. I knew that would be very difficult for my beer and red-meat loving father.
Thankfully, the headache pill made me sleepy (plus it was already the next day, and I’d been awake throughout the night), and I could snooze for a few hours. When we landed, Harvey suggested that he take my suitcase to his mom’s, and I could pick it up there. He dropped me off at the hospital after renting a car.
“Thank you so much for this,” I said as I opened the door to get out.
“Just let me know if you need anything. I’m here for you, whatever you need,” he said with a smile.
“I will,” I said and reached over to give him a hug. Off I went, into the big building I’d always hated. The doctors had treated me for pneumonia when I was a kid in that hospital, and I spent days in the ICU, scaring my parents out of their minds. But the worst was on my 15th birthday when my grandfather passed away from a massive stroke. It was surreal as friends and family came over right away to be with us in our fresh grief right there in that very hospital.
I found my way to the cardiac unit and asked the nurse at the front for directions to Elton Whitman’s room, which she pointed me to. I entered quietly, but inside was my mom and her sister, chatting away at high volume as they always did. My dad was awake and sitting up, but he looked frail somehow. I’d seen him just a few days ago on Skype looking healthy as can be. The women jumped up to greet me, and my dad sat patiently with a sad smile. It broke my heart to see such a great big man this way. I gave him a soft hug, unsure of what I could or could not touch. There were wires and monitors all over the place.
“How do you feel, Dad?” I asked.
“Sugar, I’m not doing too well it seems. I guess time will tell, huh?”
