“I think so.”
“Good. I’ll bring more whiskey,” he says with a grin. Mrs. Harris gives me a hug goodbye and I let my eyes fall shut as soon as they’re gone. I get a whole thirty seconds of sleep before a nursing assistant comes in to see if I need more water, which I do.
“You can go home and go to sleep,” I tell Sam when the aide leaves to bring me another Styrofoam cup of water. “You look tired, and I know it’s not exactly fun sitting here.”
“I don’t want to leave you.” His eyes meet mine and my heart swells in my chest. And then I immediately start coughing.
“Ugh, why am I feeing worse?”
“I’ll find your nurse. The medicine you were given when you first got admitted is starting to wear off.” He comes over and touches my forehead. “I’m worried your fever is going to come back.”
“It’s freezing in here. I don’t think it will.”
“You know it doesn’t work that way,” he says with a smile, knowing I’m poking at him. “And it is a little cold in here. If you’re not feverish, I’ll get you another blanket too.”
“Thank you. You really have taken good care of me today.”
“I love you, Chloe.” His brows pinch together, and he looks conflicted, which is even more confusing than him getting all freaked out whenever us having a family is mentioned.
“I love you, too,” I say. “And only one of us can be sick at a time, and if you don’t get any sleep, you’ll be next. Like you said, you’re already exposed.”
“Stop being logical,” he says back with a lopsided grin. “I’ll stay until visiting hours are over, unless you want me to stay the night with you. Do you want me to bring you anything from the house?”
“New pajamas, my phone charger, and my plotting notebook.”
“Really?” Sam hikes up his eyebrows. “You want to work?”
“I’m a workaholic, I know.”
“You really need to rest so you can get better.”
“I know. I’m worried I won’t be able to sleep and not having anything to keep myself occupied with makes me anxious.”
“I get that,” he tells me. “I’ll bring it as long as you promise you won’t push yourself to stay up. Sleep when your body wants to sleep.”
“I promise.” I’m feeling tired right now. “It’s not very comfortable here. I like to sleep on my side, and I have all this shit on me.” I look at the wires monitoring my heart rate—which is fine now—along with the blood pressure cuff and the IV lines.
“Let me help you.” Sam moves to the head of the bed, helping me get as comfortable as possible. I give Sam the TV remote, telling him to put something on if he’s going to stay while I’m sleeping. Unable to keep my eyes open any longer, I’m almost asleep as Sam fusses over the blankets, soothing them out and making sure I’m warm without getting overheated.
“I love you,” he says, thinking I’m asleep. “I wish you knew just much you mean to me, how much you always will no matter…no matter what happens.”18SamI spent the entire drive home from my mom’s house mentally preparing for telling Chloe the truth. I rehearsed a speech in my mind, reminding her how much I loved her and how much she means to me, now and forever. I took the long way home, giving myself extra time to think, and coming back to Chloe’s dad’s house and finding Chloe in the state she was in was the last thing I expected, totally derailing any and all thoughts of telling her about Stacey. I could tell right away she was very sick, and felt guilty for taking my sweet time getting back to her.
And I fully assumed she’d spent two or three hours in the ER and then go home with medication and would be feeling much better in the morning. Seeing her have an adverse reaction to pain medication was fucking terrifying. I was worried I’d lose Chloe, but because she didn’t want to be with me after finding out I might have a child on the way…not because I watched her die right before my eyes.
She’s okay now, sleeping right in front of me, and the steady rise and fall of her chest brings me comfort knowing she’s going to be just fine in a day or two. I sit in the uncomfortable armchair next to the bed, flipping through the limited channels this small hospital has to offer, landing on a rerun of Friends. I make it through almost a full episode before my phone rings. The number is unknown, with an area code local to Silver Ridge. I answer, thinking maybe it’s Jacob calling from his clinic’s line.
“Hello?”
“Sam? This is Mike, Chloe’s dad.”
“Oh, hi, Mr. Fisher.”
“Call me Mike. Chloe forwarded me your info, I hope that’s okay. I wanted to hear from you how she’s doing. Ever since Alyssa died, Chloe downplays any sort of illness. Part of it is her not wanting me to worry and the other part is denial that anything could ever be seriously wrong with her.”