“You look way better.” Her phone dings in her hand, and she pulls it up to glance at the screen. “Shit, God damn, mother fucker.” She shakes her head and types a quick text, then looks at me while pulling her Louis Vuitton bag onto her shoulder. “Marcus.” Marcus is her assistant. “I’ve got a client threatening to walk on a contract — a three-million fourteen-thousand dollar contact to be exact. I’m making six percent on this deal, can you do that math? Fuck me.”
“Go. Go.” I wave a hand her way. “I said I’m good. And I want to do this alone. I’ll feel better if you go and take care of your life. If anything comes up, I’ll call you, I promise.”
“Okay. Good luck. Love you.” With that, she blows me a kiss and swings out of the door already barking into her phone.
They moved me to an observation room just after we saw the nurse lead Geo Klement by the curtain in the emergency room. This room is so much better. No more listening to every moan and scream, not to mention the wonderful aromas wafting around in there.
But this room…suddenly it’s too quiet.
As though the air around me is vibrating, making me tense my muscles waiting for the knock on the door.
He’s really going to be here at any moment. I’m going to be face to face with the man that has me questioning my own mortality, as well as wanting this monster sized man to be my protector.
I know it’s pathetic, but I stopped fighting it a couple of months ago. The dreams I would have about Geo. He was always there. He was my father in the dreams, but it was more.
I can’t explain it. In my heart, I feel this nurturing but possessive spirit about him. I want him to show me all those paternal parts of him I missed growing up, but deep down I also know how ridiculous that is.
He’s a stranger. I’m sure we will exchange some awkward pleasantries then he will find some excuse to leave, and we will share our phone numbers. Promise to keep in touch. Then when the discomfort is more than either of us can take, he will disappear out that door, and I’ll have to find another job because I couldn’t stand for him to figure out it’s been me driving the bus all this time.
When the doctor told me he would meet me, he asked if I wanted him in the room. I thought about it for a bit, but I want it to be just us. I don’t want the distraction of being humiliated or emotional in front of more people than absolutely necessary.
I’m going to make a fool of myself somehow. And, what if he comes in completely indifferent. And I’ll be able to see it on his face. Feel it in the air.
I steady myself as I hear the first twitch of the doorknob than a soft knock.
“Come in,” I croak.
Then I say a silent prayer, feeling like a fire has engulfed me from the inside out.
“Here we go,” I whisper to myself, clutching the top of the sheet in my fingers.
GEO
“HERE GOES NOTHING,” I mutter as I grip the brushed stainless door handle and press it down, hearing the latch click open on the heavy metal door as I push my way inside.
I lower my gaze. I don’t remember the last time I was nervous, but right now I could light a fire with the heat radiating from me. I clear my throat as I take my first step through the door, raising my eyes as the sharp light of the room makes my pupils contract.
The room is hot, or that’s probably just me, but I scan the floor, then up the side of the bed and finally to the form under the light blue blanket and white sheet.
First, I see delicate fingers clutching the bedding so tight her knuckles are white. The polish on her thumbs is glittery, like fairy dust. I take a deep breath and tick my line of sight up the last bit and take in her face.
BOOM.
Her mouth is parted, and one hand flies up to cover her lips as I freeze in place. My feet cemented to the floor, and my eyes bolted to her face.
It’s her.
Nicci. The girl.
The girl.
The one I’ve been lusting after for six months.
She’s my fucking daughter. Jesus fucking Christ if I wasn’t already going to hell I sure am now.
This has to be some kind of cosmic joke.
“Hi.” I manage, but I see from her wild expression she recognizes me too. “I’m Geo Klement.”
“Oh my God,” she yelps, and I see the horror in her eyes. “It’s you.”
I do everything I can to not look at the swell of her breasts under the thin hospital gown but fail. To my horror, my cock twitches and thickens like it does every time the damn bus comes.