Aspen
I clockout and yell goodbye to Bianca over my shoulder as I race out of the coffee shop and head for home. Adeline’s doctor appointment is in an hour and I know that I’m going to be late if I don’t hurry. I run the four blocks back to our apartment and take the stairs two at a time.
Adeline called in sick to work again today and I’m just hoping that she’s up and dressed so that I can grab her and we can go. When I had gotten home late last night from the cleaning job, she was still curled up on the mattress. She hadn’t touched the food that I had left for her and it didn’t look like she had left so I know she didn’t eat. I wonder if she ever even woke up.
That’s my nightmare. That I’m going to come home and she’s going to be laying on our mattress. I’ll try to wake her but she won’t wake up. She’ll be gone and I’ll be all alone. Every time I come home and she’s asleep on the mattress, I’m afraid to touch her, to check on her.
Luckily, when I open the door today, she’s up and dressed. She’s sitting on the mattress pulling on her shoes when I burst in.
“Ready to go?” I ask as I peek over at the counter. I had left her toast this morning and my stomach sinks when I see it still sitting there, untouched.
“Yeah.” She says weakly.
I offer her my hand and pull her up to her feet.
“You hungry?” I ask hopefully.
“Not really. We need to hurry anyway or we’re going to be late.”
I watch as she trudges past me and I force the tears back. Truth is, I already know what the doctor is going to say. This is it. She’s not going to get better. She needs the surgery that we can’t afford. Yes, we can. My brain says as Roman and Flynn’s offer once again flashes through my mind. I just need to swallow my pride and hurt feelings and accept their offer.
“Coming?” Adeline asks from the door and I realize that I’ve been lost in thought for too long.
“Right behind you.” I say as I follow her out and lock the door behind us.
We ordered an Uber and it’s waiting for us when we get outside. I hold the back door open for Adeline and slide in after her. Normally, we would just walk to the doctor’s office. It wasn’t that far and it was cheaper that way, but with how weak Adeline is right now, I’m not sure that we would make it.
Adeline chatters for the first couple minutes of the ride, asking me how work was and how Bianca is doing, but I can tell that she’s tiring fast and so I try to do most of the talking. I tell her that work was busy and that Bianca is doing good. She went out on another first date last night and she already knows that she won’t be going on a second. I laugh at that. Bianca is always going on dates but none of them have led to a second one yet. Adeline is the romantic of the two of us and I know that she would love to go on dates. Unfortunately, the animal shelter isn’t the best place to meet single guys and we’re too poor to waste money at clubs or bars.
“You ever think about meeting someone? Getting married?” She asks me.
“Actually, there’s been these two guys that have been coming into the coffee shop for a couple of weeks now and asking me out.” I say.
“What?” She practically yells. It’s the most emotion I’ve seen out of her in days.
She turns to me with a big smile and I know that she wants to know all of the details. I don’t know why, but I’ve been hiding the guys from Adeline. I guess I knew that she would encourage me to go out with them and I didn’t want to leave her alone. If she couldn’t be happy, then I didn’t deserve to be either.
I’m saved from answering when we pull up outside the doctor’s office and I pull my phone out, paying through the app and leaving a 5-star rating. We hop out of the car and head inside to sign in with two minutes to spare.
We find two seats next to each other and sit down to wait for them to call her name. She rests her head on my shoulder as the nurse takes the patient in front of us back. We sit in silence for a few minutes before Ruby, Adeline’s favorite nurse, calls us back.
We follow her down the hallway and into a checkup room. I sit in the extra chair as they take Adeline’s weight and vitals. They lead us down the hallway and take a CT scan of her brain. We head back in and Ruby pats Adeline on her knee before she leads us down to the doctor’s office.
We settle into the two chairs in front of the doctor’s desk as he flips through Adeline’s file. Finally, he settles back in his seat and smiles up at us. I can see from his eyes that it’s not good news.
“Well, Ms. Monroe, it’s not good news. It’s like we suspected. Your tumor has grown and without the surgery, you’ll have months left.”
I watch as Adeline looks down at her lap and I can tell that she’s not surprised by this news. Truth be told, I’m not either.
The doctor continues, “I know your insurance doesn’t cover the procedure but you should really consider a loan or some other way to pay for it. Otherwise, there’s nothing else that we can do.” He says solemnly.
I brush some tears off my cheeks before wrapping my hand around Adeline’s frail shoulders.
“If we get the money, how soon could you get her in to have surgery?” I ask.
“I could get her in on Thursday.” He says.
Three days.