“Brittany … BrittanyMarie … Baby, please wake up.”
“Aiden?”
“Yeah baby, it’s me. Open your eyes, please.”
I opened my eyes to search for him. He was sitting in the chair beside the bed, watching me and holding my hand in his.
“Hey.”
“Hey, baby.” His voice was shaky, his eyes watery, clothes wrinkled, in short he looked like crap but I had never been so happy to see him.
“How are you feeling?”
“Alright. What about you?”
“Better. They said that you woke up and I tried to come see you before you fell asleep but the doctor was still clearing me.”
“So you’re out?”
“So to speak.”
“What do you mean?”
“I haven’t left the hospital since they said that I could. I’ve been here with you.”
“I missed you.”
“I missed you, too, baby. It was killing me not seeing you, not knowing for myself if you were alright.” His voice broke and he hung his head. My hand was heavy as I touched his hair. He placed his hands over mine as he cried. I hated seeing him cry. It always meant that something was wrong.
“Aiden?”
He looked up slowly as if he didn’t know his name. “Yeah?”
“What’s wrong?”
“They told me you might not make it, that I might have killed you.”
“Wasn’t that the plan?”
“The plan was for us to die in each other’s arms lying in that bed.”
“Maybe it’s better this way.”
“How can it be better this way? This will only make them hate me more.”
“They don’t hate you.”
“Of course not, why would they hate the guy who almost killed their only daughter after he had sex with her?” He was angry, maybe with me, maybe with himself, either way I didn’t like it.
“They know about that?”
“Of course they do. The doctors did tests on you as soon as they had you stable.”
“They didn’t say anything.”
“Not to you, but to me they did.”