Rearview Mirror

by B L Clark

  “Yeah, I need snuggles, and you’re the only one who can help with that…effectively.” Amber gave her the lopsided smile, secretly hoping it still melted Nicole’s heart.

  “Vixen.” Nicole giggled as she made herself comfortable on the bed, then allowed Amber to curl against her. She held Amber, kissed the top of her head, and watched her sleep. She had missed Amber more than she could describe, and feeling Amber in her arms gave Nicole a sense of being complete, something she hadn’t felt since Amber left ten years earlier.

  “Sidney, may I see you in my office?” Heather said as she approached the front desk. She hesitated as she walked past the spot in the lobby where Amber had lain bleeding after being shot.

  “Sure.” Sidney wondered if she was going to hear the full story of what had transpired earlier in the day. She had arrived at work to see Jill’s team taking pictures of the lobby and then a crew had come in to clean up the damage.

  “So, do you know what happened here earlier today?” Heather asked as the two women sat in her office.

  “Not much. I just know that someone was shot, your sister was here when I got in, but she wouldn’t say anything, then some people came in, cleaned, and left.”

  “This morning, Nicole and Amber arrived to meet us for breakfast with Zach before he left for New York. While we were talking in the lobby, Amber’s brother, Jeffrey, came in and pulled a gun on us.” Heather paused when she heard Sidney inhale. “You see, Amber was abused as a child and left here ten years ago after her father and brother almost beat her to death.”

  “Oh, my god.” Sidney brought her hand up to cover her mouth. “H-how did her brother find her?”

  “Jeffrey overheard you and Lori talking in the bar last night.” Heather tried to contain the venom in her voice.

  “W-what?”

  “Jeffrey overheard you and Lori discussing Amber, Nicole, and Zach, and he showed up here this morning with a gun, and Amber was shot in the side.”

  “Is she okay?”

  “She will be, but for a while, we weren’t sure if she was going to make it.”

  “I’m so sorry to hear that.”

  “You need to realize that speaking about our clients is an invasion of their privacy and a breach of their trust. They come here expecting that we aren’t going to be discussing who’s here, why they’re here, or any of that personal information. You broke that trust, and because you did, Amber is in the hospital with a gunshot wound.”

  “I am so sorry…Lori cornered me and started asking questions,” Sidney sputtered, fighting to keep the tears in. She was certain that Heather was about to fire her, and she couldn’t lose this job, not now.

  “Sorry…I’m not the one you need to say you’re sorry to. Amber is. You need to never let this happen again, or I will fire you without a second thought. If Lori or anyone asks you about someone who is staying here or someone they’ve seen here, you simply tell them that you’re not at liberty to discuss anyone or anything dealing with the hotel. Is that understood?”

  “Completely. I’m sorry, I should have used better judgment. It’ll never happen again.”

  “I hope not. I see a promising future for you, Sid, don’t blow it.”

  “I’ll apologize to Amber, as well.”

  “You may want to be cautious about approaching her. Nicole is a bit territorial.” Heather smiled.

  “Oh, I remember very well. I promise I won’t approach either of them without approval first.”

  “All right. I’m having confidentiality agreements drawn up for everyone who works here to sign so we never have something like this happen again.”

  “That’s a good idea.”

  “Now go back to the desk. I need to talk to Keyser about dinner for Zach, Jill, and me.”

  Sidney rose from her chair and quickly exited the office. She was grateful that Heather hadn’t fired her and mad as hell at herself for being dumb enough to talk about a guest. She knew better, yet the fear that Lori caused in her made her forget common sense entirely.

  Heather realized that the albums were too much for her to handle alone and asked Sidney to help her carry them up to the Bonsai Suite. Heather then went to speak with Keyser to have him make the house special and to have it delivered to the suite.

  Once the albums were up in the room and dinner had been delivered, Heather and Jill went about re-educating Zach on Amber.

  “So, let me get this right. Amber is a natural brunette. She was a scrawny girl with braces before she hit high school, which is when she blossomed into a brunette goddess. Tall, athletic, body to die for, popular girl I know now? Well, except I thought she was a blonde.”

  “Yep! Erik always called it the ugly duckling story…well, not to her face or while Nicole was around. They both would have kicked his ass.” Jill smiled at Zach’s reaction.

  “And that’s when Amber started to date Nicole? Did that go over well? What was Nicole like?”

  “Nicole was always slender, a nerd with aspirations of becoming a geek.” Jill pointed to a picture of a younger Nicole in the album. “Nicole was always in the advanced classes, the real brainy type. We were all friends, but it wasn’t until Nicole and Amber got paired for a school project and had to spend most of their days and some nights together that they fell in love. The project was a marriage/parenting project. How they ended up paired, we never knew. Erik said the teacher had some insight since she was a lesbian. We teased them that they took the project a bit too seriously, but they were so cute together. Their relationship had a mixed reception. None of us minded, but there were some at school that had real issues with it. Amber’s mom was happy for her. She saw how happy Amber was when Nicole was around. Her dad and brother wouldn’t have been so happy. Thankfully, they didn’t know for their two-year relationship.”

  “How did people at school take it? I mean, where I went to school, if a popular girl even talked to a geek or nerd, they got harassed pretty good,” Zach said. “I’m guessing that Amber and Nicole were seen very differently as individuals.”

  “As Jill said, some people had issues, but Nicole and Amber didn’t seem to care,” Heather said. “They had been friends for years, so some people just let it go and lived in denial, telling themselves they were just good or close friends.”

  “They do look as cute together then as they do now,” Zach said as he flipped through the photo albums. “Amber made a damn cute brunette, as well.”

  “Preaching to the choir there, buddy,” Heather said.

  “So, Amber never knew you had a crush on her?” Jill asked, watching Heather’s sly smile appear.

  “None of you did for the longest time, and well, once anyone knew, it was about a week before she left.”

  “And you’ve held on to your love for Amber for all these years?” Zach asked.

  “She was worth it. I’m not saying I haven’t dated, but they’ve all paled when I compared them to Amber.”

  “I think you’re going to have to finally get over that, little sister,” Jill said.

  “I know. Amber has and always will belong to Nicole. I wouldn’t want to compete against Nicole anyway. I know I’d lose.”

  “Yeah, you would,” Zach and Jill said in unison.

  “Gee, thanks for the votes of confidence, you two. I am damn cute, you know.” Heather laughed.

  The nurse came in to take Amber’s vitals and saw Nicole holding a very contented Amber, and she had to smile. She rarely saw patients this calm and relaxed in the hospital. Especially after everything that Amber had been through that day. The nurse thought about disturbing them and then decided that she would come back at the end of her rounds, giving them more time to rest together.

  “Ow, ow, ouchie, ow,” Amber said as she tried to move after just waking up.

  “Baby, what’s going on? Do you need me to get the nurse?” Nicole asked as she woke, hearing Amber’s cries of pain.

  “No, no, I’m just stiff, and it hurts to move where my incision is and maybe the muscl
es in that area, as well.”

  “I shouldn’t feel sympathy for you since you were trying to get up and move around earlier, but I hate seeing you hurt. What can I do to help?”

  “I need to get on my back.” Amber thought that just rolling from her side to her back would be easy, but there were muscles that had been hurt, not to mention what they had done in the surgery.

  Nicole got up and walked around the bed and grabbed the sheet below Amber and pulled it slowly, moving Amber’s body so she was able to lean backward.

  “There, baby, how’s that?” Nicole asked.

  Amber just nodded. She was holding her breath because of the pain.

  “You know holding your breath like that is just going to make the pain worse,” the nurse said as she came in.

  “Is there anything she can get for the pain?” Nicole asked.

  “Yeah, I was coming to see if you two were awake yet, so I could give her something,” the nurse said. “My name is Jamie. I’m the night nurse.”

  “We slept that long?” Amber’s voice was strained due to the pain.

  “Well, for a good four and a half hours. That’s why you’re so sore and stiff. I know you’re Amber, what’s your name?”

  “Sorry, I’m Nicole,” Nicole said, shaking hands with the nurse.

  “Great. I wish I had more patients that were as contented and would rest as nice as Amber did with you. It would make my job so much easier.” Jamie laughed.

  “Well, you just need to let them have someone with them that they truly love,” Nicole said as she watched Jamie draw a syringe of pain meds and inject it into Amber’s IV.

  “No, that can’t be it, I’ve seen too many people argue with each other that way.” Jamie laughed.

  “Well, until two days ago, we hadn’t seen each other for about ten years,” Amber said.

  “That definitely could be the reason,” Jamie said. “Are you starting to feel some relief, Amber?”

  “Yes, thank you!”

  “I’ll be back to check on you in about an hour. Try to move a bit to loosen up the muscles. But stay in bed. I’m expecting you to keep an eye on her.” Jamie pointed at Nicole.

  “Yes, ma’am,” Nicole said as Jamie laughed and left the room. “Do you want some water or anything?”

  “Nic, come here for a minute,” Amber asked.

  Nicole sat on the edge of the bed. Amber pulled her closer and passionately kissed her. The heart monitor beeped and then started to beep faster. Nicole tried to pull back, but Amber had threaded her hand in her hair and was keeping their lips pressed together. The meds lowered Amber’s heart rate, so they didn’t break the threshold.

  “Mmm, that was nice,” Nicole said as they finally separated. “I didn’t hurt you, did I?”

  “No pain. The meds are working,” Amber said, smiling at Nicole.

  “Good, now you need to take it easy.”

  “No, Nurse Jamie said I should move around.”

  “Yes, but you’re loopy on meds, and I don’t want to take advantage of you compromised like that,” Nicole said.

  “I don’t deserve you,” Amber said as a tear rolled down her face.

  “Baby, don’t cry.” Nicole pulled Amber close and held her.

  Amber started to feel better after two days and was able to leave the next day, but she wasn’t going to be cleared to fly for another week or more.

  “So, are you ready to leave?” Zach asked as he sat with Amber.

  “I’m very ready to get out of here. Are you heading back to New York soon? And no, I’m not trying to get rid of you.”

  “I head back tomorrow, provided you really get out of here.”

  “Oh, I’m leaving, don’t worry about that.” Amber laughed.

  “Can we talk about something?”

  “Sounds serious. What’s up?” Amber patted the edge of the bed for Zach to have a seat.

  “I want to talk to you about Nicole.” Zach saw Amber tense; he knew he was going to have to be careful with this.

  “W-what about Nicole?” Amber asked defensively.

  “I see how close you two are becoming and how much she makes you smile. I’m wondering what’s going to happen when you get the okay to go home.”

  “I’ve tried to talk to her about it, but she avoids the subject.”

  “What do you want to have happen?”

  “I love her, Zach, I never stopped. I know she has a job and a life here, but I can’t help wanting to ask her to come to New York with me.”

  “You’re scared to ask because you think she’ll say no, aren’t you?”

  “Very scared, almost petrified.” Amber bowed her head.

  “Why would you be that scared?”

  “I love her. She’s the only person I’ve ever loved and ever want to love. That’s pretty intense, then you add in all that has happened the past week.”

  “Okay, I can see that. She loves you, too. You two need to talk and figure out if you want a life together or not.”

  “What if she says she doesn’t want me or a life with me? I don’t know if I can handle that.”

  “You won’t know until you talk with her.”

  “I know.”

  “Where are you going to stay when you get out of this place?”

  “I was thinking that I would go back to the hotel,” Amber said. “I haven’t asked what the plan was, though.”

  “If I had a say in it, I’d send you to Nicole’s.” Zach smirked.

  “I have a broken collarbone and shoulder and stitches in my side, I don’t know that what you’re hoping to happen could or would.” Amber blushed, knowing he wasn’t the only one hoping for more to come out of time alone with Nicole.

  “I just want you two to spend time together. Heather is the one that wants to know about those other explicit details.”

  “Yeah, I need to talk to her about that stuff, too,” Amber said.

  “Why?”

  “She seems to have some rather skewed views toward me.”

  “Go easy on her. You were her first crush, and we all know how hard that is to get over.”

  “I will, I just don’t want her being misled or getting false hope for anything,” Amber said.

  “Knock, knock,” Nicole said, poking her head in the door.

  “Hi, Nicole.” Zach smiled.

  “Hi, Zach. How is our patient?” Nicole entered and made her way over to the bed.

  “I’m fine.” Amber took Nicole’s hand when she leaned against the bed.

  “She says she’s ready to leave,” Zach said, smiling at the two of them.

  “Very ready,” Amber said.

  “Well, I’m here to take you back to my place to recover.” Nicole looked at Amber and saw the hesitation in her eyes. “Don’t argue with me, Knight, you will not win.”

  Amber opened her mouth to speak and then closed it again, seeing the smirk on Zach’s face.

  “Do you think you’ll feel up to going with us to drop Zach off tomorrow?”

  “Yeah, and even if I didn’t feel up to it, I would go anyway,” Amber said matter-of-factly.

  “The hell you would.” Zach and Nicole nodded in agreement.

  “I’m not an invalid…”

  “No, but if you don’t take care of yourself, you aren’t going to be well in time for your show, and Lucinda will not be happy.”

  “Damn it, I have to get those forms signed.”

  “I already got Heather and Erik to sign theirs, but there were only two forms in the folder,” Zach said.

  “I signed mine already,” Nicole said.

  “It’s in my computer bag. Will you take them back and give them to Lucinda?”

  “Yep. I’m so excited to see your artwork under that bright specially designed lighting. We’ve been working toward this for so long.” Zach and Amber shared a knowing smile.

  Nicole saw the excitement in Amber’s eyes and knew that this woman who had lived in New York was truly in her element and where she needed to be. She kne
w her heart was going to break when Amber left. Nicole knew she couldn’t stand in the way of the woman she loved so much; she couldn’t do anything that would take away from Amber achieving her dreams.

  Zach sensed a mood change in Nicole and excused himself, saying he had to grab that form and finish packing.

  Chapter Twelve

  Leaving the Hospital

  After Zach left, Nicole sat on the bed next to Amber. Nicole was staring at the sheet lost in thought when she felt a kiss on her neck.

  “Where are you?” Amber asked softly.

  “I’m here. I just realized how much of your life I know nothing about and how much of your life you hid from us before you left,” Nicole said.

  “We’ll talk, I promise. I love you, Nicole, you have to know that.” Amber took Nicole’s hand and made sure they were looking into each other’s eyes.

  “I do, and you know I love you, too. Sometimes, that just doesn’t feel like enough, though.”

  “Yeah, I know. At least we still have some time together. Just us.”

  “I love that idea. You sure you don’t mind staying at my place? If you would feel more comfortable at the hotel, I don’t want to—” Nicole was silenced by Amber’s lips on hers.

  “Positive, I don’t mind,” Amber whispered into Nicole’s lips before kissing her again.

  “You two are the cutest couple,” Jamie said as she entered the room.

  “I thought you were a night nurse,” Amber said, smiling at Jamie.

  “I am, but I wasn’t going to miss a chance to say goodbye to my favorite patient and couple. I come with discharge papers and instructions.” Jamie held up several papers. “I can leave, but then you have to wait for a day nurse, and that could be a few hours.”

  “Please let me leave,” Amber begged, giving Jamie puppy dog eyes.

  “Yeah, please let her leave.” Nicole laughed at Amber and the face Jamie was making.

  “Fine. We have to go over these instructions, and I need you, Nicole, to make sure she follows them.”

  “I’ll do my best, but she’ll be going back to New York soon.”