by Kyle Andrews
Sim was still there, sitting in a chair next to the bed with his feet up, watching the TV that was hanging on the wall across from Justin. On the TV, a blonde reporter was rambling off the day's news, talking about the rescheduling of the football game and some political scandal in some city that Justin had never been to and would probably never have to worry about.
“Senator Finn has not issued a statement to the press as of this broadcast,” the reporter said into the camera, “but sources close to the Senator's office say that there is no evidence to support the accusations made against the Senator. Authorities expect to file charges as soon as the DNA evidence can be processed.”
Justin had to wonder what that politician had done wrong. What brought upon the punishment of the press? Obviously, the sin had been committed against that politician's fellow elites. If he was good and played nice, he could kill a dozen hookers while snorting coke off of an endangered animal's ass and the press would never say a word about it. He'd stepped out of line, and now he would be replaced. If he were lucky, he wouldn't serve any prison time.
Sim looked toward the door and then put his feet down on the floor. Justin turned in time to see Marti approaching with drinks from the coffee shop. Four of them.
Justin looked to Marti's eyes to question her about those drinks, but she couldn't give him a response without drawing attention to them.
“You got me something after all?” Sim asked, looking excited by the idea of drinking real coffee.
“Sure did,” Marti replied, and she handed him the smallest cup. “Hope you like carob milk.”
Sim's expression fell. He still took the cup from her and took a sip. He still said, “Thank you,” but it he said it like a little kid who had just realized that sugary cereal wasn't on this week's shopping list.
Marti handed Justin his cup and said, “Regular coffee with one-percent milk.”
“Really? Not two-percent or whole?”
“Whole?” Marti asked, looking down at Justin as though he were joking.
He wasn't joking. He didn't want everyone at Freedom to think that he was badly injured. There was no need to cause a fuss over some bumps and bruises, or a little concussion or whatever else he'd forgotten was wrong with him.
“One-percent,” Marti insisted.
“Are you two speaking in some sort of code that I'm not aware of?” Sim asked. He was only joking, but far too close to the truth.
Before Justin or Marti could respond, Sim nodded toward the other, larger cup of coffee and asked, “Who's that for?”
Marti sighed and said, “A patient.”
“You got a patient coffee, but not one of your nearest and best-looking friends?” Sim asked.
With a smile, Marti replied, “I like him more.”
“Geo Garrison?” Sim pressed.
Marti shrugged.
Sim looked to Justin as though he were expecting Justin to get upset at Marti, but Justin honestly wasn't sure how to react. He had no idea what angle Marti was playing, but he didn't like the idea of her putting herself in danger by pushing her way into a VIP's life. Bad things happened to people who messed with the elites. Just ask whoever's DNA they were testing in the Senator Finn case.
Justin's concern must have shown on his face, because Sim pointed at him and said, “That's anger. And jealousy.”
“It's fine,” Marti insisted. “It's just coffee.”
“Yeah, but coffee leads to things, Marti. People expect more,” Sim argued. He turned to Justin and said, “Say something.”
“Marti is a big girl,” Justin said, still looking into Marti's eyes with disapproval. “She can make her own decisions.”
“There's no decision. It's just coffee. And he will pay me back,” Marti assured him.
Justin had to wonder if 'he will pay me back' was part of the code that he wasn't understanding.
Marti brushed a strand of hair away from Justin's eyes and gave him a kiss on the forehead. She said, “I'll be back in a little while, okay?”
Justin nodded, though he still didn't understand what she was doing. After giving Sim a quick nod goodbye, Marti walked out of the room.
Once she was gone, Sim smacked Justin's leg. It didn't hurt quite as much as the time that Marti smacked him, but he still wished that people would stop hitting him.
“How can you do that?” Sim asked.
“Do what?”
“Let her go off with some other guy.”
“She's not going off. She's just bringing him coffee. He'll be gone soon enough anyway.”
“And you have no problem with your girlfriend flirting with another guy? One who is powerful and good looking?”
“You sound like you want to flirt with him.”
“I'm serious, Justin,” Sim said, sitting back in his chair. He had a frustrated expression on his face and he was shaking his head. After a moment of thinking, he said, “I don't get how you can be with someone for as long as you have and not...” he didn't finish that sentence. He put his drink down on a nearby table and fell silent.
It was the moments like these that reminded Justin what was different about Sim. He'd experienced things in his life that he didn't have answers for. He was questioning the way things were, in his own way. Not the system, but the people. He had been in love, once upon a time.
Justin looked at Sim and realized that Sim wasn't simply angry at Justin and Marti for not being in love, he was longing to witness that spark once again. To believe that it still existed, because ever since the night that his own love was taken away, the very concept of love had become a distant dream. That might have been the only thing that Sim had ever strongly felt.
“Here,” Justin finally said, breaking the silence between them. He held out his cup of coffee, offering it to Sim.
Sim looked back and asked, “You don't want it?”
“People keep telling me that I need to rest.”
“Seriously?”
“Take it.”
Any deep thought that Justin sensed in Sim melted away as he reached out and took the coffee from Justin.
“Want my carob milk?” Sim asked.
“No.”
Sim's smile grew wider.
23
The hallway on the fifth floor was much less hectic than the rest of the hospital. Marti could hear TVs on in some of the rooms as she passed, still carrying her own cup of tea, as well as the cup of coffee meant for Geo Garrison. She could hear quiet conversations taking place too, and if she could have gotten away with it, she might have stopped to listen at one or two of those doors, but she couldn't. Security might find it suspicious if an ER nurse were standing with her ear to the door of a patient's room.
Directly across from the nurses station—which looked more like the front desk of some fancy hotel—there was a sitting area that looked more like a cocktail lounge. As Marti passed the sitting area, she glanced over and saw Governor Garrison sitting in one of the cushy leather chairs, talking to a man in a wheelchair. She didn't know who the other man was, but he had one leg in a cast.
Marti stopped at the nurses station, which was fortunately free of any nurses at the moment, and put both cups down as she logged into the patient information database. She already knew which room Geo Garrison was staying in, but she wanted to stay near the desk for a few moments, just to see if she could hear any fragment of the Governor's conversation that might prove useful.
She skimmed through Geo's chart, finding nothing new or exciting on it. The guy probably didn't even need to be in the hospital at all, much less occupy a bed for an entire night. But he was special, and that demanded that he take up the time and energy of a medical staff that could be more useful in the emergency room, where HAND officers were coming in bloody and broken.
She might have been outraged if she gave a damn about those HAND officers.
“All three of them?” she heard the Governor ask in a whisper that somehow carried across the room even more than his normal tone would have.
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Marti didn't know what he was talking about, but if she stood there any longer, she would begin to draw attention to herself.
She logged out of the patient information and picked up the cups of coffee. As she turned to walk away from the nurses station, Marti glanced toward the sitting area once more and locked eyes with the Governor. He was watching her go as though he recognized her from earlier and was wondering why she was on the fifth floor.
Throwing on that sweet and caring smile that she had perfected over the years, Marti nodded a hello to the Governor as she walked by. Though she normally had no business being on the fifth floor and probably shouldn't have even been there this time, Marti acted as though she owned the place. It was remarkable what she could get away with by simply acting as though it were all perfectly natural.
She reached Geo Garrison's door, which was only slightly open. The light in the room was on, so there was a good chance that he wasn't napping. Marti listened for a moment, but heard no voices. This was good, because she wanted him to be alone.
Glancing at the tinted glass window on the door, Marti studied her own reflection. She could probably have used a little bit of work on her hair, and undoubtedly could have used some makeup, but there wasn't much that she could do about any of that now. She shifted the expression on her face until she had warm and friendly eyes, and a playful grin. She then pushed open the door with her shoulder and entered the room.
“Knock, knock,” she said, politely announcing herself as she entered, and closing the door with her foot once she was in.
There was a curtain blocking her view of the bed, but she assumed that Geo was in it, wearing a hospital gown and milking his superficial injuries for all of the sympathy and prescription medication that he could get.
“Are you decent?” she asked, standing by the curtain.
“Depends on who you ask,” came the response.
She wondered if he recognized her voice or if he was this playful with all of the nurses that he encountered that day. If it was the latter, her job might be more difficult than she thought. She wanted him to be flirting with her specifically. It gave her power.
Then again, if he enjoyed playing the game with every woman he met, she could make that work too. She would simply need to adjust her strategy.
Moving past the curtain and into the room, Marti found Geo sitting in a chair next to the bed, wearing sweat pants and a white t-shirt. He had bandages here and there, but the way he was sitting didn't suggest any pain or suffering.
“I was hoping I'd see you again,” he told her, confirming that he had recognized her voice. That was good.
“I just wanted to check and make sure that you were okay,” Marti replied. “And bring you this.”
She walked to Geo and handed him the larger of the two cups in her hand. He took it, looked at it for a second or two, and then said, “You bought me coffee?”
“I did. I figured that you might not like the stuff they serve here.”
“The stuff they serve here is not coffee.”
“I'm aware of that. It's Coffite. I think it's processed tree bark or something like that.”
“It tastes like unprocessed tree bark.”
Marti laughed and nodded.
Geo got up. He was now standing right in front of Marti and towering over her, studying her expression.
He then asked, “Do you bring coffee to all of your patients?”
She looked down, as though she was embarrassed by the fact that she was being so straightforward with him. After all, she wasn't supposed to be imposing herself on the better class.
“I'm—I mean, I don't. Not normally,” she told him, and her voice sounded much breathier than she had intended it to.
For a moment, she was worried that she was laying the act on a little bit too thick.
“Sit,” he said to her, in a friendly tone.
“I shouldn't.”
“Would it make a difference if I told you that I was the Governor's son, and you must do what I say?”
“Probably. Do you use that line on all of the girls?”
“A surprising number of them, yes. Though I'm usually telling them to get away from me.”
Marti furrowed her brow, as though to ask him why.
“I like a challenge. And I hate when things are too simple.”
“Am I challenging?”
“You're talking to me like a normal person. It's... different.”
Marti nodded and said, “Well for the record, I got you coffee. That's it. I'm not throwing myself at you.”
“How's your boyfriend?”
“He'll be fine.”
“Did you tell him that I wanted to see him?”
“I forgot.”
“Did you?”
“Yes.”
The sound of the door opening caused Marti to turn. She was worried that she would see the Governor walk into the room, and that she would be forced to cut her visit short. Fortunately, the person walking into the room was just another nurse.
“I need to check your vitals,” the nurse told Geo.
“Come back later,” Geo said in a tone that was much more sharp than the one he used with Marti. It made her wonder if he was as good at putting on an act as she was.
“I'm supposed to check it every hour,” the nurse replied.
Geo looked the nurse in the eye with an expression that stopped her in her tracks and said, “Please?”
Lovely of him to be so polite when quietly scolding the poor girl, Marti thought.
The nurse nodded and walked out of the room. Marti had to feel bad for her. That nurse must have been putting up with the bad attitudes of numerous VIPs that day. She had probably been looking forward to getting handsy with the Governor's son, and undoubtedly hated Marti for getting in her way.
Once the door was closed, Marti looked down to the ground and awkwardly said, “I should probably go too.”
“You could stay. Drink coffee with me,” Geo offered, taking a sip of the coffee and wincing. “Some remarkably sweet coffee.”
Marti grinned and said, “I figured that someone like you wouldn't like things dark and bitter.”
“It's... still better than the other stuff. Please stay. I need someone to talk to.”
“I saw your father outside. He should be back soon.”
“My father is here on business. He won't be in to see me.”
Marti nodded and took a sip of her tea.
“Your name is Marti, by the way,” Geo said, moving back to his chair and sitting down.
“I was aware.”
“I made the doctor tell me, since you wouldn't.”
Marti wasn't sure what to say in response to that. Should she comment on how inappropriate it was for him to be involving her co-workers in whatever game they were playing here? Should she pretend to be impressed by the way he wielded the power of his privileged upbringing?
Geo seemed like such a nice guy, but she could tell when someone was putting on an act. She was a specialist on the subject. He could pretend to be the nice and normal guy who was interested in the girl who came from nothing, but she knew who he really was. She caught a glimpse of it when he told the other nurse to leave.
He had a half-grin on his face as he waited to see how she would respond. He lifted his coffee to his mouth and took another sip, still wincing after tasting how sweet it was.
“I shouldn't have come here,” she told him.
The whole point of her being there was to make him want her. To get close to him. To make him slip up in front of her, but there was something about Geo that was making her uncomfortable. She couldn't quite put her finger on it, but there was something about the look in his eye that made every word out of his mouth and every movement of his body seem calculated. The more she spoke with him, the more she felt as though she were the one being toyed with.
Marti was about to turn and walk toward the door when Geo hopped out of his chair and put a hand on her arm. He didn't grab he
r forcefully, but he used enough force to slow her down so that he could get in front of her.
“Did I do something to offend you?” he asked.
“No, sir.”
He narrowed his eyes, as though wondering why she was being so formal with him. Even if he asked her, she wouldn't have been able to explain it. She didn't switch gears on purpose, but something about him was making her nervous.
“Please stay,” he said, tilting his head ever so slightly as he looked at her with those ice-blue eyes. The same eyes as his father. She hated his father with every fiber of her being.
The thought occurred to Marti that if she could get close to Geo, she might be able to get close enough to the Governor to finally kill the bastard. That thought alone warmed her heart.
“Don't you have a whole harem of women that you'd rather spend time with?” she asked him.
Geo chuckled and replied, “The harem has the night off.”
“Why are you putting so much effort into me?”
“That depends on how involved you are with your boyfriend.”
“I told you—”
“He suits you. But what does that mean?”
“It means, I do what I want to do.”
Geo nodded and took a moment to think about what she had said. As he did this, Marti ran her last words through her head, trying to see if she'd slipped up. Did she say something that might betray her true intentions?
“There is something about you... I can't put my finger on it. But you're not like the others,” he told her.
Marti looked away from Geo, suddenly feeling as though this conversation was getting way too personal.
He was about to say something else to Marti, but he was cut off by the sound of a phone ringing. Marti's eyes went to the phone beside his bed, but Geo didn't even glance back. Instead, he raised his left arm, which had a cuff on it. The cuff was smooth and glossy, like glass or plastic. The side facing Marti was black and unimpressive, but the inside of his wrist, which Geo was looking at, was a cell phone display. She'd never seen one of them up close before.