“Everyone else, the girls, my queens, my restaurant, and customers?” I tried to fight it, but a loud yawn escaped my mouth.
“Everyone is fine, just shaken. Callum is the investigator in charge, and he is waiting to talk to you.”
“You sure everyone else is okay?” I asked again as I squeezed my eyes shut in hopes that, when I opened them, they would want to stay open. I blinked several more times, but my lids were heavy, my head still somewhat hazy, and before I knew it, I fell asleep.
I woke to the sounds of people talking and metal clanging. It was all too fucking loud. I moved to try to sit up a little and realized the smells around me weren’t the scents of disinfectant or bleach that were far too common in hospitals. No, this fragrance was a layering of orange, rosemary, and the wilderness. It was too masculine for Stella, so against my head’s better judgment and hopes to avoid the bright light already piercing through my closed lids, I cracked one eyelid.
Blue eyes that ignited a memory flamed to life as they watched me.
“You. You were the man who saved me, the paramedic,” I coughed out between labored breaths.
“Yeah, I’m Dash. But I think it was the doctors who actually saved you.”
“Where’s Stella?”
“She headed home once I arrived, she didn’t want you left alone. I’m supposed to call her before I leave so the next person can come up.” Dash held out a piece of paper so I could see the writing and phone number on it.
I scratched my head, not really knowing why he would come to sit with me but appreciating it nonetheless. “How long have you been here?”
“Since just before seven this morning.”
“Why?” I asked, totally perplexed.
“Why, what? Why did I come up here?”
It was habit to raise one brow in that try-again, don’t-play-games gesture. “You know what I mean.”
“I’m not sure. I’m telling myself it’s because you were alone, and I didn’t want you to be by yourself. But I saw all of the people worried about you—hell, when I left the ER yesterday, the lobby was full of people harassing the nurse for information about you.” Dash scratched his cheek. “When I first saw you, our eyes locked and I don’t know . . .”
“We had a strange voodoo-want-to-fuck-you connection?” I asked.
Dash rapidly blinked several times. “Uh, no. Maybe I was wrong. I’m glad to see you are okay. Stay safe.” Dash stood, and the only thing I knew at that moment was that I had to stop him. I couldn’t let him walk out. Something was telling me that if I did, I’d regret it forever.
“Wait, don’t go. I have a habit of joking, somewhat inappropriately, when I get nervous. I’m sorry. Truthfully, I know what you mean. I felt it too. It wasn’t so much a recognition vibe as much as it was an I’m-going-to-know him one.”
There was a knock at the door, and a beat after, a nurse walked in.
“Good morning, I’m Jan, your nurse. Glad to see you’re awake. How are you feeling?”
“Sore, but it could be worse.”
“You are definitely one lucky man, Alex.” She smiled. “I need to get your vitals real quick and then breakfast should be in here any moment.” I wasn’t sure I could get used to people calling me Alex again. I’d been Ringo for so long that Alex almost felt like someone I used to know.
“How quickly can I get out of here?”
“So soon? We just met; you break my heart, Mr. Derring.” The nurse was cheeky but didn’t answer my question as she went to work, running a thermometer over my head, hooking a pulse ox to one finger, and then wrapping a cuff around one arm, preparing to strangle it like some python while doing what they liked to call blood pressure. Did it dawn on them that squeezing the fuck out of someone’s arm created stress, and therefore, caused a person’s blood pressure to rise? Oh, not to mention I was in the hospital, had surgery, and had been shot. Had they done this to start, I probably wouldn’t have been wondering if I could get out. Yeah, no, this hurt like a motherfucker.
“Is there anything I can get for you?” Jan asked.
“No, but thank you.”
“I’ll be back after breakfast to teach you how to use the spirometer.” She put something that resembled a medical plastic bong on the rolling table before leaving the room. No more than a breath of time later, the attendant came in to deliver breakfast.
“Alex Derring?” The lady held the tray.
“Yes.”
She unveiled my plate as if she were Lumiere without the flourish of streamers, lights, and bunting. My Disney-loving self was so disheartened.
“Next time, can you come in singing ‘Be Our Guest’ from Beauty and the Beast? It really would make this thing so much more fabulous.”
She laughed. “I’ll see what I can do. Maybe Mrs. Potts can join me.”
Taking in a deep breath. “Of course,” I sighed, and she left.
Dash pushed the buttons on the remote for my bed and moved it so I was in a more upright position. Sliding the plate closer, I took my spoon and shoved around the watery oatmeal. I wasn’t hungry. I wanted to talk with Dash, but the sound of chatter filled my doorway. Then my room was overwhelmed with the smell of Coco Chanel perfume and Big Sexy Hair hairspray.
“Let me let you go, I just got here.” Calliope flung her hair out and slid her phone into her handbag. “Ringo, don’t worry about a thing. I went and got Chiquita, and she’s at my house.”
“Oh my baby. I’m such a horrid daddy, I didn’t even think of her. Wait, what about your landlord? He doesn’t allow dogs.” I loved my little apple head Chihuahua, even if she was a dickwad at times.
“Fuck him. I just gave his wife one hell of a makeover and heard their headboard knocking on the wall, he owes me.” Calliope blew on her nails and then rubbed them against her chest. “By the way, the restaurant is fabulous. Big, strong men who were very handsome came by yesterday afternoon and have already started helping us clean up, one of them even brought this wall in a jar stuff.”
“It was Carter, Kayson, and his brothers. The wall in a jar stuff was spackle.” Sophie interrupted as she stepped into the room.
“Spackle? Girl, how the fuck do know what spackle is?”
“How do you not?” Sophie put her hands on her hips. “You cover your face in it every day.”
“Shut up,” Calliope hissed. “I didn’t know there was wall stuff too.”
They all laughed.
I was trying to take everything in while also keeping my eyes on Dash.
“I can’t believe this happened, it seems so surreal. I close my eyes and it’s all I see, but then I wake up and think it was all just a bad dream.”
“That’s normal, your reality has been shaken, it will take a while for it to come to grips. Just know we are all here for you.”
I nodded. “Thanks, Soph.”
“Well, I brought you some brownies, I know how much hospital food sucks,” she announced, changing the conversation and mood, as she placed a GladWare container next to my breakfast tray.
“Thank you, this morning’s food looks like shit.”
“Where do you want me to put these?” Calliope asked, holding up a small plant basket.
“That better not be pot,” I warned.
“Oh, hush, I’ll leave that at your house.” Calliope winked.
“Just set it anywhere you can find a space.”
“Oh my goodness, we have a two visitor rule, so I’m going to have to ask a few of you to wait out in the visitor area,” Jan said, looking between everyone with a pinched expression.
“No worries, I have to go and let the big handsome workers into the restaurant.” Calliope blew me a kiss before heading out.
“I’m going too,” Sophie said. “I can’t leave the girls with Christine too long. Last time, they were begging her to let them jump off the roof and into the pool. I swear they about had her convinced.” She leaned over and kissed my cheek before hollering for Calliope to wait up.
Just as fast a
s they all had come in, they were gone, and then Everly was lightly knocking on my door.
“Hey, did you want me to come back later? I saw everyone getting on the elevator.”
“Everly, come in. Want some oatmeal?” I smiled and nudged it toward her.
“No thanks.” She laughed. “Glad to see you awake and joking around. Hey, Dash, I didn’t think I would find you here.”
Dash shrugged. “I saw Alex without family and hated the thought of anyone going through this alone, I wasn’t sure if he would have anyone so I came up to sit with him.”
“Yesterday was the first time you two met?” she asked.
Dash and I nodded.
Everly crossed her arms and studied us, searching for the lie she wouldn’t find.
Suddenly, something in Everly changed, and she tensed before sliding closer to the door and holding one finger up to her lips. She pointed at Dash and directed him to come to her. It was very forceful, and I made a mental note to try that sometime.
“What is Kevin doing here?” Dash hissed and Everly shrugged. “Did he bring his minister to pray over Alex?” Dash looked over to me.
“Ah, hell no, me and God? We’re good. We’ve made our peace, I don’t need someone coming in and fucking it up for me.”
“The nurse is trying to tell him that religion is a personal journey and that you would have to invite the clergyman in,” Dash explained.
“He said that he thinks he saw one of his coworkers here, he is asking if they saw another paramedic,” Everly added. “Is he talking about you or me?”
“Crap, he probably saw my truck in the front parking lot.”
“Probably. My car is around back, but it looks like a million others. Your truck has the Maltese cross on it.”
“Okay, I’m going. I’ll try to push them away. Love you, Ringo,” Everly whispered.
“Love you too, girl.”
“Please, don’t let anyone know I’m here,” Dash begged her. “Kevin will make my life more miserable than he already does.”
“Not my secret to tell.” Everly left the room and her demeanor changed. I could hear her; she obviously spoke loud enough for me not to miss a thing. “Kevin, what are you doing here?”
“I came up to visit that guy we brought in yesterday. Everly, this is Reverend Culbertson. Reverend, this is Everly Anderson, she works at the station with me.”
“Nice to meet you,” Everly said.
“I thought my minister could speak with Alex, maybe it might settle him a little.” Kevin placed emphasis on the word settle.
“Ahh, no worries about keeping him settled, he’s had a ton of visitors already today, has awesome pain meds, and is sound asleep, which is why I’m leaving.”
Dash moved closer to the door and listened for several seconds before moving back to my side.
“Nurse Jan told them since you’re asleep not to bother you and for them to try calling before just coming up, so she could have a chance to ask you if you will even see the reverend.”
Way to go, Nurse Jan. I mentally high fived her.
“Come on, Kevin, you can walk me to my car,” Everly said, but it sounded more like an order.
I kept my eyes on Dash, who was a bit pale and his hands were a tad jittery.
Dash
I didn’t know what I was doing here, but there was something about this man that drew me to him. I was water being whirled up into his hurricane of personality. Even injured, he was magnetic. I couldn’t get over how the nurse responded to him, hell, even the dietician. People just wanted to share their love with him, protect him, and I found myself wanting to do the same.
“So, is Dash really your name?” Alex asked.
“No, it’s Cooper, Dash is my last name.”
“Oh, Cooper Dash, that sounds sort of like a soap opera name. Very chivalrous. Do you prefer Dash or Cooper?”
“Either is fine. They call me Dash at work, and my family calls me Cooper. How about you? How did you get the name Ringo? Are you okay with me calling you Alex or would you prefer I call you Ringo?”
“Same as you, I don’t care which you call me. Ringo is a nickname taken from my last name Derring and middle. When I first moved to Orlando and decided to get into the drag circuit, I would register for competitions online. It had me enter my name as it appeared on my driver’s license, first, last, and middle initial which is O.”
“What does it stand for?”
“Owen. Anyway, when it was crammed together, it would add colons and then just show the last five letters so all you saw was Ring, O. Someone at a show saw it, called me Ringo, and it stuck. I liked it. It was a whole new made-up persona.” He paused for several seconds and then asked, “When do you have to go back to work?”
“Wednesday morning. I’ll work twenty-four hours and then I am off again for forty-eight.”
“Nice.”
“That isn’t really what you wanted to ask me, was it?” I got up and moved around to the spirometer. The nurse must have gotten called to another emergency and hadn’t come back, so I figured that I could show him, since it was super simple.
“No.” Alex wouldn’t look at me. “I don’t want to offend you, but at the same time, I don’t want to read more into anything. You are gay, right?”
I nodded. “Wow, you’re the very first person I’ve ever outwardly admitted it to.”
“What about your family?” Alex asked.
“They suspect, but I haven’t told them. I’m pretty sure that Everly knows, but I never actually told her.”
“No one at work?” I could tell by the look on Alex’s face that he couldn’t fathom this.
“Alex, I’m a paramedic and a firefighter, it’s kind of one of those masculine jobs. So, no, no one at work knows.” I paused for a second, then did the opposite of Alex. He tried to find courage to ask questions, and I tried my hardest to sweep it all under the rug. “Let me show you how to use this.” I held up the plastic device. “You are going to put this piece in your mouth. Breathe out all of your air then breathe in as much as you can at a regulated pace, don’t try to gulp air, just inhale until you can’t. Repeat this several times, it is to strengthen your lungs.” I stood next to Alex as he followed my instructions and breathed out and then in, several times.
When Alex was on round seven, the nurse walked in.
“Oh, good, you already knew how to use a spirometer,” Jan exclaimed. “Sorry it took me so long to get back here. We must be having a full moon tonight, because this place is off its hinges.”
Alex pulled the mouthpiece away. “Cooper taught me how to use it, breathe in as deep as I can, right?”
“That’s right. Try to do it about ten times a few times a day.” She turned to me. “If you want, you can help him get up and walk around the room if he can. It will help prevent blood clots. The doctor usually makes his rounds about this time, so he should be here soon. Well, now that I know Mr. Derring is in good hands, I will try to wrangle the natives; my number is on the board, just call if you need anything.”
Jan left and before I returned to my seat, I decided I should try to get Alex up. “You want to get up and walk around?”
“Can we wait just a little, that lung thing really exhausted me. Besides, I need some pants, because I have nothing on besides this stupid hospital fabric.”
“Sure, we can try later. I can run to my house and get you something or I can call one of your friends to grab you something from your house.”
“Yeah, can you text Calliope and ask her to bring me some jeans and shit? I have no clue where my phone is. Her number is 407-555-6969. And don’t ask, that crazy bitch used to try phone combinations all the time until she found one with some sort of sexual connection that was available, then she requested it.”
I sent a text to the number Alex gave me.
Me: Hi, Calliope, this is Dash, the paramedic who is up at the hospital with Ringo. The nurse wants him to get up and start moving around, but he has nothing to wear except
the hospital gown. He was wondering if you could go by his house and get him some clothes. He said jeans, but he needs comfortable clothes.
407-555-6969: On it. Will see you in an hour. Burgers for lunch?
Me: That sounds like I hit the lottery right about now, thank you.
407-555-6969: No problem, tootles.
The fire station was the last place that I wanted to be. I couldn’t believe that two days had flown by so fast. I’d rather be with Alex. I loved talking with him and just getting to know him and his friends. His world was so different from mine. Sure, I went out on occasion with some of the guys from the station, but most nights I was home alone. Well, except for Sundays, that day I went to my parents’ house for family dinner.
“Hey, Dash!” Logan hollered. “Mom’s worried about you. She said you missed your shift at the community center, everything okay?” For eight years, I had been volunteering with kids one to two times a month, and I absolutely loved it. Being around the innocence of children. always refreshed my jaded view on the world.
“Oh, shit, I can’t believe I forgot it. I’ll call her.”
“Don’t worry about the shift, she was just worried about you,” Logan assured me.
“Why does it seem like forty-eight hours go by faster and faster each time?” Wes, another fireman, asked.
“Know what you mean!” I hollered back as I made my way to the back of the station house where we kept our bank of lockers.
Opening my locker, I stood there and groaned. I hadn’t realized I was frozen until an ache radiated from my jaw and penetrated my brain. I rolled my shoulders to try to relieve some of the pressure. I wouldn’t be shocked if I had a heart attack before my thirty-first birthday at this rate.
“That son of a bitch, over half a million people go missing a year, and yet, he’s still here,” I mumbled as I slammed my locker door shut.
I headed into the kitchen to grab a small garbage bag before heading back to my locker. Glancing around to see if anyone was watching or in on the joke, I carefully opened my locker in case something had come loose. I was confronted with several pairs of pantyhose with the legs wound around the hooks inside my locker and for creativity someone had stuffed the butt portion with the two extra changes of clothes that I kept here for changing after traumatic scenes. I unraveled the hose from the hooks, then got to work on what had to be a preteen girl’s worst nightmare, period pads were everywhere. I began pulling them off the walls like they were part of a Lisa Frank sticker set that my sister used to cover her walls in. I pulled off twenty-four, gee, he probably used the entire box on little old me.
Ringo, Slippery Banana: A Beautiful Love Story (Iron Orchids Book 7) Page 3