First Sight

by Donohue, Laura

  “She’s okay,” I said, pulling back a little so I could breathe. “I’m okay. Her car was totaled, but they are mostly just keeping her in the hospital for observation. They moved her from the ER to her own room last night, so that’s good.”

  “Oh thank God; I was so worried when you weren’t here this morning.”

  “I know,” I said, realizing that I probably should have called her. “I spoke to Jennifer earlier, but I guess she’s at a meeting offsite all day?”

  “Yeah, she won’t be in the office.”

  “Oh, okay,” I said nodding. “I figured she would let you guys know. I should’ve called you, but I was just so exhausted. I didn’t get home until really late last night, so I pretty much just crashed after that.”

  “I’m just glad everything’s okay.”

  “Thanks, Marissa,” I said quietly. “So am I.”

  “Let me know if you need anything. Seriously.”

  “I will,” I said, giving her a tiny smile. It was nice to have such great friends at work. I think everyone here genuinely was concerned for me. Travis had been so sweet last night, and it sounded like Marissa and the others had been worried this morning. I turned and walked over to my desk, throwing my coat over the back of my chair and dumping my bag on the floor. I didn’t feel like even trying to organize my things this morning. I signed on to my computer and noticed that Travis had sent me an email as soon as he’d gotten to the office today.

  Maddy,

  I hope everything is okay with your mom. Let me know if you need anything.

  Travis

  My heart melted a little as I read his note, but I didn’t have it in me to type a response just yet. I was too emotionally drained already. I half-heartedly clicked through my other messages, unable to focus on anything. The web developer I was working with had thanked me for the documents I’d sent over last night, which I’d all but forgotten about at this point, and there was another email about an all-hands meeting later this week. I realized that I was reading the agenda for the meeting over and over again without comprehending a word of it when Marissa asked me if I wanted to go to lunch.

  “I think I’ll just eat at my desk today, Marissa. I got here pretty late, and I kind of feel like being alone.”

  “Okay,” she said with a smile. “I just wanted to check.”

  “Thanks,” I said, giving her a small smile in return.

  “See ya soon,” she said, heading out the door. “I’m gonna eat with Elizabeth in the break room if you change your mind.”

  “See ya,” I said. I realized after she left that I hadn’t actually brought anything for lunch, but I wasn’t feeling particularly hungry anyway. I sighed, putting my elbows on my desk and resting my face in my hands. So much for trying to get anything done during my lunch break. I’d have to leave to go buy something if I wanted anything to eat. I heard a rustling in the doorway a few moments later and looked up to see Travis standing there, hesitantly peeking into my office. As his brown eyes locked with mine, my heart fluttered a little, and I smiled a real smile for the first time all day. “Travis,” I said happily.

  “Hey Maddy,” he said, his voice deep. “Marissa said you were here.”

  “Yeah, I came in late. Sorry I didn’t email you back yet.”

  His face lightened a little, and he stepped inside. “How are you?”

  “Okay,” I said simply.

  He didn’t look convinced but left it alone. “How’s your mom?”

  “The same. They were able to move her to her own room last night, which is good. Now they’re just keeping her for observation.”

  “Well, that’s good to hear. I’m glad that she’s all right,” he added softly.

  “Thanks; so am I. Last night was so unreal.”

  “I was just going to go grab some lunch. Do you want to come eat with us?”

  “No, I forgot my lunch,” I said with a wry smile. “I’m not really that hungry anyway.”

  “You should eat something,” he replied, sounding concerned. “I’m running down to the café to buy a sandwich. Do you want me to pick something up for you?”

  “No,” I said, shaking my head. “Thanks, but I’m not really feeling that great.”

  “You do look a little tired. How about if I get you some soup?”

  “Um…okay. That does sound good—if you don’t mind.”

  “No problem.” He lingered in the doorway, and I looked up at him, once again meeting his dark brown eyes. “I was worried when I didn’t hear back from you this morning.”

  “Oh, I’m sorry. I was going to write you back, but I came in late and was just kind of overwhelmed trying to catch up on everything.” He nodded as I spoke. “But thank you for coming with me yesterday. I don’t know what I would have done if you weren’t there.”

  “It was my pleasure, Maddy,” he said softly, his brown eyes gentle. He held my gaze for a moment before changing the subject. “I guess I should get going then.”

  “Okay. Thanks, Travis. Let me grab you some money for lunch.”

  I handed him some cash, and he smiled and turned to go. I felt bad as he walked away though. He seemed hurt that I hadn’t emailed him earlier. I decided to write him back now even though we’d just spoken. I thought it over for a few minutes, wondering exactly what the right thing to say to him was. Obviously I would thank him. I giggled softly to myself, thinking that I could add a little postscript after that. P.S. I’ve been madly in love with you since the first day we met. I shook my head in disbelief. Wow, I must be really tired. I was starting to get slaphappy, and there is no way that I would actually write that. I typed out a message and clicked “send” before I could change my mind.

  Travis,

  Thank you for everything yesterday. It really means a lot to me that you were there when I needed you.

  Maddy

  P.S. Thanks in advance for the soup. :)

  I wandered down the hall to the vending machine to buy a soda and happened to run into Elizabeth on the way. We chatted for a few minutes, and by the time I got back to my office, the soup Travis had picked up was already sitting on my desk. I pulled the container out of the brown paper bag and gently lifted the lid, watching the steam rise up. Inhaling the delicious scent of broccoli cheddar, I decided to wait for it to cool a little, and I clicked on my computer screen and noticed that a new message had just arrived in my inbox. Surprised, I realized that it was from Travis.

  Maddy,

  I’m always here for you.

  T.

  Chapter 8

  I drove out to my parents’ house on Saturday morning, stopping to buy coffee along the way. I was running late, but it had felt really good to sleep in this morning after such a long week. I’d wearily gone out to dinner with Marissa and Emily last night but had left early—not that it had done much good from the way I was dragging today. I’d pulled on some casual clothes this morning in my hurry to get out of the house, deciding on jeans, a slim-fitting black ribbed sweater, and grey Converse sneakers. Now I wondered if I should have picked out something nicer in case we went anywhere but then realized we’d probably just be relaxing at home while my mom got her rest.

  I took a sip of my café mocha as I drove along, savoring the taste. I probably should have picked up something to eat, too, but my dad had offered to make brunch for everyone. My stomach would just have to wait an hour to get any real food in it. My cell phone rang, and I answered it, unable to see the name on the screen as I kept my eyes on the road.

  “Hi Maddy,” came my brother’s voice.

  “Brian! I thought it was probably you.”

  “Well, you were right,” he replied with a low chuckle. “Are you headed over to Mom and Dad’s?”

  “Yeah, I’m on my way now. Where are you?”

  “On 66 out by their house. I was thinking of stopping off and getting some flowers for Mom.”

  “Oh, that’s a good idea.”

  “They can be from both of us. What kind do you think sh
e would like?”

  “Hmmm…she does love daisies. Maybe a bouquet of those? I’m sure she’d like anything though.”

  “Sure, daisies sounds easy enough to pick out.”

  “Okay, I’ll see you in a little while, Bri.”

  “See you then.”

  ***

  Thirty minutes later I was pulling into the familiar surroundings of my parents’ neighborhood. The streets were lined with mature trees, which were bare right now since it was still winter. Farther back from the road were brick Colonials, each with tidy little yards. A few people were outside on this Saturday morning, carrying bags of groceries in after running errands or just walking out now to get the morning paper. I laughed as I saw my parents’ neighbor out in his bathrobe and slippers. It didn’t seem to bother him that the whole neighborhood could see him like that every day, but you’d think he’d at least put something else on in this cold weather. I pulled into my parents’ driveway, underneath the tall oak that shaded it in the summertime. Brian’s car was already there, so I parked next to him. I walked to the front door and let myself in, shouting hello to everyone.

  “We’re in here,” my dad called out to me from the kitchen. I walked in to see my mom seated at the table, wrapped up in a fuzzy pink bathrobe. Dad was flipping pancakes at the stove, and Brian was attempting to stuff the flowers he’d picked up into a vase full of water.

  “You have to trim the stems, Bri,” I said, watching as he tried to shove the tall bouquet into a small vase.

  “Well I don’t know how to arrange flowers,” he said with a laugh.

  “Sheesh, do I have to do everything?” I joked. I walked over and gave my mom a kiss on the cheek and then took the daisies and vase from Brian. “Can you grab a pair of scissors from the drawer?” Brian handed me the scissors, and I started trimming the stems.

  “Those are beautiful, kids,” my mom said. I tried to arrange the flowers in the vase so they looked halfway decent and then carried them over to the kitchen table. Someone had already set the table, and there was a variety of food spread out—a bowl of fruit salad, bagels and tubs of cream cheese, a variety of syrups for the pancakes my dad was making, and even a box of donut holes.

  “I hope you’re hungry, Maddy,” my dad said as he poured some more pancake batter onto the hot griddle.

  “Starving, actually. Who made all this? I could have brought something.”

  “Mom made the fruit salad; I picked up the donuts and bagels,” Brian said.

  “Well, it all looks great. I could’ve brought a fruit salad though.”

  “Don’t worry about it, Sweetie,” my mom said.

  A few minutes later we all sat down at the table for brunch. I asked my mom how she was feeling, and she said she was still really tired. She’d been to her doctor for a follow-up appointment, and although she was doing fine physically, he still wanted her to take it easy. The insurance company had come out to look at the car, which was completely totaled. My parents planned to buy a new SUV for my mom when she was feeling well enough to go out and test drive a few different models.

  “I’m not getting another compact car, that’s for sure,” she said.

  “I wouldn’t either after that,” I replied, spreading cream cheese on my bagel. “Scary stuff.”

  “Maddy, have some pancakes, too,” said my dad, passing the plate of steaming pancakes over to me. I took one from the top of the pile and put it down on my plate, before handing the plate to Brian. He took three and looked over at my mom.

  “What kind of car hit you?” he asked.

  “A huge SUV. I don’t even know what make or model it was. All I saw was this huge black monstrosity coming right at me in the middle of the intersection.”

  “Were they running a light or something?” I asked.

  “Texting on their cell phone,” my dad said, shaking his head disgustedly.

  “Texting? That’s terrible. How old was the driver?”

  “Probably around your age—mid-twenties.”

  “What did they police say?”

  “Well, the driver hasn’t been charged with anything yet. They’re still investigating the crash. She denied she was on her phone, but I saw her. The phone companies have records of these things you know.”

  “There’s no way she’ll get away with that,” Brian said. “Hopefully she’ll lose her license or something.”

  “We’ll see what happens,” my mom said, seeming to want to change the subject. She started asking us questions about what had been going on in our lives, and we quickly moved on to other topics. Brian told us a little about his new girlfriend, and I filled everyone in about the new project I’d be working on at the office. They seemed excited that our magazine was going to be published four times per year and spent the rest of brunch peppering me with questions. After we all finished eating, my dad insisted on cleaning up, telling my mom to sit down and rest. As he was loading up the dishwasher and chatting with my mom, Brian pulled me aside.

  “So who was that guy Travis that you were with at the hospital?”

  “Oh, he’s my coworker,” I said, grabbing another donut hole and popping it into my mouth as I walked into the living room, not wanting my parents to hear the conversation. No sense in getting my mom all excited over nothing. Brian followed me as I continued speaking. “I introduced you two, remember?”

  “Yeah, I know that. I just wondered if he was your boyfriend or something.”

  “My boyfriend? No, nothing like that.”

  “Dating?”

  “Nope. Why are you so interested?”

  “You like him,” Brian said knowingly.

  I raised my eyebrows as I looked back at him. “And what makes you think that?”

  “I know you.”

  “So you think I like him,” I said, feeling a little exasperated. I didn’t exactly relish the idea of talking about my nonexistent dating life with my older brother. Sure, he had a new girlfriend that he seemed to enjoy talking about, but that didn’t mean that he had to give me the third degree about the guys in my life. “We work together; it’s not like anything is going to happen.”

  “He definitely cares about you,” Brian said simply. “I could tell by the way he looked at you in the hospital.” I stared back at him feeling slightly dumbfounded, wondering not only what exactly he had noticed, but also if what he said could possibly be true.

  “Kids!” my mom’s voice called out from the kitchen. “Come in here so we can play a game of Scrabble.”

  “Be right there!” I called back.

  “Think about it Maddy; he wouldn’t have offered to stay if he didn’t care about you.”

  I shrugged, not really sure what to say. “He drove me all the way out there; he probably just wanted to make sure I was okay. Anyway, we should get going,” I said, gesturing toward the kitchen. “Mom’s waiting for us.” I heard her dumping the Scrabble tiles out onto the table and asking my dad to get a pencil and pad of paper to keep score. I turned, walking toward the kitchen, without glancing back at my brother.

  “I’m right you know,” he said, following behind me.

  “Right about what?” my mom asked as we walked back into the kitchen.

  “Oh, nothing,” I said, pulling out a chair and sitting down. “Ready to start the game?”

  ***

  A couple of hours later, I was in my car once again, clutching my cell phone in one hand as I navigated through the streets of Arlington. “So you’re almost back?” Emily’s voice asked from the other end of the line.

  “Yep, I’m just pulling into my apartment complex now.” I steered around the pizza delivery car that was blocking the first row and pulled into a space.

  “And what do you think?”

  “About tonight?”

  “Yeah.”

  “I don’t know,” I said, turning off the car and pulling the key out of the ignition. “I’m kind of worn out.” I glanced out the window and saw a couple strolling across the parking lot, holding mitten
-clad hands. They looked so cute together. My mind briefly flashed back to Travis walking with me through the cold night air into the hospital earlier this week. He had taken my hand as I’d gotten out of the taxi at his apartment, but it wasn’t like we’d strolled along together hand-in-hand. I wondered what it would be like if we were that couple, leisurely walking through the parking lot on a Saturday afternoon, holding hands as we headed out together on a date.

  “But it’s a movie!” Emily said, interrupting my thoughts. “You can totally just sit back and relax.”

  “I guess so,” I said, suddenly not really wanting to stay home alone tonight after all. “What time was it again?”

  “I’ll swing by your place at 7:30. It starts at 8:15.”

  “All right, I’ll see you then.”

  ***

  Later that evening, Emily was ringing the doorbell to my apartment. I’d changed into dark skinny jeans, flat knee-high boots, and a long cardigan. I grabbed my black leather jacket and wallet as I went to answer the door.

  “Sorry I’m late,” she said. “I was doing a little shopping and totally lost track of the time.”

  “No problem. Should we head out?”

  “Yeah, let’s go.”

  “Cute jacket,” I said, eyeing the cream peacoat she was wearing over her maroon cords as we walked down the hall of my apartment building.

  “Thanks! I just found this on sale last weekend,” she said, brushing the soft wool with her fingertips.

  “I love it. Winter white is the best—it totally goes with everything.”

  “I know! I just hope it doesn’t get dirty too quickly. But hey, then I just have an excuse to buy a new coat.”

  I laughed and pushed the down button for the elevator.

  “So how’s your mom doing?” Emily asked as we stepped inside.

  She pushed the ground level button, and I was relieved that there was no one else in the elevator to overhear our conversation. “Okay, I guess. I mean, she seems a little tired, but I’m pretty sure that’s normal after everything she’s been through. I’m just glad she’s out of the hospital.”