by Daws, Amy
The doctor frowns over at her. “He’s completing his discharge papers now and will be out soon.”
I press my lips together to keep from laughing and manage to reply. “Okay, thank you, Dr. Dick, I mean, Doctor.”
Kate erupts into full-on hysterics as he turns to leave. I shake my head at Kate whose eyes are wet with tears of laughter. Miles is still doing the brooding brother routine, so I feel a little alone with my relief that Sterling is okay.
Regaining her composure, Kate turns to Miles, and says, “Babe, can you go get me a water?”
With a glower, he nods and takes off down the hallway around the corner where we’d spotted the vending machines. I watch him leave, and then groan, “Is Miles ever going to talk to me again?”
She shakes her head sadly. “Mostly likely. But honestly, I can’t even tell what exactly he’s mad about.”
“Me neither,” I reply and drop back down in my chair.
Kate sidles up next to me. “He should be mad at Sterling. Good God, the way he was carrying on when the ambulance showed up, I thought for sure he was leaking brain matter.”
A burst of manic laughter explodes out of me because holy heck, she’s right. What a mess that was. And all just for two stitches?
“My emotions are shot,” I say by way of an explanation for my outburst.
Kate turns to face me. “What the heck happened out there anyway? Tell me quick before Miles gets back.”
I shrug helplessly. “Sam and I were talking, and Sterling showed up. It got heated, and the next thing I knew, Sterling was bleeding on the ground.”
“Some football player,” Kate murmurs.
I pin her with a look. “Tonight was all my fault. If I never would’ve started sleeping with Sam and lying to Miles, none of this would have happened.”
“What the fuck?” Miles’s voice bellows as he comes around the corner with two bottles of water in hand. “What did you just say, Meg?”
“Miles!” I exclaim, my eyes wide as I stand.
“Did you just say that you fucked Sam? Tell me I heard wrong.”
“There’s more to it than that—”
He holds his hand with the water bottle out to stop me from speaking. “Wait…wait, wait. Answer me. Did you fuck my best friend?”
I inhale sharply. “Yes.”
“That’s all I need to hear,” he says, shoving the water bottles into Kate’s hands and shooting daggers at her. “And you fucking knew?”
Kate winces. “I did, but Miles, Maggie and Sterling were broken up. She was totally single—”
“What?” Miles growls, looking at me with accusing eyes. “When did you break up with Sterling?”
My heart inverts inside my chest as I quietly reply. “He broke up with me on Christmas morning. I was supposed to go visit him, but instead of going to the airport like Mom and Dad thought, I drove to Boulder and checked into a bed and breakfast for a week to get my head on straight. I didn’t want to tell you about my breakup.”
“So you’ve been lying to me all this time?” he roars, the veins on his neck bulging angrily. “I’m your brother, Maggie. You should have told me.”
“I know!” I reply, my voice wobbling at the end. “But I thought Sterling and I would get back together, and I didn’t want you to hate him.”
“I hate him, all right,” he replies, clenching his jaw and exhaling out his nose like a bull ready to charge. “And now I get to hate my best friend…so thanks a fucking lot, Megs.” He turns to walk away, and I reach out and grab his arm, trying to drag him back toward me.
“Miles, I’m sorry! Sam and I were just supposed to be casual and fun. It wasn’t supposed to get this complicated.”
“You’re my little sister, and that is my best fucking friend. You both should have known better.” He yanks his arm out of my hand and storms out of the ER without looking back.
I look at Kate with wide, terrified eyes. “This is bad.”
Kate nods. “Really bad.”
Then, to add fuel to the fire, Sterling comes shuffling out of the double doors holding an ice pack to the back of his head. He looks at me with a somber look. “Twelve stitches. Can you believe that?”
My eyes roll so far to the back of my head, I can see the wall behind me. “I have to go, Sterling.”
“Go where?” he exclaims.
“I can’t be around you anymore,” I state honestly because it’s about damn time I start being honest for once.
“Maggie,” Sterling growls, grabbing my arm and turning me on my heel. “What about us?”
I shake my head, laughter bubbling up inside me because just looking at Sterling as he is right now, I can’t believe I ever truly loved him. “Us? You dumped me, Sterling. There is no us. Probably never should have been. I thought I knew what love was, but I was wrong…so wrong about so many things.”
I turn to leave with Kate by my side, and I hear Sterling shout behind me. “So you’re just leaving me in an emergency room in Boulder? Where the hell am I supposed to go?”
“I’ll text you the number to a lovely bed and breakfast,” I call over my shoulder. “Tell Claire I said hi!”
Just as we fly through the emergency room doors, we have to jump back out of the way for a stretcher being wheeled in. I glance down at the patient, and the girl looks oddly familiar.
“Lynsey?” Kate asks, her eyes wide and questioning. “Lynsey! Holy shit!”
“Oh my god, Kate. Thank God!” she cries, tears streaming down her face.
“Are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” she says pathetically.
“What happened?”
She whimpers as she clutches her hand. “I was on a date, and I cut myself with a steak knife.”
“Yikes.”
“And I’m having an allergic reaction.”
Kate’s and my eyes fall to the blotches covering Lynsey’s chest in what looks like a really cute first date dress.
“And I twisted my ankle when I tried to run to the bathroom, and I think it might be broken.”
Kate shakes her head in disbelief. “Holy shit balls, Lynsey.”
“I know. And then my Tinder date just bailed on me.”
The paramedic looks up at Kate with sad eyes. “Yeah, we even said he could ride in the ambulance with her, and he passed.”
Lynsey lets out another whimper. “I even heard him complaining about picking up the bill.”
“What a fucker.”
The paramedic agrees.
Kate looks down and grabs her friend’s unbandaged hand. “Well, I’m here. I’ll stay with you.”
Lynsey’s eyes fill with grateful tears as Kate turns to look at me. “Your car is here, right Meg? You good to get home?”
“I’m good,” I confirm and nod at the paramedic so he can continue through the doors. “Get well soon, Lynsey!”
As they head into the hospital, I hear Kate say, “Oh my god, we are so requesting Dr. Dick!”
And with that, Kate will probably have loads of hot doctor, clumsy girl book ideas floating around in her mind and can hopefully let go of the brother’s best friend narrative.
Thank goodness for small favors.
Fishing Is A Jerk On One End Of The Line
Waiting For A Jerk On The Other End
“I can’t believe you fucked my sister!” Miles roars as he bursts through my front door.
I knew this was coming when I saw his truck pull in, and now I have to face it. Exhaling heavily, I set the ice pack for my fist down in the sink and walk out to the foyer. “I was going to tell you everything,” I say, holding my hands up defensively like a man approaching a bear.
“Oh goodie, just the kind of story I like to hear,” Miles snarls back. “One that involves my best friend and my sister fucking betraying me.”
I roll my eyes at his dramatics. “We didn’t betray you.”
He shakes his head, clearly not interested in hearing what I have to say. “I can’t believe you’d risk our friends
hip for a quick lay! Why her of all people?”
“I didn’t know she was your sister at the time, man. We had no clue who the other was. As far as I knew, she was just some girl I ran into at Marv’s!”
His face goes white as realization dawns on him. “This is the ice fishing hottie you were telling me about?”
I nod my head.
“The one with the”—he swallows uncomfortably and cups his hands out in front of him—“water balloon tits?”
I wince and nod again.
His hands fly up to scrub over his horrified face. “How could you do this to me, man? How could you play musical beds with my sister just like all your other conquests?”
“She’s different, man,” I say, taking a step toward him in warning.
“You’re damn right she’s different!” Miles bellows, his voice shaking with rage. “She’s my sister, but apparently, that meant nothing to you because you guys continued to do all this behind my goddamned back.”
I exhale heavily and murmur, “Well, I don’t think you would have liked me to seduce her in front of your back any fucking better.”
Miles turns beet red as though he’s about to spout blood from his ears. He steps toe to toe with me, his knuckles cracking at his sides as he prepares to knock me out. And right now, I’d be fine if he did. Oblivion would be better than what I’m feeling.
Instead, he steps back, shakes his head, and looks down at me as if I’m the dirt on his boots. “It’s like you’re trying to be like your dad now. He fucked around on your family, so now you’re fucking around on mine.”
My blood pressure skyrockets. “Come again?”
“Like father, like son,” he grinds out, his eyes cold and vapid as they look down at me.
Without hesitation, I bolt for Miles, taking him out at the knees. He crashes to the wooden floor like a goddamned tree, knocking over the coat rack in the entry. “That’s below the belt, you fucker.”
He struggles out of my grip around his hips, and growls, “How? How is this any lower than you fucking my sister?” With a fast reversal, he attempts to throw me into a full nelson that I twist out of and come over the top of him, catching him in a strong headlock.
I squeeze my arm around his neck, and yell, “Because I’m not just fucking your sister. I’m in love with her, you dick stain.”
Miles freezes, no longer fighting my hold on him. “Bullshit,” he growls.
“It’s the truth,” I grind through clenched teeth still holding him tightly. “I’ve never said those words in my life until now.”
With a huff, I release Miles, and he falls backward onto his butt, his legs bent toward me and his eyes hard on mine. “How do you know?”
I swallow slowly, cracking my neck painfully as an ache shoots up from where he cranked on me. With a heavy sigh, I reply, “I miss her when she’s not around. I can’t stop smiling when I read her texts. The minute something halfway interesting happens to me, she’s the first person I want to tell. It’s a fucking unicorn shittin’ rainbows, man.”
He’s still out of breath when he looks at me. “A unicorn shittin’ rainbows?” he repeats.
I nod somberly. “I wouldn’t say it if it wasn’t true. And I wouldn’t risk our friendship if I didn’t want a future with her.”
“Jesus, man. You’re serious? Like long-term serious?” Miles asks, running a hand through his hair.
“Fuck, I think I’d marry her tomorrow if you weren’t such a controlling asshole.”
“You’d marry my sister?” Miles asks, his voice taking on a weird, high-pitched tone.
“That’s what I said.”
“Would I be your best man?”
I look up at him, his eyes full of hope and wonder as I reply stone-cold seriously, “Yes.”
In a flash, Miles stands, grabs me up off the floor, and pulls me into a bear hug that crushes all my organs. He slaps my back so hard, I’m certain I’ll have Miles-size handprint bruises there tomorrow. He sniffles into my shoulder. “I’m feeling very emotional about this,” he murmurs.
“I can tell, big guy,” I reply, holding on for dear life.
“Part of me wants to love this, but part of me still wants to murder you a little.”
“I get it.”
“Mixed emotions are hard.”
“Yeah, they are.”
Miles pulls back, gently wiping at his red eyes. “Does Maggie love you too?”
I shake my head. “I don’t know, man. She never said.”
Miles blinks nervously at me. “If she doesn’t come for you, I’ll kill her.”
I smile a small smile. “Boy, you really came around quick, didn’t ya?”
When the Going Gets Tough…
The Tough Go Fishing
The next day, it takes all of my energy not to text Maggie. After my wrestling match with Miles, he told me Sterling was okay and only needed a couple of stitches, which means I have nothing more to say to Maggie. I’ve said all I can.
At Tire Depot, Miles tries to talk to me, but I don’t want to hear anything his sister has to say from him. If she’s back together with Sterling, I need to hear it from her. But she never shows up. She doesn’t call or text. Not even a lame fishing joke. So by the end of the day, I decide the best thing for me to do is to go fishing.
It’s dark after work, but Marv says there are some good spots to hit at night where the fish will come to you. I sled out to the lake he recommended and do my best to quiet the raging voice in my head reminding me I screwed everything up for good.
My fishing hut is quiet as I jig my rig by the dim light of my lantern. I keep thinking about what Maggie would be rambling about if she were out here. She’d probably ask about when fish sleep, and where they sleep, and if they sleep with their families, or if they’re just swimming along and all of a sudden black out only to wake up the next day and discover they’ve lost their entire family.
“Get a fucking grip, Sammy,” I mumble to myself and then frown when headlights shine along the side of my hut.
I prop my pole in its holder, grab my lantern, and unzip the doorway to see a sled approaching over the ice. I squint through the flurries and see headlights to a sled with two riders on board. The driver looks to be wearing a red and white snowsuit, but it can’t be Maggie. There’s no way she can drive a snowmobile.
The sled comes straight at me, stopping with a harsh jerk only four feet from my hut. My jaw drops when I see Maggie pull off her helmet and shake out her long, dark hair. “This thing drives like a dream, Marv!” she exclaims and turns around to look at him.
He removes his helmet and looks like he’s just shit himself. “That will never happen again, darling,” he says softly, his voice trembling with fear.
“What?” Maggie asks, hopping off the bench and holding her helmet under her arm. “I thought I did pretty good for my first time.”
Marv’s wrinkled eyes go wide. “You said you were an experienced snowmobiler!”
“Welllll.” Maggie shoots him a crooked smile. “I should have said I’m an experienced rider. I’ve never driven before.”
Marv presses his hands to his face and shakes his head with exasperation. “I have to go. I need my blood pressure medication.” He looks at me with a terrified shake of the head, yanks on his helmet, and takes off faster than I’ve ever seen an old man drive in my entire life.
Maggie turns to look at me, her face glowing in the light of my lantern as perfect white snowflakes cling to her dark hair.
“Hi!” she says excitedly.
“Um…hi,” I reply, still totally fucking confused by her presence out here.
“I was waiting at your house for you, and you never showed, so I checked at Marv’s, and he said you were here.” She shrugs and smiles awkwardly. “I convinced him to give me a ride out here.”
I nod and reply woodenly. “I…um…decided to do some night fishing.”
She looks back at my hut with wide eyes. “I didn’t know that was a thing.”
<
br /> “It’s a thing.” I shrug.
She nods and sticks her hands in the pockets of her snowsuit. “So how are you?”
I exhale heavily. “I’m fine. Look, Maggie, we don’t have to do this—”
“I wanted to tell you this great fishing story,” she says, stepping into the light so I can see the bright blue of her eyes.
She smiles hopefully up at me, and I can’t help but smile back. “How do I know if it’s true? Fishermen are always telling lies.”
She presses her lips together. “Well, this one is a love story, so it has to be true.”
I roll my eyes because even after everything that’s happened, she still believes in fairy tales. “I’m more of a real-life romance kind of guy,” I reply, setting the lantern down on the ice and crossing my arms over my chest.
“Then you’re going to like this one,” she says, pressing her hands together to begin. “So there’s this girl. Let’s call her Margaret. She’s never fished a day in her life…but one day, in the dead of winter, she hears these guys talking about a famous fish that always gets away. Now Margaret is a determined sort of gal who enjoys a bit of a challenge, so she decides she’s going to catch this famous fish and impress her whole family.”
“Margaret sounds stubborn,” I interrupt.
Maggie tilts her head, snow sticking to the tips of her long eyelashes. “I see it more as tenacious but tomatoe, tomahto. Anyway, she shows up at this bait and tackle shop and upsets everyone because she’s running her mouth like a smartass. But this one lonely fisherman…let’s call him Sid…takes pity on Margaret and decides to help her out.”
She removes her gloves and tucks her hair behind her ears before continuing. “He’s a grumpy old fisherman, but magically, the two hit it off and become fast friends in his ice fishing hut. Time flies as they catch small fish after small fish. It’s a great time, but of course, Margaret isn’t happy because she wants the big fish. The uncatchable catch. The one that always gets away.”
“Stubborn,” I add again.
“Okay, she’s stubborn,” Maggie concedes with a wink. “But as the weeks pass, she finds out that Sid doesn’t fish with anyone. In fact, she’s the first person he’s ever even let inside his fishing hut. Margaret is so touched by his kindness, she begins to fall for the grumpy old guy who was kind enough to help her in the beginning.”