by Amy DeMeritt
“What’s happening? What is this?”
Shannon gives me a look of concern, but doesn’t say anything. Everyone steps away from the bed so the nurses can get closer, and Maggie comes over to my side, placing her hands on my arms, and tries to pull me back.
“We need to get her prepped. You’ll need to stand back.” I don’t budge. “Prepped for what? What’s wrong?”
“Hello, I’m Doctor Logan.” A woman in a white coat comes over next to the bed, standing next to me and looking down at Symone. “It’s a good thing you got here when you did. Another day and we’d be in a more urgent situation. Symone, we to need to do an emergency appendectomy. We’re going to do an EKG to make sure your heart can handle the anesthesia, then we’ll need to get to work right away.”
“What’s the recovery time?”
“We’re going to do the operation laparoscopically, which is less invasive than a traditional open surgery, and cuts your recovery time in half. You’ll be back to normal in about one to two weeks.”
Doctor Logan explains the procedure to Symone while a nurse works on putting an IV in her left hand. After she finishes and Symone doesn’t have any questions left, Doctor Logan smiles in a kind way and turns to look at me.
“I need you to give my nurses space to work so we can take care of your friend.”
My jaw tenses and I nod once. I bend down and give Symone a hug and kiss her lips. I reluctantly walk to the other side of the room with the others and cling to Shannon’s hand. They pull the curtains around the bed as I see them pulling her gown apart.
No one says anything while we wait for Symone to have her EKG done. I feel like someone is sitting on my chest. If I hadn’t had that weird dream, would Symone have told us she was in pain? Would we have gotten her here in time?
The curtain opens and I immediately step forward, trying to get to her, but Shannon pulls me back and wraps her arms around my shoulders. They bring in another bed that they transfer Symone onto and then start to wheel her out. Symone looks over at us, looking nervous. As her eyes lock with mine, my jaw tenses, and my heart starts racing even faster. I try to get to her again, but Shannon holds me firmly.
“I need to be with her.”
Symone gives me a small smile and lifts a hand, making the nurses stop. Shannon releases me and I quickly walk to Symone’s side and wrap my arms around her. She firmly kisses my neck and lips.
“I’ll see you soon.”
“Can’t I come with you?”
“No, sorry. You can wait here, but we can’t have anyone in the operation room. We’ll bring your friend back in less than an hour.”
“Come on, sweetie, they need to get her into surgery now.”
Shannon grabs my shoulders and gently pulls me back from the bed, but I don’t release Symone’s hand.
“I’ll be right here. You’re going to be ok.” Symone smiles and squeezes my hand as she kisses the top of it. “I know. I’ll see you in a little bit.”
After her bed turns the corner and I can’t see her, I slump into a chair and pull Shannon down on my lap, burying my face in her chest. She runs her fingers through my hair and kisses my head.
“We’re going to go get something from the cafeteria. Can we get you something?” I look up at Sara and Keira standing next to us looking stressed and worried. I shake my head. “I can’t eat.”
“Sweetie, you need to eat something. If you don’t eat, you’ll be sick and you won’t be able to help Symone heal.” I nod once and lay my head against Shannon’s chest. “Ok. I’ll try.”
Sara and the rest of the squad, except Jaime, leaves, saying they’ll get something for everyone. My wives and Jaime move chairs over and all of them sit down in each other’s laps around us, with Sam sitting in Jaime’s lap.
“Kayla, Symone’s not going to be able to dance for at least two weeks. She’s not going to be able to come with us when we leave for Philly in three days. We need to let Russel know.” I look up at Jaime and my chest tightens. “I can’t leave her behind. Can’t we try to push it back?” Shannon grabs my face and kisses my lips. “I’ll stay and take care of Symone. This is your last week for the TV show, then you can come home and help her for the last week of her recovery. As long as there aren’t any complications, she’ll be able to go home today. You can help make her comfortable and take care of her till you leave.”
“What complications? What could happen?”
“Doctor Logan is a very skilled surgeon and has trained a lot of doctors on the laparoscopy technique. Symone is in very good hands.” I lay my head on her chest and squeeze her closer. “Ok, I’ll try not to worry so much. Thanks for taking care of her while we’re gone.”
“I’ll also stay to help, but Madison and Sam should still go so they can see their families.” I give Awenasa and Shannon a small smile and kiss both of them. “Maybe you both can work some Cherokee medicine magic and get her all better even faster.”
“We’ll do everything possible to help her heal.”
I smile as I caress Shannon’s cheek and press my lips to hers. She accepts me to kiss her for a moment and when she pulls back, she wiggles my nose. I playfully bite at her finger, and she smiles wider and gently caresses my cheek, before pulling me in to lay on her chest.
When the squad returns, they have an assortment of breakfast sandwiches, pancakes and sausages, juices, teas, and coffees. Shannon finds more chairs, and everyone sits around in a half circle, somewhat facing the empty bed that we’re all waiting to have our friend back in.
“So, you know Symone won’t be coming with us when we go back east, right?” I look up at Sara from my sandwich and nod once as I swallow a bite. “Yeah, we’ll need to call Vivian later so she can let Russel know. Do you need to let all of those universities and colleges know?”
“I’ll let them know, but it won’t change our contract with them.”
For each of the five weeklong dance camps at the community centers, we’ve only been working for a few hours each day. So, Sara lined up other work for us in each city to stack the brand building efforts by getting our name out there more and building the excitement for us to teach dance to large groups. She’s arranged workshops with at least one college’s or university’s dance program in every city we’ve visited. Philadelphia will be our busiest week, because Sara has us lined up to do a workshop with six different schools.
The past eleven weeks have been exhausting between the dance camps at the community centers and the workshops at the different schools, even with having a week off at home between each of the dance camps. We’ve all made a lot of money though, and our brand and names have really gained a ton of traction and popularity. Projections for how well our large choreography camps will do have nearly doubled in less than three months.
Colleges and Universities don’t typically have a huge budget for outside instructors, so we’re accepting a smaller rate than we’d be able to charge for any other dance performance or class. The goal of the workshops isn’t about money though, so we’re ok with it. After we finish the tour in Philly, we’ll have taught at twenty schools, with a take home of about sixty thousand dollars, which will go directly into the bank for the squad’s business. We’re not taking a personal cut from them.
The big money from the tour is coming from the TV show. Because our popularity and name value are so much more than they were before the ballroom dance TV show, the advance we received for this TV show was incredible. Jaime and I both are making five-million-dollars apiece between our advance and per episode rate. The rest of the squad is making over half a million dollars each. I tried to push for more for the squad, but since the show is centered on Jaime and I teaching, with the squad as our assistants, Russel wasn’t biting this time and he wouldn’t rewrite the contract to spread my money out. Jaime and I tried to give them a larger cut from our own money, but they wouldn’t take it.
No one really says much while we eat and wait for Symone to be brought back to us. Everyone looks rea
lly tense and worried. It makes me feel really good to see the amount of love all of us have for a member of our group. All of these women feel like family to me. I may have a deeper love for Jaime and Symone than I do for the Tonya, Jade, and Keira, but I love all of them and would be just as worried about any one of them if they were in Symone’s shoes. It’s nice to see everyone feels the same way.
I jump up as a bed starts being wheeled into the room. Symone looks groggy and weak and is groaning in pain. The nurses help her back into her hospital bed and get her covers situated, before pushing the transfer bed out of the room. I rush to her side and place a hand on her cheek and take one of her hands.
“How are you feeling? Can I get you something?”
“In pain and I’m nauseous.”
“Shannon, is that normal?” Shannon walks over and rubs my back. “Yes, sweetie. Symone, you may be nauseous and may even throw up for the first few days.”
“Sounds thrilling.”
Symone looks up at me and gives me a small weak smile. I caress her cheek and her smile widens slightly.
“What movie do you want to watch with me when we get home?”
Symone’s sleepy closed lip smile spreads into a cute toothy grin. She pulls my hand off of her cheek and kisses my palm and then holds my hand on her chest.
“Anything. Come here.” She pulls me down and wraps a weak arm around my shoulders and inhales deeply. “Can you hold me?”
I smile and kiss her cheek. I carefully climb onto the bed with her and she repositions to lay on my chest. I wrap my arms around her and she releases a small content sigh.
“I’m going to close my eyes for a little bit. Those drugs are still making me so sleepy.”
Chapter Nine
Symone lifts her head off of my chest, rubbing sleep out of her eyes, and gives me a sweet smile as she places her hand on my chest and hovers above my face.
“Morning, baby.”
“Good morning. How are you feeling?”
“I need some pain medicine and I’m hungry.”
“Ok, I’ll get you some breakfast and water so you can take your pills.” I start to sit up, but she pushes me back down. Symone bends down and softly kisses my lips for several moments. “Ok, now you can get up.”
I smile and gently stroke her cheek as I kiss her lips again, and then climb out of bed.
“Do you need help getting to the bathroom or anything?” Symone sits up with a small grimace and swings her legs out of her bed. “No, I think I’ll be ok.”
The house is very quiet, so I think maybe we’re the only ones awake, but then Sam walks into the kitchen as I’m making a yogurt parfait for Symone and a bagel with ham and cheese for myself.
The hospital said Symone needs to eat easy to digest foods for the first several days, and yogurt was one of their top recommended items.
“Hey, baby.” Sam wraps her arms around my neck and gently kisses my lips. I wrap my arms around her and lay my head against her neck, inhaling deeply. “I missed you and our wives last night.”
“We missed you too. How’s Symone feeling today?”
“Still in pain. Not so much when she’s laying still, but when she moves around, her stomach hurts.”
“After you eat, do you think you can have someone else sit with her so we can have a family bath and some family loving?” I smile really big and lift my head off of her shoulder. She giggles and kisses my giant smile. “I love when you smile like that.”
“I’ll talk to Symone and ask Sara to sit with her. Did all of you eat yet? You’re going to need the fuel.”
“Not yet. I came down to get us something to snack on till you can join us.”
“Ok, I’ll try to be in there soon.”
Sam kisses my lips and gives my ass a firm slap as she walks behind me to get to the fridge.
Symone is back in bed and sitting up against the headboard, lightly holding her stomach with her head tilted back and her eyes closed. As I set the tray of food and drinks down on her bedside, she slowly turns her head to look at me. I hand her a glass of water and the pill bottle cap with her pills in them. She quickly swallows them back and then I hand her the parfait. I start to climb in on her other side with my bagel, but she holds up her hand and points to her mouth and then to mine. Understanding she wants a kiss, I laugh a little and set my plate down to go to my bathroom to quickly brush my teeth.
My wives are lounging around on our giant bed and look beautiful snuggling up together with small smiles on their faces.
“Good morning, wives. I’m going to be in here soon to love on all of you. I just have to eat breakfast with Symone.”
They pucker their lips at me, so I jump onto the bed and give each of them a kiss that leaves them breathless and glossy eyed, making my excitement to get back to them even higher.
I plop back down in bed next to Symone and she laughs a little as she takes my hand in hers.
“You’ll be leaving me after we eat, won’t you?”
“For a little bit. I need to love on my wives before I have to leave today.”
She looks at my lips for a moment before turning to grab her parfait, but I pull her face back and press my lips to hers. Symone smiles against my mouth and slowly parts her lips, inviting me to fully kiss her. Symone’s kiss is soft and slow and makes my head fuzzy. I gently suck her bottom lip and nip her top lip, making her release a small moan and her kiss becomes more intense. She leans into me more and wraps a hand in my hair, holding me close. Her hand glides down my back, and she firmly grips my hip, pulling me in harder against her. She winces and pulls back, quickly placing a hand on her stomach.
“Sorry, did I hurt you?”
“No, I did. Thank you for being here with me. This is the most wonderful thing anyone has ever done for me.”
“It’s no big deal. All I’ve done is snuggle with you, read books to you, binge watch movies, and occasionally make out with you.” Symone laughs a little and kisses my lips. “You’ve done more than that and you know it. So, which of your wives is taking over the kissing therapy after you leave, or will Shannon and Awenasa be sharing me?” She grins in a mischievous way, making me laugh hard. “Do I need to worry about you seducing my wives while I’m gone?”
“No, baby. Our relationships are complicated enough without increasing it. I am going to miss this mouth like crazy though.”
She’s looking at my lips with a hungry smile and slowly moves in to kiss me again. She toys at the corner of her lip with her teeth for a moment, scanning my lips and my eyes, but then pulls back and grabs her parfait.
“Tease.” She laughs and nudges my shoulder. “Like you have room to talk. I’m not complaining, because it’s been great, but it’s going to be hard to go back to just little kisses on the lips and cheeks after today. It’s probably a good thing I won’t see you for a week so I can reprogram myself. I need to thank your wives for allowing me to have you like this, especially Sam. How’s she doing through this?”
“She’s ok. She hasn’t gotten upset or anything. Are you going to be ok while I’m gone?” Symone laughs and gently kisses my lips. “Yes, Kayla. You can stop worrying. Everything’s going to be fine. Now, eat, so you can go love on your wives.”
I smile and grab my plate off of the nightstand. Symone grabs my arm, tugging me closer, so I slide over so we’re shoulder to shoulder. Even though she just had emergency surgery only two days ago, she looks really happy.
“Is there anything I can bring you back from Philly?”
“Whoopi pies.”
“Oh, man, I love those things. Ok, what else?”
“Ok, I’ve had way too much yogurt and soup the past couple of days, because all I can think to ask for is food. I’m craving so many things right now – a cheesesteak from Tony Luke’s, dim sum from China Town, a red velvet cake from this little Polish bakery in center city, a Nathan’s hotdog with the works, meatballs from this Italian place two blocks from my old apartment, and I could really go for a fresh
lemon water ice from the food cart that was always parked near my old dance studio.”
“Do you miss it? Philly, I mean?”
“Some things, I miss a lot, but it’s mostly the variety of places and things to do. There’s a lot to do in Philly. The dining there is incredible too. You can get practically any type of cuisine in Philly. I don’t miss the traffic, most of the people, the crime, and the caged feeling the city gave me.”
“What about your family?” Symone frowns and looks down at her parfait. “I do and I don’t. I miss my nieces and nephews a lot. Since I haven’t been home in so long, my parents have been nicer and haven’t been as judgmental, but I know as soon as they see me in the flesh, they’ll start in on me about how I’m living and try to convince me that I need to get back to church and get out of the ‘sinful world of entertainment’. I just wish I could hug my mother without her pulling away and saying something like, ‘You’re such a beautiful girl, Symone. When are you going to settle down with a good God-fearing man and make me some grandbabies? There’s still time for you to allow the Lord to forgive you.’”
“Damn, Symone, I’m so sorry. You are a beautiful girl though – at least she’s got that right.”
“Thanks, baby. Can I ask you something?”
“Sure.”
“This whole summer camp thing we have here, with all of us living in your gorgeous house – when does it end?”
“Are you not happy here?” Symone smiles and gently kisses my lips. “I’m very happy here, but you have a family and you’re getting ready to start having children. This is your first house you’ve bought. Don’t you want privacy with your family so you can fully enjoy it?”
“I really love a close family that cares for each other and looks out for each other. All of you are like family to us. We’re not in a rush to kick any of you out. Right now, it just makes sense for all of you to be here together because we’re working on launching a huge business together. I’m sure once the TV show and movie are over and we get one or two of these events done that the living arrangements will change up more. But even if the rest of the squad moves out, you’re always welcome to stay here.”