Mimi Mine

by Aubrey Cara

Elaine's eyes misted betraying how badly tonight's incident shook her up. “We'd appreciate that. We'll do the same.”

  Herald put a comforting arm around his wife and asked Zeke if he was ready to head out. Zeke gave Mason one last hug. “I love you more than frog guts,” he whispered to Mason.

  “I love you more than troll toenails,” Mason whispered back before setting a giggling Zeke down to leave with his grandparents.

  Now that he was by himself he had to fight the macabre thoughts running through his head. He also had to fight thinking about what it must have been like for his aunt when she'd gotten the call and had to come in to identify the bodies. It should have been him. Then he realized how stupid that thought process was. Hell, if he had been here his body would have been one she'd probably have to identify.

  He had to believe everything happened for a reason. And he had two very good reasons the universe spared his life. One just left with his grandparents, the other was getting a CT scan.

  Leaning his head back he closed his eyes, and again pushed the mantra they're not dead, through his head until the tightness gripping his chest eased.

  *** ***

  Mimi scanned the holding pen, aka waiting area, for a clock. Of course there wasn't a clock in sight. She'd long since abandoned the rickety wheelchair they'd parked her in. If she had to guess she'd been cooling her heels in a poorly upholstered chair across from an equally disastrous couch for an hour. The icy blue pack they'd given her to put on her head had long since grown warm and squishy.

  She wondered if her mother had called Mason, and figured she had. Mimi hoped Mason wasn't freaking out. She and Zeke were going to be fine. She hoped her poor little Z-man was holding up alright, too. This whole experience had been justifiably scary for him. She wanted to go hold her baby. The urge to throttle the stupid fucking kid that ran that red light and hit her car was overwhelming. If she hadn't hit her head so hard she and Zeke would be at Mason's eating Rose's amazing apple pie and watching holiday movies.

  Instead she was here. Waiting.

  Seriously, what the hell was taking so long?

  Her wait time was testament to the fact she was fine. People with serious trauma were not sent to wait—by themselves—for an hour. She may have gotten knocked silly but she didn't even have a concussion.

  The lump on her head had already become nothing more than a sore spot that would no doubt be bruised tomorrow, but nothing that warranted a CT scan. At least not to her mind.

  “Miriam Westfall?” A nurse with short, curly brown hair, wearing bright aqua colored scrubs called her name and Mimi popped out of her chair so fast she gave herself a head-rush.

  “Whoa, are you okay ma'am?” the nurse asked, reaching out a steadying arm.

  “I'm fine. I'd just been sitting too stinking long,” Mimi said testily, then felt bad because it wasn't the nurse’s fault she'd been stuck in the waiting room.

  “Have you been experiencing any dizziness, nausea, or fatigue?” the nurse asked, not fazed by Mimi's snippy tone as she looked down at the chart, then back up at Mimi.

  “No, really, I'm fine.”

  “Okay then, please follow me.”

  Mimi followed the nurse down the hall to a little room with a locker in it.

  “Please change into a gown and you can put all your clothes in there. You don't have to remove your underwear, as long as they're unadorned by anything that could be metal. We do ask you to remove your bra, and any jewelry. Make sure to secure it in the locker and remove the key. There is a gown on the top shelf. The closures go in the front. My name is Debra and I'll be back in five minutes to take you to your scan.”

  Mimi barely choked out a “thank you,” before Debra had closed Mimi into the little closet room. Obviously Ms. Efficient Debra was not at fault for the wait time. After donning the wonderfully overused hospital gown—the likes she had not had to suffer since delivering Zeke—she opened the door and scanned the hall.

  Debra looked up from the chart she'd been writing notes on long enough to see Mimi peeking out at her. “Follow me,” the nurse said, not even glancing back as she strode down the hall.

  Feeling half naked, and more than a bit chilly, Mimi gripped the front of her gown tightly to avoid indecent exposure as she conspicuously trotted down the hall after expeditious Debra.

  They entered a surprisingly small room with a big round machine at its center. There were only two lights in either corner making the room mostly dark.

  “Please lay down with your head pointing that way,” Debra said, pointing in the direction of the doughnut hole like opening of the machine.

  The cot-like table was soft and sloped comfortably in the middle. It had a woolly cover over it making it warm. Mimi was extra thankful when Debra placed a thick sheet over her cold exposed legs, tucking it around her waist.

  “Please stay as still as possible,” Debra said just before Mimi felt the table gliding back into the doughnut hole.

  Mimi stared at a blinking red light overhead as the machine whirred loudly and for a moment she was back in her car. Hall and Oates Jingle Bell Rock had been playing on the radio. Zeke had be tittering on and on about how Mason said Jenny could sleep in his room with him.

  Not a guest room, his room, that had a big, brand new bed in the shape of a boat. His room, that looked like it had been decked out wall to wall from Pottery Barn and Crate & Barrel Kids.

  Zeke of course loved it. With a cool wooden train set and firehouse and top of the line everything, how could he not love it?

  She loved it too, but who decked out a guest room for their girlfriend's kid after only dating a few weeks? Mason Coleman, that's who.

  He'd taken her and Zeke to the big Coleman Automotive headquarters Christmas party in Austin and introduced them around, making it clear they were all but married. Mason was presumptuous in every way but the one that she wanted him to be the most. And she had no one to blame her pent up sexual frustration on but herself.

  “Please turn your head to the right,” Debra said from across the room where she was manning the CT scan's controls. Mimi turned her head and Debra said, “Good. Please hold it.” And the loud whirring began again.

  A white light flashed, flashed, flashed before her eyes as the machine swirled overhead and Mimi closed her eyes fighting vertigo as she saw the lights of the car that hit her. She had just hung up the phone with Mason and she was feeling stupid and guilty for trying to get him to punish her. She wanted him to want to punish her, or be angry, or at least show some sign he wasn't as calm and collected as he seemed.

  She'd been feeling so irrational, she just wanted him to feel that way too. She was also kind of hurt by the level of excitement Zeke had for his new room since she knew she'd never be able to afford to get him all that stuff. She was a single mom saving up to buy them a house. She bought their sheets from the bargain bin, and most of his toys had come from her parents.

  Mimi had turned up the music, loudly singing, “Jingle bell, jingle bell, jingle bell rock,” trying to get Zeke to join in when the light had turned green. She'd been trying to distract him from talking about how awesome Mason's house was, so she didn't have to think about how much she loved it there too. Or about how it felt like home the more time they spent there.

  She turned her head to glance back at Zeke. Her eyes had caught on headlights a second before her head whipped around and smacked into the window. Everything became a kaleidoscope of color. Zeke had cried out from the back before her car came to a stand still, but his voice sounded like it was from inside a tunnel.

  White noise had filled her ears and she heard shouts from outside the vehicle.

  “Alright Ms. Westfall. We're all done,” Debra said, bringing Mimi back to the present as she helped Mimi sit up.

  She was very glad for Debra's clinical efficiency as they made their way back to the little room that housed her clothes. As she dressed the reality of the accident and what could have happened to her and Zeke were setting in. What if t
he car that had hit them had been going faster? Or hit the back passenger door, right where Zeke had been sitting?

  She was ready to get the hell out of here. She was hungry and tired and she wanted to hold her son. And she wanted Mason. No, she needed Mason, and for once that didn't terrify her.

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  The swing of the doors at the end of the hall had Mason jerking his head up. Mimi. She froze the second their eyes met, her sweet face crumpling. In an instant he was down the hall and had her in his arms, holding her while her body shook with sobs.

  The knot gripping his chest unwound in a rush, clogging his throat with tears. His entire being sighed with the profound relief of having her in his arms. Healthy and whole. Alive. Fucking alive. This is what he needed. When she pulled back sniffing and wiping her eyes, he scanned over her.

  Her face was blotchy from crying and a little yellow bruise was already forming on the left hand side of her forehead, but she didn't look too bad. Nothing near as bad as he'd been imagining.

  Just then a young male attendant came through the double doors. “Mrs. Miriam Westfall?”

  “Yes, that's me,” she said, not correcting his slip when he called her Mrs. naturally assuming Mason was Mr. Westfall.

  “If you'll follow me, you can wait in room 127 for your test results.”

  “I can't just go home?”

  “Sorry ma'am.”

  “Come on, angel,” Mason said, taking her hand as they followed the attendant.

  They entered a little sliver of a hospital room with a low lying triage bed pushed against a wall. Without a word they sat in the two plastic chairs against the other wall.

  “The doctor will be with you shortly,” the attendant said hanging Mimi's chart by the door as he left.

  The second they were alone Mason pulled Mimi onto his lap and wrapped his arms back around her, like he'd been dying to do all night.

  “Are my parents and Zeke still here?”

  “No, I'm sorry. It was getting late, so I sent them home.”

  “It's okay. How was Zeke when they left?”

  “A little shaken up, but better than when I first got here. Elaine is probably even now stuffing him full of every food known to man.”

  She nodded against his chest. “You know she is...thank you, by the way. For being here. I know this can't be easy for you.”

  His throat grew tight again reliving the moment he got the phone call from Elaine saying there had been an accident. That moment would be forever imprinted on his mind. Her words had been so much like his aunt's had been ten years ago. Mason, there's been an accident. But his aunt's words hadn't continued with, they're alright.

  “Nothing, nothing could have kept me away.”

  She placed a delicate hand on his cheek to make him look at her. “I'm alright. Zeke's alright. We're still here,” she said, as if sensing he still needed that affirmation. In a way he did.

  She laid her head on his shoulder stroking her hands over his chest as if to soothe him. Damned if it wasn't working.

  “Shouldn't I be the one taking care of you?” he asked, lifting her hand to kiss her fingers, before placing it back on his chest. Everything in his being called to take care of this woman. “Are you hungry? The vending machines aren't well stocked, but I'm sure I can find you something to tide you over until I can get you some real food. My mom always got us ice cream after something bad happened or we had to go the doctor.”

  In the past ten years, he never let himself think on those little kinds of details about his family. The longer he was with Mimi and Zeke the more they were coming back to him. Nice memories that no longer sent gnawing pain through his chest. His arms tightened around Mimi. She had no idea how much she meant to him. “After we see the doctor should we get you some ice cream?”

  She shook her head. “You know what would make me feel better?”

  “What?” He was pretty sure he'd give her anything, but her teasing smile suggested something more than ice cream.

  “A spanking.”

  Sudden irrational anger coursed through him. “You don't get to do that, Mimi.”

  “What?” she asked sitting up.

  “Cutely suggest I spank you after you said you didn't want me to during a serious discussion about our relationship and future. Like it's some kind of fucking joke.”

  Maybe he was being unreasonable, but somewhere between this past month and the accident he'd lost his sense of humor.

  “You're right...I'm sorry. That was a stupid thing for me to say. I was just trying to get that sad look off your face. Maybe lighten the mood. I don't know what I was thinking,” she said, moving to sit next to him again.

  He immediately missed her warm weight but maybe this was better for the conversation that had been a month in the making. He ran a hand through his hair in frustration, and sighed.

  “I was going to save this until we had some alone time,” he began. “Obviously we need to talk now. We can't keep going the way we have. It's just not working out between us. We need to stop pretending that it is. We need to—”

  “Knock, knock. I hear you want to go home,” a woman said striding into the room, looking at a chart. She wore scrubs and a lab coat. She looked middle eastern with dark skin, curly hair, and fine features, but her accent was too faint for him to tell where she was from.

  “I'm Doctor Conrad,” she said looking up and smiling at them. “You'll be happy to know your scan was clear. There will be bruising, but if there is any more swelling, or if you experience dizziness, nausea, confusion, or numbness be sure to come in immediately. Otherwise, you are free to go now.”

  “Thank you, doctor,” he said, when Mimi stayed silent. She was obviously still shocked from the accident. Their talk could wait. His woman needed some TLC. “Come on, sunshine,” he said gently, steering Mimi out the door and down the hall the second the doctor left.

  “But, but, we should talk. We should finish this discussion.”

  “We will. First things first though. I know Zeke will be wanting to talk to you if he isn't already asleep, and I can hear your belly rumbling.”

  *** ***

  Mimi couldn't breathe. She had a sick feeling in her stomach as they left the hospital. She was pretty sure Mason was breaking up with her—would have already done the deed had the doctor not walked in.

  Twice now she'd asked him to continue the discussion he'd started earlier and twice now he'd replied she needed to eat and talk to Zeke first. He was talking to her mother right now, as they walked through the hospital parking lot. She should be irritated that he had called for her instead of just giving her his phone, but she was relieved to have a moment to collect her riotous thoughts.

  “Hey Elaine. Yep, the doctor gave her the okay. We're just headed to get her a little something to eat, then I'm going to take her back to my place. We'll pick up Zeke in the morning.” That was news to Mimi. “How's our little man doing?” Mimi didn't hear the reply, but he continued with, “Oh, good. I'm handing Mimi the phone now.” Mason thrust the phone at her as they reached his jeep and he opened the passenger door for her.

  She climbed in with the phone to her ear. “Hello?”

  “Hello, dear. I'm happy to hear you're a-okay. I'm putting Zeke on now. Love you, honey.”

  “Love you, mom.”

  “Mama?” came a sleepy voice on the other end of the phone.

  “Hey buddy, I'm here. How are you?”

  There was a big yawn on his end then, “Good. How was your kitty scan? Did it hurt?”

  She smiled. “It was good. It didn't hurt at all. It was like a giant doughnut that whirled around me.”

  “Whoa, that's awesome, I want to get a kitty scan.”

  “It's a CT Scan and it's only for people with health problems, or have been in accidents, so you probably don't really want to need to get one.”

  “Ugh, mom.” His exasperated reply hinted to what was to come in the teen years. “Can I still spend the night at Mason's?”


  Mimi looked over at Mason as they drove out of the parking lot. She had no idea what to say. What if he was breaking up with her? “Umm, well. Why don't we talk about that in the morning? For now you just get some sleep. I love you, Z.”

  “I love you more than snot bubbles.”

  “Oh, I um—thank you?” This was new. Thinking quick she said, “Well, I love you more than unicorn poop.”

  Zeke giggled, “No Mom, unicorns poop rainbows. Rainbows aren't gross.”

  She saw Mason shake his head from the corner of her eye, like he heard what Zeke had said and understood the logic of it. She gave him a questioning look. He gestured like he was vomiting.

  “I love you more than vomit?” She cringed even as she said the words.

  “What kind of vomit?”

  Her mind reeled, so she said the only thing she could think of, “The gross kind.”

  Zeke's sigh on the other end of the phone let her know how disappointed he found that answer. “Tell Mason I love him more than squid guts,” Zeke said on another yawn.

  “Will do. Good night, snug bug.”

  “Good night, mama.”

  After she hit disconnect she asked, “What's with the disgusting 'I love you' thing?”

  He glanced over at her and shrugged. “It's a guy thing,” he said like any other explanation would be out of her scope of understanding.

  Mimi rolled her eyes and shook her head. “He said he loves you more than squid guts, by the way.”

  Mason chuckled. “That's a good one.”

  “Ugh, this is going to be a 'thing' for a while, isn't it?”

  He had the decency to look chagrined. “Yeah probably. Sorry.” He didn't sound sorry. “So, do you want go to a sit down restaurant or drive thru?”

  “Just hit up a drive thru,” she said, her stomach still in knots. She wasn't sure how much she would be able to eat.

  After they got their order and were back on the road, she choked down two tasteless bites of burger before saying, “You know, you could just take me back to my parents’ place. I don't have to spend the night at your house.”