Take Care

by Ash Johnson

  I feel very inadequate compared to her while I stand at the end of the bed in my mint green, worn scrubs and my blonde chin length bob held behind my ear on one side with a few bobby pins.

  “Hi, my name is Millie. I’m Rob’s fiancée. How do you know him?” She says with a bright smile while extending her hand to me.

  I completely freeze. I’m looking back and forth between Rob and his fiancée, but I can’t comprehend what was just said. I look down at Millie’s left hand and notice that she has an enormous diamond sitting on her ring finger. It looks like it cost at least five times more than the small diamond on my finger.

  I suddenly feel Carla grab my shoulders from behind, perhaps sensing that I’m ready to jump across the hospital bed and strangle Rob with my bare hands.

  I shake my head slowly as if trying to make sure this isn’t a dream. Finally, I gently shake hands with Millie and put on the fakest smile I can muster.

  “My name’s Ada, Ada Hyland. I’m Rob’s wife of almost two years.” I turn my gaze to Rob and see him shut his eyes and throw his head back against his pillow, like he can’t believe he was caught.

  “What?” Millie tilts her head to the side and lets her smile falter a bit. “I don’t get it. I’ve been engaged to Rob for five months now. How can you be married?” her voice is getting softer and higher as she turns her attention back to the man with the gunshot wound in the bed.

  Rob lies quietly in the bed, eyes closed and the knuckles of his uninjured hand are turning white from being clenched in his lap. He’s probably trying to figure out how he’s going to get himself out of this jam, so I decide to speak up for him.

  “So Rob, you’ve been engaged to Millie for five months?” I growl, trying to make my way to his bedside, but Carla refuses to let go of my shoulders. Smart woman.

  “Have you told Millie how we just put the plans through to have a house built? Or how we were trying to have a baby?” I holler on a shaky breath, tears are running down my cheeks but I refuse to fully break down in front of him. I raise an eyebrow and go silent, waiting for any kind of reaction out of Rob but get nothing.

  I thought things were good between us; that we were happy and he loved me. I knew he worked long hours at his job as an investment banker, but it never occurred to me that he was out with another woman when he told me he was at work.

  After no answer, I decide I won’t put up with his shit; once a cheater always a cheater, right? I refuse to stay with someone who can’t be faithful to me.

  “Well, let me make this very easy for you, Rob. First thing Monday morning I will be filing for divorce, calling the builders and telling them that the house will no longer be built, and I will be home tomorrow to pack my things from our apartment. You had better plan on being gone or I will give you another reason to be admitted to the E.R. Understood?” I’m pointing my finger at him, but I’m so enraged that it’s shaking and I’m breathing heavily.

  Rob nods his head slowly and runs a hand through his slicked back hair, but his eyes remain closed. He’s refusing to open them and face this situation like a man and it just pisses me off more.

  Before I turn and walk out of the hospital room, I grab his left pinky toe that is sticking out of his sheet and bend it sideways, devilishly smirking as I watch his body arch and a whimper of pain creep from his mouth.

  With my small victory I paste on a satisfied smile and walk out of the room, immediately turning to make a run for the restrooms, but before I can make it down the hallway my body starts shaking violently and I begin to sob. Carla is shouting my name from the doorway of room 42, but I refuse to turn around and go back toward the source of my pain.

  She runs after me and finally catches me at the nurse’s desk. I turn and bury my head in her shoulder and openly weep. After allowing me to freely cry on her shoulder for a few minutes, Carla rubs my back and leans down to whisper into my ear.

  “You only have fifteen minutes left of your shift. Why don’t you take off a little early and I’ll cover all of your patients until your replacement comes? Go down to the cafeteria and calm down a bit before you drive away, please.”

  I nod my agreement and catch her up with my patients, but by the time I tell her everything she needs to know, my replacement has come and I need to explain everything again. After everyone has been caught up on the status of the patients, I start to walk down to the cafeteria to grab a coffee and figure out where I can stay tonight, but I’m once again caught by Greg.

  “Ada, Jesus, are you alright? What happened up there?” he asks in a soft voice as he catches my elbow and tries to pull me in for a hug. I refuse to hug him back, but he won’t let me go so I bury my face in my hands and lean against his chest as I cry. When I calm down, I lean back and take a deep breath before I try to get rid of him.

  “I’m okay, Greg. Thank you for being so sweet, but I really just need to get a coffee before I leave.” Greg’s brows pull together and he moves closer to me again, invading my space.

  “Can I drive you home tonight? You don’t look like you’re in any shape to be going anywhere.”

  I sputter out a small chuckle. I know I look like shit, but it hurts even more when you tell me that I do. I shake my head before I step around him and keep walking toward the cafeteria.

  “Thanks for your concern, Greg, really, but I’ll be okay. I’m going to get some coffee before I take off. I’ll see you around sometime,” I say, barely acknowledging him as I basically speed walk toward the cafeteria.

  After I get my cup of coffee and find an empty table in the back where people can’t watch me fall apart, I pull out my cell phone and decide to call Elle. After two rings, she answers.

  “Ada! What’s up, bitch!” Elle screams into the phone. There is a bunch of background noise and a deep bass pulsing, which makes me think that she’s at a club. It is Friday night after all, and being a nurse at a pediatrician’s office means she doesn’t need to work tomorrow. Plus, she’s hot, single, and loves dancing- both vertical and horizontal. She always tells me that she’s in her prime and needs to live it up before her tits start to sag and no one will want to fuck her.

  Elle is the best friend a girl could ever have. I met her when my mom and I moved to Arizona in my junior year of high school and we’ve been inseparable since then.

  She’s just a bit taller than I am at five foot five inches, but just as thin. She has pretty, dark brown eyes, long chocolate brown hair and the sweetest disposition ever; unless you piss her off or hurt someone she loves. Then she’s really scary.

  She went ape shit on Rob when she found out that we got married in Vegas without her there. She punched him in the shoulder so hard he had a big purple bruise for a week and he wasn’t allowed in her house for almost three months.

  “Hey Elle, I was wondering if I could crash at your place tonight?” I beg, trying to reign in my sadness so she doesn’t freak out. It doesn’t work and Elle immediately jumps all over me.

  “Ada, what’s wrong? Are you okay?” She tries to yell over the noise of the club, her voice sounding panicked.

  “Well, not really. I mean physically I’m okay, but mentally I’m a mess. I just need a place to stay for a night or two. Can I crash with you?” I ask again, trying really hard to keep from crying but I can hear my voice cracking more and more with each word.

  “Yeah sweetie you’re more than welcome to stay at my house. I’m out at Club Free right now, but I’m on my way home and I’ll meet you there.” Then I hear the background noise dying down, like she’s walking out of the club.

  “No, Elle, don’t leave. You stay and have fun. I have my key to your house. I’ll just let myself in and see you in the morning, okay?” but even as I tell her to stay and have fun I know that she won’t. I don’t really want her to dig into what happened tonight, but I would really love a shoulder to cry on. I don’t want to be alone to replay the scene in my head over and over again.

  “Are you fucking kidding me Ada? You are my best friend and i
f something is wrong then I’m going to be there for you instead of trolling for cock tonight. End of story,” Elle says, not a hint of joking in her voice. I hear a car door shutting before I can even respond.

  “Okay Elle, sorry you don’t get laid tonight, but I could really use my best friend. I’m just leaving the hospital now and I’ll meet you at your house soon,” I mumble. I hang up the phone and gather my things so that I can go have a pity party for one.

  Twenty minutes later I pull into the driveway of a newer small, white cottage style house in a cozy developing neighborhood in Scottsdale, Arizona. I would have loved to have a house like Elle’s on a quiet street where small children play till the sun goes down.

  When Rob and I put the plans for our house together, Rob picked a plot of land in a gated neighborhood close to downtown Phoenix where all of the houses look the same and most of the residents don’t have any children, but still live in a five bedroom home. The exact opposite of what I wanted.

  Before I can even make it to Elle’s front door she opens it wide and runs onto her front porch with her arms spread wide. She’s wearing a black sequined mini skirt with a green lace tank. Her hair is wavy and hanging down to the middle of her back. Her feet are bare, but I know she took her shoes off to drive her dark blue VW Golf home from the club because she can’t drive in heels.

  “What’s the matter sweetie? Do I need to kill someone? You start digging the hole in the backyard and I’ll be back with the body,” she grins and her dark eyes gleam with her wicked joke. Her smile fades when she sees that I’m not laughing with her. I tilt my head, actually contemplating digging that hole in her backyard.

  “Oh my God, Ada, something really bad happened, didn’t it,” Elle mutters and starts walking me into her house, her arm wrapped around my shoulders.

  When we make it into the house she steers me left into the living room, depositing me onto the dark gray microfiber couch. Elle takes my purse from my hands and tosses it onto the matching loveseat that is left of the couch. She sits down next to me and wraps her arms around my shoulders, pulling me into a hug when I start to weep. When my sobs finally slow and I pull my hands away from my eyes she leans back to assess me.

  “Okay Ada, spill your guts to your bestie. What’s going on?” Elle lowers her head and tries to get me to take my eyes off my clenched hands which are sitting in my lap. After a deep breath to calm my nerves, I answer.

  “Rob was brought into the E.R. tonight. He got mugged outside a movie theatre and was shot in the arm.”

  Elle gasps, pulling her hands from around my shoulders and putting them to her mouth. “Is he okay?” She lets out a large puff of air when I nod.

  “Yeah, he had his fiancée there to look after him.” After a few seconds of silence, I look up and see the confusion written all over Elle’s face. It’s probably the same look I had on mine when this was all revealed to me. Elle shakes her head and looks into my eyes, which are now red and filling with tears again.

  “What? I don’t understand what you’re saying Ada.”

  “He’s been seeing someone else, Elle. When he tells me that he’s working late he’s really been with another woman. She had an enormous rock on her finger. She’s really pretty.” I say the last part so quietly that I hope Elle doesn’t hear me, but of course, she does. Damn her and her bionic ears.

  “Damn it! You aren’t just pretty Ada, you are gorgeous and I’m sure this girl didn’t hold a candle to you in any way.” She reaches over to pull a tissue out of the box on the side table to her left and grabs my cheeks with one hand, thumb on one side and index finger on the other, so she can wipe the tears from my face.

  “I’m going to kill that sorry son of a bitch. Who the hell does he think he is? This isn’t Utah. You can’t have more than one wife here.” Elle’s voice is getting progressively louder and her face is turning red. The death grip she now has on my cheeks is just proof that she is pissed off because my eyes are about to bug out of my head from the pressure.

  “Ouch Elle, can you cool it with the Hulk grip you have on my face?” I sputter between my squished fish lips.

  “Oh shit, sorry Ada,” Elle whispers and cringes, finally letting go of my cheeks and softly rubbing the spots where she hurt me.

  “Well,” I take a deep breath and try to calm myself so I don’t cry when I tell her I’m leaving him. “I told him that on Monday I’m going to file for divorce and that I’m going to get all of my stuff from the apartment tomorrow. I can’t stay with him.” Elle nods her approval of my decision.

  “Where are you going to live?” the concern in her voice warms my heart and brings a small smile to my lips.

  “I’m not sure yet. I guess I’ll get my stuff and put it in storage until I can find an apartment. Until then I’ll just go to a hotel or something,” I shrug.

  Elle leans away from my face, her mouth open in offense and her brows pulled together. “Don’t you even dare get a hotel or your own apartment. I have an extra room here and you will stay and be my roommate for as long as you want.”

  “Elle, I can’t do that. I can’t impose on you like that. I’ll just find an apartment complex that’s close to here so we can hang out all the time and-,“ but before I can even finish my sentence Elle has her fingers clamped down on my lips, effectively silencing me.

  “Shut up now before you piss me off, Ada. I will not let my best friend go through this rough patch in her life by herself. You are my girl and if you need a place to live, you always have a room here. You forget how well I know you, Ada. You’ll get an apartment and then sit and wallow in it for about six months before you decide to see the light of day again.” I bob my head from side to side and shrug my shoulders because that does sound like what I want to do.

  “Well screw that girlfriend. You are moving in with me and we will get through this together. Then when you’re ready to go out and have fun, which better be soon, we’ll go trolling for studs together just like the old days. Okay?” Elle smiles, knowing that she has me hooked. Even though I can’t even think about hooking up with other men right now, I don’t want to face this divorce by myself.

  “Okay bestie. Thank you so much for being so awesome. I don’t know what I’d do without you,” I answer honestly as I lean in to hug her. As soon as my arms go around Elle’s shoulders, my cell phone starts ringing in the pocket of my worn mint scrubs.

  I lean back, but before I make a move to grab it, Elle reaches in my shirt pocket and pulls out my phone. I notice the scowl on her face and the growl she lets out before she answers the call, which tells me all I need to know about who it is on the other end.

  “What the fuck do you want?” Elle yells into the phone. After a few seconds of quiet, Elle huffs and yells into the phone once again.

  “Do you think I give a fuck if you told your girlfriend about your wife? No, you cannot talk to Ada, you piece of shit!” Elle stands up and makes her way around the barn wood coffee table in front of the couch to walk to one of the two giant windows that surround her television on the opposite wall. She pulls the sheer cream curtains back and looks out to the street before she closes them and turns her body toward me.

  “I swear to God you asshole, if you show up at my house I will call the police. I will not let you come here and harass Ada. She doesn’t want to see you. She wants nothing to do with you anymore, so I suggest you go have your fiancée console you because my best friend is finished with you.” Elle hangs up the phone and turns it off, effectively shutting Rob out.

  I stand up and make my way to Elle. She lifts my phone up into the air thinking that I’m going to turn it back on and call Rob again, but instead I wrap my hands around her waist and hug her tightly, thankful to have such a caring friend. Elle’s arms drop and she wraps them around my shoulders.

  “Thank you so much, Elle. I was so scared about going through this alone. I might have caved and talked to him tonight if I didn’t have you here to do it for me,” I whisper, a fresh batch of tears wel
ling in my eyes when I see the love this girl has for me shining in her deep brown eyes.

  “You are so welcome, sweetie. Come on, let’s get some ice cream out of the freezer and we’ll watch a silly movie.” Elle smiles and starts pushing me toward the kitchen. I smirk when I walk around her kitchen island and hit the jackpot, pulling two full bottles of alcohol off of a shelf.

  “How about instead of ice cream, we have some fun with Jack and Jim?”

  “There’s my girl!” Elle laughs. “Come with me. We’ll get some jammies on and then start our date night with Mr. Daniels and Mr. Beam, our two favorite boys from college.” I laugh and follow Elle down the short hallway toward her bedroom to switch into pajamas.

  Three hours, countless shots, and a Chevy Chase movie later, Elle is passed out on her couch while I laugh at nothing and take another pull from the almost empty whiskey bottle. As tired as I am, I can’t seem to stop thing that tomorrow I will be going to the apartment that I shared with Rob and packing everything I own to leave him.

  I feel a slight bit of sadness from the fact that I will be losing my husband, but I mostly feel relief because I know that I haven’t been myself since marrying Rob. Even before we were married I became much more reserved and bent to his will almost all the time so we didn’t have to fight, mostly because I never won a single argument so there was no point.

  This is a second chance to live my life the way that I wanted to. It’s a chance to finally take care of myself. A reserved smile makes its way to my face at the thought that tomorrow is the beginning of my new life.

  Chapter 2

  Jay

  I slowly peel my eyes open and turn my head to check the time on the alarm clock on my night stand. Eleven thirty? Holy shit I’ve slept the morning away, but with good reason. I have a nasty hangover from going out to Club Free with the boys last night. Plus, I didn’t get home until around four this morning.

  The chick I hooked up with last night just wouldn’t go the fuck to sleep. All she wanted to do was talk about what I was thinking. I was thinking about getting the fuck out of there and avoiding her for the rest of my life.