“My man is so wise,” she says with a bright smile covering her face.
“Didn’t you know, baby? I’m the all wise and powerful one.” I say, teasing her. I hear Glory snort in amusement and the next thing I know we’re all howling in laughter. “Thank you,” I whisper in Em’s ear.
“For what?” she asks me.
“For being you, for taking a shittastic day and turning it into something great.”
“Now you know how you make me feel.”
“Best compliment you could’ve given me, baby girl,” I say as I lean over and give her a kiss.
“I think I have an idea,” Glory says coming back into the room. I was so focused on Em that I didn’t realize she had left!
I break away from the kiss with my girl and look at her mother to give her my undivided attention. “What’s that, Glory?”
“Let’s register with the hospital to be able to visit the baby and help wherever we can.”
“How did you come up with registering?” Emory ask her.
“Dillon suggested it, he says he’ll call the administrator of the hospital and get the ball rolling for us.”
“Thanks, Glory,” I tell her. Maybe visiting with her and seeing her progress will help heal this empty hole in my heart.
Dillon either works fast, or else he just pulled the right strings. The next afternoon I find myself and Emory signing into the visitor’s log and we are shown to where the baby ‘Shyann’s’ room is. I have just learned that it is her name and her mother’s name was Carolina Sheridan, the name sounds familiar to me, but I can’t quite place where from. It will nag at me, but eventually I’m sure I will able to place where I know it from.
As we are led into the room that is decorated like a nursery, Emory and I walk up to the hospital crib. She is on the pediatric floor, so there are decorations and it’s perfect for babies and toddlers, it has a warm and inviting feeling to it. The baby, Shyann, is fast asleep. “She looks so peaceful,” I say out loud.
“That means she’s resting easy,” Em says grabbing my hand and comforting me. I can’t believe this sweet girl has lost everyone who ever loved her.
“She’s going to need us, Em.” Don’t ask me where the thought came from, but as soon as it entered my head I was spouting it out of my mouth.
“Then we’ll be there for her, however we can,” she says smiling down at Shyann who is beginning to stir. When she wakes up fully, she looks up at us with a gummy smile that only has a tooth or two. She reaches up her arms at Em, who happily swoops her up into her arms.
About that time the nurse enters the room and says, “She’s such a loveable baby.” She goes over and checks the patient chart that is now computerized instead of the way it used to be with a clipboard and paperwork. Looks like the hospital has finally upgraded. “I checked her vitals not long before you two got here. She’ll be wanting a bottle here soon—would you like to feed her?” she asks directing her question at Emory.
“I would love too,” Emory replies.
“I’ll go grab it, her diapers are under the bed. If you don’t want to change her, I can do it when I come back,” she says walking out of the room.
“Marcus, can you lower the railings on the crib for me?” I walk over and look at the crib…how hard can it be? Well, apparently pretty damn hard, Emory starts laughing at me and shows me the levers on each side of the crib. I pull them out and the rail slides down. Why must these things come with an instruction manual…or a woman to tell you how to do something that should be simple?
“I need to lay her in there to change her,” she says to me shooing me out of the way. I don’t need to be told twice. “Can you get me a diaper and see if there’s any baby powder down there?” I look and see the white bottle with a baby and its bottom is sticking up in the air. I chuckle at the label and pull it and the diaper out. “Are there any wipes?” I look again and see a square container that I’m assuming holds the baby wipes she’s asking for. I put everything on the bed next to where she’s laid Shyann, who immediately goes after the wipes. She grabs them with her chubby little hands and attempts to bring it to her mouth before Emory coos, “No sweet girl, you don’t want that in your mouth.”
About this time the nurse walks in, “She’s teething, after she has her bottle, I’ll bring in some orajel for her gums.” Emory opens up the diaper and the smell hits me like a tidal wave, I throw my shirt over my nose and back away…slowly, hoping not to be noticed by the women.
Needing to save face in the eyes of Emory, before she notices me backing away, I say, “I need to use the restroom,” and I haul ass out of the room gagging. What in the hell are they giving Shyann in her bottle anyways? That smelled worse than the dog shit we use to put in a bag, and place in front of old Mr. Gillis’ front door, when we were kids. He was a mean old bastard who would flatten our balls, throw our toys away and was just…grouchy all the way around. Being pissed off kids, we were looking for revenge, looking back now, we most likely just aggravated him more which caused him to act out against us. I hope they air the room out before I make my way back.
Emory
“Well, he sure got out of here as fast as he could,” the nurse says, smiling at me.
“He hasn’t really been around babies much,” I tell her.
“Men can smell their own shit, wipe their own asses, but a baby needs a dirty diaper changed and they run at the first sight,” she says, shaking her head.
“My sister had a baby a few months back, when they were in the hospital and Devon had his first bowel movement, you should have seen Dillon’s face. He’s a doctor so you’d think he could handle it, but he ended up bringing the baby to my sister, Ariel, and made an excuse to leave and grab a cup of coffee. I thought for sure he was going to vomit.” She laughs with me at the memory.
“Wait a minute! Are you talking about Dr. Connelly?” she asks me. I raise my eyebrows suspiciously before nodding my head. “Oh Lord, the nurses on the OB floor talked about that for weeks. They thought it was hilarious that he could handle blood and gore, but his baby needed a diaper changed and he hauled ass leaving his wife to take care of it,” she says, and I can’t help the smile that forms on my face.
“He changes Devon fine now, it took him awhile to get used to it, but he’s a really good daddy,” I inform her.
“I bet he is, he was always so kind and gentle with the babies on this floor when he’d come up and check on patients he had in the ER. A lot of the staff were sad to see him go, but it’s understandable as to why he’d do it. Opening his own practice after having his baby so he can be more than a part-time dad is commendable.”
“That’s very nice of you to say.” I look at her nametag, saying “Olivia. I’m Emory Masters, it’s nice to meet you,” as I secure the last tab on Shyann’s diaper. I pick her up and walk over to the rocker and sit down. Olivia hands me her bottle and I lay Shyann down placing her head on my elbow. The second the nipple touches her mouth she latches on like she hasn’t had a meal in a week.
“Poor thing is just now getting an appetite, she’s been asleep more than she’s been awake since she came in.” I give her an alarmed look at her words but she continues. “It’s to be expected. She’s now got all that nasty stuff out of her system, don’t you girl?” she asks, leaning over and baby talking to Shyann, who stops sucking long enough to give us a smile then gets back to eating. I smile down at her and the nurse leaves the room after informing me she’s getting the gel for Shyann’s gums. Poor baby, I can’t even imagine what it feels like to have those sharp teeth cutting through her gums. Like little tiny razor blades is what I imagine, it causes a shiver to run through my body. Marcus comes back into the room looking sheepish, “The coast is clear,” I tell him while trying to hold back my laughter.
“What? I told you I had to use the men’s room.”
“Sure you did,” I reply.
“Seriously, I’m not lying.”
“Marcus, what are you going to do when you have
children?”
“Invest in a nose plug, I guess.” My laughter disturbs Shyann’s feeding time which she lets me know about. I coo at her and calm her down and before long, she grabs a hold of the bottle once again.
“You’re really good with her,” he says to me.
“I’ve enjoyed watching babies, they’re so innocent and aren’t corrupted by the world around them. They’re so easy to love.”
“I can see us with a house full of babies,” he says to me which causes me to grimace. I can only hope that the treatment is working, and I can make that vision a reality.
Chapter 5
Emory
Love means forsaking all others…
I had a hard time leaving Shyann in the hospital. The only thing that helped settle my mind was knowing there was a good staff taking care of her. I feel a special bond with her. We’re both going through a hard time, and she soothed me like nothing else has since my diagnosis. Today is Thursday, my dreaded doctor appointment day is finally here. We should see results from the meds already working, my fear is that they aren’t, and we’ll have to start over again with new meds. The ones I’m currently taking are new but have had great results in regenerating the white cells. As Marcus, Mom and myself are sitting in the waiting room to be called back, I can’t help but bite on my cuticles.
It’s a nervous gesture of mine that I’ve had since I was a little kid. Marcus grabs my hand and pulls it away from my mouth, saying, “Whatever he tells us, no matter what, we’ve got this, Em.”
“I’m petrified,” I tell him honestly.
“I know you are, baby, but I promise you, things aren’t as bad as what they are in your head.”
“He’s right,” Mom says wrapping her arms around me. I place my head on her shoulder as she runs her hand through my hair like she has always done while trying to sooth me or my sisters.
“Emory Masters?” I hear my named called and stand up with Marcus and Mom at my side. I give him one final look before I square my shoulders and walk up to the nurse.
“I’m Emory Masters,” I state.
“Follow me,” she says, walking me down the hall. First thing we do is get my weight, then she sits me in a chair and takes my blood pressure. Marcus gives me his award-winning smile, and everything once again is right in my world. God, I love this man. As soon as she’s done, she charts my results and walks us back down the hallway.
“It’s the last door on the left,” she indicates. We walk ahead of her and into the room.
“Have you had any issues? Anything that concerns you since you were last here?” she asks me with a mini-laptop in hand.
“Nothing I can think of,” I state.
“The meds have made her sleepy and a little weak, sometimes nauseous,” Marcus tells her.
“All very common side effects unfortunately,” she says smiling at us. “It just means the medicine is doing its job,” she advises, placing her hand over mine and giving it a gentle squeeze.
“Thank you,” I tell her.
“You’re welcome, Dr. Tremaine will be in shortly,” she replies as she leaves the room and shuts the door behind her. The closing of the door feels like a nail being driven into my coffin. I suddenly find it hard to breathe, and Marcus comes over to me and pushes me down where my head is hanging between my legs.
“Deep breaths in and out, baby. No matter what, Emory, we’ve got this. Repeat that to yourself, let me hear it.” I repeat the mantra over and over again until my breathing comes back to normal. Dr. Tremaine walks into the room and gives me a sympathetic smile.
He takes a seat before he begins speaking, “This is one of the hardest things a person can endure in their life, Emory. You have every right to feel anxious. Have you had any other anxiety attacks since I saw you last?”
“To be honest with you, I’ve had quite a few.”
“I can give you something to help with that, from now on if anything like that occurs I want you to call the office immediately.” Once I nod, he continues. “We were really lucky, Emory. We caught your symptoms before they had a chance to do any real damage. Your results are amazing, you’ve reacted well to the medication. I’d say by this time in six months, if your body keeps accepting the medication in this same manner, we’ll be having our last visit,” he says smiling at me. Six months, I can do that.
“Dr. Tremaine, I’m Emory’s mother, Glory,” she states holding out her hand.
“Very nice to meet you,” he says with a wide grin on his face. Then I see his eyes roam up and down my mom’s body…Oh. My. God! He’s checking my mom out! That’s so freaking gross, I can’t take it. I can’t look, I bury my head in Marcus’ chest and feel it rumbling. My fucking man thinks this is funny? I slap him on his pec which causes him to let loose a laugh that he immediately covers with a cough.
“Not funny,” I tell him.
“Fucking hilarious,” he replies, earning himself another slap.
“He’s totally checking my mom out, Marcus,” I whine.
“He totally is,” he agrees. Not what I wanted to hear, I mean Dr. Tremaine is a silver fox and all, but the thought of my mom getting it on repulses me…to no end!
“Do you have any questions for me, Glory?” When he says her name, I shiver at the innuendo he’s giving off. Fanfreakingtastic!
“Is there anything we can do to help the odds of the medication and the way it works?”
“What do you mean by that question?” he asks her, he damn well knows what she means…this is aggravating. My fear has been replaced by disgust.
“Her diet perhaps,” Mom says, and I can hear the flirtatiousness in her tone. Sonofabitch! Not her too. I can’t take this, I’m going to throw up right here in this exam room.
“Diet and exercise are always a key factor in any situation. It would definitely help boost her immune system.” And…now they’re talking like I’m not even in the room. I give up, I just…plain and simply give up!
“Do you have any suggestions, doctor?”
“I do, I actually have some pamphlets in my office, Glory. If you wouldn’t mind following me? I’ll get those for you.”
“Thank you, doctor,” Mom says, gathering up her things and following him like a puppy on a leash.
“Dominic, please Glory, call me Dominic.”
“Dominic it is then,” she says with a giggle. Shoot me now! Roll me over, I’m done. They leave the room and I look up at Marcus whose eyes are still looking at the door they walked through.
“Guess that means my appointment is over with?”
“Guessing so,” he says, looking down at me smiling. What the hell is the big oaf smiling at? I roll my eyes at him and gather my purse. What a fucked-up day this has turned out to be. Mental note, wash your brain and eyes out with bleach when you get home, I tell myself.
“No she did not!” Ariel says to me over the phone that night as I’m lying in bed telling her about the doctor’s appointment.
“Oh, yes she did!” I tell her, while Rainey, who’s been on three-way with us remains quiet. I begin to speak again to which Rainey pipes in before words leave my mouth. And what she says floors me.
“You’re telling me, you witnessed Mom getting her groove on?”
“You did not just ask me that!”
“It’s kinda cool to know Mom’s still got it, you have to admit that,” Rainey says, with a chuckle in her voice.
“I have to do no such thing!” to which both my sisters laugh at my misery.
“Come on, Em. You got good news, and Mom left with a man. Maybe now Dillon and I will get some peace from her always being around,” Ariel tells me.
“Well, lucky for you I guess. She still lives with me, so I get to witness her dreamy eyes and can’t get the image of those two flirting with each other out of my brain. I need bleach I tell you!”
“It’s been a long time since Dad died,” Rainey says, “she deserves to find some happiness, she’s spend all her time dedicated to us.”
I
sigh knowing my sister is right. “She does,” I agree.
“Think of it this way, her cobwebs may get a good dusting,” Rainey says on a laugh. I shiver at the thought of Mom and cobwebs being used in the same sentence.
“That’s just wrong,” I tell her. What is wrong with these two?
Marcus
I give Emory some privacy to speak with her sisters and hop into the shower. I’m ecstatic at the news of her progress. We had talked earlier in the month and decided we wouldn’t make any permanent plans where our future is concerned, until she gets good news. That was her demand, not mine. I’d run her down the altar as fast as I could if she’d only give in. She’s stubborn to a fault, and I wouldn’t change her for anything, but something inside of me wants my ring on her finger and that piece of paper that says she belongs to me. Barbaric, I know, but I can’t help the way I feel. I want the entire world to see her finger and know she’s off limits, she’s taken, and there is no shopping in her market.
I step out of the shower, dry off and wrap the towel around my waist. I walk into the bathroom and freeze at the sight that greets me. Emory is buck naked, spread eagled and looking like a wet dream. I guess we’re celebrating the good news, hot damn! “Hey, baby,” I greet her.
“Hey there, handsome,” she purrs. My dick stirs, tenting the towel. “You going to remove that?” she asks indicating the towel. Might as well, not as if it’s hiding anything anyways. I slowly remove the towel and circle my hips giving her a little show.
“You want me, baby?”
“Yes,” is the only word she gets out before I make my way between her legs. I breathe in her intoxicating scent then swipe my tongue through her folds.
“Mmmm…” I murmur. I’ll never get tired of her taste. I look up at her face and say, “Then you shall have me.” I bury my head back between her legs and feast on her. She writhes and lifts her hips up as my tongue circles her clit. I push her hips back down and demand, “Stay still, baby.”
Clean Slate: Diva's Ink Page 4