Nadia
"Did I die and go to heaven because this feels like I am floating on air?"
That was the thought I had when I woke up on a bed that felt the way I assumed heaven would. It was a far cry from what I left behind at home. Fleetingly, I wondered if mother had finally listened to me and changed the hard wood I called bed without letting me know as a surprise. I rolled happily to the other side, only to feel pain like I had never felt before on my right side.
"Ouch!" I instantly sat up on the bed, my eyes squeezed shut as I gingerly fingered my right rib cage. The light touch caused me to open my eyes and whimper. It was then I saw that I wasn't in my room. That fact had me on my knees with my hands digging into the soft bed. No wonder why I thought I was in heaven, I wasn't in my room. There were no posters of BTS and Coldplay, and newspaper clips of different fashion news on the wall. My sewing machine was nowhere to be found, same as the old computer that was my best friend. The four-poster bed was also non-existent. The foreign room was painted grey and cream, and the tall curtains were closed shut. I was on a bed wider than mine and my parents' combined. The doors to something I suspected was a walk in closet were wide open. I was still trying to wrap my head around the fact that I was half naked in someone else's bed when a door I had yet to notice opened. Hot air rushed into the room before a man came out. He had a towel wrapped around the lower part of his amazingly shaped body, and a smaller one in his hands. He had his head bent as he dried his wet hair, totally oblivious to my awakened form on his bed.
A yell came from my mouth, startling him. He swung his head in my direction and I found myself staring at the man with the greatcoat, who was also the man that kicked in the door to Gideon's office, saving me from being raped....or worse. We stared at each other in contemplative silence. I saw him drag his grey eyes slowly over my body like he was perusing it and I moved quickly to draw the thick sheet over my extremely exposed body, ignoring the mixture of pain and excitement I felt.
"Who are you and what am I doing here?" I managed to ask, my eyes roaming the room for something I could use as a weapon just in case I needed it.
"Are you okay?" He ignored my question by asking one of his own. I wanted to protest but I stopped short when I saw the look of concern on his face. I stared dumbly as he came to sit on the edge of the bed, taking the sheet gently away from me to inspect my ribcage. I winced when he touched my brusied skin, breathing in through my mouth.
"It doesn't look fine and I think you need to have that checked out. Internal bleeding can be life threatening." He said when he was done inspecting. I didn't say a word, not because I did not have anything to say but because I still could not wrap my mind around what was going on. It was like I left my reality and was now the protagonist of someone's idea of a movie....or the romantic novels I read.
"You still haven't answered me. Who are you?" I finally asked after getting a grip on my brain?
"I have some questions of my own. What is a young lady like you doing working with Gideon? Is that where you met my brother? Were you in the car with him when the accident happened? Do you have any amorous affair with Justin?" He threw those questions at me without taking a breath.
The other day at the hospital, I was so shaken, particularly by the explosion and how close I had been to dying, that I didn't notice or hear much of what he said to me that morning. All I wanted was to go home so I could rid myself of the smell of gasoline, smoke and blood. The idea of soaking myself in my small tub and taking a long bath with my strawberry bar soap, were all I had in my mind. So when he left me after draping his greatcoat around me, I stood up and went home.
A frown crossed my face when I discovered he was the brother of the stalking creep. The realization had me wondering if he was also like his brother. I had to leave.
I brought my legs to the heated ground—no surprise there— and stood on my two feet. My vision became blurry as my head swirled, causing me to fall. His hands were immediately by my side, steadying me so I wouldn't crash to the ground. He set me back gently on his bed. I waited to feel afraid and unsettled by his nearness, but the feeling never came. How my body could trust this stranger so much was beyond me, but trust him it did.
"Your body still hasn't recovered. There's no need for you to rush. You are safe here." I nodded and saw the small frame clock on the bedside drawer, taking note of the time.
A loud gasp left my mouth as I thought of my parents. They would be sick with worry because I didn't come home. Mother was probably trying to get father to breathe properly into one of our brown paper bags while she spoke to the police.
I had forgotten to tell them that the new owner of my phone was a hobo living somewhere on the streets of New York.
"Can I make a phone call?" I asked, searching the room for a phone. He stood up and took out a phone from the pocket of his discarded trousers and handed it to me. Gratefully, I took the phone like my life depended on it and pressed the number of the bakery because I knew that was where they would be.
"Hello!" I heard the panicked voice of my mother. "Nadia, is that you?" Tears pooled in my eyes, rolling down my cheeks to fall on the bed.
"Yes mom, it's me." I sobbed into the phone, as I wondered how close to death I had been in two consecutive days. You would think the angel of death was following me around like a dark cloud.
"Where the hell have you been?!" It wasn't a question.
"You almost gave your pops and me a heart attack. I had to get your pops to breathe into one of our brown paper bags when he began to hyperventilate."
Although she couldn't see it, I gave a watery smile as I listened to her. Big brother to the creep I saved promptly excused himself from the room so I could converse freely with them.
"I would tell you everything when I get home." I tried to pacify her as she was screaming.
"Gimme that!" I heard my father's voice say angrily before the receiver change hands.
"Of course, you would explain yourself, young woman! You don't get to disappear and think you would just waltz into my house without explaining yourself." My pops voice filled my ears. I had to draw the phone back from my ear to prevent it from getting damaged. He was really angry if he was overriding mom to saying his piece.
"Yes pops. Please don't be angry. I'll explain everything when I get home." I repeated.
He continued like I hadn't said a thing, "And forget about your night job. I never was comfortable with you working at night and I won't allow it anymore. You hear me! Now get your butt home this instant!" With that, he did what I knew was the slam-the-receiver move.
Like wife, like husband.