Imperfect Love (5 page)

Jake laughed. “Sonic isn’t my girl. She’s just a friend.”

“Oh, really?” She sounded a bit sarcastic as it wasn’t the message she got earlier from their constant flirting with one another.

“Yes. I’m not dating at the moment.”

“Oh, sorry. I guess I just—”

“Assumed,” he said, cutting in.

“I couldn’t help making that assumption, okay? For all intents and purposes, she looked like your girlfriend.”

Jake laughed again. “Yeah, I think she really wants to be, too. I wasn’t sure about it, but you more or less cleared that up for me.”

“You’re welcome.” Holly smiled and stared out into the darkness.

“I didn’t thank you for that piece of information. But, I’m just not into her in that way.”

“Excuse me… but why not? She’s really beautiful.”

“Looks aren’t everything, and she’s an airhead.”

“Airhead?”

“Meaning, she doesn’t use her brain, shakes what God gave her, and makes money wearing almost nothing.”

“It’s a living.”

“One I’m so over,” Jake said quietly.

Holly rested her chin on her chest, letting her hair form a soft curtain between her and Jake. Through the curls, she noticed that the green lights from the dash of Leo’s SUV lit up his face softly. Holly didn’t want to look at him, scared that she might drool or something.

“Then don’t lead her on, Jake,” Holly finished.

“Okay, Medusa, and I’m not leading her on.”

“I’m not Medusa.”

“You sure about that? Because you keep hissing at me. I didn’t see a forked tongue, so it must be hiding in those curls of yours.”

Holly laughed again. “Don’t make me laugh, my hand seems to ache more when I laugh,” she complained.

“Right. I’ll keep quiet, then.”

Soon, city lights twinkled in the distance shortly after silence fell between them, and by the hectic turns Jake made, Holly came to the conclusion that he really knew his way around the city.

As they went around a particularly harrowing corner, the P&E Emergency sign suddenly came into view like a beacon in the night. The hospital looked like a five star hotel, rather than what it was. Holly could feel how her stomach started to twist into knots. She was positive she didn’t have the money to pay this kind of ER for their services.

Another twist of her stomach made her think back to the last time she’d been inside a hospital. It was the day Jamie died; she practically lived in one during that traumatic time in her life.

Holly took a deep breath as Jake drove around a huge water feature in front of the elite hospital, pulling into the parking lot in no time. He even did the gentlemanly thing and opened the door for her, the door squeaking softly as the hinges moved. She jumped out, landing on the smooth concrete and followed him inside. Her eyes grew wide as she took in its splendor.

“Are you sure this is a hospital?”

Jake laughed at her question, but didn’t answer as he opened another door that led into the emergency waiting room.

“Another emergency, Jake?” The triage nurse behind the desk handed him a board with a paper attached to it.

Jake snorted, in a good way.

Then without waiting for the paperwork or even asking what the trouble was, the triage nurse buzzed the door open and said simply, “You two can go on into the ER.”

For just a second, Holly glanced back at all the people waiting and wondered how Jake had managed to fast-track her inside. She followed Jake through the door. Inside, the staff all looked up as they entered and smiles quickly formed on every females’ lips. Holly knew the feeling by now. Jake lit up a room whenever he entered one.

He took her to the nearest bed and gestured for her to hop on while he filled in the information sheet. She had to give him answers as to her birth date and social security number.

“So, how much is this five star service going to cost me?”

He grinned while looking at the board, which he was still completing.

“Nothing.”

“Jake, you’re not paying for this.”

“No one is paying, Holly. It’s free.”

“This doesn’t look like the ‘free’ kind of hospital.”

“Don’t worry, it’s taken care of and it is free.”

“What, you have access to freebies here?”

He grinned fully now. “Something like that.” He continued to ask her boring questions, scribbling them down as he went along.

Holly couldn’t stop looking around at all the occupied beds. An invisible weight pressed down on her chest; she felt herself begin to feel woozy. Finally, a doctor in his mid-forties came to her rescue. Upon seeing Jake, he too began grinning from ear to ear.

“Henry Scallanger,” the doctor read off the chart.

“No, it’s Holly,” she corrected.

The doctor smiled at her. “Okay, Henry, what might be the problem?”

Frowning, she said once again, “It’s Holly.” She grabbed the chart out of his hand and saw Jake’s handwriting. It was unreadable for a normal person, but lucky for her it was clear. She looked up at Jake. He had indeed written Henry. “How do
you
spell Holly?”

Both Jake and the doctor barked with laughter.

“What is the problem, Holly?” The attractive doctor wanted to know.

“I hit an idiot and no, it wasn’t Jake. Another idiot.” A twinkle was evident in her eyes.

This brought about more guffaws from the two men. The doctor picked up her hand, which now resembled the color of an eggplant. He watched carefully as he directed Holly to close and open her hand and then spread out her fingers. She complied gingerly. Lowering it after the quick inspection, he reached for a syringe and a small bottle of liquid.

“No one said anything about an injection. I don’t do injections.”

“It will help with the pain and swelling.”

“I can’t stand injections. Please,” she started to beg, “can’t you just give me a tablet or something?”

“Holly, are you scared of needles?” Jake asked.

She almost felt like crying. If only he knew how scared.

“It will be over before you know it,” the doctor promised.

A single tear rolled down her cheek.

Jake took the doctor’s place, directly in front of her. “I get that you are terrified when it comes to needles, but it will only help you with everything, Holly.” He held her hand gently while he continued talking to her.

“It’s going to burn and hurt like hell. I don’t like injections.” More tears started making their way down her face.

“It will hurt for a little while, that’s true, but it’s worth what you’ll feel afterward. Trust me.”

She felt a quick wet dab of alcohol on the back of her hand and then a burning sensation shooting through it at that precise moment. Biting down hard on her teeth, she burrowed her head in Jake’s shoulder.

“It’s over, Holly.”

“But it’s still sore.” She couldn’t help the whine.

“Give it a few minutes. It doesn’t work instantly.”

“For this kind of pain it darn well should,” she moaned at the after-effect. It was still burning, a tiny bit, and for a person with a strong pain threshold, Holly didn’t do so well with injections. They were the bane of her existence.

“You are such a drama queen,” he said, while the doctor told him to take Holly to the X-ray room.

“I have an injection phobia. I’m sure there is a term for that; anti-hospital, or some such.”

He was clearly laughing again when he pushed the door to radiology open for her.

“So, what’s the deal with you and this place? Are you here on some sort of regular basis?” she queried.

“Something like that,” he mumbled, one side of his mouth tilting upward with humor.

Leading the way, Jake walked past Holly, which had her running after him to keep up with his long confident strides. Her hand had started to feel slightly better, but not enough for her to forgive the distraction with the injections a couple of minutes ago. He knew he was good-looking; she just couldn’t show him how much it bothered her, not like she had done back in the doctor’s consultation room.

The woman behind the desk saw Jake and Holly a mile away, and a grin grew slowly on her lips.

“So, who do we have here, Jake?” she asked, tilting her head to one side.

“Working tonight, Agneta?”

“Baby, I’m always working. This is what nurses do,” the short, African-American motherly nurse stated. She looked at the chart and then up quizzically. “Henry?” She looked at the chart once again, then at Holly, and then at Jake who had a huge smile plastered on his face.

“She don’t look like no Henry to me, Jake.”

“Agneta, you know how she gets. Please. Just say it was a Henry.”

Holly raised an eyebrow at Jake.

“I’ll explain later, just go,” he practically shoed Holly away.

“All right, I’m going.” She followed Agneta who continued to look at him skeptically.

“So, what happened, baby?”

“I hit an idiot.” She looked down at the nurse. “And no, for the second time, it wasn’t Jake.”

Agneta laughed. “That boy is far from an idiot, but he sure is playing at death’s door bringing you here.”

“What’s the deal with him and this place?” Holly asked as they entered a small room.

Agneta put a heavy, bulletproof-looking vest on Holly to protect her from radiation during the scan, and gently positioned her swollen hand on top of a big plastic cartridge. She aligned the head of the X-ray machine over both the hand and the cartridge.

“The P&E sign outside?” she said, and Holly nodded. “The P belongs to Jake’s family,” Agneta shared just before she ducked out of the room. The X-ray machine emitted a short beep as it snapped its picture and Agneta returned once more.

Holly looked stunned. “Really?”

“You didn’t know that?”

“I just met the guy. He’s good friends with my friends and offered to bring me in when I hit a really stupid guy. I normally don’t do that kind of thing.”

Agneta smiled cheekily. “You sure don’t look like the bimbos he used bring in.”

“No? I’m not an airhead, then,” she stated more to herself than to Agneta, who was in the process of removing the cartridge in order to transfer it to another machine. “So, who is this person he’s referring to?”

“His mother. She’s one hell of a doctor but when it comes to her children, she’s a bit crazy.”

Holly’s eyes crinkled at the corners.
Better a crazy mom, than no mom at all,
she thought. She cringed at that thought, though. Jane was really trying hard to reconnect with her, but she was being the hard head. Still, she should’ve never accepted that money from her for that stupid wedding.

Agneta looked at her with a tiny smile.

Holly started to feel slightly uncomfortable, what with those big brown eyes scanning the length of her body. “I just have to say
thank you
.”

“Why?” Holly sounded confused.

“He hasn’t smiled this much in a long time.”

Holly snorted, wondering where this was leading. She’d only just met him, but he didn’t seem like the I’m-depressed-kind-of-guy.

“All done,” she uttered, first removing the heavy vest, and then taking her back through the maze of hallways to where they left Jake waiting.

“You take care now, honey bunch, but before you go, wait for the X-rays so we can find out what the next step will be.”

“I’ll do that, Agneta. Thank you so much, and you take care, too.” She parted ways with the nurse who slipped behind the desk again to fill out yet more forms. She found Jake sitting patiently on the sofa in the waiting area.

“Henry?” Holly shook her head at him.

He just smiled.

“So what are you, some sort of a mamma’s boy?”

He raised his eyebrows in question, but replied with a “No, I’m not.” This was followed by a glare he directed toward Agneta. She wasn’t paying attention in any case. “My mother is opposed to us having relationships during our studies. She regards studying as being essential, and believes that one should always give a hundred and fifty percent. My sister only got married last year, after she graduated.”