What He Bargains (What He Wants, Book Nineteen) (46 page)

“Oh, well, it just comes so natural to me,” she joked back, and then left the Starbucks, still smiling.

R
aven woke
up early the next morning, rubbing her eyes, wondering where she was.

Oh, right. I’m in the apartment that a famous celebrity rock star rented for me after I was hired to be his escort for a few days.

She sat up on the couch, where she’d apparently fallen asleep, and tried to recall how late she’d stayed up. The television was still on, and she vaguely remembered watching some late night PBS special where Wayne Dyer was pacing around the stage and talking about living from a place of gratitude.

She hadn’t been able to fall asleep because she’d been thinking about
him
again. Jake. Wondering what he was doing. Reading every article about him, trying to see if he’d been spotted out anywhere, refreshing Twitter and Facebook and Instagram for updates. Checking her phone to see if he’d tried to message her, even though she knew he wasn’t going to.

He’s got a show tonight in Boston. Maybe you should go there and see if you can get a ticket from one of the scalpers.

But Raven knew she wasn’t going to do that. She wasn’t going to humiliate herself, stalking Jake at one of his own concerts.

Jake had paid her very well to get rid of her—the least she could do was respect his wish to forget she’d ever existed.

In any case, today wasn’t about Jake Novak, and it wasn’t about Raven’s confusion over possibly having a broken heart.

Today was about Skylar.

Skylar was undergoing chemotherapy for the first time, and Raven wanted to be there for her completely and totally—she wanted to be present for Skylar, not just physically, but emotionally.

You need to get yourself in check. Enough pining for Jake, it’s time to really step up to the plate for Sky. She’s scared and she needs you.

Thinking about Skylar was like a splash of cold water on her face, and Raven immediately felt more alert and awake. She got off the couch and went to the bathroom, jumped in the shower, washed up as quickly as she could, and then got dressed in a comfortable outfit.

She knew from her research that these chemo sessions could last hours, so she wanted to be as relaxed as possible. After getting dressed, pulling back her hair, she applied just a bit of makeup and brushed her teeth.

It was early enough that Raven had time before meeting Skylar at the hospital. She left the apartment and went shopping. There were plenty of stores surrounding the towers, and Raven made use of the time to put together a duffel bag full of things that Skylar might want throughout her treatment.

Raven bought candy, gum, and crackers of various assortments. Brownies, cookies, chips. Then she got goofy stuff like coloring books, magazines (Raven refused to take the three magazines that featured Jake on the cover), a couple of novels, a travel-sized checker board and a travel-sized game of scrabble, crossword puzzles, that sort of stuff.

In the end, the duffel bag was stuffed full and Raven could barely carry it, but she pulled the strap over her shoulder and went out to grab a cab to take her the rest of the way to the hospital.

After the cab dropped her off at Boston Memorial, Raven had to ask for directions to the Cancer Center and then to the Treatment Center. When she arrived, she sat and waited with her enormous duffle bag in the waiting room, next to a fish tank.

An older man sat nodding off in a wheelchair nearby, while a person who might have been his daughter sat and read a book.

On the other side of the fish tank, there were three people discussing all of the different hospitals they’d been to and all the surgeries they each had. Each person kept saying, “Oh, I had that one,” as if they were comparing notes about different appetizer dishes at their favorite restaurants.

Raven texted Skylar and said she was there. Skylar texted back and said she was in the building now, too.

A few minutes later, Skylar showed up with her mother. They both looked stressed and anxious.

Raven waved and smiled, not knowing if she was supposed to act all serious, but deciding that being upbeat felt better.

“Hey, I brought fun stuff,” Raven said, holding up the duffle bag.

“Oh, cool,” Skylar said, but her eyes were darting nervously around the room.

“We should register, honey,” her mother said, putting a hand on her daughter’s shoulder.

They went to check in and Raven waited at her seat, fidgeting. After a little bit, they came and sat down next to her.

“So,” Skylar’s mother said to Raven, “I hear you’ve been quite the busy bee lately.”

“I have?”

“You and Jake Novak?” Skylar’s mom gave Raven a knowing look. “That’s one serious man you landed.”

Skylar put her hand up to her forehead. “Mom! What the heck--don’t embarrass me!”

“It’s not every day someone we know is dating a famous man. I can’t even ask about it?”

Raven laughed. “It’s no big deal.”

“And he’s such a wonderful person,” Skylar’s mother continued, clucking her tongue appreciatively. “He treated us like family, you know. An absolute gentleman.”

“He’s been a lifesaver,” Skylar agreed, but rolled her eyes for Raven’s benefit.

Her mother seemed content to keep talking. “It’s just awful how the news media treats him. I wrote a letter to NBC about it, and another letter to the New York Times.”

Raven nodded appreciatively, trying hard to keep a straight face as Skylar made funny faces while her mother droned on and on about what a saint Jake Novak was.

Of course, it was true that Jake had gone way above and beyond for Skylar. What he’d done was incredible, but there was something about listening to Sky’s mother talk about Jake that was humorous.

Part of it was the situation. You had to laugh so as not to cry.

Every time Jake’s name came up, Raven was acutely aware of the fact that they were no longer involved either romantically or business-wise.

Was it ever romantic, though?

She still didn’t know what Jake had really thought about the whole thing. It had been romantic for her, but if Jake had never truly felt anything for her, than she supposed it really had always been purely business for him.

A nurse came out and called Skylar’s name.

“Can they come with me?” Skylar asked, gesturing to Raven and her mother.

“Of course,” the nurse smiled. “The more the merrier.”

The three of them followed the nurse back to the treatment center. She stopped and had Skylar get on a scale and took her wait.

“Maybe I’ll lose a few pounds, at least,” Skylar joked.

“Honey, don’t joke about that,” her mother said.

“You gotta look at the silver lining,” the nurse replied, taking notes.

Then the nurse brought her to a seat near a window. It was basically one large room and all of the chairs were in rows and separated by curtains, but you could still see everyone sitting in their seats. The privacy was minimal. Nurses bustled to and fro and there were loud beeping noises coming from the different IV stands.

Raven tried not to stare at the other patients, but it was difficult not to. Most of them were alone, or had just one other person sitting beside them to keep them company. Everyone looked rather bored, and resigned. Some of them wore hats, most wore layers of clothing, and a few were bald.

One woman was so incredibly thin that it hurt to even look at her.

Skylar seemed in good spirits, though. She sat down and the nurse took her vitals, blood pressure, talked to her about what was to come.

If anything, it was Skylar’s mother who was the problem. She was overly anxious, talkative, interrupting the nurse to ask vague and useless questions.

Raven could tell that she was making Skylar more nervous, but there wasn’t much to be done. She was her mother, and that outranked Raven any day of the week.

Eventually, the nurse started to run the IV for the infusion. At first, everything seemed fine, but then Raven noticed that the nurse had gone very quiet and stopped talking and joking.

Skylar was squinting in discomfort and looking up at the ceiling, while her mother was fretting.

“Is she—did you get it?”

“I’m having trouble,” the nurse replied. “Her veins don’t seem to want to cooperate today.”

Raven felt her stomach clench like a fist. She could tell that the longer this went on, the more pain her friend was in.

“Is this normal, to have this much trouble getting the IV inserted?” Skylar’s mother asked.

“I’ve seen it all,” the nurse replied, but her voice was tense.

The time dragged out, and the nurse moved from one arm to the other. Eventually, when that failed, she went and got another nurse, who also tried with no success.

Meanwhile, Skylar was getting more and more upset. She was no longer trying to pretend she was okay. Instead, tears were in her eyes each time they poked and prodded her, she clenched her teeth and looked away.

“I can’t watch this anymore,” Skylar’s mother said. “I’m sorry, this is just too much.” And she walked out of the room.

Raven went and sat closer to Skylar, grabbed her hand. “Hey, it’s almost done,” she said. “They’re going to get it soon, I can tell.”

“Are you sure?” Skylar asked, squeezing Raven’s hand tightly.

“I’m totally one hundred percent sure.”

“How do you know?”

“Because I’m psychic, of course.”

The newest nurse to attempt getting the needle in had just given up as well. She stood and looked at them. “I’m going to get our specialist,” the nurse said. “She deals with the tough cases—she’s the best in the business. But she’s working a different floor today. I’ll be back in a moment.” And then the nurse left and Raven and Skylar were alone.

Skylar turned to her. “Raven, I’m scared. I wasn’t scared before, but now I’m really scared. It’s already bad and it hasn’t even really started yet. This is a bad omen, isn’t it?”

Raven looked at her friend calmly and squeezed her hand reassuringly. “Don’t be silly. There’s no bad omen here. They’re getting that specialist and she’s going to take care of you in no time.”

“You really think so?”

“I know so.” But deep inside, Raven was terrified. She was starting to wonder the same thing. Could it be that this was the start of everything going wrong, the beginning of endless pain and suffering for Skylar?

No, you can’t think that way. You have to stay strong and stay positive for Sky.

“Hey, let me show you all the cool stuff I got for today,” Raven said, keeping her voice light. She grabbed the duffel bag and opened it and started listing everything.

Even though Skylar was too nervous to really care, Raven was able to distract her just enough to engage her and calm her down a little.

Finally, the nurse showed up who had been specifically brought there to deal with Skylar’s “difficult veins.”

“I’m Nelly,” the woman said. She was friendly with a warm smile. However, Raven could tell instantly that the woman knew how to do her job. She began caressing Skylar’s arms, her intelligent eyes scanning every inch, studying Skylar’s veins the way a ship’s captain would study the sea.

Finally, she announced she was ready.

“Raven,” Skylar called to her, reaching out her hand, and Raven slid close and held Sky’s hand as Nelly prepared to insert the needle for the IV.

Seconds later, it was done, and Nelly had made the adjustments so that the IV was firm and working properly. She grinned. “Easy as pie, darling.”

“How did you do that so fast?” Skylar asked, in awe.

“Nobody else could do it,” Raven said, shaking her head. “And you did it in like five seconds.”

“They call me the vein whisperer,” Nelly said quietly, and winked. “Gotta go. If you need me again next week, just give a holler and I’ll come running.”

Then she quickly scurried off to wherever she came from.

“I think she’s an angel,” Skylar said, closing her eyes and exhaling.

L
ater on
, Raven took a break to go and eat at the hospital cafeteria. Skylar seemed to be doing well with the chemo once they’d gotten past the initial problem with the IV. Her mother had come back and seemed to calm down, so Raven left the two of them and went on her own.

She already was exhausted from dealing with the anxiety of watching her friend suffer, worrying for Skylar’s wellbeing and trying to put up a positive front all at once. Knowing that there was going to be nearly two months of this for Skylar was terrifying. And there was no telling how her body would react to all of the drugs they were pumping into her system—it was essentially poisoning her, hoping to kill off the cancer before doing too much damage to the rest of her.

When Raven finally got to the cafeteria, there was already plenty of people milling about, getting food from the various different stations, or sitting at the tables. There were doctors, nurses, patients and families, and there were also students, since Boston Memorial was a teaching hospital as well.

She decided to get a precooked cheeseburger, because there was no line and it was simpler than standing around and waiting to get pork loin or roast turkey. The cheeseburger came in a bright foil package that was greasy to the touch. Then, Raven grabbed herself a Diet Coke and some potato chips before paying.

As she left the register, Raven scanned the brightly lit room for an empty table, and didn’t see any.

“Crowded, huh?” a woman said, coming up next to her.

Raven glanced at the woman. “Yeah, it is. Feels like high school all over again.”

“Tell me about it.” The woman grinned. She was short, with frizzy red hair and freckles. Raven instantly liked her for some reason.

“I guess I’ll just have to bite the bullet and sit with strangers,” Raven said.

“Wait, I think I see some people getting up. I’ll go grab a table for us!” the lady said, and then she was off like a rocket, racing to get to the newly open table before someone else tried to claim it as their own.