What She Left Us (11 page)

Before
she knew what was happening, he had her up against the door, and his hands were
in her hair, and he kissed her neck, inhaling all of her.

“Oh
God, you smell so good. Your hair… I can’t tell you how much I thought of you
when you were gone,” he said.

“Really?”
she asked.

He
stopped kissing. “Really. The whole time.” He moved to kiss her again, and then
stopped. “Are you good with this?”

She
looked into his eyes, thinking that he was pretty perfect and that it was going
to be perfect. Whatever was going to happen, she trusted him.

“I’m
good with this,” she said.

Then
his lips were back on hers and he intertwined his fingers through hers. They
were still up against the door and he leaned into her. Her back was flat
against the door, he held her hands tightly, and he caressed her fingertips as
he kissed her. He raised her arms above her head and kissed her soft,
insistent. The sensations were too much and Courtney moaned. Mitch moved away
from her face, just a few inches. Their hands were still clasped together,
raised above their heads. He kept touching the pads of her fingertips, as if
they were guitar strings. He was playing her. Lightly.

“You
okay?”

 “Yes.”

They
kissed some more. Mitch let go of one of her hands and moved his hand down the side
of her body, slowly following the curve of her breast, and then rested his hand
on her hip. He lifted the bottom edge of her shirt, slipped his thumb into the
side of her jeans and caressed the soft skin of her hip. He moved his other
hand to the back of her neck and pulled her closer.  

Courtney
felt dizzy, and just as she was about to tell him she had to sit, he picked her
up and she wrapped her arms around his neck; her legs tight around his firm
hips. She could feel the strong muscles in his back, and she could also feel
that he was as excited to be there with her as she was to be with him.

He
stopped for a second in the tiny room, and searched her eyes. “For the record,
I don’t go around doing this with every RA.”

“Good
to know. Just so you know, this isn’t my usual MO either.”

“Good.
Now that that’s cleared up… ”

He
spun Courtney around and dropped her onto her bed. Courtney landed less than
glamorously. But before there was time to react, Mitch clicked on the iPod, and
settled himself gently on top of her. The room was filled with music and he
smiled down at her.

“Hey
there.”

“Long
time,” she giggled. “So.”

“So,
where were we?” he asked.

“I’m
kind of nervous,” she admitted.

“You
are? That’s kind of completely adorable,” Mitch traced a line along her cheek
to her collarbone. Courtney shivered.

“I’m
being serious,” she said.

“We
don’t have to do anything,” Mitch said. “I mean, anything more than this.”

“I
want to.”

“Then
we can.”

Courtney
couldn’t believe she was acting this way. Here she was, with a guy she finally
had serious feelings for, someone she was completely attracted to, and she was
scared. Is this what was supposed to happen? What was she scared of? Of getting
hurt, that’s what she was scared of.

She
thought of her sister, how she and Darren were no longer together, and how
Jenna had given him everything, how they were supposed to get married, and now…
now her sister had nothing. All of that and it had all been for absolutely
nothing.

“Court,
if you’re scared of getting pregnant, I have a condom.”

“You
do?”

“Yeah.
I was kind of hoping… ”

“Wow.”

“Is
that bad of me?”

“No.
I guess… I think I was kind of hoping too.”

He
smiled, and then touched her face so softly, she felt like crying. She did
trust him. She wanted this. She wanted him.

She
reached for Mitch, completely sure about what they were going to do.

Dr.
Rhetler opened Jenna’s blood test results and shook her head. She never liked
getting a positive result, especially on patients so young.

“At
least we caught it at the early stages and the girls will only have to go
through the series of bloodletting until they get their iron counts down,” she
said to Dee. “That should be all they’ll need to do for the foreseeable future.
Of course, down the road, it’s hard to say, as they get older. But this is
relatively good news.”

Dee
nodded.

“You’re
writing this all down?” Dr. Rhetler asked.

“Yes,
Dr. Rhetler.” Dee grabbed a pen.

“Where
are her sister's results?”

“Dr.
Koling is doing a comparative study for a conference he's keynoting so Lissa
brought him some files. Her sister's file must be with the stack Lissa took to
him. She said she'd return them all in the morning.”

“Okay.
So, call Jenna, let the girls know they’ll need to have one pint of blood
removed twice a week, Mondays and Thursdays, for the next two to four months. They
can have this done at the hospital of their choice. We’ll retest the end of the
year to see how their counts are.”

“Gotcha.”

When
Jenna's cell rang and she saw it was Dr. Rhetler's office, her heart skipped a
beat.

"Hello?"

“Jenna,
this is Dee from Dr. Rhetler’s office.”

“Not
good news?” Jenna said immediately. She had been moping in her apartment since
Courtney had left the week before, anticipating the phone call.

“It’s
not horrible, but yes, you and Courtney have tested positive.”

Jenna
felt her world drop from under her.
Breathe, Jenna, breathe
.

“What
exactly does this mean?”
Stay calm, stay calm
.

“Okay,
so really, in the cases of hemochromatosis, it’s really not that bad. You and
Courtney will need to have a pint of blood removed only twice a week for two to
four months, on Mondays and Thursdays.”

“Twice
a week!” Jenna yelled into the phone.

“Now
I know that sounds like a lot, but Jenna, think of it this way, like, like car
maintenance,” Dee said. “Almost as if you’re getting an oil change.” Dee knew
that Dr. Rhetler would not exactly approve of her describing bloodletting to
her patients this way, but it really made sense when explained like this.

Jenna
wasn’t buying it. “I do not appreciate you comparing my health and my body to a
Subaru.”

“I
know, I know. I’m sorry. I’m just trying to explain it the best as I can.
You’ll have to start right away. We have tracking charts that you’ll need to
take to whichever facility you choose. You can go to any hospital you’d like to
go to. Your blood is still good, and healthy. This is a good opportunity for
you to donate blood if you’d like to. It can help save lives in the process.”

Jenna
stopped listening. She needed to figure out what was next. She wanted Darren
there. She wished more than anything that she had Darren there. She wanted to
get off the phone with this Dee woman and be with Darren no matter what the
consequences would be, she didn’t give a damn.

“And
so then you’ll have to come in later for a follow-up.”

“When
do we have to start this vampire bullshit?”

“Darling
it’s–”

“Please
don’t call me darling.”

“I’m
sorry. I realize this is a big shock.”

“I
don’t mean to be rude, Dee, but the past half a year has been a big shock, so
this is just the icing on the cake.”

“Again,
I apologize. You and your sister should have a pint of blood drawn twice a
week, Mondays and Thursdays, beginning this Thursday. Can you stop by Dr.
Rhetler’s office in the next day or two to get the charts you’ll need to take
to the facility of your choice?”

“Yes.
And you said we can get this done anywhere, right?”

“Yes,
anywhere.”

“Fine.
I’ll be there tomorrow to get the charts.”

Jenna
was numb. She didn’t know how she was going to tell Courtney. But she figured
if anything, Courtney would talk
her
off the ledge. Courtney lately was
the one who seemed so in control of things. Still, she wasn’t going to call her
today. Right now, she was walking up the steps of Darren’s condo, the one where
she was supposed to be moving into after they were going to be married.

She
walked with determination, her head held high. She wasn’t sure what she was
going to say, just knew that she needed to see him, wanted to talk to him, had
an urge so strong, a pull that was driving her to him.

She
couldn’t believe she had shut him out of her life like she had. She knew now
that she had gone a little bit insane. She was convinced that she had had a
mental breakdown and those first few months after her mother died she had
walked around in a state of mind that was on the verge of being crazy.

When
she really thought about it, she couldn’t even remember what she had done those
first few months. Right before her mother had died, she had completed a
semester of master's classes in environmental studies and had been planning on
taking two online courses toward her degree over the summer. But there was no
way she could concentrate on the environment when her mother had just died.
What
did
she do? She couldn’t remember. She truly didn’t know. Those few
months seem to be erased from her memory. She knew she slept a lot. She took a
lot of sleeping pills to erase the grief of losing her mother. Maybe Darren had
wanted to be there for her? She completely shut him out of her life. Maybe he
truly hated her. She had to find out. Her life was unraveling.

Darren
had been so good to her. Loving her the way he had. She hadn’t deserved him.

When
he had asked her to marry him, there had been no hesitation. They were sure
about it, sure about one another. It hadn’t been a hokey engagement, there
wasn’t any ring hidden in a dessert or a fake-out gift or anything like that.
But it had been perfect. Exactly as she had hoped it would have been.

They
had been out having dinner at their favorite Italian restaurant, and then they
took a walk along the waterfront when he stopped her along the path.

“So
you ready?” he asked her.

“Ready
for what?”

“To
do this thing.” he said.

“What
thing? Dessert?” she laughed. “I’m still stuffed from dinner!”

“No,”
he smiled at her. “You goof. This ‘Mrs.’ Thing. You’re ready, don’t you think?”

They
had been talking about it forever, so she knew what he meant. “Whenever you’re
ready, I’m game.”

“How
about now?”

“Now?”

“Like
right now.”

Her
eyes got wide and Darren made a move to get on one knee.

“You
are not doing this here. Really?  You’re doing this? Here? Oh my… Wow.”

Jenna
put her hands over her face in an embarrassed shock gesture.

On
one knee, Darren pulled out a ring, no box, just a platinum ring with a square
diamond, held onto his pinky finger.

“I’m
doing this here. If you want me to?” His smile was as big as the world it
seemed to Jenna.

“Yes!
Yes!” Jenna said.

“I
didn’t ask you anything yet,” Darren said.

“Okay,
okay!” she squealed. "Ask! Ask!"

He
moved her so she was sitting on his bended knee, under the lamppost light,
while others strolled by slowly to watch their engagement unfold.

“So,
Ms. Jenna Haddonfield,” Darren began, “Will you make me the happiest man in the
entire world by becoming my wife?”

“Yes!
Yes! Yes!”

He
slipped the ring onto her finger, and she put her arms around his neck. He
picked her up and lifted her up to meet his lips in a perfect kiss.

People
around them stared and smiled. A couple walking a pair of pugs clapped, and
Jenna remembered grinning at the dogs, and then at their owners, so happy that
night, everything perfect in her world. She was getting married.

“Can
we get dessert now?” she laughed.

That
seemed like eons ago as Jenna approached Darren’s front door, and she hesitated
for just a moment, wistful and sad, thinking about those pugs, and then she
rang the bell. She wished more than anything she could inject those feelings
they had back at that moment into Darren, and that they could relive those
times, get back to that place. She wanted to be back there, to start over,
before her mom died, before this new diagnosis, before everything in the entire
world went to shit.

She
rang the bell, and no one came.

She
rang the bell again, and finally she heard heavy footsteps.

The
door opened and there was Darren.