Authors: Carolina Soto
The redhead, Lorna, took a small pad and a pen, and started writing. “Mr. Berkeley, we have to go through the schedule. As we’ve talked, we will take care of her during the day and you’ll do it during the night. I’ve already printed a timetable for you, so you won’t have any problem.”
Naughty nurse Berkeley?
After connecting me, and putting some meds in the IV, Celia turned to Dylan. “We’ll let you get settled.” Both smiled at me and left the room as fast as they had entered.
“Dylan, you don’t have to take care of me at nights. You have to rest.”
“I am not letting them enter here in the middle of the night while we are sleeping, doll. So you are stuck with me. I’ll do my best to be a good nurse.” He kissed my head and the only thing I could think was the fact that he wanted to stay with me.
“Could you bring my phone?” Now that I was out of the hospital I needed to talk to Kevin. My best friend had only received phone calls from Dylan to keep him informed. I also needed to know if Mom and Dad had tried to contact me. Berkeley had already talked to Marc and explained to him about my ‘little accident’. Michelle had gone crazy, and after talking with her for an hour, Dylan convinced her that I was fine and that I only needed a minor surgery.
“I have to charge yours, but you can use mine.” He gave me his iPhone and I was surprised that a picture of the side of my face was his screensaver. I couldn’t remember when he took it, from the angle you could barely recognize me, but I distinguished my lips and my pearls. The silly teenager apparently living in my stomach was too happy with this.
Kevin answered on the third ring. “How is she, Berkeley?”
That was when I realized how much I had missed his voice, how much I had missed him. “She’s fine, baby.”
“Oh God, Katie, you’re fine.” He stayed speechless for a moment. “I need to see you, tell me where you are and I’ll be there in five minutes.”
“You are working silly.”
“Katherine.” He never used my full name, he must have been really angry at me. “You had a big accident and then you disappeared. I am not doing this over the phone, so you better tell me where you are.”
I couldn’t prolong this any longer. “Dylan will give you the address, ok?” I passed the phone to Blue Eyes and he talked to Kevin. After hanging up he turned to me.
“Baby, you know he will never believe you once he sees you, right?”
He was right, but I couldn’t do it any other way if I wanted them to think I was fine. “We’ll stick to that version, ok?” He didn’t answer, just kissed my forehead. That’s when it hit me. He had never kissed me properly since I left his apartment that terrible day. It was odd, but I decided to blame it on my weak state and the fact he was trying to be as careful with me as he could.
Faithful to his word, Kevin was at the door in a couple of minutes. Even though he worked on Wall Street, he came in record time. I heard his voice talking to Dylan while walking towards the room, so I tried to arrange myself to look as healthy and presentable as I could.
“How did you become this close to Katherine?” Dylan’s voice was a little harsh for the literally five seconds they had been talking. Apparently they stopped outside the door because even when I could hear them, I couldn’t see them.
“When I came to live here, we were fifteen, and she was the only girl who was not jumping over me in school. I decided there that we would be friends, she couldn’t care less about me; so I knew I could trust her. She has always been like this Berkeley, and it has just made me love her more.”
I didn’t pay attention to Dylan’s answer because they were already moving. Kevin entered the room first and stopped, mimicking Joe’s reaction the first time he saw me. But my friend didn’t need to keep the ‘security guy’ appearances, he was even more affected. His eyes were full of tears and soon one of them was rolling down his face.
“Hello, hottie.” I tried to talk as always, smile as always, and be a tough cookie as always.
“Princess.” He couldn’t talk anymore. He wasn’t ashamed of crying, he was too overwhelmed to care.
“I am fine, Kev. The hospital time made me a little weak, but I was released and I’ll be perfect soon.” My words didn’t match the way I looked. Dylan was staring at us from a couch that was located in the corner of the room, shaking his head.
Stop judging me Berkeley!
Kevin walked slowly to me. “May I touch you? Or I could hurt you?” His voice was wary, he even seemed to be walking slowly.
“Have you ever asked for permission to touch a girl, Kev? Of course you can touch me!” I saw how Dylan was fighting with himself, he wanted to stop Kevin. He knew that I could be hurt quite easily, but I needed to make him believe I was alright.
Kevin walked to the side of my bed, kissed my cheek and took my hand in his. “I’ve been missing you, sweetheart. I need you back in the apartment soon; you know I can’t live without you.”
I cleaned one of the tears that was falling down his cheek. “Soon, Mr. Overprotective here”- I pointed to Dylan- “wanted to keep an eye on me for a bit longer, and since his apartment is being renovated we have to stay here.”
“Can I come to see you?”
“Kev, you are my brother, you can come whenever you want! You don’t need permission to see me.” My heart was breaking again.
Your heart is breaking all the time lately, laaame.
I could only imagine the fear my poor friend had been through the last days.
He turned around to see if Dylan was paying attention and lowered his voice. “Are you ok with him taking care of you?”
We had been friends for ten years, he knew I couldn’t be that comfortable depending on someone else. “Yes, he’s been awesome. And you know what mamma says, I need humbling experiences in my life.”
And this has been the biggest of my damn’ life.
“The question is, who of you two is having that experience.” I knew Dylan, he was listening. But the truth was that Berkeley had been perfect during the moments when I needed him the most.
“We both are paying for our vanities baby, we both are.” The little smile on Dylan’s mouth warmed my heart, but more important matters were waiting. Clearing my throat a little, trying to make it look as casual as a brick I asked my first concern. “Kev, have my parents called?”
“No, princess, but you have to talk to them. This is important and they need to know.”
If Dylan says ‘I told you so’, I’ll kick his ass!
“I know, I just wanted to wait until I was out of the hospital, so they don’t worry.”
“We love you, we can worry, that’s what we do.” Just what Dylan had said.
Blue Eyes, wearing his tight, faded jeans and a white V-neck shirt, not that I thought he looked cute as hell, walked to us and put his arm around Kevin’s shoulder. “Kevin, Katherine needs some rest, but would you like to have lunch with me?”
My knight in shining armor.
He knew this was a difficult topic and came to my rescue.
“Thank you man, but I can’t, I have to go back to the office. I have a meeting, but I really needed to see Katie. Please take care of her.”
“That’s my job, Kevin, I will always take care of her.” My heart beat faster, Dylan wanted to take care of me. I never thought I would require someone to take care of me, but in that moment, when I needed it, he wanted to do it.
Kevin said goodbye promising to visit every day until I could get back to our apartment. While Dylan walked him out, I noticed how Kevin lowered his voice and asked him. “Is it me or is she kinder after the accident?”
“I am medicated not deaf, you jerks!”
They both laughed and exited the room, they hadn’t even closed the door when I was already asleep. When I woke up Dylan came to the room with a nice old lady.
“Doll, I need you to meet someone.” They walked to my bed and I noticed the lady was a perfect representation of Mrs. Potts, from ‘The Beauty and the Beast’. “This is Angela Danvers, my housekeeper.”
“Nice to meet you, Mrs. Danvers.”
“It’s my pleasure Ms. Bianchi, Dylan has told me everything about you. I was dying to meet you.”
Before her, I had never seen Dylan being that kind to anyone. Not his friends, not his employees. Something was different with her. “Call me Katherine. And please, take care of this guy. I need him well fed and rested.”
Her eyes sparkled, the messy bun on the top of her head shook with her sweet laughter. “I have being taking care of my boy since he was born, so I assure you he’s in good hands. Of course, until you can take care of him yourself.”
Before I died with that comment, Blue Eyes cut in. “We’ll bring you dinner, baby. Go back to sleep for a while.”
“I’ll call Michelle while dinner is preparing. It was great to meet you Mrs. Danvers.” That was what I found different about her. She was part of his parents’ history, she had been in that house with him before.
They both left me already shaken after Mrs. Danvers comment, to do one of the scariest things I had to confront until then. My friend would kill me if she ever knew what really had happened to me.
I waited until she picked up and I swear those were the most nervous moments of my life. “K is it you?”
“Yes M. God! I missed you so much!”
She started crying even before she could kick my ass through the phone. “What happened to you? Dylan told us you were in an accident. And I wanted to talk to you, but you didn’t answer your phone, or my texts. Dylan just said you were fine, but Katie I was going crazy. I tried to go to New York, but I think Dylan asked Marc to stop me. I thought about breaking up with him and running to you, but he asked me to wait a little.” She was sobbing, incapable of finishing her words, she just cried them to me.
“I know, baby.” I took a breath and did my best to calm her. “I had a car accident, it was a little serious. But I just needed surgery on my wrist and got a little weak after it. That’s why I couldn’t talk to you in the hospital, but I left today. Now I am in Dylan’s parents’ apartment, so we can talk as many times as you want.”
“You’re voice sounds weird Katie. Promise me you are fine.”
Lie, lie, lie!
“I’m ok M. And soon I’ll be perfect. I promise that as soon as I can, I’ll do whatever it takes to see you. And please darling, never think of giving up that hot man of yours for me. He was just taking care of you.”
“I think he was being more faithful to Dylan than to me.”
“Of course not M. You know that he’s his best friend, but both Dylan and Marc were doing what was necessary in that moment.”
I could feel she was believing my act. “What did you mean when you said you’re in Dylan’s parents’ apartment?”
“Just that, he brought me here today. I think his place is getting some work done and he wanted to keep an eye on me.”
“K, I thought that place was closed, but I guess it was not. When will I see you?”
I don’t know.
“Soon, the moment I get rid of this stupid cast and the doctor gives me his approval I’ll be on a plane to see you.”
“K, I love you so much, please never do this to me again.”
“I promise, I love you more baby.” I hung up and cried myself to sleep.
Three days went by and I started feeling better. I truly thought I was ready to stand up, so obviously I announced it to the world. Dylan had assumed his new office position on the couch just in front of the bed, and Lorna was checking my IV.
“I want to pee.” I know, I am such a lady.
Dylan locked his iPad and started standing up. “I’ll carry you, doll.”