Page 26 of Bliss

Alex

It was just after 8:30 a.m. on Monday morning, and Alex was in the middle of her in-home training session with Kat, the wealthy clothing designer, when her cellphone rang and vibrated in her pocket. She had already warned and apologized to her client because she might receive a call that she’d have to take, so Kat waved her off while she continued to pedal hard on her stationary bike.

Stepping out of the room onto a wood deck that led to the backyard and an inground swimming pool, Alex answered the phone, saying, “Hello, this is Alex.”

“Good morning, Alex. This is Alice Smith from Newton General Hospital. Is this a good time to talk?”

“Yes. Is everything okay with Tina?”

“Oh, yes, absolutely. Dr. Rockford asked me to give you a call to let you know the swelling in Ms. Schafer’s arm and leg has dissipated, so they’re going to begin casting both limbs shortly. The process will take about half an hour for each, then you’ll be able to pick her up and take her home.”

Alex pulled the phone away from her ear to check the time, then putting the phone back to ear, she asked, “So, I should get there by 9:30 a.m.?”

“That would be ideal. And you’ll need to bring her some clothes. Something loose to be able to get over the casts.”

Isadora had given Alex a heads up over the weekend that they’d likely be doing the casts today and discharging Tina, so with Tina’s permission, Alex and Callie went to her apartment on Sunday and got the place ready for her return home. They threw out old, spoiled food out of the fridge, washed a handful of dishes that were in the sink, and washed her bed linens and bath towels. Alex had also bought a couple dozen soft washcloths and two large basins to help with her bathing, as well as disposable absorbent mats for her bed, and the inflating shampoo basin to wash her hair. After stocking her fridge with fresh food, Alex selected a pair of loose lounge pants, a pair of cotton panties and matching bra, and an oversized tee shirt from Tina’s dresser for her to wear home.

“Okay, I’ll be there. Thank you for calling.”

“You’re most welcome. Have a nice day.”

“You too.”

After Alex hung up, she brought up her text thread with Roz.

Alex: Hey, Tina’s being discharged around 9:30 a.m. I’m going to call the home nurse we lined up to have her come over after I get her settled at home. I’ll keep you posted on how well they get along and if we need to find someone else.

Roz: Are you going to be able to stay with her today, or should I try to get out of work early?

Alex: I already gave all of my clients a heads up that I may have to cancel their training sessions today, so I can stay with her if I have to. But if you’d rather hang out with Tina and her nurse than be at the office, I won’t fight you on it.

Roz: I just laughed so hard. If you were anyone else, that would read like a ploy to pawn Tina off onto me. But I know you don’t mind being there. I only just got to work fifteen minutes ago. Let me take a look at a few things and see if I can push some work off onto someone else. I think it would be good for both of us to be there, at least for part of the day.

Alex: Understood. I have to get back to a client, but my ringer is on. Call or text when you want.

She quickly brought up her contacts list and called and spoke with her clients for her next four scheduled appointments, letting them know the situation and that she had to cancel today. They were all understanding and wished her friend a speedy recovery. Before walking back inside, she sent Callie a text to let her know what was going on.

Alex: Hey, beautiful. I hope you’re having a good morning so far. The hospital called. Tina’s getting her casts put on soon and they’ll be discharging her afterwards, so I have to be up there in an hour to pick her up and take her home. Roz is checking her workload to see if she can take the day off to meet me there. I’m also going to call the home nurse to have her come over after I get her settled. I won’t know for a couple of hours at least if I’ll have to cancel all of my appointments for the day. Do you want me to call when I get done with Kat’s appointment?

Callie: Hey, baby. I have a meeting in fifteen minutes. It should only take half an hour to an hour at most. I’ll text you when I’m done, and maybe you’ll be able to call then.

Alex: Okay. Good luck in your meeting. I love you.

Callie: I love you too. Please be careful driving.

Alex: Always.

When she walked back into the home gym, Kat asked, “Do you have to leave?”

“Nope. You’ll probably be the only client I see today though. I have to head up to the hospital when I leave here.”

“Lucky me,” Kat said with a grin and wiggled her eyebrows, making Alex chuckle and shake her head.

“All right, hop off the bike. We’re going to do your final strength-training circuit, then do a cool down and stretches.”

Kat was never too talkative during their training sessions, remaining focused on the tasks at hand, but she did like to chat with Alex for a few minutes afterwards. But when Alex grabbed a cloth and a spray bottle of cleaning solution to clean up the equipment Kat used, like she always did, Kat took the cleaning supplies from her and shooed her off.

“Go on, get out of here. I can do this today.”

“Thanks, Kat. You did great today.”

Alex showed herself out of the large mansion and climbed into her Jeep . She didn’t have a text from Callie yet, so she started the engine and quickly but safely pulled off of the estate’s driveway in the direction of the hospital. Traffic was still a little heavy with people commuting to work, so it was just a few minutes before 9:30 a.m. by the time she’d driven from the cute historic town of Alexandria to the larger town of Newton over twenty miles away. When she walked into Tina’s hospital room, it was a little shocking to see her sitting up in bed and her limbs no longer supported in slings.

Smiling ear to ear, she beamed, “Look who lost her puppet strings,” and Tina rolled her eyes and laughed. “How do they feel?”

“I feel less fragile, which is good. But the casts feel … snug, I guess is the best word for it. Dr. Rockford said I’ll probably experience itching and maybe chafing. And before you lecture me, she already told me I’m not allowed to stick anything under the casts to scratch my itches.”

“I foresee this becoming a subject of contention for all of us,” Alex honestly noted with a teasing grin, and Tina rolled her eyes again.

“Probably. But I promise to try to be a good patient.”

Alex chuckled and nodded. “Cool. Did you already receive your discharge papers?”

“Yes. I just need to get dressed and let them know I’m ready and they’ll wheel me out to the curb and wait with me for you to pull your vehicle around. I don’t know how we’re going to get into my apartment, but…”

“I bought you a wheelchair. It’s in the back of my Jeep .”

“You bought a… Alex, are you crazy? That had to have cost a fortune.”

“Actually, it was way cheaper to buy one than to rent one for the length of time you’ll need it.”

“Well, give me the receipt and I’ll see if I can get it reimbursed by my insurance. If not, I’ll pay you back.”

“I’ll try to remember to email it to you. Ready to get dressed?”

Tina nodded, so Alex closed the door to the room, then drew the curtain around her bed, just in case one of the nurses or doctors came in. It was a little awkward to get her underwear and pants pulled all the way up over her hips, but it was easier to maneuver her body than when her limbs had been in slings. After she was dressed, Alex packed her e-reader, charger, her discharge papers, and the new cellphone that Roz had taken care of buying for her to replace the one lost in the accident.

A porter helped Alex get Tina transferred to a wheelchair, and when they reached the main lobby, he waited with Tina, while Alex jogged across the parking lot to get her Jeep . It would have been easier to help Tina into her sedan, but the wheelchair, even though it folded up, didn’t fit in the backseat. Tina wasn’t supposed to put any weight on her left leg, so the porter supported her left side to help her stand, then Alex picked her up, wrapping her left arm around her back and her right arm under her legs, then gently set her down in the front passenger seat. Tina was able to buckle her own seat belt, which Alex could tell helped to ease the obvious feeling of helplessness that she was trying not to voice her frustrations over. After thanking the porter for his help, they were off.

“It feels good to be leaving the hospital, but I know this is just the beginning of new challenges.”

“Yeah, but you’re a fighter. You’ve got this, Tina. You just have to be patient with yourself.”

After a few moments of silence, Alex felt Tina’s eyes on her, so she glanced over to see her ex smiling at her.

“What?”

“I was waiting for you to add something like, and be patient with us and your nurse .”

Alex laughed and nodded. “Roz and I already expect you to get angry with us and tell us we’re being annoying and aggravating.” Tina laughed and shrugged. “And we gave your nurse fair warning as well.”

“I’ll try not to be a moody bitch.”

“Being in your own home should make it easier.”

“I am looking forward to sleeping in my own bed again, and being able to sit on the couch, or go outside, or go to a store. Even this,” Tina motioned outside her window, “seeing the world again beyond what I could see of the hospital’s parking lot is wonderful.”

“Do you want to stop anywhere on the way home?”

Tina thought for a couple of minutes, then asked, “Can we go get a coffee and pastry from Ricardo’s?”

“Sure,” Alex glanced over with a smile, and asked, “Do you want to go inside or go through the drive-thru?”

Tina didn’t answer for a minute, then hesitantly asked, “Do you have time to sit inside and talk for a little while?”

Alex nodded as she put her turn signal on and changed lanes in preparation of making a right-hand turn in a couple of blocks. “Yeah, I have time.”

There was only a handful of cars parked in the coffee shop’s parking lot, but the drive-thru was at least fifteen cars deep, most of which were probably running late for work now that it was after 10 a.m. on a Monday. When Alex came around to her side to help her out of the vehicle, Tina didn’t hesitate to wrap her right arm around the back of Alex’s neck, while cradling her casted arm against her stomach.

As Alex set her down on the brand-new wheelchair, then gently lifted and propped both feet onto the angled and customizable foot rests, Tina looked side to side, admiring the thickly cushioned arm rests.

“This is a really nice chair. Much more comfortable than the one the porter wheeled me out in.” She looked up at Alex with her brow slightly pinched in concern. “Alex, how much did you spend on this thing?”

“Don’t worry about it,” she answered, as she closed and locked the Jeep , then grabbed the handle bars and started wheeling Tina towards the entrance.

Looking up at Alex, Tina argued, “You know I’m not going to be in this thing forever. You didn’t need to get something so…”

“Tina, it wasn’t that expensive. I promise. Some people’s TVs cost more than this chair. And I’m not even talking about those ridiculous sixty-plus-inch monstrosities. But even if it did, you deserve to be comfortable. You won’t be able to get that cast off your leg for at least ten weeks, and with that cast on your arm, you can’t use crutches. You’re going to spend a lot of time in this thing. And when you don’t need it anymore, you can pay it forward and donate it.”

As Alex swung the chair around to open the door and hold it open with her back, then swung her around and pushed her inside, Tina relented. “Okay, well, thank you. I really appreciate this and everything else you’re doing for me. And I like the idea of donating it when I don’t need it anymore.”

Alex stopped a few feet back from the counter, and asked, “Can you see the menu, or do you already know what you want?”

“Yes, to both.”

Smiling, Alex nodded and walked up to the register, and a twenty-something-year-old with a frosted pink pixie cut beamed, “Welcome to Ricardo’s. What can I get started for you?”

Alex gently touched Tina’s shoulder, so Tina placed her order first, asking for a medium raspberry mocha cappuccino with an iced raspberry scone.

“Yum. That sounds like a great combo,” the young woman commented, as she typed the items into the register, then wrote on a cup, passing it to the barista to her left. “And for you?” she asked Alex.

“I’ll have a medium dark roast, black, and a blueberry muffin.”

“Room for cream and sugar?”

“No, thanks.”

“Alrighty. That will be $19.85.” Alex tapped her credit card on the machine, and the young woman smiled and passed her receipt to her. “Your order will be ready at the other end of the counter. Enjoy!”

“Thank you.”

While pushing Tina’s wheelchair, Alex asked, “Where would you like to sit?”

“Near the windows.”

There were two other patrons in the café, both of whom were sitting in tall-backed chairs with laptops in their laps and drinks on a table to their sides, so every window table was theirs for the taking. Alex selected a table in the corner, away from the door, giving Tina the best view of the café, the parking lot, and the main road just beyond a landscaped cluster of flowering bushes.

When she returned with their drinks and treats, Tina was looking out the windows with a serene smile lightening her features. Her smile lifted more when Alex sat down across from her.

“How was the beer festival on Saturday?”

“Interesting,” Alex answered with a brief laugh. “We thought if we got there close to opening that it wouldn’t be too crowded, but it was still packed.”

“Uh oh. You hate big crowds.”

Nodding, Alex lifted her coffee to take a sip, before answering, “Callie does too. But it wasn’t too bad. People were being respectful and were in good spirits.”

While they drank their coffees and ate their pastries, Alex told her about the beers and foods they tried at the festival, as well as a couple of funny stories of things they witnessed.

“Sounds like you had a good time.”

“Yeah, it was fun. A couple of Callie’s clients had booths, so she was able to meet them. They were really nice, and one of them gave us some coupons for free drinks and appetizers for their first Trivia Night this Thursday.”

“Trivia Night, huh?”

Alex nodded, holding Tina’s gaze and waiting to see if she would ask what she suspected she wanted to. Tina liked trivia games, whether she played with a group or played them online by herself. But Tina didn’t say more. She just looked down and picked a bite off of her scone and popped it into her mouth, looking out the window while she chewed.

“They have three rounds. We’re planning on arriving for the start of the second at 8 p.m. Hannah and Joselynn are going to meet us there. I could swing by and pick you up, if you’re interested. We’re going to play as a team.”

Tina’s lips slowly curled into a smile, then she turned to meet Alex’s gaze, and asked, “Are you sure Callie wouldn’t mind?”

“We decided to try to be friends, right?”

Nodding, Tina lifted her coffee to wash her scone down, then licked her smiling lips, and said, “I never thought I’d be that lesbian, but here we are.” Alex laughed hard, making Tina lightly chuckle as well. “I like Callie. She’s sweet. And I can see how happy she makes you. That makes me happy.”

Smiling, Alex said, “Thanks,” then pulled her ringing cellphone from her pocket. “It’s Roz.” She accepted the call, placing the phone to her ear. “Hey, Roz.”

“Hey, I’m leaving work now. Are you at Tina’s yet?”

“Not yet. We stopped at Ricardo’s for a coffee and pastry. We’ll probably be leaving here in about ten minutes or so. Do you want me to grab something for you on the way out?”

“You’re a doll. I’d love a large iced vanilla latte.”

“Sure, no problem.”

“Thanks, Alex. See you at Tina’s.”

After disconnecting the call, and pocketing her cellphone, she explained that Roz decided to take the day off to help Tina get settled and to get to know Tina’s nurse better.

“What time is the nurse coming over?”

“I haven’t called her yet. I thought you’d want to take some time to just be in your own home for a bit before you had to get to know someone new and deal with the logistics of your needs and whatnot.”

Tina smiled and reached across the table to place her hand over Alex’s, giving it a brief squeeze, said, “Thank you,” then pulled her hand back and picked up her coffee.

Alex had always found it disingenuous that TV shows and movies portrayed this stereotype that lesbians remained friends with all of their exes. Sure, it happened, but it was far rarer than media made it seem. For her personally, this would be the first time she tried it. So far, a lasting friendship with Tina was looking promising. But unexpected circumstances had brought them back together and would keep them in each other’s lives for at least a couple of months. Would the friendship last after Tina’s casts were removed and she got back to a normal life? Only time would tell. But for now, the change in their relationship felt good. It felt healing. And Alex knew they both needed that.