Page 64 of Single Malt

“Me too.” I said good night to Andrew as well and then headed to get my jacket. I breathed a sigh of relief when I was able to make it to my car without seeing anyone else.

Hopefully, Aline would be asleep when I arrived because I definitely didn’t want to have to tell her about tonight, not before I’d had a night to process it myself. Tomorrow, I’d call my doctor and set up an appointment to get blood work done to make sure Brody hadn’t been lying about anything else.

I’d learned my lesson well this time. I wasn’t going to make the same mistake again. I was done with him.

Forty-Two

Brody

I checkedthe distance to my next turn and then glanced at the clock again, even though I’d done the same thing only five or so minutes ago. And five to ten minutes before that. I wasn’t the sort of driver who did either of those things regularly when I was on a trip. I had an instinct about directions and only had to look at something on a map once to see how it laid out in front of me.

I used a GPS service that included construction and traffic jam information so I wouldn’t be caught off-guard, but unless an alert came up, I rarely checked it. Looking at the time was just as pointless since the only way I’d arrive any faster would be to go over the speed limit by more than the few miles I was doing now. Since Paris wasn’t in danger, I was putting safety and obeying the law – more or less – first.

I could’ve lied to myself about why I kept doing it, made up some excuse about how I was worried for Paris, and was using all of this for a distraction. I didn’t bother, though. I knew that I was basically doing the exact opposite of distracting myself. Paying attention to what I was doing reminded me of who I was doing it for. Kept me from being more than mildly annoyed at Freedom for disappearing on me.

Paris needed me to take care of her. Not because she was helpless. Aside from the fact that she would’ve had my balls if I’d even suggested such a thing, it wasn’t true. Paris was one of the most independent, strong-willed people I knew, regardless of gender.

But that didn’t mean a dislocated shoulder wouldn’t make life difficult for a while, and she’d called me to pick her up. She would need to make plans about how she wanted to handle her day to day living arrangements, and I’d be there to help with whatever she needed.

After all, it wasn’t as if I had anything else to do tonight.

I turned the radio up and tried not to think about what Freedom might have planned for the rest of her night.

Next Valentine’s Day, I was going to take the entire day off and not leave my apartment. I wouldn’t even open my door.

And I sure as hell wouldn’t step foot on that damn university campus for the entire month of February.

* * *

When I arrivedat the ER, I texted Paris to let her know I was there and tried not to be disappointed that I didn’t have a message from Freedom explaining why she’d left or even asking where I’d gone. I reminded myself that the two of us had no understandings or promises between us. We’d hooked up. It happened.

And I had more important things to take care of right now.

I headed inside, going straight to the front desk where a tired-looking man was on the phone. Since I could hear someone screaming on the other end of the line, I patiently waited for him to finish.

“I’m telling you that my fucking fish gave me the rabies like it’s that damn crazy dog in that movie!”

I couldn’t tell if the caller was male or female, but the words were crystal clear.

“I assure you, again, that is not possible.” The man in front of me rubbed his forehead, and I wondered how long he’d been on the phone.

“Then why am I foaming at the mouth?” they shot back. “I tried to pet him, and he bit me, and I went to go get some water because that’s supposed to cure the rabies–”

I barely managed to stop laughing.

“–then my mouth tastes all weird, and I’m foaming, and I’m gonna go crazy and die from the rabies because you won’t send a doctor to me–”

I turned my laugh into a cough this time because there was no way to completely hold back.

“Excuse me.” When the person on the phone didn’t stop talking, the man at the desk finally shouted, “Will you be quiet for a damn minute?!”

Startled silence.

“Is it possible your cup had soap in it?”

Several more seconds of nothing, and then just two words. “Fuck off.” And then the call ended.

The guy hung up the phone and sighed before looking up at me. “Can I help you?”