Matters of the Heart

Chapter 13

Jesse lay resting on the couch while Patrick sat in the nearby chair watching him, his chest moving up and down in a steady rhythm.

Suddenly Jesse opened his eyes waking from a light slumber.

"Hey bud you need anything?" Patrick asked his best friend.

Jesse looked around and came to suddenly. "Hey how long was I out?"

"Not long. A few minutes. How you feeling?"

"Ok I guess. Real sore, tired, I've never been so tired in my life"

"Yeah well you just go back to sleep and rest if you need to, I'll be here "

"Hey Paddy thanks for coming over"

"Are you kidding me? Of course I'm here. I would have been at the hospital with Abbey if not for all those stupid covid regulations and you know Chicago's a freaking hotspot"

"Yeah we know"

"Hey Jess? "

Jesse looked up at his friend in response.

"You scared the holy shit out of me. Don't you ever do that again"

"Yeah I'm sorry. Don't plan on making a habit out of it"

"Yeah you better not. Jesse dude you were out cold sprawled on the floor of your trailer. You were barely breathing and your heart was - it felt like it was going to beat out of your chest. I couldn't wake you up, I seriously thought you were dying"

Jesse nodded seriously at his friend, feeling horrible and guilty he put him through that. If it were the other way around, Jesse would have been horrified.

"Yeah I'm sorry I put you through that, but thank you for getting me to the hospital to Abbey"

Patrick leaned forward even more, nodding. "Yeah absolutely. You think I was going to let you die on me?! Dude then you are in for a very rude awakening. Hey look at me. Ride or die baby." He held out his hand balled into a fist.

Jesse laughed at fistbumped him.

"So you two, you're all good now? I know you said she was coming home and you were in a freaking hurry to get the hell off set and then all hell broke loose. I know you scared the hell out of her too"

"Yeah. But we're good. She keeps trying to apologize for the last few weeks. I think she blames herself for all of this"

"Oh come on"

"Yeah exactly. I told her I forgive her. I mean it didn't take much. All she needed to say was I want to come home which she did. But i told her she needs to forgive herself. Anyway everything's fine. She said yes."

"Wait what?! You proposed? You did it?!"

"Yeah it wasn't how I planned or anything like that. But yeah i just did it. Pulled off the bandaid and told her there was no one else, I want to spend the rest of my life with her"

"Did she hesitate?"

Jesse shook his head. "Well I think she was worried I was doing it because I thought I was going to die but then i explained that all of this had nothing to do with it I already had a ring and I had been planning it but other that no she didn't hesitate at all. "

" So you gave her the ring?"

Jesse laughed

"No i told you it was off the cuff. I did it with no ring. I'll give it to her later when she gets back home. We talked on the way home from the hospital, were going to get all this over this, the surgery, recovery all of that I guess and we're just going to do it. We don't want to wait"