Love in the theater

Chapter 18

Oliver was getting better by the day and his release day was approaching.
The last few days had been hell for him and he couldn't stop worrying about Loretta. Would she be okay? Could they go back to their previous life? Could he one day tell her about the love he has for her? All these questions when round and round in his head. But he immediately came out of his thought when he heard her talking in her sleep.
'No, NO !' her head started trashing from side to side 'hmm no please!'

Oliver went to sit beside her to try to calm her "It's okay you're safe now" he said as his fingers started stroking her hair. Her whole body kept moving and he was afraid she would hurt herself. He took her hand in his and started whispering "everything's okay, I'm here. Come on wake up". He immediately saw her eyes open looking at him. "You're awake!" he said with the biggest smile on his face.

"Where am I?" she asked as she looked around her

"you're in the hospital" he said, caressing her hand to sooth her

"Why am I here? We should go back home" she said as she tried to go out of bed but stopped when she started feeling pain "shit!"

"Hey hey hey, you have to rest, I don't want you walking or anything" he said as he helped her to lay back down

"Why does it hurt so much?" she asked, as she grimaced in pain

"You had a surgery, it will hurt for a while" he started explaining to her what the doctor had told him

"And uhm when can we go back home?"

"we'll ask the doctor later, now I want to talk to you about something" he looked at her and she nodded for him to keep going "I want us to talk about what happened with Roberta and everyone else, maybe it's not the right time to talk to you about it, you must be confused but we need to"

She slowly nodded "I know we do. Oliver I'm so sorry for lying to you on Thanksgiving, I had no choice. I'm so sorry for scaring you so much"

"hey" he took her face in his hands "you don't need to apologize, YOU were tortured so you sure don't need to apologize for ANYTHING, okay?" he said as he looked deep in her eyes a'd she nodded
"Can you tell me what happened?" he asked as he sat next to her on the bed

"uhm..can we wait? I don't really want to talk about it" she said as she looked down

"I know you don't but I need to know and we both know that you need to talk about it" he said, caressing her cheek careful not to hurt her

"On Babette's funeral I was outside, crying and I suddenly felt a hand around my mouth, then everything went black. I woke up in a dark room, immediately feeling blood dripping from my head and for two weeks she kept coming in to slap me, insult me and bit me. Then things changed on Thanksgiving, she came in with a dress for me to wear, she dragged me upstairs to do my makeup and she then told me that you would be coming and I needed to lie to you. Then came the party, once you were gone she dragged me back to the basement and I fell down the stairs hitting my head and everything went black" she said with tears in her eyes

"I could kill her for what she did" he said as he wiped her tears "what then?"

"Uhm I don't remember, I don't think that I ever woke up after that"

"Can I hug you?" he asked, worried that would make her uncomfortable but she eagerly nodded "come here"
He immediately hugged after, still being careful not to hurt her.

She couldn't stop her tears from falling since the moment she felt his arms wrapped tightly around her "I'm so glad to have you Oliver, you're literally my best friend"

He smiled at her as he unwrapped his arms, deep down thinking about what she had just said 'best friend'. Funny but sad word, which meant that she didn't consider him as her lover. He decided to leave it down for now and concentrate on getting her well.

Loretta immediately felt that something had changed in his attitude but she didn't want to upset him.

They suddenly heard someone knocking on the door and the doctor walked in.

"Oh I'm glad to see you awake Miss Durkin, how are you feeling?" the doctor asked as he smiled

"I'm in pain and I feel a little dizzy but I'm okay" she said

"You'll be in pain for a while, you had a surgery and you almost stopped breathing. You just need lots of rest and pain medication" he said as he chuckled "do you have any questions?"

"Uh yes, when can we go home?" she asked, hoping it would be soon

"Well your boyfriend can go back home but we need to keep you here at least until tomorrow to see if there's any change. As I told you, you had a surgery and we need to see how you're reacting to the pain medication and other medicines we gave you" the doctor explained

"Uhm okay thank you doctor" Loretta tried to smile as the doctor walked out.

They were sitting next to each other in silence until Loretta broke it.
"Have you heard what he said?" she chuckled

"What?" he looked at her with a confused look

"He called you my boyfriend" she kept chuckling

"Oh uhm really? I didn't even pay attention to that" he said as he started blushing a little

"That made me think, would you like to be my boyfriend?" she smiled at him

"What?!" he looked at her in shock "OH my god yes! I want to" he went to hug her immediately but stopped when he heard her gasp in pain
"Oh sorry, I wasn't thinking"

"No no come back here" she said as she took him back in her arms until they broke the hug again

"You are my girlfriend! I'm the happiest man ever!" he said with a big smile

"You make me so happy" she smiled
"I love you Oliver" she looked at him and crashed her lips on his.

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