(Sequel to When Mary Met Halley)
A year has passed since Mary and Halley fell in love over the hospital bed of the guy who was cheating on both of them, and they couldn't be happier. Together they feel able to conquer the world, with the help of the...
I drank the Red Bull Leif had brought me. They moved her off the ICU floor an hour later and that was an immense relief; proof as it was that she was no longer in immediate danger.
She was still asleep much later when they asked me to go home for the night, saying I could return at eight and she would be allowed to check out at nine if all went well.
I was equally torn between not wanting to go and being glad they were making me, because while I hated to leave her alone, I couldn't sleep and being at the hospital was so nerve wracking I was crawling in my skin. I wrote her a note, got her phone from her purse and went to put it with the note on her nightstand so she would see it when she woke up. I saw she had several texts and without hesitation thumbed into them; we didn't hide our phones from each other so I knew she wouldn't have minded.
Most were from clients about upcoming supervised visits, but two were from Natasha, sent within the last few hours. I opened them and scrolled up with a pounding heart, feeling guilty yet unable to stop myself. I couldn't help but think of when I'd done the same with Caleb's phone in this very place, seeing their private conversations and further breaking my heart.
There were less than a dozen texts starting a couple weeks prior, and of course they were innocent.
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The rest were from the day before:
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The newest ones simply asked how she was feeling, and I took a minute to text back and fill her in. I left the message window open so Halley would see and then put the phone down, feeling overly glad that my name had been mentioned.
It should be clear that the problem wasn't my lack of trust in Halley. I trusted her completely. She wasn't going to cheat on me, I was confident of that.
But lately I couldn't shake the nagging reminder that people do fall in love with other people, and I didn't want to be blind to it if it ever happened again. Did that justify my reading her conversation? No, and I felt uneasy about it.
I kissed her, softly, but it woke her up enough to open her eyes. The corner of her mouth rose when she saw it was me. "Hi."
"They're making me go home for a little while," I said, my eyes burning. I didn't want to leave her there.
