Conflict of Interest

4. Breaking Barriers

“Ms. Iverson? Regina? Are you okay?” She heard a faint voice, quiet and indiscernible, as if at a far distance. She struggled to open her eyes, realizing that her eyelids suddenly felt like they carried the weight of huge boulders. She opened her dry, chapped lips to make a faint sound that came out in a moan.

“She’s awake!” The voice called out, more triumphant this time. Regina opened her eyes, blinded by the sunlight that instantly assaulted them. She realized she was lying down on what seemed to be someone’s long jacket, with a man’s worried face hovering above her.

“Where…Where am I?” She said quietly, her voice sounding cracked.

The man above her smiled in relief at the sound of her voice. Upon closer inspection, she recognized him as Joshua, the security guard that checked her bag earlier than morning. With a jolt, Regina realized she couldn’t confidently say it was, in fact, this morning, because she did not have the slightest indication of how long she had been out for.

“You are at the same intersection that the car accident you have been at occurred.” Joshua replied reassuringly. “You have only been out for about ten minutes. You received a minor concussion to the head, and several shallow scratches from the window glass.”

Regina smiled faintly. With every second, her strength seemed to come back to her, and Joshua’s observations seemed to be correct – other than a dull pain from several scratches, she did not feel much damage. “What happened? And why is there no ambulance?

“Mr. Steinberg’s car was totalled by a larger vehicle crashing into it from the side. Upon the impact, the glass poured into the car, which is what you originally felt. The larger car rammed into Mr. Steinberg’s vehicle several times, causing a collision to occur where the car was flipped to the side.” Joshua averted his eyes to nod to Steinberg’s black jeep, now a pile of metal on the roadside. Regina realized that the car flipped to the side she was sitting in, and wondered immediately how she was not impaled into the metal.

Taking in her shocked and surprised expression, the security guard continued further. “Mr. Steinberg’s actions turned out to be critical to the survival of both passengers in the car. He twisted the vehicle until the majority of the impact was on the back seats, and pulled you out of your own seat just before the car flipped. If he didn’t do what he did, I may not have been talking to you right now.”

‘He saved me.’ Regina thought with a mix of shock, surprise and intense gratitude. She couldn’t fathom why he would do so – she remembered him unbuckling his own seatbelt and twisting his body desperately around the car, probably risking much worse than just the impact of the pelting glass he unwittingly shielded her from. Regina’s head spun as she realized that she was now indebted to a man she barely knew; the same man that she was currently struggling her hardest to maintain a professional relationship with. And, worse yet, this was the man that had all but pointedly ignored her for a large part of their acquaintance.

“Where is he now?”

Joshua immediately pointed her over in Steinberg’s direction. Regina stood up, her body instantly responding with an intense stab of pain from all her cuts and causing her to wobble unsteadily in her office heels. She immediately felt the guard’s arm loop around her waist, supporting her as she continued tottering.

“Thank you.” She said weakly. Shaking out her hair, she led Joshua lead her over to Steinberg, who was currently engaged in what looked like a very intense conversation on his BlackBerry. As she approached the man, he turned around, his look at first angry but turning into one of relief. As quickly as it came, the warm expression on his face was replaced by one of neutral concern.