Last July

Chapter One

Tired:/ to be in need of rest or sleepy. Bored or impatient with.

I was all of the above. After allowing myself to doze after my mid-morning writing because I had a thousand more words to put down on paper, my mind took a vacation of it's own sending me into oblivious paradise. I haven't slept in days and in this moment my body was giving in. The alarm on my beside table flared sending me in a maddening frenzy. I sat up heart racing a million a mile, my body shaking until eventually the blood started to circulate again. My head throbbed as the blood went into my head and I watched the room spin for a minute before everything stabilized. It was four o'clock in the afternoon and I was late-again for my shift at the coffee shop. Shit!

Walking into the small Café, I quickly skipped my supervisor and headed into the back pulling on my uniform hastily and headed out to take orders. My colleagues glanced around at me as I walked past and they knew I was out of it again.

"Another late night?" Asked Mary walking up to me.

I nodded. "Another late night" I repeated.

She held my hand as I poured a customer our special. "Go easy on the coffee, not all of us want to stay awake all night long" she chuckled.

I smiled at her thanking her that she had the wits to help me out of my drama. My eyes were in holes and underneath bared a darkened mark screaming excessive lack of sleep. My shift wasn't going to end until ten and since I was already late to begin with I better put in some over time to help set up for tomorrow.

The hours crawled slowly and with each customer stepping through the door and the bell going off I resented being alive. When my phone started to vibrate, I went to get it welcoming the shift in pace. It was maverick. The main guy in my life. The only guy in my life.

"Hey honey. I'm sorry I know I was supposed to call" I apologized profusely before he got a chance to put a word in. "I overdid the writing thing"

He sighed. "Ah, yeah that's fine kendall"

Okay that's definitely not the maverick I know. No lecture, nor anything. Seriously?
I kept hearing him sighing in the background, his breathing slowing and I could tell that he was hiding something.

"Honey, is something wrong?"

"It's Jesse" he said finally.

"Okay, do you need me to keep her?" I asked trying to get him to speak more than two syllables at a time.

"No"

I started to get nervous fiddling with the cups and saucers as I glanced constantly back into the store to check if there were any customers that needed something.

"So then...." I said boosting him to say more.

The thing with maverick was he wasn't really a man for many words but when it came to me he spoke rather fluently and I didn't mind since half the time I was submerged in my world of make believe. It was my escape really, something I did effortlessly; especially when I felt like my burdens were becoming overbearing. So now that his already few words were even fewer, I know something's up.

"Maverick come on, what's going on with Jesse?"

"She's in the I.C.U, she's in the hospital Kenzy" he replied his voice frantic and looking hope.

My hands fell to my sides immediately. I.C.U. Oh my gosh! My mind went black for a moment and when I came to I heard him on the phone calling out to me.

"where are you right now?" I asked quickly noting a customer coming up.

"what'd you mean? I'm here with her" he responded. "can you make it? I can't do this on my own"