He covers us up and carefully takes me in his arms. “Sleep now. I’ll deal with anyone who comes in. Unless it’s urgent, you need to sleep. I don’t think you’re dehydrated anymore, but you are still sick and need to take it easy when you do leave.”

“I know, and trust me, I don’t want to get worse. I don’t have time for this as it is, and having a repeat is not something I want to do.” I close my eyes. “We can still drive back to your apartment tonight, though. I’ll sleep in the car on the way there.”

“Only if you feel up to it.”

“You’re supposed to work tomorrow,” I remind him. “You already took one day off for me, I don’t want to create an issue.”

“You’re not, and it’s better that I’m not at work today since you do have the flu and there’s a chance I caught it from you. I’ll be wearing a mask around everyone, but it’s safer to take the day and make sure I don’t develop symptoms.”

“Yeah, infecting already critical patients with the flu isn’t a good idea.”

He kisses the back of my neck. “Sleep, babe.” He doesn’t have to tell me twice.

20

Sam

With Chloe nestled back in my arms, a sense of peace washes over me and I end up falling asleep right along with her. I went back to her dad’s house, and the bed we shared the night before felt empty without her in it next to me. I didn’t sleep well, mostly because I was worried for her health, but also because I knew she was going to mark this down as one of the worse weekends she’s had in a while…or maybe ever.

Only fifteen minutes after I fell asleep, someone knocks on the door. I sit up, carefully slipping my arm from underneath Chloe.

“Hi,” a woman says, pushing her laptop in the room on a rolling cart. “I’m with billing and need to go over your insurance. Are you the policy holder?”

“We’re not on the same insurance,” I tell the woman, and she looks at Chloe and then back at me.

“Oh, I’m sorry. I was under the assumption you were married since you were snuggled up together.” The insurance lady is already getting on my nerves. She looks familiar, and I think she’s the mother to one of my friends from high school…Evan Perry maybe? We were never that close, and I went to his house less than a dozen times throughout the four years we were friends. I don’t think this woman recognizes me.

“No, she’s my girlfriend.”

The woman looks at Chloe and forces a smile. “Can you wake her up? I just have a few questions and need to make a copy of her insurance card.”

“I’m not waking her up,” I tell her, trying to keep the obvious annoyance out of my voice. “I can get the card for you.” It’s in Chloe’s purse, somewhere. She had me fill out the insurance form when we first got to the ER.

“I need to ask the policy holder some questions.”

“Then you can come back,” I go on. “She is sick enough to be hospitalized. Getting sleep and rest is very important to her recovery. No one is waking her up.”

The woman smiles. “Very well then. I’ll circle back after I make my rounds.”

“Thank you,” I say sincerely. Once the woman is gone, I get up to use the bathroom and see that Chloe’s dad called. I go into the little waiting area outside the patient rooms so I don’t risk disturbing Chloe and waking her up, since I just complained about her getting interrupted from any decent chunk of sleep.

“Hi, Mr. Fisher,” I say into the phone. “How are you doing?”

“Pretty good myself, but I’ll be better once I know how my Chloe is doing.”

“We’re still waiting for her lab work to come back, but she looks better today and is ready to get out of here.”

“That sounds like her. And you two are going back to Chicago today?”

“I need to since I work in the morning, but I’ll see how Chloe is feeling.” And if she wants to come back with me after I tell her about Stacey. “If worse comes to worst and I need to go back to work a shift at the hospital, my mother has already offered up a room in the house for Chloe.”

“Let your mom know how much we appreciate that. And again, I’m glad you’re there with her. I’m sure I’ll see you two again soon, right?”

“Right. Chloe wanted to walk through the trails by the lake and I know she’ll be disappointed she didn’t get to this weekend.”

“She spent so much time out in those woods as a child. I can only imagine how little I would have seen her if we’d bought the lake house sooner,” he chuckles. “I’ll let you go. Thanks for keeping me updated.”

“No problem. I’ll call with another update as soon as I can.” The call ends and I look out the waiting room window. You can see Silver Lake in the distance from up here, and a decent view of the downtown area of Silver Ridge. I find myself not wanting to leave for a few reasons. I don’t want to go back to work bright and early tomorrow. I don’t want to run the risk of crossing paths with Stacey while Chloe is with me.

And I really do miss this place.

Jacob texts me as I’m walking back to the room.

Jacob: How’s Chloe doing?

Me: A little better. We’re hoping she’ll get discharged today.

Jacob: I’m guessing you didn’t tell her, then, right?

Me: Right. I couldn’t do that with everything else going on.

Jacob: Yeah, I wouldn’t have either. But don’t put it off.

Me: I’ll tell her as soon as she’s recovered.

Jacob: Sounds like an excuse to me.

I’m right outside Chloe’s room and pause to type out a reply.

Me: Fine. It kind of is, but she’s going to get upset and she’s still not out of the woods. She has the flu, and it can knock you on your ass for days.

Jacob: I see you’re point. Just don’t wait.

Me: I won’t.

Letting out a sigh, I push open the door and find Chloe sitting up, tying away at something on her phone.

“You’re up.” I close the door behind me.

“I have to pee,” she says, looking up from her phone. “I’m still not supposed to get out of bed without help.” She rolls her eyes.

“I’ll take you.”

“Thanks…just…one second…” She bites her lip, rereading what typed. “Okay.” She sends off a text and gets up, purposely moving slow this time so she doesn’t get a brain rush like she did the last time she got up too fast. I roll the IV pole along with her, and help her into the bathroom, making sure she doesn’t need help or lose her balance.

She gets a text as she’s getting back into bed, and I grab her phone for her. “Karina…she’s your editor?” I ask, remembering Chloe mention that name before.

“Publicist. She wants me back in LA this week to do a surprise appearance with Charles somewhere to get the show’s social media trending again. It’s all last minute, since Charles has been on location filming, but his costar got hurt during a stunt last night so he’s coming back to LA to film some scenes in the studio.”