Chapter 134
626 Words
He came back to her now, climbed into her bed. He took her in his large arms, tucked her head under his chin. She ran her fingers over his chest, following the line of blond hair across his defined pecs and abs. He kissed her fingertips, held them against his chest. She felt his steady heartbeat and smiled.
“So,” Dean said. “You want to order in tonight?”
“Sure.” Emma kissed his chest. “Restaurants require so many clothes.”
“Yeah. Annoying.”
They kissed again, then Dean rolled away.
“I need a quick shower. You want to join me?”
“But of course. Just let me open the wine, OK? Let it breathe.”
“OK, angel. Meet me in the shower. I’ll be the naked guy.”
She laughed and got out of bed too. She pulled on her bathrobe and padded down the hallway to her spacious living room. She found the white wine, opened it up, set it on the counter. That was when she saw that the mail had arrived; it sat on the carpet just inside her apartment door, and she bent over to pick it up. She idly flipped through the letters, and when she saw the one from the University of Colorado Hospital, she paused.
Huh. What’s this?
She ripped it open and when she saw the letter, she froze in disbelief. When she flipped to the second page, then the third, then the fourth, she felt all the breath leave her body.
This has got to be a huge mistake. Oh, my God.
She sat down on the sofa and read the last three pages again, went over every single item listed on them. She was horrified to realize that actually, yes, this was accurate. She had indeed had every single one of those treatments, procedures, and surgeries.
But I have medical insurance! How is this possible?
And that’s how Dean found her a few minutes later. He wandered into the living room, a towel wrapped around his lower body.
“Hey, I thought you were going to join me.” Dean smiled at her, then saw her face and he started in alarm. “Emma? What’s wrong?”
She shook her head. “I – I got a letter from the hospital.”
Dean immediately sat next to her. “What happened?” His whole body was tense with worry.
“It’s a bill.”
He paused. “A bill?”
“Yeah. The outstanding amount that I owe, after my medical insurance has covered their part.”
“OK,” he said calmly. “How much is it?”
She stared down at the letter in her hand.
“Emma? How much?”
She looked up again. “Just over five hundred thousand dollars.”
He almost fell off the sofa. “What the f**k?”
“Yeah.”
“Can I see?”
She handed it to him, and watched his face as he skimmed the pages. He looked up at her.
“Maybe this is just a summary of stuff, Emma. Why don’t you take it to the HR department of your office and ask them what’s happening?” He tried to keep his voice level. “It may all be a big misunderstanding.”
She twisted her fingers together. “Yeah. Yeah, I’ll go tomorrow and talk to Helen Carrow. She’ll know what’s going on.”
“OK, angel.” He studied her face. “You doing alright?”
“Yeah. It was a shock, but I’ll find out what’s going on before I start to panic.” She took a deep breath. “I’ll go see Helen first thing in the morning.”
- Writer
