The Perfect Stranger

Chapter 8: Lizzie

“Miss Franklin, I am Dr. Green,” he greets me wearing a big warm smile, while entering the room with Dixie in tow. Dr. Green is handsome in that hot nerdy way. He’s pretty tall, at least six foot, with brown hair and eyes. He’s wearing his lab coat, but I can tell he works out. He pulls out a pair of black glasses from his coat pocket and slides them on his face before scanning my chart and speaking.

“I have come with great news. You will be able to be discharged tomorrow afternoon, but with some stipulations. You are to rest up as much as possible and refrain from any strenuous activity. This, should be easy since you’ll have to keep that leg elevated, anyway. Another thing, I want you to start a regimen of prenatal vitamins and folic acid for the baby. You are in good health, other than your injuries, so I expect a healthy baby and a speedy recovery. So, I would plan on having someone here tomorrow to take you home. I’ll make sure that you have all your prescriptions and paperwork to start seeing an obstetrician here at the hospital. The papers and prescriptions will be ready for you at the nurse’s station when you checkout tomorrow. Do you have any questions?” He finishes up. Shaking my head no, he turns and heads out of the room leaving me in my thoughts with Jack- son standing quietly by my bedside. “I guess that’s some good news. You get to go home tomorrow, how do you feel about that?” Jackson asks.

“To be honest, I’m dreading it. We lived together. I don’t know if he’ll be there when I get home. I don’t even want to see his face. I hate him at this point and on top of that I’m going to have to find somewhere to go. What has happened to my life? How did I get here?” I ask myself.

He just stares into space for a bit seeming to be taking in the information I gave him before he responds. “I’ll take care of it for you. I’ll find you somewhere to stay and I’ll handle everything with Eric. Don’t you worry. I’m going to go handle this right now. I’ll be back tomorrow to pick you up. Get some rest,” he says before grabbing his jacket and heading out of my room. ******************************************************************************* *******************************************************************************

I learned that Jackson is a man of his word. Yesterday he told me that he would handle everything between Eric and me so I wouldn’t have to go back to that house. Imagine my surprise, when he actually came through. He picked me up from the hospital like he said he was and he brought me to a cute little apartment in the heartbeat of the city. It was a two bedroom, one and a half bathroom apartment in the most amazing building I have ever seen. When you first walk into the building, you would think that it was a business complex, but apparently the top couple of floors are spaces for small luxury apartments.

The apartment was on the fifteenth floor and the ride up the elevator was a quiet one. He didn’t tell me much about how he found this place and come to think about it, he didn’t tell me how he was able to handle things with Eric. When we reached the apartment, he gave me a tour. He showed me the cute little kitchen with modern concrete counter tops, white cabinets, and a butcher block is- land in the middle surrounded by stainless steel appliances and a gas stove. Next, was the living room with a cool white and blue theme. The walls were a lighter blue and the floors were wood planked with a fireplace being the main focal point. There was a big modern white sectional couch directly in front of the fireplace with only a glass coffee table separating the two. There was a large flat screen tele- vision hanging above the fireplace mantle that was decorated with cute little glass vases. Straight back, was a wall of windows leading out to a balcony with a grill and a little table. To the left, was a hall that led to two bedrooms. One was smaller with a closet and the other was a bit larger with a king size bed in the center of the room with beautiful hand-carved night tables on either side. A projector hung above the bed facing a large bare wall, and to the right of that, were two doors. One leading to a walk in closet that had all of my clothes hanging in there and the other was a luxurious master bathroom with a soaker tub and a separate shower with one of those rainfall shower heads. This place is beautiful.

After the tour, he told me that this was actually his building and that he owned these apartments. I didn’t need to worry about rent and I could stay here until I was able to get back on my feet. I mean who is this guy, and what planet did he come from?

“I’ll be coming by every once in a while to check on you and to make sure that you have groceries, things like that. So, um, I guess I’ll let you get settled in and I’ll run and grab us some dinner from a restaurant that I like down the street. Is that okay with you? I figured we’d try to get to know each other since I’ve decided to help you out.”

“And why are you helping me out again? I mean you don’t know anything about me?” I ask looking up from my complimentary wheel chair courtesy of the Lake County Hospital. “You can’t be this nice? Nobody is that nice. Especially, with no ulterior motive in mind.”

He just looks at me and smiles before he chuckles and says what sounds like he’s far from being nice before heading out the door, leaving me with my own thoughts to process. This man just found me a place to live where I don’t have to come in contact with Eric or Kassie. I wheel myself to the bedroom where I maneuver my way around gathering everything I’m going to need for a shower. I’m getting the water in the shower ready when I hear my phone go off. I must have a million messages.

I find my phone in a bag sitting on the bed that had some other important electronics in it. I see that I have a long list of messages from my sister, Denise, and then about ten messages from Kassie and Eric. Both begging for me to pick up the phone and call them back. I mean why should I. They both left me at my engagement party to go f**k each other and then they didn’t seem to care that I ended up in the hospital. So, why should I care if they want to fix our relationship. Not going to happen.

I return to getting ready to take my shower when I hear the front door open and close. It must be Jackson, he’s the only one with a key to this place so I don’t worry. I’m about to get in the shower when I remember that I have a whole cast covering my leg, how am I going to stand in here and take a shower without get- ting my cast wet? The dilemma. Grabbing a towel off a nearby rack, I quickly cover myself before calling out for Jackson to come help me.

A few minutes go by and then there is a soft knock on the door. “Come in!” I say. Jackson pokes his head in and quickly notices that I’m not fully dressed and covers his eyes.

“Um, you c-cc-called?” He stammers out.

“Yeah, I kinda need some help with taking a shower and protecting my cast from getting wet. Do you mind? Maybe I could use a garbage bag to cover my leg and a chair to sit down?” I ask trying to cover as much as I can with the towel and hold myself up near the shower. The towel is barely covering my lady bits and I can see Jackson’s eyes travel up and down my body. Gosh, I must look crazy be- cause he’s staring at me. “Umm, Jackson, you there?”

He snaps back to reality, says sure, and heads out to find the items I need. He returns to the bathroom a few minutes later with garbage bags, rubber bands, and a plastic patio chair to set in the shower. Oh, what a good idea. “Thank you Jack- son. Do you mind helping wrap my cast?” I ask a little timidly not meeting his eyes, choosing to stare at the white plastic chair instead.

“Y-yeah.” He says almost as awkwardly as I feel asking him. Making my way over to the side of the tub, I use the wall for support to sit on the edge of the soaker bath. Hugging the towel close to me, I sit, extending my leg out for him to help me, but keeping my thighs as close together as possible. Kneeling down in front of me, he reaches for my leg and takes the garbage bag and gently starts to wrap my leg. The sight of him kneeling down in front of me, gently wrapping my leg is a sight worth savoring. And, I do savor every minute of it.

He finishes securing the bottom of the cast in the garbage bags and then he makes his way up to the top of my cast. As he’s securing the garbage bag his hand accidentally brushes the exposed skin on my thigh just below the bottom of my towel and the very top of my cast. I freeze at his touch. It feels like someone just seared my skin, sending heat spreading throughout my body. Time stops, the air between us is thick and the steam from the shower isn’t helping the temperature. Jackson slowly drags his eyes from the hem of my towel all the way up to the ex- posed tops of my breast, along my neck, and then pauses at my lips before travel- ing upward to meet my eyes. My breath is coming in long deep drags raising my chest with every breath. His eyes are a searing and fierce dark green and he looks like he could eat me up in one bite. Each minute our eyes are locked feels like a life- time.

Jackson seems to finally notice the change in the room and he’s the first to break eye contact. After finishing securing the rest of the bag, as quickly as he can, he stands to feet in front of me, forcing me to look up until he puts his hands in his pockets puffing them out. Naturally, my eyes follow his hands and I notice a bulge growing in the front of his jeans. Oh my, is my first thought before his voice startles my focus back to his face. It’s like his eyes have grown darker in the split second I left them to look elsewhere.

“The bag should be secure enough for your shower. So, uh, I’ll, uh, leave you to it.” He places the plastic chair in the shower before heading out as fast as possible. I can hear his heavy footsteps moving rapidly out of the bedroom and down the hall. Did he just feel that? Of course he did, you saw his pants, I think to my- self. Then it hits me, he definitely saw me checking out his bulge. Oh gosh, what the hell just happened?