Finding Love (GxG) -completed-

Chapter 20- Tip Of The Iceberg

Elise drove home, washed up, and went to bed. Kameron was likely already in bed, so she would talk to her about the note left on her truck later. 

Elise set her alarm for noon tomorrow in case she slept in, so she could be ready for work on time. Grabbing her e-reader, she studied her coursework until she fell asleep. 

Awake at 10AM, Elise showered, dressed, and traipsed downstairs to get some coffee to fuel her brain to do some studying. Andrea was home and had her door open, so Elise knocked. “Yeah, come in,” Andrea’s soft voice was heard coming from her closet. 

Elise walked in, found Andrea hanging her clothes in the closet, and organizing her shoes. Unlike Gwyn, Andrea’s room was generally very organized. The look of the closet right now and Andrea’s lack of eye contact concerned her. “Hey, you okay? How is Serena?”

Andrea never even looked up, but continued to organize her closet as she responded hurriedly, “of course, I’m fine. Why wouldn’t I be? Serena’s mom has arrived now, so I came home because I was no longer needed.” 

“Umm, you don’t really sound alright. Care to talk about what’s wrong?” Elise sat down on the settee at the foot of Andrea’s bed and simply watched and waited for her response. Something is definitely going on, because this is very out of character for Andrea. Not only does she not usually reorganize an organized closet, but she doesn’t answer a question with a question. Hmmm, deflecting much?

Andrea stopped after placing the last pair of shoes on the shoe rack, placed her hands on her hips, and looked at Elise. “What would there be to talk about?”

It appeared to be a rhetorical question, not really looking for an answer, so Elise simply raised one eyebrow, tilted her head slightly to the side, and continued to watch and wait. This approach seemed to work because Andrea began to talk like someone had opened the floodgates on her emotions. “Serena was moved from ICU to a step down unit, so that’s good. She is breathing on her own and eating and drinking, so that’s all good. Unfortunately she has been having an awful lot of pain and her mother is starting to drive her crazy. I was there holding her hand when she woke up and stayed with her while they took her off the machine and removed the breathing tube…. Then her mom came and said, ‘you're not family, so you don’t need to stick around. I’m sure you have more important things to do’. So I left. Serena looked at me like she was sorry, but didn’t dare say anything to her mother either. So… I was good enough until her mother arrived, but once she got there, I wasn’t wanted anymore.” Andrea walked slowly over toward the bed, set her cup on the stand, and sat down next to Elise on the settee. “Dad was supposed to have a follow up appointment this coming Thursday, but they called Friday afternoon and asked if he could come Monday morning instead. I can’t help but think that cannot be good news. So, we have to be there at 8AM for the appointment. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t scared.”

Elise puts her arm around Andrea’s shoulder and holds her supportively. Andrea leans her head on Elise’s shoulder and sighs. 

After a short silence, Elise breaks the tension by saying jokingly, “and you said there was nothing to talk about? Pssst.” Both young ladies start laughing quietly but remain sitting side by side where Elise can support her friend. “So…when did you and Serena become so close? You seemed to know so much about her and seemed really torn up about her accident.”

Andrea takes a deep breath but doesn’t shift positions. “As you know, we are in the same program, so we see a lot of each other. Our schedules aren’t identical because I’m a year ahead of Serena, but close enough that we started having lunch together several days a week. She started helping me with my college newsletter responsibilities and in return, I helped her with her online business. Surprisingly, we have a lot more in common than you would think for a black Missouri athlete and a white, Minnesota book nerd. We discuss topics, help each other, and we… we  just work.” Andrea stopped talking, sat up, and looked Elise in the eye, “I’d love to spend more time with you Elise, but you are so busy with school and work that we rarely see each other. So I started spending more time with Serena and the more time we spent together, the closer we became.”

Elise smiles at Andrea. “Hey, it’s okay. I know I’m busy, and so are you. I’m glad you’ve made friends with Serena. I absolutely do not expect you to wait around until I have a gap in my schedule. We will always be friends Andrea, but it’s okay to have other friends too.”

Andrea threw her arms around Elise’s waist and said, “Oh thank you Elise. Thank you for understanding.” 

Elise hugged her back, “of course. Friends should want what’s best for each other. Whatever makes you happy is fine by me.”

“Elise, I’m scared.” Andrea’s voice has a quiver to it, and as Elise looks closer at her face, there are tears running down her cheeks. “What if it’s cancer and Dad waited too long to go in and get tested? What if it kills him?” Her body becomes wracked with sobs as she finishes talking.

“Oh honey. Let’s take it one day at a time okay? We will control what we can, and deal with the rest together.” Elise glanced up at the clock on Andrea’s wall and saw it was getting to be 11:30AM already. No wonder I’m feeling hungry. “Hey, what’d ya say you take a break and come eat some lunch with me? I was going to whip up some spaghetti and garlic toast with a lettuce salad as an appetizer.”

“Yeah, sure. That actually sounds good.” 

So with my arm still around Andrea, I encouraged her to stand up with me, and we walked out into the kitchen. “You sit and keep me company and I’ll get the food cooking.” 

Andrea smiled slightly and had a seat at the table, so she could see me as I cooked. “So how is your semester going so far?” 

Elise set a reusable bottle of filtered ice water at each of their spots at the table. Andrea began to sip hers as she waited for Andrea to answer. 

“Well, we had clinical orientation and I ran smack dab into a group of nurses coming down the hall. I ended up with cold coffee splashed on me from my chest to my knees.” Elise laughed thinking back on that day. It hadn’t seemed funny at the time, but it certainly was now. “The nurse, Kameron, the one working with Serena in the ICU the day of her accident?”

“Yeah, what about her?”

“Well, it was her coffee. She of course felt guilty and insisted on taking me out for a meal to apologize.” Elise smiled and nodded at Andrea’s shocked expression before continuing. “We had one clinical in the ICU and I had a hard time emotionally.  My client was improving in the morning, but then had a rather ominous change in her condition.  Feeling upset, I blew everyone off and came home and slept until 11PM. After some sleep, I realized this is an issue I’m going to need to deal with if I’m going to be a nurse.”

Elise mixed the hamburger she browned with the spaghetti sauce as she waited for the water to boil for the noodles. “I had class Wednesday then came home and we went to the hospital to see Serena. I bought Kam a coffee as a kind of apology for blowing her off on Monday.” Elise continued to cook the spaghetti and took the garlic toast from the oven.

“Speaking of coffee...So did she forgive you for blowing her off?” Andrea got up and got a cup of coffee for each of them as she asked.

“She heard you say we weren’t going to get together Friday and she offered to do something instead. So we went to the apple orchard, we did first aid on a young boy, got hit on by the owner as we were leaving, picked up sub sandwiches, and then headed to Kam’s house to watch a movie. Funny thing is she fell asleep during the movie. So I sent her to bed and came home since she had to work this morning.” Elise laughs. “Then I came home, studied and went to sleep myself.”

“Wow. Talk about an eventful evening.” 

Elise looked back at Andrea and nodded in agreement as she finished draining the noodles. “Lunch is ready. Come dish up and we can talk while we eat. I have to work yet this afternoon.” Both ladies dished up their food and sat back down at the table. Andrea folded her hands while Elise prayed, “Come Lord Jesus, be our guest, and let this food to us be blessed. Amen.”

“Amen,” Andrea says before digging into her food. “Thank you so much for lunch and for making me talk. You've always known what I need even before I do.”

“Anytime my dear.” Elise was feeling a bit emotional so shifted the conversation to a less serious topic, “ So.. yeah, the movie was good. It's actually a love story as well as a story about a stalker and an FBI agent. The agent is gay but never admitted it or acted on it. The pop star is bisexual and stirs those feelings, the agent, tried so hard to repress all these years. That's all  I’m going to tell you because I don’t want to spoil the movie for you.” Both ladies finished eating and Andrea rinsed the dishes and placed them in the dishwasher as Elise put the leftovers in a container to take for work. As they finished, they turned toward each other.  “I think if you want to see Serena, you should go see her. Don’t let her mother keep you out if you and Serena have become so close.”

“Elise, I cannot thank you enough for taking me to the hospital, bringing my stuff, being here today, and for being the best friend I’ve ever had.” Tears begin to fall down Andrea’s cheeks as she finishes voicing her thanks. 

Elise wraps Andrea is a huge hug, “you know I love you. It’s my pleasure.” 

“I love you too.” Andrea steps back and wipes her tears as she looks at the clock on the stove. “It’s after 12:30PM already. You better get ready for work.”

Elise looks closely at Andrea, “Are you going to be okay?”

“Of course I’ll be okay. Thank you. Go…better swish jellyfish..”

“Okay… bye bye butterfly.” With that farewell, Elise went upstairs to get ready for work.