CHAPTER 8: CALL ME. NOT 911. ME
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The hospital lot smelled like rain and exhaust.
Nico unlocked the car with a click, holding the passenger door open for Summer first. She was steady now, oxygen mask gone, but Luna kept a hand on her elbow anyway as she slid into the back seat.
“You’re sitting in the back with her,” Nico said. It wasn’t a question.
Luna blinked. “I was going to—”
“Back seat,” Nico repeated, clipped. “If she has another attack, you’re closer.”
He didn’t look at her when he said it. He got in the driver’s seat instead, started the engine, and pulled out onto the street before either of them could argue.
The car was quiet except for the hum of the heater and Summer’s occasional sniffle.
“Thanks for the ride, Uber CEO,” Summer said from the back, voice still a little rough. “Do you take tips in stock options?”
Nico didn’t answer.
Luna shot him a look from the rearview mirror. His eyes flicked up to meet hers for half a second before he looked back at the road. Too fast. Like he hadn’t meant to check.
“You don’t have to drive us home,” Luna said quietly. “You could’ve called a cab.”
“You live twenty minutes away,” Nico said. “And Summer’s still on oxygen watch. A cab driver wouldn’t know what to do if it happened again.”
“So you’re playing doctor now?” Luna asked.
“No,” Nico said. “I’m playing ‘not letting you die in my back seat because of a contract.’ It’s bad PR.”
Summer snorted. “Smooth, CEO. Real smooth.”
Luna smiled, but it was small. She watched him instead. His jaw was tight, knuckles white on the steering wheel. He was acting normal, but she saw it—the way his eyes kept flicking to the rearview mirror, checking Summer, checking her.
He hadn’t let go since the apartment.
Halfway home, Summer fell asleep against Luna’s shoulder, breathing even now. The tension in the car dropped a notch.
Luna leaned forward slightly. “Hey.”
Nico didn’t look back. “Hmm.”
“Thank you,” she said. “For real this time. Not contract thank you. Me thank you.”
Nico’s throat worked. He kept his eyes on the road.
“You’d have done the same,” he said.
“Maybe,” Luna said. “But you did it first.”
He didn’t answer. He couldn’t, because if he did, he’d have to admit that the second he saw Summer on the floor, all he’d thought about was getting to her before it was too late. And that the reason his hands were still shaking wasn’t the smoke.
It was the five seconds where he thought he was too late.
Luna seemed to understand anyway. She didn’t push. She just reached forward and set her hand on the back of his seat for a second. A brief, grounding touch.
“Drive safe, CEO,” she said softly.
Nico swallowed. “Shut up.”
But his grip on the wheel loosened a fraction.
When they pulled up to the apartment, he got out first and opened Luna’s door before she could move. Summer was still asleep, so he lifted her carefully, carrying her up the stairs like it was nothing.
Luna unlocked the door, flipped on the lights. The apartment still smelled faintly of smoke, but the air was clear now.
Nico set Summer down on the couch, checked her breathing one more time, then stepped back.
“That’s it,” he said. “I’m leaving.”
Luna frowned. “You’re not staying?”
“It’s late. And business only,” Nico said. The words felt hollow even to him.
Luna nodded, but her eyes said she didn’t believe him either.
At the door, Nico paused. He didn’t turn around.
“If it happens again,” he said quietly, “call me first. Not 911. Me.”
Luna’s breath caught.
“Why?” she asked.
Nico didn’t answer. He just left, closing the door softly behind him.
In the car, he sat for a full minute before starting the engine. His eyes stayed on the rearview mirror, even though the back seat was empty now.
He kept checking anyway.
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- Writer
