Chapter 9
1897 Words
“Hey sunshine, wake up” Dru whispered while shaking my leg.
“hhmmm? What time is it?” I rolled over and stretched. I squinted my eyes at her.
“9 o’clock. Christian is cooking some breakfast before we get ready for church. You coming?” she stood up from my bed.
“Yea I’ll be right there” I rolled out of bed and headed downstairs. Christian was making bacon, eggs and toast.
“Hey good looking,” Dru smiled at Christian and gave him a peck on the lips. He just smiled and kissed her back.
“Ew get a room” I smiled.
“We have one upstairs” Christian laughed at me.
I rolled my eyes and filled my plate up. Dru gabbed orange juice from the fridge and started filling up glasses. We all sat down to eat. Christian looked at my over his orange juice, “So I thought I heard a motorcycle last night. You know anything about that?”
Dru tried to hide a smile by eating some bacon. “I just went on a ride with a friend of mine. Nothing major” I stuffed some toast into my mouth.
He looked at my skeptically, “OK just be careful.”
“I can take care of myself thanks” I finished eating and went upstairs to shower for church.
I was fixing my hair when Dru came into the bathroom and closed the door behind her. “What’s up?” I asked looking at her in the mirror.
“ Oh you know what’s up, tell me about the rider last night” She excitedly whispered.
I smiled at her, “nothing freaky happened if that’s what your asking. We just went for a ride. We did stop at one of the look out points outside of town to stretch our legs but other than that nothing.”
“Still hasn’t said who he is huh?” she crossed her arms.
I sighed, “ no, but I have this odd feeling we may have met before? Or I could just be crazy. He did tell me he went to school here but moved away and recently just came back.”
Dru closed her eyes in thought. “Maybe, but your school was kinda big, it’s possible he went there but you just never noticed him. Or he’s just lying to you for the fun of it to help you not realize who he is.”
I finished my hair and turned to face her, “I’m just not gonna worry about it. It’s not like anything is happening between us anyway.” My chest tightened as I said that. Although I don’t see anything happening between us, I was secretly hoping something would. I laughed at myself. Maybe I just need to get out more.
When Monday morning came I was glad to see that Jay was on our schedule. When we walked in for his CT scan he had a big smile on his face.
“Angel! I’m so happy to see you!” he hugged me. “Thank you for helping me the other day.”
“I’m happy to see you to! And your welcome, how are you feeling?”
“I’m doing much better, trying to eat and drink more. I don’t want to end back up in the hospital again.”
After my morning scans were finished I went in the infusion room to see everyone.
“Did you see Jay earlier? He’s looking much better” Ciara asked me.
“Yea I did another scan on him this morning. He’s definitely got some pep in his step.”
“He was asking if you were going to be in here later.”
“Why?”
“He didn’t say. I just figured maybe he hadn’t seen you yet and wanted to say hi.” She shrugged.
I stayed busy that afternoon until I finally got a minute to sit down with Stella. She’s almost finished working on the baby blanket. I was talking with her when I saw a large bouquet of flowers come walking into the room. At first I thought maybe it was being delivered to one of the patients. Everyone turned to look and see who was getting them.
“Angel?” Ciara motioned for me to come up to the desk. Flowers? For me? This better not be some ridiculous attempt from Jason. I could feel everyone’s eyes on me walking across the room. As I got closer the flowers moved and I could see that it wasn’t a random delivery person holding them. It was Gabriel, Jay’s grandson. Now the other day I did talk to him but it was a bit crazy with getting Jay to the hospital and quickly as possible so I didn’t really take much in when I looked at him then. However, I can tell you know that if you hadn’t told me his name was Gabriel I would of thought of a different name. Gabriel is of course an arch angel and most people would probably picture him as a blond haired goddess looking guy. This Gabriel is the opposite. He’s tall with olive skin, dark hair shaved on the sides and long on top. He’s covered in tattoos, and I mean COVERED. Except his face and neck. He’s wearing a V neck t shirt and I can see the tattoos across his chest, his arms are covered all the way down to the tops of his hands. His muscles however, could be compared to a god’s, that’s for sure. He flashed me this very cute smile, he may have caught me staring, I can’t be to sure.
“Oh my gosh Gabriel? Are these for me?” I asked. I reached out and grabbed the vase. It was full of tiger lilies and baby’s breath.
“Well uh ya, I wanted to say thanks for helping with my grandpa the other day.”
“You didn’t have to do that but thank you so much. How did you know tiger lilies are my favorite flower?”
“Oh are they?” he seemed like he was trying to act surprised by this. He shoved his hands nervously into the pockets on his black jeans. We were both about to say something when Jay walked up beside Gabriel and put a hand on his shoulder.
“Are you ready to go? I’m dying for a burger right about now.” He smiled at Gabriel and winked at me.
I sat the flowers down on the nurses desk. “You can bring your truck around and I’ll help Jay out to door” I smiled.
“Oh ya thanks” he turned to walk outside.
“I told you he was a good looking boy, I’m not bias or anything.” Jay laughed.
I walked along side him, “ yes you did tell me.”
Gabriel pulled the truck up to the door and came around to help his grandpa in. As he started walking back around the tailgate he stopped and turned to me.
“Hey I also wanted to know if you’d like to go out sometime? If your not seeing anyone?” he smiled at me nervously.
“Ya that would be great, do you need my number?”
He fumbled trying to get his phone out of his pocket. “Uh ya thanks”.
I gave him my number and waved as they drove away. When I walked back into the building it was like a junior high school class. Everyone looking at me and saying “ooooohh!”. I blushed and walked up to Ciara.
“So I guess that’s why Jay was wondering if I’d be here” I said smelling the flowers.
“I guess so” she laughed.
“He asked me out”
“I know, we all watched out the windows”
“Oh my gosh, like a bunch of kids in here” I laughed and rolled my eyes.
I went back to sit next to Stella to end her treatment.
“Well he’s a handsome guy” she smiled at me.
“Yes he is. Oddly enough he’s the second guy to ask me out this week.”
“Really? Who’s the other one?”
“His name’s Tanner. We went to school together when we were younger.”
“Who’s better looking?” she winked at me.
I laughed, “ well they are both very handsome, but for different reasons.” That was true, Tanner was handsome in a male model type of way but Gabriel was handsome in a rough type of way.
“Take your time and don’t rush it. Just have fun. Any man would be lucky to have you.” She gave me a hug. I waved to Victor as they walked out hand in hand.
When I got home I proudly displayed my flowers on the kitchen table. They can be seen from the living room there also.
I heard Dru and Christian walk into the house just after sitting them down.
“Well Well, who are these from?” Christian asked.
“They are beautiful!” Dru exclaimed.
“My patient that I’ve told you about, Jay, the one who was sick last week. He was back today and when his grandson came to pick him up he brought me these.” I smiled.
“Just because you take care of his grandpa?” Christian gave me the side eyes.
“Well some people, like me patient’s, happen to like me thank you very much.” I smacked him in the arm. “And he may have also asked me out on a date.”
“Another one? Dang girl!” Dru looked at me.
“Another one? Who’s the other?” Christian asked looking at us, “Why don’t I know about any of this?”
“Well it’s not my business to tell” Dru answered.
“When we went to the movies over the weekend I ran into Tanner. Do you remember him? We went to school together. Anyway, he just moved back to the area to take college classes and he asked me out.”
“ I remember Tanner, nice enough guy, better than Jason at least. Do these two guys know about each other?” Christian asked.
“Well no, but I do plan on telling them both that I don’t want to be committed right now. Just going out and having fun is fine with me for now.”
“ I think that’s a great idea.” Dru answered. She started rummaging through the fridge to fix dinner.
“This Gabriel guy and his grandpa Jay. Is that like ‘Jay’s’ the bike shop?” Christian asked.
“Ya, Jay told me Gabriel is taking it over since he’s been sick, why?”
“Oh it’s nothing, I think I’ve ordered parts from there before.”
Later that evening I got a text from Gabriel.
I’m very glad you like the flowers. You said tiger lilies are you favorite? They’re my grandma’s favorite also. Those actually came from her garden. Don’t worry I asked permission before taking them. Anyway would you want to do a date Thursday night? The weekends can be a little busy for me.---
Your grandma has great taste! And yes Thursday night sounds great, what do you have in mind?
Well that’s a surprise. I’ll pick you up at 7—
I’ll see you then.
I gave him my address and went to take a shower. I kept thinking about what the surprise would be. When I got out of the shower and went back into my room I noticed I had more texts on my phone. This time it was from Tanner.
Hey this is Tanner, would you want to come out to the drag strip with me this Saturday?—
Only if I get to drive lol
I can probably arrange that lol I’ll pick you up at 9—
Ok, do you remember where I live?
Absolutely, couldn’t forget if I wanted to—
My heart skipped a beat.
Excuse me????
I couldn’t forget if I wanted to……Jason and I used to pick you up all the time from there…..you haven’t moved have you?—
Oh my gosh, it felt like my stomach was in my throat. It slowly slid back into place.
Oh no same place lol I’ll see you Saturday
I climbed into bed and thought ‘ that was weird’.
- Writer
