Take a Chance (2 page)

Willow

OK, so round four of chemo. I can do this. We’re more than halfway done. I keep repeating that to myself, and try to talk myself into believing it. As I walk into the building to check in, I hope maybe nurse Zoey is sick today, and I can pull this off. Handing my insurance card to the receptionist, she punches it in the computer and says, “OK, you’re all checked in. Zoey will be your nurse today. Just take a seat and she will call you back in a few minutes.”

Isn’t that just wonderful
. Are you freaking kidding me? Can I just get a break for once in my life? Cursing under my breath, I take out my e-reader and find a seat. Sure enough the door opens and nurse Zoey calls my name with that look on her face.

“Ms. Emery, where is your driver
? I was serious last time when I said not to pull this little stunt again.”

“Um… in the bathroom?”
I say, but it sounds more like a question than a statement.

“Ms. Emery, I will not allow you to have another treatment without someone with you
. You know this is for your own good. I must insist you call someone right now. We will not start until I see them with my own eyes.”

“But, you don’t understand
…”

“Here I am
.” Gorgeous Eyes, the man that I ran into and puked all over comes jogging up to the two of us.

“Gorgeous
Eyes,” I whisper, and then hope no one heard that as my eyes bulge out of my head.

“Sorry, what was that
?” He turns his head and looks me right in the eyes.

“Nothing
.” Oh, my gosh, you have GOT to be kidding me! What the hell is he doing here? This can’t be happening. I threw up all over this man’s shoes and he is standing in front of me looking just as amazing as he did last time. Today he is wearing another three piece suite, this one gray, but equally devastatingly handsome if not more. I look at him and I am both angry and mortified at the same time. What right does he have to be here? This is insane, he must be crazy! He doesn’t even know me, I don’t even know him. What if he’s some crazy stalker axe murdered? OK, a handsome crazy stalker axe murderer. But I don’t get to finish the little tantrum in my head.

Nurse Zoey has a daydream look in her eye
and a smirk on her face as she takes in the man standing next to us. “Very well, this way, let’s get you hooked up, Willow.”

“Um…hang on a sec. But I don’t
…”

“You heard the woman
, Willow. Let’s get started, shall we?” He holds out his hand for me to go in front of him, with a warm smile on his face.

Did I wake up in an alternate universe this morning? These things just don’t
happen, especially to me. Who is this handsome man, and where did my crappy luck go?

Zoey gets me in my chair, tells
Gorgeous Eyes where he can sit, which is directly in front of me just off to the side with a full view my body. She starts to reach for my port just under the collar of my shirt, and I freeze.

“
Is there something wrong Ms. Emery?” Zoey stops what she is doing to study the dazed look on my face. “Are you feeling OK this morning?” I’m just stunned speechless still staring at this man in front of me. “Willow, did you hear me, is everything OK?” she repeats again.

“Oh, uh, sorry, sure.”
Snapping back into reality I try to look anywhere, but at this man who is staring into my eyes. He hasn’t taken his eyes off of mine to look at the port, or at what Zoey is doing. Thank God. We continue to just look into each other’s eyes in silence while Zoey goes about hooking me up. It wasn’t weird or strange. He made me feel comfortable in an otherwise awkward situation.

B
efore I know it she is done and says, “If you need anything, just let me know? You know the drill, Willow.”

“Yes, thank you, I do
,” I assure her.

“I’ll be b
ack to check on you later and, Willow, I’m glad you finally listened to me and have company. No one should have to do this alone. If you showed up here alone again, I was going to take the rest of the day off and take you home myself.”

Now
, why did she have to go and say that? I was perfectly happy thinking she was evil and only wanted to torture me. Now I think I might have to change my mind and actually like her.

Covering up my chest
with a blanket, I turn my attention back to Gorgeous Eyes. “Look, I don’t know who you are, but thank you for showing up when you did. You can probably go now. I think she’ll believe you’re in the bathroom or something.”

He looks at me
with those amazing blue eyes and says, “My name is Asher. Now that you know who I am, I don’t have anything planned for the rest of the day, and I don’t mind staying.”

“Really, I couldn’t ask that.
I’ll be fine and I’ll be here for a few hours. You look like you have something important to get to.”

“You didn
’t ask, but I’d like to stay all the same.”

Who is this man? At least I have a name to the eyes now. He starts to take out his laptop, so I guess it looks like he really does intend to stay. I pull out my e-reader and start reading. It’s quiet between the two of us for about twenty minutes
. I have read the same sentence over and over, and I still can’t tell you what I just read. This is just crazy. Why he would just want to sit with me, a complete stranger is beyond thinkable. I can’t take this silence anymore.

“I’m sorry for t
hrowing up on your shoes. They’re probably ruined. I feel really bad about that. Can I buy you another pair?” I ask. Please say no! Please say no! I don’t even want to begin to think how much they cost. I could take out a second mortgage on my condo, I suppose.

“No, don’t worry about
them. I was more worried about you. You ran off so fast. I was worried about you and I wanted to make sure that you were alright.”

Oh
, thank God, my condo is safe. But why would a stranger care about how I was feeling? What is it about this guy?

“You
don’t look like a stalker, or an axe murderer.” Oh crap, please tell me I said that in my head and not out loud!

“Well thanks, I think. No
, I’m not a stalker or an axe murderer. What about you, you’re not, are you?”

“No, oh
my gosh. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to say that out loud. Sometimes my brain to mouth filter stops working.”

He laughs to himself as he types something in his laptop. “So, let’s just address the elephant in the room here, you have cancer?”

“Yes, breast cancer. Although I don’t really think that’s any of your business,” I snap. Man could I have been ruder? What is wrong with me? There is this gorgeous man sitting with me, willingly, and I can’t even be civil.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to sound so harsh, I’m not used to people sitting with me.”
He continues to type on his computer.

“Look it’s obvious you have more important things to do, I hate to keep you from them.”

“Don’t worry about it, I have a flexible schedule,” he says putting his laptop back in the bag on the floor. Then he directs all his attention at me. Man, I should have kept my mouth shut, now he’s looking at me again, the way he did when I ran into him.

He makes small talk for the rest of the appointment. I’m surprised how easy the conversation is going.
We talk about nothing of importance. The weather, sports, celebrities, and the latest movies out. The time flies by. I’m almost done and I can’t wait to just get home and have this weird day over with.

Nurse Zoey comes in to unhook me
. She hands me my next appointment on a card. She goes over real quick what to watch out for, blah, blah, blah. I’ve heard it all before. I think she’s saying it more for Asher’s benefit than mine. She eyes up Asher and tells him to pull the car around up front.

“No! You don’t have to
do that, I can manage. I feel fine.” Once I say that I start to feel sick to my stomach. As I go to stand up, I get light headed and have to sit back down. Asher grabs my arm to help me back into the seat with a worried look on his face.

“I’ll just
have the car pulled around,” he says, grabs his bag and heads out of the room.

I sit for a few more minute
s, trying to get myself back together with every intention of leaving before he comes back. Too late. He comes back into the room.

“All set
. Do you feel well enough now to try again and stand?” he asks concerned.

Just shoot me now, please someone, anyone
shoot me. I won’t press charges, I swear. Zoey insists on taking me out front in a wheel chair. This is completely mortifying. Waiting at the curb is a sleek black Town Car with a man holding the back door open. Between Zoey and Asher on either side of me, they practically pick me up and shove me into the car. I don’t even have time to protest, to say I can just take a cab home. Although, once in the car, I relax in the comfortable seat and close my eyes. I don’t think I could have taken another step. I’m just so tired.

Asher closes the door
softly and for a second I think I’m in the clear. The driver will just take me home, and I don’t have to deal with Asher again. But the door re-opens and in scoots Asher. Again with my luck.

Asher

Willow
doesn’t look good again. In fact, she looks worse than the last time I saw her. After I put her in the car, I close the door so I could talk to Zoey.

“When is her next appointment?”

Zoey rattles off the next appointment, then hands me Willow’s purse and e-reader. She says her goodbye, and that she will see me next time. I hadn’t thought of there being a next time, but there is no other place I can think of at the moment that I would rather be. Opening the car door, I look inside and it looks like Willow is sleeping. She looks like she could use the rest, so I open her purse, find her wallet and take out her driver’s license and hand it to Simon. “Here, this is where we need to go.”

“Yes, sir.”
He takes the license and heads back to the driver’s seat.

As I climb
in the back seat next to Willow, she looks so peaceful, and I can’t help but take her hand in mine. She doesn’t even move, so I just continue to hold her hand the short drive to her home. As we pull up in front of a newer condo development, I squeeze her hand to get her to wake up, but she doesn’t open her eyes. She must be exhausted. I can’t leave her alone in this condition. Simon opens my door, I step out and go around to her side. She looks so frail and weak. How could she have been doing this all on her own? Where is her family? Where are her friends?

I
put my arm under her knees and one around her upper back and easily lift her out of the car. Simon has her purse and e-reader. Digging in her purse, he takes out her keys and heads to the front door. Inserting the key, he opens the door and a little brown rat looking thing is barking up at us nipping at my pant legs. I’m trying to get Willow in the door without tripping and dropping her or stepping on the dog. The little dog is doing some bouncing bark thing that, under different circumstances, I would have been laughing my ass off.

I place Willow on the
couch and cover her with an afghan from the back of the couch. It’s a small condo, just a kitchen, a family room, a dining room, and a bathroom downstairs. There is an upstairs which I assume has the bedrooms. Simon sets her things down on the kitchen counter. I tell him he can take the car back to my house and take the rest of the day off. The little yappy thing has stopped trying to shred my pants and is curled up with Willow on the couch with its head resting on her chest. The dog must know she’s not feeling well. I take a seat in the lazy boy next to the couch, dig out my laptop, and check my e-mail. I haven’t taken a business day off work since my wife died. I’m sure there are some issues to deal with.

After working for a few
hours, Willow is still sleeping and that damn dog still has not moved. I’m not a dog person, but it seems like it should have to go outside or something. As I stand up to see if I can get it to go outside, it lifts its head and shows me its teeth. What the hell?

“Come on doggie, you want
to go outside?” I don’t even know if it’s a boy or girl, I’m reduced to calling it doggie. Maybe if I open the back door to the little backyard it will just go out on its own. Heading through the family room to the kitchen, I notice there are no family photos anywhere.  Opening the back door, the little terror jumps down and heads outside. Thank God. As soon as I shut the sliding glass door, it’s back standing at the glass. A little puddle is on the patio, and it’s pawing at the glass. Shouldn’t it want to stay outside a little longer? It starts to whine so I let it back in and sure enough it climbs back on Willow in the same exact position it was just in. Except this time Willow makes a moaning noise, like she is in pain. I quickly make my way over to her, her eyes are open and she looks confused.

“It’s
OK, you’re home. You kind of had a rough day. You have been sleeping for a few hours now. How are you feeling? You look a little pale. Can I get you anything?”