Page 69 of Demo
“What are you doing here?” I ask.
A hand still hanging onto the curtain, the other on her hip, she flips her chin and tosses her hair over her shoulder. “I’m still listed as your emergency contact here, asshole.”
There she is.
I grin. “Right. So, they tell you what happened?”
“Yes,” she says, stepping further into my space and pulling the curtain back around. “I got the call while I was at a Chamber of Commerce event with Monty. Imagine my disappointment when the nurse told me you cut off the tip of an appendage, and I found out it wasn’t your penis.” She then steps over to the table and uses a finger to tip the coffee cup toward her so she can look inside. “Or, maybe it was, I can’t tell with all the sawdust.”
I hear a laugh bellow from Bram who, again, I forgot was even still here. “Hey, brother,” Lizzie says to him as he goes in for a hug. “Hey, sis! Man, I’ve missed you.”
“Same here,” she says as they hold their embrace, and my heart aches worse than my finger.
I clear my throat, and they separate. “You know, you didn’t have to come,” I say.
“And miss this?” she laughs. “Oh, no no no. I wouldn’t miss this for the world.”
“I said the exact same thing,” Bram says, resuming his place in the corner.
The curtain swings open again, and we all look up to see a twenty-something-year-old doctor with chiseled cheeks, coifed dark hair, and tight navy-blue scrubs that hug his pectoral muscles and thigh muscles that look like they belong to someone onGrey’sfuckingAnatomy.
“I’m doctor Valentino,” he says, extending his hand to me, then quickly pulling it back, taking in my situation. “Oh, shit.”
“Yeah, shit,” I say to Doogie Howser.
He then turns to Lizzie. “Hello,” he says, and I can see he can’t help but give her a quick once-over.
“Hi,” she says, hand extended. “I’m Lyzbeth.” They shake, and he gives her a full, beaming smile.
“You must be the wife,” he says, hand still holding hers.
She startles. “No, well, strange—estranged, that is. We’re estranged. Separated.” She pulls her hand back and tucks a piece of hair behind her ear, which is beet red. She’s flustered.
“Oh, well, sorry to hear that,” Doogie says, still looking at her.
“He cheated on me,” she blurts out, and I swing my head toward her. I hear Bram laugh behind me.
“Seriously?” I bark out.
“Sorry, that was … I guess I didn’t, um … Anyway,” Lizzie points toward the table, in particular at the cup. “Can you sew it back on?”
“Well, let’s see,” Doogie says as he wheels a chair over and sits down in front of me. His legs widen as he gets close to the bed, and I can see his scrubs hugging his huge package.You’ve got to be kidding me.
He makes an event out of pulling latex gloves over his large mitts, then takes my left hand and starts unwrapping the bandana. When my fingers are exposed, he “hmmms” to himself. “Looks like it’s not too bad,” he says, turning my hand this way and that.
Lizzie leans in, “It’s not?” she asks, sounding almost disappointed.
“Nah, I can reattach it,” he says, glancing at her, and I catch his eyes taking in her cleavage.
“Hey, eyes on the injury, doc!” I snap, using my good hand to wave his attention back to me.
Doogie chuckles and reaches for the cup with the nub. “Oh, yeah. We can definitely work with this. I’ll stitch up the cut on the second finger and reattach this to the first finger. It’s a little dirty, though. Couldn’t you find anything else to put it in?”
Again, Bram laughs.
“He can’t help it, he’s filthy,” Lizzie states matter-of-factly.
I sigh, and Bram’s laugh gets louder. “It’s a job site,” I say, exasperated. “You know, a place where people work with their hands. It’s not exactly sterile.”
