Simone.

“Coffee?” A voice behind me interrupts my pacing. I am standing on the outside waiting area of the hospital. I could have left; I had told myself I would go home, just get in my car, and drive off, but for a while, I stopped out here.

I turn around, green eyes sparkling under the lights of the hospital, staring at me. Abby holds a disposable brown cup of coffee to me and another to her chest.

I hesitate. I can decline, I can tell her I'm going home.

“I know you'd rather have tequila in a mug but this is the best they had to offer,” she mutters. I have no idea how she manages to say that with a straight face because it uproots a smile on my face.

“It's supposed to be a secret,” I say calmly and I take the cup from her. For a second, our fingers brush and linger, sending a shiver down my spine despite my warm cardigan. I pull my hand away, clearly I am the only one who felt that.

Abby chuckles and shrugs. “It's just us.”

I take a seat in one of the metal silver chairs and so does Abby.  We sit in silence for a while, I sip on my coffee, not sure what to say to her. She came to me, she should be the one with something to say. Or did she only bring me coffee?

My phone vibrates, breaking the silence between us. I'm thankful for a moment until I see Zack's face flashing on my screen as the caller ID; I exhale slowly and turn the phone with the screen facing down.

It stops ringing, and once again, it is quiet, but then it starts vibrating again.

“You should get that,” Abby says, her eyes fixed on something ahead even when there is nothing but an empty ambulance packed in the driveway and a few other cars.

I swipe to answer and excuse myself.

“Zack,” I say, placing the phone to my ear.

“You're not home,” he barks.

I roll my eyes. Seems like the mood hasn't swung back to normal. When he woke up in the morning, he was grumpy; he only laid a kiss on my cheek and left. We barely spoke through the day because I was occupied with the twins and we don't have time to do that anymore.

When I came to the hospital, I dropped him a text. Imagine my surprise hearing him say I'm not home.

“I'm at the hospital; I texted you earlier,” I say, teeth gritting.

“Are you okay?”

“It's not me, it's the twins from Beth's.”

“What's up with them?”

“They have bad fevers and the flu.”

“I'm sorry, do you need me to come? Should I bring anything?”

I smile at the concern in his voice. For a moment, I think back to last night; how everything went dark in less than an hour. He made me realize I am not the woman he once found attractive anymore.

“I'm fine, I will be home soon,” I say and cut the line.

The level of toxicity between Zack and me at the moment is so high that we keep going back and forth----a dirty dance I have been through before. But we always find our way back to each other; until then, I don't have adequate energy to deal with his crap. I tuck the phone in my pocket and walk back to the chair.

“Everything okay?” Abby mutters when I sit back down.

I don't know if she is asking to mock me or if she truly wants to know if everything is okay.

“Perfect,” I mutter, take a sip from the coffee, and stay silent.

“I got the job,” Abby says. She sounds tired.

I expected her to be thrilled when announcing such great news but how do I even get excited for a flat person? I understand, though; everything that happened to her today was crazy. She is in between sweet and sour, bitter-sweet types of situations.

“That's good, where?”

“A barbershop.”

I chuckle, unable to imagine Abby working in a barbershop. “I didn't peg you for that.”

“You told me to be open to opportunities.”

I smile. She picked my advice. I was only saying that to get rid of her because she looked too good in the morning and was disturbing my peace and thought process.

“My feet hurt like hell by the way,” she says, exhaling.

The heels were a hard idea, I want to say, but instead, I stare at her perfectly long legs and say, “Do you want to switch shoes?”

Abby glances at me with wide eyes, a funny expression I wish I could take a snap of.  “You're shitting me.”

I shake my head and slip out of my sandals. “Go on, put your big foot in there, and feet better,” I say, leaning down to remove the heels from her feet.

Abby protests. “My feet stink; I've been in them all day; trust me, you don't want to take them off.”

What makes her think I mind?

“Just shut up,” I say and get to my knees on her feet. Slowly, I take her heels off. “They do stink.”

“Simone,” Abby's voice is cold when she calls my name. Completely disregarding my joke.

I'm scared to look up at her; I'm scared because I've witnessed firsthand what her voice does to me when she says my name like that.  But against my better judgment, I look up at her unreadable expression.

“See, not bad,” I'm quick to say, anything to get my heart back in my chest. I gently crack her toenails, not missing the throaty groan from Abby before I put my slippers under her feet.

When I sit back down, Abby is staring at me. She had never stared at me this way before and it makes my belly swoop.

It kind of reminds me of how Zack looked at me last night when he told me I was the most amazing woman he had ever had in his life. My stomach twirls at the memory before I push it to the back of my head along with other things I'd rather not have flooding my head at this moment.

“Thank you,” Abby whispers, but she doesn't take her eyes off me.

I smile and look away. This is getting very uncomfortable, but there is nowhere to run or hide. I can feel her gaze making a hole in the side of my neck, but I don't dare to look at her; I don't think I will like what I see in her eyes.

“Can I ask you for a favor?” Abby mutters.

I nod, my eyes finally dart to hers. “Shoot.”

She exhales. “Can you hug me?” She asks.

The little four words catch me off guard. They send my heart tumbling to my stomach. How can she ask that of me? Is she serious? Is that okay? Is that okay to do?

I hate that I'm a certified overthinker.

When I do not say anything for a while, she continues. “I'm sorry if it's weird for you. I just had a long day, and I'm tired, and I…”

I don't let her finish that sentence because I wrap my arms around her. I let Abby bury her face in my shoulder, I let her exhale slowly in my arms. I let her wrap her arms around my waist, completely ignoring the fact that it is throwing jitters down my body.

And she lets me pat her back, she lets me stroke her hair, she lets me inhale her intoxicatingly sweet-scented shampoo.

She lets me hold her. She lets me see a tiny side of her vulnerability and it's beautiful.

It's, in a twisted way, what I have been yearning for a while now since the day I set my eyes on her.

“Simone?”

“Mmh.”

“Thank you.”

I nod. “Of course.”

This is for her as much as it is for me. This is the therapy I didn't know I needed. This is everything I wanted. A comforting hug that instantly makes everything feel better.

For the first time today, I take a deep breath.

++++

Well, we are getting all touchy-feely with a bunch of vulnerabilities.
Happy reading and your comments and votes are always appreciated.
NOMMY 🔥