“Looks to be almost gone.”
“Good! That’s good. Any more restrictions?”
There it was. The question that would lead to all sorts of other questions. I’d tell him there were no restrictions and it would dawn on him that it meant I could go back to work, and then he’d wanna know what I did for work. That’s when I’d tell him I worked for a prominent fashion designer in Paris, and that would make him curious. He’d ask how long I’d been working in Paris, and I’d tell him five years, and he’d do the math, and then it would happen.
All the questions he had for me would come pouring out at once.
I’d never been so thankful for a doctor interrupting me in all my life.
“Alright! We need you to try and pee in this cup again, and then you can head on out. I’ll see you in a week!” she smiled.
“What a mood killer,” Flynn smirked.
“What mood? There was no mood,” I giggled.
“There’s always a mood when I’m with you,” Flynn said lowly.
“I could walk around in your mother’s moo moo, and it would make you horny.”
“Because it isn’t the clothing that turns me on,” Flynn lulled.
His voice made my skin hot, and I grabbed the cup and made my way to the bathroom before I dug myself a deeper hole. I had to talk to him. I had to tell him everything. I had to tell him the doctor cleared me for travel and that I had to go back to Paris and that Paris was where I’d been for the past few years and that I didn’t think he would want to go with me and I figured he’d ask me to stay. I had to tell him he couldn't know because if he’d asked me to stay, I would’ve.
For him.
For us.
“How about we go get us some dinner at the house, and I find you one of those moo moos you speak so highly of?” Flynn asked cheekily through the bathroom door.
I washed my hands and whipped the door open only to punch him in his arm.
“You really are a piece of work,” I laughed.
“Want me to put that cup at the nurse’s station?” Flynn asked.
“You’re not putting my pee cup anywhere, Flynn. I’m healing. I can get some things on my own.”
I took the cup over to the nurse’s station, and she nodded at me with a smile on her face. We both made our way towards the exit, and when we stepped out into the harsh sunlight of an Oklahoma summer, I felt Flynn slip his hand around my waist.
“How are ya feelin’?”
he asked lowly in my ear.
And I lied to him when I told him I felt fine.
15
Flynn
I saw that Chelsea’s smile in the doctor’s office didn’t quite reach her eyes, and I talked with the doctor while Chelsea was in the bathroom. The doctor told me that she was healing well and that her tests were coming back with good results, and I knew that meant one particular thing: that Chelsea would be going back to work soon, and she would be leaving once again.
I wasn’t under any stupid impression of her staying. I knew she’d get better and I knew she’d go back to wherever it was she now resided and worked doodling whatever fashions she was doodling. I found her sketchpad one day while she was passed out from her medications, and the ideas she had in mind were actually pretty awesome. They wouldn’t be anything you’d see in a small town like this, but they were really beautiful.
I hoped she was working with someone who valued her ideas and not someone who just bullied her around and made her get them coffee.
The entire truck ride home I felt her pulling away. Her grip on my hand wasn’t as tight, and her head was constantly turned out to look at the passing scenery. I tried to jump start a bit of conversation, but all she gave me was one-word answers and a few grunts. I wanted to know what was on her mind because I wanted to help. I wanted to tell her that I was under no impression that she was sticking around, but I did also tell her that I wanted to keep in touch. I wanted to be able to call and her email so we could exchange them regularly. I wanted to know her mailing address so I could send her things on her birthday and for the holidays, and I wanted to ask her if there was any way we could… I don’t know… video each other or something. I saw people do it in town all the time on their phones and laptops, and I wanted to tell her I could get a phone or laptop that had that capability.
I wanted to tell her that I supported whatever career she wanted, even if we did the long-distance thing for a while. She had to know that I would try and make this work. Somehow.