A few hours of poking and prodding and phone calls to Daddy and my brothers later, I’m still there. Alone in the hospital bed, waiting for the doctor to discharge me.
Staring at the ceiling thinking about the look on Tony’s face as we parted. We’re here now. Back in the real world. Saved. But where do we go now? He said he wanted me, wanted to be with me, but that was back there. In the fantasy where we were living. In the world where all we had to do was survive from one day to the next.
Things can look very different back here in reality. Under this harsh hospital lighting, where we have to deal with the fact of who we both are. That he’s my professor, I’m his student. Neither of us can be involved, not publicly, not until I’ve graduated and moved on to who knows where. And would he even want that? Was any of what we felt real, or was it just a symptom of the situation we were in?
I close my eyes and take a deep breath. That’s when the door creaks inward, and the doctor appears silhouetted by the hall light.
“You’re free to go now, Ms. Driver,” he says.
I push myself to my feet and grab my coat, hands only quivering slightly. Time to find out what the real world has in store.
12
The Truth
I head to the waiting room first. Daddy isn’t here yet—he sent me a slew of texts explaining he’s on a business trip out west—it’s why he didn’t know about the storm, didn’t even know I’d gone missing, whereas normally he’d have been all over the news hunting for me. He’s jumping on a plane here now, but until then, I’m alone in this hospital, and I can only think of one person I want to see.
That one person, unfortunately, doesn’t seem to be here anymore.
“Mr. Lakewood?” the nurse repeats. I’ve already spelled it for her twice.
“Yes. Tony Lakewood. He checked in around the same time as me, earlier today.”
She purses her lips, then makes a soft little ah sound. “Here we go, yes. Tony Lakewood, being checked for exposure and malnutrition… Released earlier today. About an hour ago.”
An hour ago? He didn’t wait for me. Didn’t check on me. Just fled.
I clench my hands to keep them from trembling. “I see. Thank you.” I turn to go, my car keys already in my pocket. The tow trucks brought both our cars down the mountainside while we were in the hospital, I was told. It’s outside in the lot now, ready to head home.
That’s all I can do now, I guess. Head home. Acting like everything is normal.
I square my shoulders and take a deep breath. That’s okay. Until a week ago, Tony Lakewood was nothing more than my irritating and overbearing professor. He can go back to being that again. I’m fine with it.
That’s what I tell myself, anyway. It doesn’t feel very convincing.
Especially not when I step outside and Tony is standing there in the parking lot, leaning against his car, a cigarette dangling from his fingertips as he waits. The moment he spots me, he drops the cigarette, stomps it out, and crosses the lot toward me with his arms spread wide open.
“Corina. I just stepped out to smoke…”
“Tony.” I crash into him before the word is even out of my mouth, so I wind up mumbling it loudly into his chest. Tears sting the corners of my eyes.
He’s laughing. “What’s gotten into you?” He leans back, tilts my chin up so he can meet my gaze. “Those better be happy tears, I hope.” He leans down to kiss my cheeks, my forehead, the corners of my eyes. “We made it, Corina. Can you believe it?”
“I thought you left me,” I gasp, catching the back of his neck and leaning up to kiss his stubbly cheek.
“What?” He laughs again and shakes his head. “Corina, what are you talking about?”
“We’re here now,” I say, lifting one arm from his shoulder to gesture wildly at the parking lot. “We’re back in reality. I thought you’d rethink everything now. Realize this is madness, you and me.”
“Corina.” His voice goes deep and serious. This time when he turns my face toward his again, his green eyes bore into me, more intense than ever. “If anything, this week was madness. But you and me, we’re the only reason we both survived. You mean the world to me, Corina. I would never leave you behind. I never will.”
I can’t help it. The tears have built up too far already. One escapes and trickles down my cheek, even as I laugh, my face splitting into a smile so big it’s almost painful.
“You dummy.” His kisses me again, slow and soft and sweet. “You clearly haven’t been paying attention if you thought I would leave you.”