“No. He’s been avoiding me for the past few weeks, but Rory saw him the other day.” I recounted my interaction with Ryder at the restaurant, leaving out the part about Sloane.
But as soon as I thought her name, there she was, walking with purpose down the hallway.
“I called her,” I said to Lucah as I walked to meet her. Her face was red and streaked with tears and mascara. I was always telling her to buy the waterproof kind, but she said it didn’t give her as much volume.
“Is he okay?” she said, holding her bag in front of her as if it was going to protect her.
“He’s going to be okay.” I got some tissues from my purse and started blotting her face.
“I’m a wreck. I couldn’t stop crying on the way over. I think the cabbie thought I was crazy.”
“A crying woman is probably not the craziest thing he’s ever had in his cab, babe.” That made her laugh and she grabbed one of the tissues to blow her nose.
Lucah approached us.
“Thank you for coming, Sloane.” He gave her a hug and patted her back.
“I didn’t know if I should or not. If it was my place.”
“No, no. I’m happy you’re here. The more, the, uh, merrier. That doesn’t really work in this situation, does it?” We all sort of laughed, and I looked around, afraid that someone was going to yell at us for laughing in a hospital. Like when you spoke too loudly in a library.
“No, it doesn’t,” Sloane said and we walked closer to Ryder’s room.
“This is Rory’s best friend, former roommate and the woman she will eventually leave me for, Sloane. Sloane, this is my older brother Tate and his wife, April.” Tate and April both hugged Sloane, and said how much they’d heard about her, and how lovely it was that she was here. We all stood outside of Ryder’s room, a precipice Sloane had yet to cross.
“Do you want to go see him?” Lucah said.
“Oh, no. I don’t know. It would be weird. I mean, I barely know him.” She was saying the words with her mouth, but her body was inching closer. It didn’t matter that she barely knew him, because of the way she looked at him, the way she laughed when she talked about him, and the fact that she’d put everything else aside to be here.
“Go on. I’m sure he’d like to see you,” Lucah said, nearly pushing her into the room. He didn’t have to push too hard.
We all hung back as she walked inside, rolling her shoulders back and taking a deep breath. Despite her tear-smudged face, she looked fabulous, in a black dress with cherries all over it that looked like it was made in the 1940s. She’d done waves with her hair and pinned it back. Add red lipstick and she was an updated version of Lauren Bacall or Ginger Rogers.
“Ryder?” The four of us, me, Tate, April and Lucah stood and watched, which we probably shouldn’t have, but we wanted to see what would happen.
“Sloane?” His cracked voice said her name like a wish. Or a prayer.
“Hey, how are you?” She kneeled down next to his bed and reached for his hand, but it was covered in tubes, so she moved upward to his tattoo-covered upper arm.
“Been better,” he croaked. He tried to say something else and coughed. Sloane reached for the pitcher of water on the table next to his bed and poured it into a plastic cup, then held it to his lips. He took a few sips.
“Thanks.” His voice was a tiny bit stronger after the water. She put the cup down and reached out to stroke his forehead. That was when we all stopped watching. It was too intimate a moment to intrude on.
While Sloane talked to Ryder the four of us stood around. And waited.
Fifteen
We ended up eating dinner at the cafeteria. I’d heard all these horrible things about hospital food, but it wasn’t as awful as I was expecting. It was hard to eat, but not because of the quality of the food.
April got a call from her neighbors, saying that Gracie had thrown up and was running a fever.
“Fuck, this is just perfect,” April said, putting her head in her hands. I’d never heard her swear before.
“If you need to get back, go ahead. We’ve got this here. You can come back tomorrow,” I said. I didn’t know if I could miss work, but I knew Lucah would need to.
“Okay, we will,” Tate said, taking April’s hand. They said goodbye and left, so it was just me, Lucah and Sloane, who was just poking at the food on her plate.
“I should probably go too. I’m pretty sure my interns are crying and screaming in agony at the amount of work I left them. They’ve been blowing up my phone.” Sloane went and tossed her tray.