Hate You Not

“I knew it!”

“Oh, c’mon. Do I seem like a Slytherin to you?” He arches one brow, and I guffaw.

“Hiss, hiss, baby.” I smile. “No one is more Slytherin than you.”

“And I do what for work?” he asks.

“I don’t know? Start companies? Sounds hissy to me.”

He chuckles at that. “Do you know where I went to college?”

“Oh, college! I don’t know, the Golden School of Yuppie Asswipes?”

He lets out a guffaw. “What the fuck? You are high.”

“It’s your fault,” I murmur. “You told them to drug me.”

“Yes, so they could set your ankle.”

“Did they set it up real good?” I croon.

He laughs again. “Oh yeah. Real good.”

“Don’t make fun of me.” My voice sounds whiny.

He comes to stand beside me. “Look, I’m going to drag you up onto your pillow. Unless you need to—”

“To what?”

“Use the restroom.”

“Oh you mean to take a pee.” I smile up at him. “Kidding. Southern girls would never, ever say it like that.”

“Why not?” He looks thoughtful.

“Classless. Tacky. Crass.”

“Well, you are none of those things.”

Then he’s leaning down, wrapping one arm under my back, the other one under my knees. He scoots me up then settles my foot on some pillows.

“It does hurt like a bitch,” I rasp.

“You might need more medicine. I got the prescription filled while you were sleeping at the hospital.”

“What a…Ravenclaw.” I cackle like a moron. “You’re motherfrickin’ Ravenclaw. Who went to MIT.” I snap my fingers. “Real big brains you got there.”

“Now who’s making fun of whom?”

I roll my eyes.

“And you’re Team Gryffindor,” he says.

“The brave and noble sink with the ship folk,” I manage.

“That’s how you define yourself? Brave and noble?”

I open my mouth to retort that yes, I’m plenty brave. But he says, “I’m not surprised by that. At all, actually.” He turns away from me. “I’m going to get some water and your bag out of the car.”

How rude, I say to myself in my Stephanie Tanner voice. But it wasn’t really. Just abrupt. As if he didn’t know what more to say, he didn’t want to look me in the eye or actually connect, so out he went.Chapter 12BurkeThe Golden School of Yuppie Asswipes. I chuckle at that as I hustle down the stairs and grab her stuff out of the car. It’s a cool night, cloudless. There’s a not-quite-full moon, and even with its brightness, I can see so many stars when I tilt my head back that it almost makes me dizzy.

What a place. I think back on the seven hours we spent at the hospital with something that’s akin to wonder. The nurses and doctors moving in and out of our space—first the curtained area behind the doors of the ER and later on, an orthopedic room—were slow-moving, slow-speaking, and had an easy, not-so-urgent pace. Everyone had the same slow, twangy drawl and neighborly manner. Someone even brought me coffee while we waited to be discharged. Just so fucking friendly.

The nurse who pushed June’s wheelchair outside to my car was asking me about my job, and I was telling her about my work right now. For some reason—I guess the strangeness of the location and my own anonymity—I found myself giving her details about the app’s mission. She wrote the name “Aes” down in her phone so she could look it up later—when we’ve had success. As we were leaving, she said, “Good luck, honey. I hope it make you big ole piles of money.”

I didn’t see a reason to tell her I don’t need the money. The startup’s success is important to me for other reasons. That’s why I’m going to keep on pushing with it, even if I have to keep working 90-hour weeks. My brother had that wrong, I think—that life should be about balance. What does my health really matter? Who cares if I live until I’m ninety? And why would I even want to?

I couldn’t help thinking about the app the whole time we were in the hospital. If everything goes right and I can get the app done before I run my own coffers too low, one day, everybody working here might know the name Aes.

For June’s part, she was fucking furious most of the middle two hours. She bitched and cussed the doctor and the nurses—and me. Especially me. Then they got the painkillers right, and she was laughing and smiling, giving me these looks like she was checking me out. I know it was all just drugs, but it was nice to be on the receiving end of one of her smiles.

Back in the kitchen at her house, I get her some water and shake a pain pill out into my palm. But by the time I get back to her bedroom, she’s asleep.

“Hey June…” I shake her shoulder just a little, then again. She lifts her eyelids, looking up at me with glassy eyes.