I grab my jacket off the back of the chair. “I’m going with you.”
It’s pouring so hard now that the gutters struggle to absorb the excess water, causing the streets to flood slightly. It’s a miserable night made worse by the heightened emotions. If this were anyone but Channa, I would have walked away and not bothered with the drama of it all. But this is Channa and she’s worth everything.
“Channa, wait.” I grab her arm, but she shakes me off.
“I need to find Lillian.”
“Will you please stop.” I grab her again. This time I don’t let her pull away. “Please let me help you. We’ll find your friend.”
“Why even bother? This isn’t your problem.”
“Why bother? Because I love you. That’s why. That’s what you do for people you love.”
Channa stops. She turns slowly to look at me. Her hair is matted to her face. Rain pours off the tip of her nose and she squints in the faint sepia light of the streetlamps. She wipes the water from her eyes, blinking away the drop from her lashes.
“I love you too, but what does it matter? I’ll be gone in a week. Then what?”
My heart thumps hard in my chest. It’s hard to hear over the sound of it in my head. I guess I didn’t really expect her to feel the same. Now that I know she does, there’s no way in hell I’m letting go.
I start to tell her as much but then we hear Lillian cry out in pain. Channa runs toward the sound of her friend’s voice. I chase after her. We find Lillian in a ditch, a current of gutter water washing over her legs.
“I twisted my ankle,” Lillian says, her face contorted with pain.
“It might be broken,” I say. “We need to get her to the hospital.
I lift her off the ground and carry her back to the work truck I borrowed. Channa splashes ahead of me to get the door. We lift Lillian into the backseat and lay her down while Channa climbs into the passenger seat.
It’s a quick drive. Channa busies herself doing whatever she can to make Lillian comfortable. It might be a good thing Lillian’s drunk, otherwise she would be in more pain than she seems to be in. When we get to the hospital, Lillian is wheeled back into the emergency room, leaving Channa and me alone in the waiting room. We’re both quiet. There’s hardly anyone in here with us. Those who are, have their eyes glued to the TV in the corner, watching the latest episode of some British baking show.
I can’t stand the silence anymore. “I want you for more than a week,” I say.
She looks at me, not seeming confused at all by the sudden admission. She knows exactly what I’m talking about, picking up where we’d left off just before we’d heard Lillian cry out in the street. “I want you more than two, or five, or twenty weeks.” She stares at me. Tears start to trickle from her eyes, rolling slowly down her flushed cheeks. “It’s selfish to ask you to stay while I finish this job. I won’t do that to you. But I want you to stay so badly.”
Her breath wavers, and she’s crying freely now, her tears coming down faster than she can wipe them off.
She reaches out to me, takes my face in her cold, delicate hands and kisses me. “If you’re serious about wanting a relationship with me—a real relationship, not just some hookup, then I’ll stay. I love you. I just want to be with you.”
“I want to be with you too. And you know this isn’t just a hookup. I love you. I’ll do whatever it takes to be with you. Once this job is done, we can go wherever you want.”
She smiles and we kiss again, not caring that the waiting room is starting to fill up.
Someone clears their throat next to us. We look up. Lillian is standing there, shaking her head with a tired smile. Her foot is in a cast and she’s holding herself up with crutches.
“Kain, if I’d known you were such a sap, I wouldn’t have crushed on you so hard,” she says to me.
When I laugh, so does she. Then she looks at Channa, her eyes watery with unshed tears. “I was stupid and drunk. I’m sorry,” Lillian says.
“I’m sorry too.”
“Now can we please go back to the flat? They gave me some serious pain meds that are about to knock me on my ass.”
“Yeah, let’s get out of here and get into some dry clothes,” Channa agrees.
We climb back into the truck and head back to the flat.
10
Channa
Once I get Lillian out of her wet clothes and into her flannel pajama set, she settles into bed and promptly falls asleep. Deb is already passed out on the couch. She’d stayed up waiting for us. By the looks of the empty beer bottles, she had a solo party while she waited.