“It’s okay, she’s been crying all night long. I got a report on her when I arrived and it seems like she didn’t sleep much. But her husband rode with her in the ambulance over here and he was really sweet and encouraging. I don’t know, but I really hope she can get a hold of her issues.”
“What do you mean?”
“Apparently, she had been stealing from a local liquor store, has some legal charges and stuff. A lot of really embarrassing things for her and her husband. But he’s sticking by her. That’s a pretty good guy.”
“Yeah, maybe I shouldn’t talk to her today. I don’t want to make her cry again.”
“Hell no, you are assigned to her, Erik, and Brad today. Brad is going home tomorrow and he’s a mess, too. Erik’s going to be easy, though. He just moved into a room with a door, so he’s pretty happy about that.”
“Wow, I’m off the unit for a couple of days and everything changes. Who is staying for the holiday? I promised Mr. March I would send him a list so he knows how to staff for the next couple of days.”
“Well, on this unit, I think it’s just Brianna and Erik.”
It always made me sad that anyone had to stay at our facility during the holiday. It wasn’t a happy place at all when all the other patients were gone and only one or two staff members were around. But it was the reality of many people’s lives.
“Yeah, Brianna definitely isn’t well enough, but that’s sad that she won’t get to be with her daughters. But why is Erik staying?”
“I’m not sure,” Kaitlin said as she went back to work. “I think he told Susan that he doesn’t have a family.”
My heart sank. Erik hadn’t really been open about his home life, but I thought he had some people who cared about him. Erik had almost finished a whole month of treatment, getting out for a few days would have given him some motivation to get through the second half of his inpatient recovery.
As I sat down at the computer to type the message to Mr. March, I looked up and saw Erik with his arm gently around Brianna’s back. He was consoling her still, like a brother or friend would do. She really needed that, and I couldn’t help but be even more endeared to Erik.
As I started to type, I decided to go talk with Erik first and just confirm that he wasn’t going to be leaving. Certainly, he had to have a friend or someone else in his life that he wanted to spend the holiday with. I didn’t want to tell Mr. March that Erik would be staying if there was someone in his life who could take him in. That was the same way for any other patient who was there who had finished as much treatment as Erik had. Spending time with loved ones was necessary if they could manage it.
“When you get a minute, I need to talk to you about the holiday,” I said softly as I stood next to him at the table.
“It’s okay. I’m going to go lie down,” Brianna excused herself and then quickly went to her room.
It was as if she had been waiting for an excuse to leave the day area and go hide away. There would be a lot of excitement going on today on the unit so it was probably best that she rested and gathered her energy. At least she was safe and through her detox, but even though her body was safe, the recovery process had just started.
“Kaitlin says that you don’t plan on going home with your family for the holiday?”
“Nope, going to hang out here with the cool people.”
“Oh, but don’t you have anyone?”
Erik looked up toward the ceiling like he was thinking really hard about it. I couldn’t help but notice that he had shaved. He looked younger without the scruff from his beard on his face. He looked more like a movie star than a tech businessman. I could imagine him in a tuxedo walking down a red carpet, probably holding onto a sexy model at his side.
“Nope, I’m going to chill here. It’s fine, I’m excited to have some peace, and Kaitlin promised me I’d get to swim as much as I wanted.”
He tried to put on a happy face, but underneath it, I saw so much pain. How could he have no one to spend the holiday with? I couldn’t imagine a life like that at all. Even when my parents had forced me into treatment, I always knew that they would be there for me. Sure, they might be really angry with me, but they would always love me.
“Your mom has passed away, but what about the rest of your family? Your father, maybe?”
“I’m staying here. That’s the end of it, okay, Cassidy?” he said firmly.
“It’s just that normally only the new people stay. All the programming will be the groups that you’ve already done, and we only do half of those. You’re going to get really bored.”
Erik looked extremely annoyed at me for continuing with the topic, but I couldn’t let him sit at Paradise Peak for the whole holiday if there was anywhere else that he could go. Even though I had signed up to work, it was starting to look like even I wasn’t going to be needed. If there were really only six patients, there would be no need for a technician to work with the nurses; they would likely just have two nurses on staff.
“I’m staying. Tell who you need to tell and let’s drop it.”
“What about your business partner? What was his name again?”
“Spencer, and no. I’m not going to intrude on him. I’m fine, Cassidy. I really am. I’ve got a couple of new books to read, I’m going to work out and swim, it’s going to be like a little vacation for me. I’m perfectly fine. Now if you don’t drop it, I’m going to start crying like Brianna did,” he said with a half of a grin.
“I can tell Mr. March that you’re a maybe, that way if you make some plans, it won’t matter to the scheduling.”