Perfect Love Story (Love 1)

“Is that all?” I tell him, my eyes never leaving my daughter who sleeps on the examining table. Gabe turns and walks out, and I think of how this day went from okay to more fucked than I can explain.

I watch Mila as she whimpers in her sleep. As I lean my hip on the table, one of the nurses comes in with a mop and cleans up Hailey’s blood from the floor. “Oh, my gosh,” my mother says from the doorway. “Whose blood is that?” she asks. She looks like she is going to faint.

“It’s not Mila’s,” I tell her as she enters the room and comes to the table. Looking down at Mila, she wipes away tears too. “My poor baby, what happened?” she asks, looking at me.

“From what I understand, they were walking on the beach and Flounder knocked her over by accident.” At least, that is what I got from the bits and pieces everyone’s told me.

“Okay,” Crystal says as she walks back in the room, her shoes squeaking on the wet floor. “We need to take her for an X-ray.” She doesn’t look at me but smiles at my mother. “Glad we got Hailey’s blood cleaned up,” she says. My mother looks at me with her eyes going into slits as she folds her hands over her chest. “You can pick her up and carry her,” Crystal says, so I lean down and pick her up, cradling her in my arms, and follow her down the hall.

“I’ll wait here,” my mother says to us, turning to go back to the front of the office. Crystal opens the door to the X-ray room as I place Mila on the table, and her eyes flicker open.

“Poppa,” she whispers as she looks around. “Where is Hailey?”

“Hailey,” Crystal says as she brings over a blue heavy vest, “is getting stitches.” She places the vest on top of Mila. “This is heavy,” she says as she lifts her arm and sets her broken wrist on the side of her. “But it’s to make sure we only take pictures of your arm.” She smiles at her.

“Why does Hailey need stitches?” Mila asks first thing.

“Well,” Crystal says as she places a gray square under her arm, bringing the X-ray machine down over her wrist, “she cut her feet on a bottle, and it was very deep. But don’t worry, she is all better. Now see that glass over there.” She points at the plexiglass in the corner of the room. “I’m going to go in there with your dad while we take pictures.” She brushes Mila’s hair away from her face. “You are very, very brave.” She smiles at Mila then glares at me. “Go stand over there.” Her bedside manner vanishes.

I go to the corner and stand there while Crystal comes and presses a couple of buttons, then goes back and moves the machine to a different position. After taking about five different shots, she looks at them and walks back to Mila, taking the blue cover off her. “All done, Princess Mila.” I walk out and go over to her. I pick her up and carry her back to the room, where my mother sits with her legs crossed as she rocks her foot.

“Oh, there is my girl,” she says as she gets up, rushing to us and kissing Mila’s forehead.

“I fell, and Hailey got stiches on her feet,” she informs my mother, who just nods. I place Mila down on the table as my mother grabs her phone and puts on YouTube for her.

“I sent Jessica home. She drove Hailey home as well.”

“Not now, Mom, please. Just.” I beg her to drop it, so she nods. “Let’s talk later.”

“Okay, folks,” Gabe says as he walks into the room. “Hey, Auntie.” He goes to the computer, opening it and typing something as the X-rays come on the screen. “Clean break. Good news is it isn’t her growth plate, and it should heal in no time.” He turns to look at Mila. “Now, what color cast do you want? We have blue, yellow, green, pink, or camo.”

“Pink,” Mila yells. “Uncle Gabe, I’m getting ice cream with Hailey,” she says. Gabe just nods his head.

“Aren’t you the lucky one, but I think Hailey left so she could go home and rest. She got ten stiches on her foot, so I sent her home to sleep.”

Mila looks from Gabe to me. “We need to bring Hailey ice cream.”

“We’ll see, baby girl. How about we just get you fixed first?”

“Okay,” she says, happy with that while Gabe laughs and prepares to start wrapping her cast.

“It’s a waterproof cast, but try to keep it as dry as possible, and I will see her in four weeks,” Gabe says as he kisses Mila and walks out of the room.