The Spark

“Jesus.” My hand covered my heart as I turned around. Donovan leaned casually against the visiting room doorway. “You scared the crap out of me. I didn’t hear you come in.”

He flashed that sexy grin of his. “It’s almost eleven thirty. Why are you still here?”

I sighed. “Honestly, I lost track of time until I just came out here to grab a cup of coffee. Bud is so entertaining. He really knows how to tell a story.”

Donovan shook his head. “I’m guessing some of those stories made me out to be a little shit.”

I smiled. “Did you really get arrested for having sex in a police car?”

Donovan dropped his head. “I wasn’t having sex. We were thirteen and making out. That’s what we did back in the day for privacy. We’d find a car left open and fool around in the backseat for a little while. It was sort of harmless, usually. In my defense, the cop car was unmarked and parked in an empty parking lot. And the cop who caught us turned out to be the uncle of the boy the girl I was making out with was going out with.” He held up his hands. “I also didn’t know she had a boyfriend.”

I laughed. “The story was much more animated when Bud told it.”

“I’m sure it was.”

“They just took Bud for a scan. He had a little blood in his urine tonight. The nurse said that happens after a trauma, but they want to make sure there isn’t a tear they missed the first time.”

“Yeah. I checked in with the nurses’ station a few minutes ago. They said it will be an hour or so before he’s back in his room. I’m going to stick around. You want me to walk you to your car?”

“If you don’t mind, I’d like to wait and make sure everything with his scan turns out okay.”

Donovan smiled and tilted his head toward the hallway. “You want to go grab a real cup of coffee, then?”

“Sure. But I’ll be the judge of whether it’s the best coffee in the state or not. I’m a coffee snob, even though I really can’t afford to be.”

We walked across the street to a small store that I probably would have passed right by on the way to a Starbucks and not given it a second thought. But Donovan was right; the coffee was incredible.

“I can’t believe this big cup was only a dollar fifty. This would be six bucks at Starbucks and not half as delicious.”

Donovan sipped his own cup. “Told you it was good. It’s a different world here than in Manhattan. Most people in Soho or Chelsea wouldn’t step one foot into that place to give a mom-and-pop shop a shot because they don’t have fancy signage and leather couches.”

I bit my bottom lip. “I know, because I am one of those people. Or at least I was. This stuff might’ve changed my mind though.”

“Good. You miss out on a lot in life if you only judge a book by its cover.”

My eyes caught with Donovan’s as he opened the front door of the hospital for me. “That’s a good reminder.”

Inside the elevator, I pressed number seven to go back up to Bud’s floor.

“He’s going to be a little while still. It’s nice out. You up for getting some fresh air?”

“Yeah, sure.”

Donovan lifted his chin to the elevator panel. “Hit ten, then.”

My forehead wrinkled. “Ten for fresh air?”

He winked. “It’s my secret spot.”

On the tenth floor, I followed Donovan down a bunch of mostly empty corridors until we came to a set of double doors with a red sign that read Employees Only.

Donovan looked around before he pushed them open. “After you.”

“Umm…are we going to get in trouble for going in here?”

He smirked. “Not if we don’t get caught.”

I shook my head. “Is that what you said to the girl who climbed into the back of the unmarked cop car?”

Donovan grinned. “Come on, live a little. I promise you free legal counsel if you get arrested.”

“Uhhh… Can you do that from the cell next to me?”

We laughed, but I walked through the door. After another series of turns, we came to a steel door that led to a set of concrete steps. At the top, Donovan opened yet another door. Turned out that led to the roof.

“How the heck do you know about this?”

Donovan walked over to a bench and dusted it off for us before I sat. “I can pretty much tell you the layout to every hospital in the five boroughs.”

“Why?”

He sipped his coffee as he sat down next to me. “My mom spent a lot of time in them when I was a kid. Sometimes a John would rough her up instead of paying; other times she’d overdose. I didn’t like to leave her alone, but they don’t let an unattended kid stay, so I’d find a place to hang out in the building overnight. Often it was the roof.”