TWENTY THREE

Like in a movie, Ashley had suddenly flashed back twelve years. The corridors of the hospital felt like they were closing in just like they did when she ran to her father’s ward, her school bag still strapped on her back.

Her head kept banging, the detailed words of the medic who had eventually called her kept repeating in her head adding to her destabilization.

Just like her flashback, Ashley found herself slowly slipping to kiss the tiled floor. She resisted the pull. Twelve years ago when she fell in that manner, she had gotten stalled by a few minutes. And those few minutes did not allow her see her father one last time.

Chanting within her that Dave was going to be fine, Ashley found herself getting scared because of how much of a mess she was at that moment with the way she kept staggering and gripping whatever she could, giving awaiting patients and the busy doctors a view to watch for some seconds.
She knew then, that she had truly found something she was not willing to lose anytime soon.

“Miss. Steve?” A uniformed man stopped her, his face wearing a small encouraging smile that suited him the way his shoulder length, bronze-like hair went well with his face cut. “I am Jeff.”

At first she wanted to push him away and check, at any risk, if Dave was fine. But when she saw the doctor’s face, she took a step back. Relaxing a bit as she knew he was going to give her some worthwhile information, Ashley asked without a chill, “Is Dave okay? What happened to him? Is he going to be fine?”

“Calm down Miss. Steve.” Ashley shook her head as she found her whole system not agreeing to his advice, “I need you to calm down,” he repeated, this time slowly, his hands reaching out to slightly squeeze her arm.

“Can you just tell me something already?”

“Mr. Scott is fine. Okay? Right now he is resting but he is fine.” She could then relax a bit. Getting stalled didn’t sound like a problem anymore. Jeff continued when he noticed that she was more at ease. “He suffered a bit of internal bleeding, but we have been able to stop that and it doesn’t seem like it will get out of hand as it was not so severe.”

“Oh, thank God.” She could breathe a bit easier.

“But, he dislocated his right arm due to the impact of the collision he was in. So, for some while, he won’t be able to use that arm. Apart from that, Mr. Scott doesn’t have any other issue, he will be fine.”

“Can I see him now?”

“Well, not now, he is still resting. I will send a nurse to get you when he is awake.” As his smile came up again, Ashley finally had the strength to return it.

“Thank you so much, Doctor.”

“Just call me Jeff. I will see you around then?” Ashley nodded, her lower lip tucking in to contain the excitement bubbling within her. “Oh,” Jeff who was already walking away, turned to face her. “I forgot to mention, there is a lady already here, hmm, her name is Emily Banks. Mr. Scott was apparently speaking to her on the phone before the accident happened. Do you know her?”

“Uhm… yeah. Sort of.” Ashley recalled the last time they had made contact.

“Oh great. I had instructed the nurses to not let her see him because we had no idea if her claims of being his secretary is true.”

“She is his secretary. Is she still around?”

“Yeah. She is seated just opposite Mr. Scott’s ward.”

“Thank you.” Ashley wondered how Emily would react to seeing her there. Not that it would worry her, Ashley just needed some amusement at that moment, she needed a distraction source pending the time Dave would wake up.

Sparing the doctor one last lip tug, she made for the left path that led to Dave’s ward.

“Hey there,” Ashley greeted the bent seated figure who kept jamming her legs against the white tile like she was awaiting an STD report.

The sneer that took over Emily’s pretty face assured Ashley of some quality entertainment. Yet in a silent corner within her, Ashley wished Emily wouldn’t see her as an enemy but have a reasonable conversation with her. Ashley scoffed at that corner, the thought was far-fetched.

“What are you doing here? Who called you here?”

Taking a seat on the cushioned bench, Ashley replied, “Well, my number happens to be his emergency contact, so yeah… I got to know about his accident.”

“Oh.”

“The doctor told me you were on a phone call with him.”

Emily’s side eyes travelled down Ashley’s upper body, her lips scrunched as her eyes squinted as though contemplating whether to give a response. She finally did. “Yeah. It all happened so fast. One second we were going over the meeting finalizations, the next, I heard crashing.”

In a normal situation, Ashley would have reached for her hand to squeeze it assuredly. But the situation was far from normal. Ashley was seated beside a woman who obviously felt something for the man she is with. There was nothing normal at all. “I know you don’t like me.”

“I guess you don’t like me either.” The way Emily quickly responded, you could tell she had been waiting for a moment to properly spit words into Ashley’s face.

But Ashley was not going to let her. Not when Dave was her main concern at that moment. “Actually, I don’t either like or dislike you.” That caught Emily attention. “The truth is, I don’t like to stress myself emotionally over someone I hardly know. I don’t know you Emily. All I know about you is that you are Dave’s secretary and friend and honestly, that’s actually all I want to know.”

“You also know that I like Dave, but you are not backing down.”

“Backing down for what? If this has been a fight, I am sorry, I did not get the memo.”

Emily rolled her eyeballs, her arms folding afterwards. “Oh please. Stop acting like you are some innocent person. You saw the looks I gave you. The warnings they held was more than enough, yet you ignored them and came back the second time.”

“Emily…” Ashley was not appreciating her bitterness.

“You need to get something right and straight. Dave is going to dump you eventually because it has always been him and I since college. So, Miss. Steve, enjoy wasting your time.”

“Are you done?” Ashley asked, her eyes set on the white painted walls. When she did not get a response, she resumed her talk. “Even though I don’t want to feel anything for you, I can’t help but feel pity. I feel pity for you because you are wasting your time on a man who doesn’t look at you the way you want him to.”

Emily huffed. “Like you know anything.”

“True, I might not know anything. But I know that you are living a fool’s life. Remember last time that you touched him on his *you know where*, the look on his face was enough to tell that he sees you as only a friend.”

“You don’t know anything.” This time Emily’s voice had gotten weak.

“Listen to me. I am not saying this because I am a woman in Dave’s life, but because this is about a fellow woman. I wouldn’t like it either when my love is not reciprocated. But once I see it never will be returned, I don’t see the need to be hung on that person. Look at you Emily, you are a pretty woman.” Ashley finally looked her way.

“You are really, really gorgeous. Just with those eyes of yours you can get any man you want. And trust me when I say you will get a man who will make you really happy, happier than you think Dave would ever make you.”

“You are just saying this because you don’t want to lose Dave to me. You are threatened, aren’t you?”

Ashley sighed unbelievably. “I have nothing more to say Emily, just try to figure out your life, okay?”

“Excuse me,” a red haired nurse interrupted Emily response. “, Mr. Scott is awake now, you can go in. But please do not stress the patient.”

“Of course. Thank you.” Ashley was actually more than glad as Emily’s talks were beginning to annoy her. “So… may we go in?”

Emily got up. “No. I will come back later. When you are not there.”

Ashley shrugged. “It’s your decision.”

“Talking about decisions…” For some reason, Emily set her nose high before continuing her talk. “I know you are blinded by the fun you are having now with Dave, but trust me when I say, I am going to puncture that fun very soon. And I will get my man back even if it means kicking you out of the way.” After a few seconds glare, Emily stormed off, her handbag trailing after her.

Ashley kicked Emily’s threat elsewhere and got up, preparing herself to see the man who had been occupying her thoughts all the while. To see the man whose brief brush with catastrophe made it seem like he had left for ages.