Here I am. Send me.--Chapter Nineteen

The morning after Chris's attack, Chris and Evelyn bump into their emotions.

CHAPTER NINETEEN

Chris woke up screaming. His effort to sit up and was greeted with a wall of pain.

"It's okay! It's okay." It was a female voice, running into his bedroom.

His eyes focused. "Evelyn! What are you doing here?"

She had worked with trauma patients before and tried to get him grounded. "What do you remember from last night?"

"I remember... smelling your hair."

Really? That was what he started with? "Yeah, that happened. What else?"

She waited and watched his face as his memories became clear. He nodded. "I was attacked, and you brought me home from the hospital. I was carrying a little paper bag when I left the hospital."

"Your pain pills. They're on the kitchen counter."

"I'm supposed to be able to take them every six hours. Please tell me that six hours has passed."

"No. Only five. It's eight o'clock."

"I can make it another hour." He didn't sound convinced.

"How are you feeling?"

"All things considered, I'm doing okay." Still unconvincing.

"Is it okay if I leave you alone? John's funeral is at ten, and I need to get ready."

"I promised to go with you."

"You've got a pretty good excuse."

He laughed, which evoked a wince. "I guess I do. Yeah, you go ahead. I'm fine." He reached out his right hand, and she helped him up into a sitting position.

Then, the silence happened. Neither could think of anything to say. It wasn't for lack of trying. Both were racking their brains for something cute or pithy, but nothing came. When Evelyn was just about to go with the old favorite 'goodbye', Chris blurted out.

"I'm remembering last night pretty well now. I said some things to you." He saw that she was about to interrupt and rushed forward. "I meant them." And with that, Chris broke every 'guy' rule of interacting with the opposite sex.

Evelyn's mind went into a tailspin. She knew which words he meant. Or did she? There had been lots of words, words on top of words. He could be talking about any of them. But his first memory of the night had been smelling her hair. This was a good thing. Or was it?

"Okay. I'll see you later. Bye." And she bolted from his house. Whereupon they both had a lot to think about.

The first thing Evelyn needed to do was get out of this neighborhood. In her emotional panic, she didn't take time to open the map app on her phone and just backed out into the street and started driving around. Streets were going every which way. They all looked alike, and the houses all looked alike. Oddly, she found herself in front of a huge government building. Then she came to a roundabout which seemed to be in the middle of nowhere. Most of the cars seemed to be exiting from the other side, so she followed. Two minutes later, she was at a large backed-up intersection with a Kentucky Fried Chicken. Civilization! Even better, a sign told her that I-24 was directly ahead.

***

"Well, that was embarrassing," Chris said aloud into his bedroom. He girded his loins for the effort to stand up, and it lived up to his foreboding. The combination of pain and vertigo made his stomach turn over, and he feared that it would empty right onto the floor... or a pile of dirty clothes. He stepped forward and reached out to steady himself against the wall. Both the nausea and the vertigo diminished. The pain was still along for the ride.

He leaned his back against the wall while steadying his breathing. The bedroom was a disaster. He remembered his mother lecturing to him that his sloppiness would eventually bring him shame. Today was the day. He made a note to call Mom and let her have the 'I told you so.'

With his stomach still wumbly, he decided that he needed to pour coffee into it. Not a good decision, but not the worst one he had made that morning.

***

The traffic on I-24 was less terrible than usual, and Evelyn made her way up toward the Briley Parkway exit. She, too, was having a verbal conversation with herself.

"Could I have said anything stupider?! Okay, I'll see you later. What was I thinking?" Chris said something nice, something she hoped he would say. She had hoped he would say it, but did she want him to say it? This was why she was still single. It was some messed-up thought process.

She would call him up and set up a time to talk, maybe over coffee or something. What would she say? She had no clue. She arrived at her apartment and got to at least think about what she would say to Beth.

Shockingly, Beth was not sitting on the couch. Instead, she was standing at the sink, hunched over a bowl.

"Walk of shame?" She said through a mouthful of Cheerios.

Evelyn spoke as nonchalantly as she could. "A co-worker was attacked, and I spent the night getting him home from the hospital."

"Was it one of the guys who came by last night?"

"No." But then she stopped and thought about it. Was it the guys that Beth had seen the previous night? Were they the ones who had attacked Chris? Could the two things be related? She was thoughtful now. "No. You haven't met him."

"Was he hurt bad?"

"Pretty bad, but he's home."

"Wow. First, the cop and now your co-worker. It sounds like your job is getting really dangerous."

The cop...? Evelyn leaned against the couch. It was too far-fetched. But...

The shooters who had killed John had called out Leyla's name.

Chris had been attacked after spending the day calling Leyla's acquaintances.

Two strange men had shown up at her door after she had been doing the same as Chris.

No. They just seem related because she was at the center of it. But something felt logical. How could so much violence have suddenly filled her life if it wasn't related? She looked at her phone. "I need to get dressed for the funeral." She stepped into her bedroom and didn't slam the door.