Cry to Me
Thirty Four
“I can’t do this.”
His voice came out as little more than a whisper as his head faced the carpeted hallway. He looked so sullen, so crestfallen, so emotionally desolate that when his eyes finally looked up at Dulci, it knocked the wind out of her lungs.
“Between Henry, Carly, the secrets, the withholding… the lies…”
Dulci closed her eyes as if to avoid the sting, understanding full well what he was insinuating, and when she opened them, peering hesitantly into the hazel windows of his mind and soul, she knew they wouldn’t recover.
“You’re not the person I thought you were.”
The words struck her deep, and she audibly gasped, involuntarily holding her stomach as if she’d been assaulted. Closing her eyes, she lets a few rogue tears escape. She’d been bursting at her emotional seams for days without letting herself cry. In her hopeful mind, they’d get past this unfortunate hiccup, however big or small it was, but it was becoming apparent that it was too big of a hiccup for Sidney. She didn’t know why Henry showed up at her party. She didn’t care about Henry, but she was finding it very difficult and exhausting to continue to stroke Sidney’s insecurities about her past. She didn’t want to tell him about her pregnancy from the past and how it was handled. She’d completely forgotten about Carly telling Sidney that the positive tests belong to Dulci. She’d just finished telling him everything, even the things she thought she’d keep locked away in the corner of her mind, never to be spoken or thought of again, but coming clean didn’t have the effect she’d naively wished for. She was too busy asking herself an endless amount of questions to hear Sidney turn and walk toward the door. It wasn’t until she heard her front door creak open that she opened her eyes to see him open the storm door, pausing only for a moment, gripping the door jam tightly as if a small part of him was reluctant to leave, as if he wasn’t sure himself if leaving was what he really wanted.
In a moment of clarity, Dulci moved quickly toward the door, hoping to reach him before he left, praying that she’d be able to say or do something, anything, to change his mind, but before she could reach out to grip his hand, he firmly gripped the doorknob, closing it firmly behind him, closing the door to his recent past with her. She placed her hand on the knob, ready to follow in hopeless desperation, but her feet suddenly felt like lead, effectively holding her in place. Through her quiet sobs, she listened as he started his truck, idling for what felt like hours, before his headlights flashed into her front door window, illuminating the walls and hallway around her, and slowly went dim.
“Dulci… are you ok?”
Startled and embarrassed, she looked around to find her three friends staring at her with a mixture of curious, concerned looks on their faces. She was no longer in her Pittsburgh house, but in a rather fancy bar in downtown Annapolis, having drinks with Olivia, Morgan, and Eleanor after a long couple of days of surgeries.
“Yeah, I’m fine. Just a little tired, I guess…” she shrugged with a fake but hopefully convincing smile. It had been exactly a year since Sidney walked out of her door and out of her life. While Dulci had kept herself busy the entire day, she couldn’t keep that particular memory from creeping into her mind. Rubbing her finger around the rim of her glass, she told herself she wasn’t allowed to think about Sidney anymore during her outing with the girls. The same couldn’t be said for her forty-minute drive to her parent’s beach house on the Chesapeake.
“I’m so glad I have tomorrow and next week off,” Morgan quietly cheered as she drank the last of her cocktail, simultaneously waving the waiter back over for another round. “How about another, ladies?”
“Not for me,” Dulci sighed as she looked at her watch, “I have a long drive home. And, unlike you, Morgan, the three of us have to work tomorrow.”
“You really need to consider renting a place closer to the hospital. Its criminal that you drive forty-minutes to work, especially during this shitty internship,” Olivia shook her head with a disgusted look.
“Well my dad was nice enough to let me stay at the Chesapeake house without paying rent. I’m still trying to save up to pay off my medical bills from last year,” she explained as she involuntarily rubbed her right arm, running her fingers over the raised humerous fracture scar. She just sent Sidney the first of many checks to reimburse him for the CVC conference.
“Oh, come on!” Eleanor squeezed Dulci into a tight hug, making her smile a real smile. “You can always crash at my place. I live fifteen minutes from the hospital. Dave’s not home tonight anyway.”
Eleanor and Dave were the epitome of the perfect couple. They’d recently been married after a year of dating. They were the perfect mixture of sickeningly sweet, practical, loving, and hilarious with one another. They were the couple that other couples strove to be. They were the couple that Dulci thought she and Sidney were. Eleanor and Dave had met around the same time as Dulci and Sidney, only they didn’t make it, and the thought was depressing. Before she could process what was happening, a new cocktail was placed in front of her.
“Compliments of the gentleman sitting on the far end of the bar.” Confused, Dulci looked at the waiter. He wasn’t giving any of the other occupants of the table any drinks. Simultaneously, all three girls looked toward the far end of the bar to get a glimpse of the man sending Dulci a drink.
"Oh wow... "
"Guys! Stop looking!" Dulci's demanded quietly, her voice dripping with mortification.
"He's really handsome... You should definitely go thank him for the drink."
"He looks familiar... I think I've seen him before," Morgan mused with furrowed brows. "He's got dark hair, pretty fit, or at least his shirt looks pretty tight on his body; strong, prominent jaw line and cheek structure... Is he an athlete or something?"
Dulci's heart skipped a beat. While she knew it wasn't Sidney, but in her heart of hearts, she let herself believe he'd be there, sending her a drink, trying to make amends. But did he know where she was? What was the likelihood he'd been in a bar in Annapolis during the season?
"Dulci! He looking and smiling!" Eleanor nudged her with her shoulder.
With a deep breath, Dulci reluctantly looked over her shoulder to lock eyes with a very attractive man. He had short, dark hair, nicely chiseled face and features, and looked like he took care of himself physically. Morgan was right; he did look familiar, but it wasn't the familiar she wanted, and she instantly felt a pang of disappointment. Pulling herself together, Dulci put on a smile and waved at the gentleman before taking a sip of her cocktail.
"Go over and thank him for the drink. This could be the first night of the rest of your life."
"Oh please..." Dulci sighed as she looked at Olivia.
"You need to get back into the dating market! It's been too long and a little harmless flirting never hurt anyone."
What they didn't understand was that Dulci wasn't interested in dating anyone. She wasn't even interested in having sex, casual or otherwise. She was content with her arrangement with Henry, but let her guard down to be with Sidney, only to be dumped because of her own baggage.
"We've got to go to the bathroom. Dulci, stay here and watch our table."
"Sure," she nodded and smiled at her friends, not noticing their smiles or hushed whispered as they walked away.
"Hi."
The baritone voice startled Dulci, making her physically jump in her seat.
"I didn't mean to scare you," the man smiled embarrassingly. He was tall; roughly six feet, nicely dressed in a bluish- gray linen shirt, impeccably ironed black slacks, and smelled of a mild, simple cologne.
"You didn't," Dulci shook her head.
Clearing this throat, he extended his hand, "I'm Philip."
"Dulci." As she reciprocated the greeting, she couldn't help but notice how nice his hands felt. They were smooth and warm, not rough, calloused, and weathered like she was used to. "Please, have a seat."
"I hope I'm not intruding on a girls night," he admitted as he pulled Olivia's chair out.
"Not at all. I was actually getting ready to leave. I have a long day a head of me tomorrow." Dulci instantly regretted what she said.
"Oh, I apologize..." Philip scratched his head awkwardly. Dulci watched as his face fell with rejection, all while trying to recover with a sad smile. There was something in his reaction that was sweet, a boyish charm, and it made her feel warm inside, a feeling she hadn't experienced in quite sometime.
"But then someone kindly bought me a drink," she smiled as she took a sip of her cocktail.
“Honey, she needs surgery. The doctor told me they’re not sure how long the tumor will remain intact without rupturing. They said it was a ticking time bomb and if we weren’t interested in a referral for surgery, to put her down.”
Sidney sat in Marc’s driveway, staring off into distance as he listening, trying to digest his mother’s shaky voice as she explained Sam’s declining condition.
“What do you want to do, dear? Should I make the surgery appointment?”
“How did this happen?” Sidney asked absent-mindedly, unable to fathom how his relatively young and healthy dog has a giant mass in her abdomen that could rupture at any point. Looking into his lap, he started to beat himself up mentally, knowing that his career had yet again come between him and a loved one. He wanted so badly for Sam to live in Pittsburgh with him, but it would never work given his schedule. In the past, he’d considered making arrangements with a pet hotel for his long road trips, but that wouldn’t be fair to Sam no matter how laid back and friendly she was.
“Dr. Lamirande said it was probably genetic, and given the nature of where the tumor is, you usually don’t get very many warnings or symptoms.”
“Let me make some calls and I’ll call you back,” Sidney huffed as he put his car in park, shutting off the ignition.
“Just call her, Sidney. You know she’ll give you sound advice. Whatever happened between you two, she has your best interest in mind,” Trina reminded Sidney in a soft, motherly tone.
“Maybe,” he said stubbornly. “Bye, mom.”
He knew his mother was right; calling Dulci would be a wise action, but he didn’t have her number anymore. After he left her house a year ago, he packed all of her things and put them in his basement, meaning to ship them to her. He deleted her number from his phone, deleted all of her emails, effectively erasing her from his life. The only problem was that by the time he got around to mailing her belongings back to her, it was returned to him without a forwarding address. Driving past her house, he was met with a realtor sign hanging in the front yard. She’d disappeared. He even went as far as driving to her hospital to see if she still worked there. He was met with a cold shoulder from a Flyers fan and a, “She moved and we’re not at liberty to give out any information regarding her whereabouts. Oh, and by the way, I have a copy of your records from Dr. Hammett.”
“Are you coming inside or what?”
Marc’s voice jolted Sidney back to reality and temporarily made him smile as he looked at his friend holding up a beer in each fist.
“I was talking to my mom. Sam’s sick.”
“What’s going on?” Marc asked as he opened a beer, handing it to Sid as they walked into his house.
“Something about a tumor in her abdomen. It’s so big that she stopped eating.”
“Oh shit, man. What are your options?”
“Surgery or euthanasia,” Sidney sighed as he let himself fall backward onto the plush couch. “The problem is that the vet my parents take her to isn’t comfortable removing it because of it’s size and potential for excessive bleeding. She’ll more than likely need at least one transfusion.”
“So she needs a surgeon?” Vero asked as she came around the corner with a basket of clean, unfolded laundry.
“I guess,” Sidney shrugged, taking a large gulp of beer.
Vero cocked her head to the side, slowly raising her left eyebrow with a don’t-be-an-idiot look plastered on her face.
“What?” Sidney asked incredulously.
Shaking her head, Vero went back to folding Estelle’s laundry, occasionally giving Sidney pointed looks.
“I don’t have her number anymore,” Sidney admitted quietly, as if defeated.
“I do,” Vero offered.
Furrowing his brows, Sidney couldn’t understand why Vero would still have Dulci’s number. “Why?”
“Because she’s my friend and I keep in contact with her.”
“They talk all the time,” Marc commented, nodding his head.
“I’ll leave you boys to it,” Vero dismissed herself after kissing Marc and waving to Sidney.
“Want to play Call of Duty?” Marc tossed a controller at Sid.
“Sure.” Taking the controller, he paused for a moment, lost in thought. “Do you think it’s a good idea to call her?” Sidney asked Marc without looking at him.
“Yes, if for nothing else other then to get Sam fixed.”
He looked at his good friend, knowing Marc would be honest with him. He was there for Sidney after the debacle with Dulci, Henry, and Carly. He helped pick Sidney back up. Marc wouldn’t send him into the lion’s den. Simultaneously, he felt his phone vibrate in his pocket. Pulling it out, he was faced with a text message from Vero.
“Don’t be an idiot,” followed by ten digits. He didn’t need an explanation. He recognized the numbers, and the message, replicated by Vero’s expression earlier, made him chuckle.
Dulci felt her phone vibrating in her maroon pea coat pocket as she stood facing Philip in the bar parking lot. She figured it was Philip’s number finally coming through as she didn’t have great cellphone reception inside. Looking at her watch, it was half passed one in the morning. The girl had left hours ago, leaving her behind to enjoy her evening with Philip. She’d learned that he worked for the military, which would explain his clean-cut hair and face. He’d just been given ordered to move to the area, coming to the east coast from Washington, a Montana native by birth, and asked Dulci in a playful, flirty way to be his tour guide in the near distant future. He was funny, making her almost spit her drink out on a couple of occasions, and seemed like a genuinely nice guy. In her mind, he seemed like he was the definition of a catch. Groaning internally, she knew she’d need a caffeine drip in the morning, but she didn’t want the night to end. Philip turned out the be the most fun and stimulating company she’d had since Sidney, and the thought was like a splash of cold water to her face.
“I had a great time,” Philip smiled as he faced Dulci next to her car.
“Likewise,” Dulci returned the expression, banishing her past to her past, enjoying the present, shivering in the cold November air. “I’m glad you bought me that drink.”
“Well, you better get going. You have a long day of surgery tomorrow,” Philip reminded her as he hesitantly rubbed her arms in an attempt to warm her some.
“Ugh. Don’t remind me,” Dulci mock-whined as she threw her head back in dramatic exhaustion, earning a smile from Philip.
“You need rest before this hemi… hemipel… hemi…”
“Hemipelvectomy,” she giggled.
“I wouldn’t want a tired surgeon amputating part of my pelvis,” Philip joked.
“Well then maybe you shouldn’t have kept the drinks coming,” Dulci countered, pointing her finger accusingly at him.
“Touché,” Philip nodded. “I’d like to do this again.”
“I’d like that,” Dulci nodded with a big smile on her face.
Waving good night, Dulci replayed the night in her head as she drove home, surprised that she let herself open up so easily to Philip. Before he introduced himself, she was hell-bent on being alone, unable to imagine the idea of another potential romantic involvement in her life. He made it incredibly easy to maintain a conversation. There wasn’t a dull moment between the two of them during their time together. It was refreshing, and while she would only get minimal sleep, Dulci knew the memories of the night with the girls and Philip would keep her upbeat and energized for the long day ahead.
“Dulci? Where are you?”
Dulci flew up out of her bed, grabbing her glasses off of her nightstand, looking at her alarm clock, which she forgot to set when she got home.
“Oh fuck! I’m on my way!” Dulci said as she hung up with Olivia. She quickly grabbed a clean pair of underwear and sports bra before grabbing her coat and running out of the door. She fell asleep in her clothes from the night before, and she knew she’d get accusatory looks from Olivia and Eleanor when she got into work. Luckily, the technicians were good about cleaning the surgical intern scrubs on a nightly basis because of the need for sterility.
“The walk of shame looks good on you,” Eleanor whispered as Dulci threw on some emergency make up in the doctor’s bathroom.
“I didn’t do anything. I overslept at home, alone,” Dulci explained as she carefully put on mascara.
“Uh huh… That’s what we all say,” Eleanor winked, handing Dulci a large cup of coffee.
“Thank you. And I really didn’t sleep with him. I went home alone.” She was in the process of throwing her hair into a ponytail when Dr. Anderson, the surgical intern coordinator made his presence.
“Why the hell not?” Eleanor asked.
“Because I want to see things through and I’m not going to screw him before getting to know him,” Dulci answered as she took her coffee from Eleanor, smiling at her. She’d had the casual, unconventional relationship with Henry, and that part of her life was behind her, and as much as she didn’t want to admit it to herself, the person she wanted to spend the rest of her life with didn’t reciprocate her feelings, and it was time to move on.
“Good morning ladies and gentleman. Please have a seat at your desks and I’ll go over the schedule for today…”
As Dr. Anderson was going over his morning announcements and scheduling, Dulci’s cellphone vibrated with a notification, and as she pulled it out of her pocket, she almost dropped it out of shock. In disbelief, she pushed the home button again, to see the same notification. It was real, not a figment of her imagination. “Missed call and voicemail. Sidney Crosby”
“Hammett, are you ready to go over your procedure today?” Dr. Anderson brought her out of her distraction.
“Yes, sir.” Dulci said feigning enthusiasm as she tossed her phone onto her desk chair.
Why the hell was he calling? What did he want? Why, of all the times to call and leave a voice message would it be the morning of her most intense and difficult surgery and the morning after the best night she’d had with a more than decent guy? The thought made her anxious and nauseous. Pushing the questions out of her head, she walked into Dr. Anderson’s office with her surgical notes to start the day.
His voice came out as little more than a whisper as his head faced the carpeted hallway. He looked so sullen, so crestfallen, so emotionally desolate that when his eyes finally looked up at Dulci, it knocked the wind out of her lungs.
“Between Henry, Carly, the secrets, the withholding… the lies…”
Dulci closed her eyes as if to avoid the sting, understanding full well what he was insinuating, and when she opened them, peering hesitantly into the hazel windows of his mind and soul, she knew they wouldn’t recover.
“You’re not the person I thought you were.”
The words struck her deep, and she audibly gasped, involuntarily holding her stomach as if she’d been assaulted. Closing her eyes, she lets a few rogue tears escape. She’d been bursting at her emotional seams for days without letting herself cry. In her hopeful mind, they’d get past this unfortunate hiccup, however big or small it was, but it was becoming apparent that it was too big of a hiccup for Sidney. She didn’t know why Henry showed up at her party. She didn’t care about Henry, but she was finding it very difficult and exhausting to continue to stroke Sidney’s insecurities about her past. She didn’t want to tell him about her pregnancy from the past and how it was handled. She’d completely forgotten about Carly telling Sidney that the positive tests belong to Dulci. She’d just finished telling him everything, even the things she thought she’d keep locked away in the corner of her mind, never to be spoken or thought of again, but coming clean didn’t have the effect she’d naively wished for. She was too busy asking herself an endless amount of questions to hear Sidney turn and walk toward the door. It wasn’t until she heard her front door creak open that she opened her eyes to see him open the storm door, pausing only for a moment, gripping the door jam tightly as if a small part of him was reluctant to leave, as if he wasn’t sure himself if leaving was what he really wanted.
In a moment of clarity, Dulci moved quickly toward the door, hoping to reach him before he left, praying that she’d be able to say or do something, anything, to change his mind, but before she could reach out to grip his hand, he firmly gripped the doorknob, closing it firmly behind him, closing the door to his recent past with her. She placed her hand on the knob, ready to follow in hopeless desperation, but her feet suddenly felt like lead, effectively holding her in place. Through her quiet sobs, she listened as he started his truck, idling for what felt like hours, before his headlights flashed into her front door window, illuminating the walls and hallway around her, and slowly went dim.
“Dulci… are you ok?”
Startled and embarrassed, she looked around to find her three friends staring at her with a mixture of curious, concerned looks on their faces. She was no longer in her Pittsburgh house, but in a rather fancy bar in downtown Annapolis, having drinks with Olivia, Morgan, and Eleanor after a long couple of days of surgeries.
“Yeah, I’m fine. Just a little tired, I guess…” she shrugged with a fake but hopefully convincing smile. It had been exactly a year since Sidney walked out of her door and out of her life. While Dulci had kept herself busy the entire day, she couldn’t keep that particular memory from creeping into her mind. Rubbing her finger around the rim of her glass, she told herself she wasn’t allowed to think about Sidney anymore during her outing with the girls. The same couldn’t be said for her forty-minute drive to her parent’s beach house on the Chesapeake.
“I’m so glad I have tomorrow and next week off,” Morgan quietly cheered as she drank the last of her cocktail, simultaneously waving the waiter back over for another round. “How about another, ladies?”
“Not for me,” Dulci sighed as she looked at her watch, “I have a long drive home. And, unlike you, Morgan, the three of us have to work tomorrow.”
“You really need to consider renting a place closer to the hospital. Its criminal that you drive forty-minutes to work, especially during this shitty internship,” Olivia shook her head with a disgusted look.
“Well my dad was nice enough to let me stay at the Chesapeake house without paying rent. I’m still trying to save up to pay off my medical bills from last year,” she explained as she involuntarily rubbed her right arm, running her fingers over the raised humerous fracture scar. She just sent Sidney the first of many checks to reimburse him for the CVC conference.
“Oh, come on!” Eleanor squeezed Dulci into a tight hug, making her smile a real smile. “You can always crash at my place. I live fifteen minutes from the hospital. Dave’s not home tonight anyway.”
Eleanor and Dave were the epitome of the perfect couple. They’d recently been married after a year of dating. They were the perfect mixture of sickeningly sweet, practical, loving, and hilarious with one another. They were the couple that other couples strove to be. They were the couple that Dulci thought she and Sidney were. Eleanor and Dave had met around the same time as Dulci and Sidney, only they didn’t make it, and the thought was depressing. Before she could process what was happening, a new cocktail was placed in front of her.
“Compliments of the gentleman sitting on the far end of the bar.” Confused, Dulci looked at the waiter. He wasn’t giving any of the other occupants of the table any drinks. Simultaneously, all three girls looked toward the far end of the bar to get a glimpse of the man sending Dulci a drink.
"Oh wow... "
"Guys! Stop looking!" Dulci's demanded quietly, her voice dripping with mortification.
"He's really handsome... You should definitely go thank him for the drink."
"He looks familiar... I think I've seen him before," Morgan mused with furrowed brows. "He's got dark hair, pretty fit, or at least his shirt looks pretty tight on his body; strong, prominent jaw line and cheek structure... Is he an athlete or something?"
Dulci's heart skipped a beat. While she knew it wasn't Sidney, but in her heart of hearts, she let herself believe he'd be there, sending her a drink, trying to make amends. But did he know where she was? What was the likelihood he'd been in a bar in Annapolis during the season?
"Dulci! He looking and smiling!" Eleanor nudged her with her shoulder.
With a deep breath, Dulci reluctantly looked over her shoulder to lock eyes with a very attractive man. He had short, dark hair, nicely chiseled face and features, and looked like he took care of himself physically. Morgan was right; he did look familiar, but it wasn't the familiar she wanted, and she instantly felt a pang of disappointment. Pulling herself together, Dulci put on a smile and waved at the gentleman before taking a sip of her cocktail.
"Go over and thank him for the drink. This could be the first night of the rest of your life."
"Oh please..." Dulci sighed as she looked at Olivia.
"You need to get back into the dating market! It's been too long and a little harmless flirting never hurt anyone."
What they didn't understand was that Dulci wasn't interested in dating anyone. She wasn't even interested in having sex, casual or otherwise. She was content with her arrangement with Henry, but let her guard down to be with Sidney, only to be dumped because of her own baggage.
"We've got to go to the bathroom. Dulci, stay here and watch our table."
"Sure," she nodded and smiled at her friends, not noticing their smiles or hushed whispered as they walked away.
"Hi."
The baritone voice startled Dulci, making her physically jump in her seat.
"I didn't mean to scare you," the man smiled embarrassingly. He was tall; roughly six feet, nicely dressed in a bluish- gray linen shirt, impeccably ironed black slacks, and smelled of a mild, simple cologne.
"You didn't," Dulci shook her head.
Clearing this throat, he extended his hand, "I'm Philip."
"Dulci." As she reciprocated the greeting, she couldn't help but notice how nice his hands felt. They were smooth and warm, not rough, calloused, and weathered like she was used to. "Please, have a seat."
"I hope I'm not intruding on a girls night," he admitted as he pulled Olivia's chair out.
"Not at all. I was actually getting ready to leave. I have a long day a head of me tomorrow." Dulci instantly regretted what she said.
"Oh, I apologize..." Philip scratched his head awkwardly. Dulci watched as his face fell with rejection, all while trying to recover with a sad smile. There was something in his reaction that was sweet, a boyish charm, and it made her feel warm inside, a feeling she hadn't experienced in quite sometime.
"But then someone kindly bought me a drink," she smiled as she took a sip of her cocktail.
“Honey, she needs surgery. The doctor told me they’re not sure how long the tumor will remain intact without rupturing. They said it was a ticking time bomb and if we weren’t interested in a referral for surgery, to put her down.”
Sidney sat in Marc’s driveway, staring off into distance as he listening, trying to digest his mother’s shaky voice as she explained Sam’s declining condition.
“What do you want to do, dear? Should I make the surgery appointment?”
“How did this happen?” Sidney asked absent-mindedly, unable to fathom how his relatively young and healthy dog has a giant mass in her abdomen that could rupture at any point. Looking into his lap, he started to beat himself up mentally, knowing that his career had yet again come between him and a loved one. He wanted so badly for Sam to live in Pittsburgh with him, but it would never work given his schedule. In the past, he’d considered making arrangements with a pet hotel for his long road trips, but that wouldn’t be fair to Sam no matter how laid back and friendly she was.
“Dr. Lamirande said it was probably genetic, and given the nature of where the tumor is, you usually don’t get very many warnings or symptoms.”
“Let me make some calls and I’ll call you back,” Sidney huffed as he put his car in park, shutting off the ignition.
“Just call her, Sidney. You know she’ll give you sound advice. Whatever happened between you two, she has your best interest in mind,” Trina reminded Sidney in a soft, motherly tone.
“Maybe,” he said stubbornly. “Bye, mom.”
He knew his mother was right; calling Dulci would be a wise action, but he didn’t have her number anymore. After he left her house a year ago, he packed all of her things and put them in his basement, meaning to ship them to her. He deleted her number from his phone, deleted all of her emails, effectively erasing her from his life. The only problem was that by the time he got around to mailing her belongings back to her, it was returned to him without a forwarding address. Driving past her house, he was met with a realtor sign hanging in the front yard. She’d disappeared. He even went as far as driving to her hospital to see if she still worked there. He was met with a cold shoulder from a Flyers fan and a, “She moved and we’re not at liberty to give out any information regarding her whereabouts. Oh, and by the way, I have a copy of your records from Dr. Hammett.”
“Are you coming inside or what?”
Marc’s voice jolted Sidney back to reality and temporarily made him smile as he looked at his friend holding up a beer in each fist.
“I was talking to my mom. Sam’s sick.”
“What’s going on?” Marc asked as he opened a beer, handing it to Sid as they walked into his house.
“Something about a tumor in her abdomen. It’s so big that she stopped eating.”
“Oh shit, man. What are your options?”
“Surgery or euthanasia,” Sidney sighed as he let himself fall backward onto the plush couch. “The problem is that the vet my parents take her to isn’t comfortable removing it because of it’s size and potential for excessive bleeding. She’ll more than likely need at least one transfusion.”
“So she needs a surgeon?” Vero asked as she came around the corner with a basket of clean, unfolded laundry.
“I guess,” Sidney shrugged, taking a large gulp of beer.
Vero cocked her head to the side, slowly raising her left eyebrow with a don’t-be-an-idiot look plastered on her face.
“What?” Sidney asked incredulously.
Shaking her head, Vero went back to folding Estelle’s laundry, occasionally giving Sidney pointed looks.
“I don’t have her number anymore,” Sidney admitted quietly, as if defeated.
“I do,” Vero offered.
Furrowing his brows, Sidney couldn’t understand why Vero would still have Dulci’s number. “Why?”
“Because she’s my friend and I keep in contact with her.”
“They talk all the time,” Marc commented, nodding his head.
“I’ll leave you boys to it,” Vero dismissed herself after kissing Marc and waving to Sidney.
“Want to play Call of Duty?” Marc tossed a controller at Sid.
“Sure.” Taking the controller, he paused for a moment, lost in thought. “Do you think it’s a good idea to call her?” Sidney asked Marc without looking at him.
“Yes, if for nothing else other then to get Sam fixed.”
He looked at his good friend, knowing Marc would be honest with him. He was there for Sidney after the debacle with Dulci, Henry, and Carly. He helped pick Sidney back up. Marc wouldn’t send him into the lion’s den. Simultaneously, he felt his phone vibrate in his pocket. Pulling it out, he was faced with a text message from Vero.
“Don’t be an idiot,” followed by ten digits. He didn’t need an explanation. He recognized the numbers, and the message, replicated by Vero’s expression earlier, made him chuckle.
Dulci felt her phone vibrating in her maroon pea coat pocket as she stood facing Philip in the bar parking lot. She figured it was Philip’s number finally coming through as she didn’t have great cellphone reception inside. Looking at her watch, it was half passed one in the morning. The girl had left hours ago, leaving her behind to enjoy her evening with Philip. She’d learned that he worked for the military, which would explain his clean-cut hair and face. He’d just been given ordered to move to the area, coming to the east coast from Washington, a Montana native by birth, and asked Dulci in a playful, flirty way to be his tour guide in the near distant future. He was funny, making her almost spit her drink out on a couple of occasions, and seemed like a genuinely nice guy. In her mind, he seemed like he was the definition of a catch. Groaning internally, she knew she’d need a caffeine drip in the morning, but she didn’t want the night to end. Philip turned out the be the most fun and stimulating company she’d had since Sidney, and the thought was like a splash of cold water to her face.
“I had a great time,” Philip smiled as he faced Dulci next to her car.
“Likewise,” Dulci returned the expression, banishing her past to her past, enjoying the present, shivering in the cold November air. “I’m glad you bought me that drink.”
“Well, you better get going. You have a long day of surgery tomorrow,” Philip reminded her as he hesitantly rubbed her arms in an attempt to warm her some.
“Ugh. Don’t remind me,” Dulci mock-whined as she threw her head back in dramatic exhaustion, earning a smile from Philip.
“You need rest before this hemi… hemipel… hemi…”
“Hemipelvectomy,” she giggled.
“I wouldn’t want a tired surgeon amputating part of my pelvis,” Philip joked.
“Well then maybe you shouldn’t have kept the drinks coming,” Dulci countered, pointing her finger accusingly at him.
“Touché,” Philip nodded. “I’d like to do this again.”
“I’d like that,” Dulci nodded with a big smile on her face.
Waving good night, Dulci replayed the night in her head as she drove home, surprised that she let herself open up so easily to Philip. Before he introduced himself, she was hell-bent on being alone, unable to imagine the idea of another potential romantic involvement in her life. He made it incredibly easy to maintain a conversation. There wasn’t a dull moment between the two of them during their time together. It was refreshing, and while she would only get minimal sleep, Dulci knew the memories of the night with the girls and Philip would keep her upbeat and energized for the long day ahead.
“Dulci? Where are you?”
Dulci flew up out of her bed, grabbing her glasses off of her nightstand, looking at her alarm clock, which she forgot to set when she got home.
“Oh fuck! I’m on my way!” Dulci said as she hung up with Olivia. She quickly grabbed a clean pair of underwear and sports bra before grabbing her coat and running out of the door. She fell asleep in her clothes from the night before, and she knew she’d get accusatory looks from Olivia and Eleanor when she got into work. Luckily, the technicians were good about cleaning the surgical intern scrubs on a nightly basis because of the need for sterility.
“The walk of shame looks good on you,” Eleanor whispered as Dulci threw on some emergency make up in the doctor’s bathroom.
“I didn’t do anything. I overslept at home, alone,” Dulci explained as she carefully put on mascara.
“Uh huh… That’s what we all say,” Eleanor winked, handing Dulci a large cup of coffee.
“Thank you. And I really didn’t sleep with him. I went home alone.” She was in the process of throwing her hair into a ponytail when Dr. Anderson, the surgical intern coordinator made his presence.
“Why the hell not?” Eleanor asked.
“Because I want to see things through and I’m not going to screw him before getting to know him,” Dulci answered as she took her coffee from Eleanor, smiling at her. She’d had the casual, unconventional relationship with Henry, and that part of her life was behind her, and as much as she didn’t want to admit it to herself, the person she wanted to spend the rest of her life with didn’t reciprocate her feelings, and it was time to move on.
“Good morning ladies and gentleman. Please have a seat at your desks and I’ll go over the schedule for today…”
As Dr. Anderson was going over his morning announcements and scheduling, Dulci’s cellphone vibrated with a notification, and as she pulled it out of her pocket, she almost dropped it out of shock. In disbelief, she pushed the home button again, to see the same notification. It was real, not a figment of her imagination. “Missed call and voicemail. Sidney Crosby”
“Hammett, are you ready to go over your procedure today?” Dr. Anderson brought her out of her distraction.
“Yes, sir.” Dulci said feigning enthusiasm as she tossed her phone onto her desk chair.
Why the hell was he calling? What did he want? Why, of all the times to call and leave a voice message would it be the morning of her most intense and difficult surgery and the morning after the best night she’d had with a more than decent guy? The thought made her anxious and nauseous. Pushing the questions out of her head, she walked into Dr. Anderson’s office with her surgical notes to start the day.
PLEASE UPDATE
8/20/20