Flowers Sent to the Hospital

“Did he call you?” Beth asked around a spoonful of cereal. Emily glanced up from her phone.

“Jamie?” Beth ripped the spoon from her mouth, glaring.

“You know damn well who I mean.” Emily looked back down at her screen, picking up one of her arms from the counter she was leaning against to rub the back of her neck. She had tossed and turned last night with both good and bad dreams of Jamie. She had woken up three different times, once with a scream, and she was certain that one of them would have to make a move quickly or she was going to go completely insane, whether from waiting or lack of sleep wasn’t determined.

“No, he hasn’t.”

Beth’s gaze remained steady, then she broke it and looked towards the t.v. which was turned down so low neither could hear it, “Tyler said he was going to.” Emily blushed despite herself. The sound of her shuffling feet alerted Beth who looked up and rolled her eyes.

~~~~~

“Mom’s coming down in a couple of weeks, are you going to introduce her to Emily?” Jamie reached a hand up to his hair, pushed it to the side, then ran it down his face where he massaged his jaw. He sat up from leaning back against the couch and put his forearms onto his knees, the remote in his hands in between his legs.

“We’re not even dating,” he muttered.

Jordie plopped himself down on the couch a few cushions from his brother, slinging his arm around the back of it. They had just come from practice, the last one before pre-season started.

“You will be by that time,” Jamie glanced sideways at Jordie, “if you call her.” Jamie rolled his eyes. “You haven’t yet, have you.”

“No. But I will.”

“Soon, Jame. You must do it soon.” Jordie stood and slapped Jamie firmly and with reason on his shoulder; the action shook his body.

He glanced at his phone, sitting just to the side of him. His hand reached for it, slowly, but when his fingertips brushed the cool screen, he recoiled quickly.

Later. For sure, later.

~~~~~

“Are you coming to the game in a few days?” Jamie asked, finally sitting and settling down after getting Emily on the phone. Jordie had walked into the room seconds earlier, realized he was on the phone, gave him an enthusiastic thumbs up and an overzealous wink, before leaving the house altogether.

“I can’t, I have to work. But I’ll catch another one.”

“Definitely! I could leave you some tickets, just let me know what game.” She laughed at his eagerness.

“Will do, Jamie.” There was a long silence, and though the awkwardness was there, both of them enjoyed the fact that they were finally talking to the other person over the phone. It was calming to hear each other’s breathing. Jamie could also hear shuffling in the background, like Emily was doing other tasks while talking to him. He liked it, it sounded ordinary, like they did this all the time. And though she was working on other things, Jamie could tell that her attention was on him without fault.

A thought flickered through Jamie’s mind, and without allowing too much hesitation, he said, “And maybe after that game we can go out to di…” but he was forced to trail off due to a loud banging sound from her end that rang in his ears. Emily’s gasp was almost swallowed by the sound.

“Damn it, Beth! You scared me!” Her ragged breathing was just audible over the ringing of his own ears. “I’m sorry, Jamie. What were you saying?” Jamie took a breath to re-gather his words, but he was again cut off.

“Bitch, I have something so important to tell you, whoever this is can wait.” There was scuffling and a shout of ‘Beth, stop!’ before the line went silent, only to be followed by a long, monotonous beep that mirrored Jamie’s heart as it dropped. He sat, stunned, then ran a frustrated hand through his hair, stood, and made his way into the upstairs media room to kick start an hour or two of working out his frustration.

Five or ten minutes into his game, he was interrupted by his phone beeping and Emily’s name popping up on the screen. She had sent him a text, the first text either of the two had sent to the other, a thought that had Jamie’s heart pounding a little harder:

Sorry that Beth’s an ass. What were you trying to say?

Jamie let out a laugh, and his smile was rivaled only by the one he had given when he had first heard her voice over the phone.

It’s okay haha, what did she want this time?

Either you already know, or you don’t want to

Tyler?

Tyler

Yeah, probably better that I don’t know

~~~~~

“Seriously? He finally…”

“Listen!” Beth clapped her hands, and matched Emily’s glare, head tilt and all. Beth sat down on the couch, and Emily huffed into the living room, coming to stand behind the chair Jamie had sat in not days ago. She glanced back at her phone, then ran a hand along the back of the chair, remembering their few hours of cohabitation. “This. is. important.” Beth continued, clapping with each word, then she took a deep, dramatic breath in. “I’m going over to Tyler’s tonight, and I need to find something to w...”

“Nice dress, black lingerie underneath.” Beth paused, hands frozen in their movements.

“How’d you know what I was going to ask?”

Emily shrugged, “I know you.”

“Wow. Does he know he’s getting laid tonight? Am I that predictable?”

Emily was in no mood for her rambling, her conversation with Jamie that she’d been waiting for for weeks had just been rudely interrupted, “Probably, and yes.”

“Damn. Peekaboo lace is all, I guess. None for him tonight. Thanks babe!” Beth was hopping down into the entryway when she turned back slowly. “Who were you on the phone with?” Emily raised her eyebrows at Beth, her glaze being intensified.

“Jamie.”

Beth’s eyes went wide, and her mouth popped into a little ‘o’.

“Fuck! Here, here,” she threw Emily’s phone from the counter to her. Emily had to juggle it to keep it from hitting the wood floors. “Text him. Shit, I’m sorry! I’ll talk to you later!” She slammed the door just as hard on her way out.

Emily, still in the whirlwind of her best friend, frustration, and slight amusement had no hesitation in typing in and sending:

Sorry that Beth’s an ass. What were you trying to say?

She sat on the chair she had mentally dubbed ‘his’ chair, gazing at the message until she her mind calmed down from Beth’s visit. She wished she hadn’t. When the realization that she had texted Jamie hit her, her stomach dropped. Was that the right thing to say? Did he even want her to text him, should she have called back instead? She wasn’t experienced enough in this, what if she...then Jamie’s message popped up on her screen, her mouth froze from its shaking with silent questions. She took another frozen minute to read and reread what he had sent. And finally, she smiled.

~~~~~

“What are you two doing here?” Emily was still sitting in ‘his’ chair, now watching reruns of old shows, but was alerted by the sound of the lock clicking open on her front door. She would’ve assumed it was Beth coming back for another outfit check, but the ‘click’ wasn’t followed by the bang of the door hitting the wall with enough force to earn a glare from Emily. When she had turned to see what was going on, she watched as Tyler waltzed through her door, led by Beth.

“I’ll meet you in the kitchen,” Beth stretched up to his ear to mummer. She pressed the bottle of wine in her hand to his chest, and he made sure to run his fingers over each of hers before grabbing the neck of the green glass firmly. He winked and turned into the kitchen, stopping to say hi to Emily.

“What are you two doing here?” Emily asked again, raising her voice to elicit an answer.

“No need to repeat yourself. I heard you the first time.”

“Then…” Tyler cut Emily off.

“Where’s your bottle opener?”

“I don’t have one,” she called over her shoulder.

“Who doesn’t have a bottle opener?” Emily glanced back at his face that was scrunched into confusion and a little bit of judgement.

“Someone who doesn’t drink wine.”

“No matter,” Tyler waved it off as his face returned to normal, “I have one in my car.”

“Who has a bottle opener in their car?”

“Someone who drinks wine.” They smugly smiled at each other as he handed the bottle back to Beth, bent down to kiss her cheek, and left for the parking garage. As soon as the door was shut Beth turned quickly to her friend.

“You are my only hope of not sleeping with that hot piece of meat tonight.”

Emily groaned, “So you brought him to my apartment on a date?”

“It’s not a date, we don’t date. And I was hoping you could just go chill in your room, maybe call Jamie, have a little phone sex,” her consistent nudging of Emily’s arm did little to win her points. Emily’s stare was still hard. “It’s not like Tyler and I will purposefully listen in,” still no reaction. “Please?”

“You’ll have more willpower with me here, but you want me sealed off in another room and distracted?”

“Right.” Emily raised her eyebrows and shook her head.
“If you need me as your willpower not to have sex with Tyler, then I will make sure you don’t. After all, the most successful people out there always say that if you commit to a job, ‘you need to do it right the first time.’”

~~~~~

Half an hour later, Emily was just starting her charade. Tyler had returned with the bottle opener to tell them he’d ordered pizza for the three of them. She’d told him what a great idea that was and made sure to butt in between them when he stopped next to Beth to grab the wine again. Emily pulled it out of his hands and inspected the label, though she didn’t know what she was looking at.

“Let’s get this to the kitchen, shall we Ty?” Without waiting for him to answer, she hooked her arm through his and led him to the kitchen. Beth trailed not far behind, but Emily made sure to keep herself shoved between them.

When they had sat on the couch to watch a show, Emily did the same thing. She was in the kitchen making popcorn when she saw that they were sitting too close, heads bent together, and Tyler’s hand resting too far up her thigh. With her popcorn bowl in hand, Emily walked over to the two.

“No, no, no. This simply won’t do. You kids don’t need to finagle in my house, you’ve got your own for that,” at this time she made a point to look directly at Beth and pause, giving her the biggest, cheesy grin she could muster. “I need to protect you from those STDs. I hear they’re running rampant these days.” She shimmied her way in the middle, sitting on both of them at first until they slid farther apart. She looked at Tyler and stuffed a handful of popcorn in her mouth even though she didn’t like popcorn anymore than she did wine. “Now, Tyler, you know how to use condoms, right?” She came across as innocently as she’d intended, and she felt pride swell in her chest as she watched him be rendered speechless.

~~~~~

Jamie was fixing the collar of his shirt. It wasn’t fitting correctly around his jacket, and he was determined to force it flat. From downstairs he heard the sound of the door shutting and footsteps through the entryway. He kept his eyes on the mirror, finally getting the collar to behave. He let out a breath in a single huff, trying to loosen the tightening in his chest. After Emily had texted him that Beth and Tyler had showed up on a surprise date at her house, Jamie had a sudden, overwhelming amount of adrenaline surge through his veins, and he hopped immediately into the shower, determined to get to her apartment before it wore off.

“You can do this. You will do this.” Without stopping to contemplate if he really could or would do this, he turned, grabbed his wallet and keys from his bed and took the stairs to the first level three at a time.

“Where are you going?” Jordie asked, still in the entryway and taking off his right shoe with his left foot. “Jess is coming over, I thought we could all have dinner together. I’ll grill.” He gave Jamie a confused look as his little brother opened the door with the equivalent force of slamming it closed.

“Not tonight, Jord. Not tonight.” He shook his head, threw a bright grin over his shoulder and was out the door.” At the beginning of the walk to the door stood Jess, Jordie’s girlfriend of many years. Jamie had always liked Jess, and hoped one day to find his version of what Jess and his brother had. He now hoped that this was it, that Emily was it.

Some strands of her blonde hair stuck in her face as she gave him a charming smile. “Hey Jamie,” she paused when she noticed his rush. “Where’re you going? Jordie said we were all having dinner.”

“Not tonight, Jess. Not tonight.”

~~~~~

Emily insisted that Beth leave before Tyler, that way she could watch her walk across the hall to her apartment and make sure she got home safe. She couldn’t allow her and Tyler to be in the hall alone because ‘young people like you shouldn’t put themselves into those compromising positions.’

“Well, that was by far the best date I’ve ever been on,” she heard Tyler say as she shut the door behind her friend. When she turned around he was sipping from a water bottle that he’d gotten out of the fridge. He’d stopped drinking an hour ago so he could drive home.

“I’m glad I could be of entertainment,” Emily responded, dropping her act and returning his smirking grin. He laughed.

They sat on the couch for a while longer, finishing another episode of a new show that they had been watching on Netflix. Tyler stood when the end credits began rolling and wiped the salt and butter off of his hands, he had nearly polished off the popcorn by himself.

“Don’t watch anymore of that without me,” he said pointing to the t.v., “I’m coming over to watch more of it sometime.” Emily held her hands up in defense and laughed.

“Hands off, got it.”

“But not off of Jamie,” Tyler winked. Emily rolled her eyes, but her small smile gave her away.

“You’re not good at hiding the fact that you like him,” he smirked, gesturing to her face.

“Get out,” she growled, standing up from the couch and herding him into the entryway. The nearly empty bottle of wine was sitting on the bench, ready for him to take home. He continued to giggle at her expense as he worked his keys out of his pocket. When he was finally successful at pulling out the jangling mess, he gathered the rest of his things, opened the door, and stopped, turning to face her with a thoughtful look on his face.

“You know, normally I would go for a threesome, but I can’t do that to Jamie. He’d want you all to himself.” Tyler playfully raked his eyes up and down her body. He let out a low whistle, and Emily all but threw him into the hallway.

“Get the hell out,” she laughed. After the sound of the slamming door quieted, she could hear Tyler laughing, too, as he walked down the hall.

~~~~~

Not two minutes later he was back and knocking on her door.

“Tyler, I said go away, damn it.”

Emily froze in shock, her mouth halfway open. Jamie stood before her, hands pushed into his pockets. He wasn’t quite close enough for her to catch the mix of his intoxicating smell that had so entrenched her the night she stayed over; she remembered it clearly, as if she was still wearing his clothes, cinnamon and hair gel. She imagined that his white shirt and dark suit that he was wearing smelled just the same. His deep eyes were stunning as he stood with his lips parted, too. He took a breath and cleared his throat.

“That’s a hell of a way to answer your door.”

“He was here earlier and wouldn’t leave.”

“Yeah, he does that to me, too.” Jamie smiled but stood still otherwise, seeming to roll through his next words carefully, “I never got to finish what I was saying over the phone. I was going to ask you to dinner after you came to a game, but I decided I didn’t want to wait that long. Come out with me tonight.” Emily paused, blinking furiously at him.

“What?” she asked.

“You and me are going out tonight,” he repeated. Emily was taken aback, literally. She rocked back onto her heels, searched around her for a minute with her eyes before meeting his again. They were intense and boring into hers.

“Where?” she managed to choke out.

“Does it matter?”

Emily searched around again, but this time she was trying to find words. Her eyes glanced down to his arms where his hands hung loosely out of his pockets. His arms, unflexed, were incredibly impressive, and she remembered when hers was looped through his, all the muscles she was able to feel contracting around her bicep, his pulse in the space just below his elbow where she had rested her other hand, slow and smooth due to the alcohol.

Her eyes finally met his again, and were flustered to see his looked amused. He bit his lip in an attempt to control his chuckle. Her cheeks went red, and she instinctively crossed her arms across her chest.

“The answer you’re looking for is ‘no, it doesn’t matter,’” he said, answering his own question. He lost the fight with his laughter and it came spilling out over his bottom lip that was slightly darker from being bitten. Jamie stepped into and forced her gently back into her apartment, grabbing her arms and pulling them away from her body, holding her wrists for a quick second. There he stood, in her entryway, their chests not an inch from each other’s as he let go of her and slid his coat off his arms to lay it across the back of the bench. If she couldn’t find her words earlier, she wasn’t going to find them now.

“Go get dressed,” he whispered.

Notes