The next day dawned cool and cloudy. But, by that afternoon, the temperature had climbed into the upper sixties, and the clouds had parted, letting the sun shine through the windows of the studio. The weather was so nice that we decided to walk down the street for lunch.
It felt good to get outside and enjoy some fresh air, even with the smoke from AJ’s cigarette blowing back into my face as he walked in front of me.
“So, how ya feelin’ about what we’ve accomplished so far, fellas?” I asked as we sat around the table at the wood-fired pizza parlor we’d found, waiting for our food to arrive.
“I feel great,” AJ said. “Between the songs Martin and his team brought us and the stuff we’ve been writing ourselves, I think this is gonna be our best album yet.”
“Dude, you sang the shit out of that song this morning!” Nick said, clapping him on the shoulder as the rest of us nodded in agreement. After hearing AJ lay down vocals for “Try,” we’d seen no reason to argue over solos – he already owned the song.
AJ smiled. “Thanks, bro. I love that reggae song you started writing with Rok and D.”
Smirking, Nick exchanged glances with Brian and Howie. “Should we tell him?”
“Tell me what?”
“You inspired it, dawg,” said Brian with a grin. “Howie told us how you were practically drooling over your wife on the way home from the movie last night.” Imitating AJ, he held up his phone and pretended to talk to the screen. “Oh, Monkee, you’re so hot…”
“We had to make fun of you,” Nick added, deadpan.
AJ’s mouth dropped open. “Well, I didn’t say it the way you do in the damn song!” he protested. “You sound like panting dogs!”
“Yeah, pretty much,” said Howie with a shrug.
AJ shot him a murderous look, his lips twitching as he tried not to smile. “Way to throw me under the bus there, Howard. Wait till your wife’s five months pregnant. Rochelle said she felt fat last night, so I was trying to boost her confidence by reminding her how sexy she is. I mean, look at this woman!” He took out his phone to show us a picture Rochelle must have sent him. “Isn’t she fucking beautiful?”
I nodded, smiling at the photo she’d snapped of herself standing in front of a full-length mirror with her shirt pulled up to expose her growing baby bump. The tender way she was cradling it with her free hand reminded me of Kristin when she was pregnant. A lump rose in my throat, my vision blurring as I looked at the photo and pictured my own wife posting the same way. “Yeah,” I replied hoarsely. “She sure is. You’re a lucky guy, AJ.”
I saw the other guys exchange glances when they heard the emotion in my voice, but AJ smiled at me. “Speak for yourself, dude. Natalie’s a knockout!”
I nodded, knowing he was just trying to make me feel better. But, in a way, his words only made me feel worse, filling me with guilt over my growing feelings for Natalie. Whenever I thought of her first while listening to the lyrics of a love song, it felt like a betrayal to Kristin. But when I reminisced on my life with Kristin, I felt unfaithful to Natalie.
Her words from our fight on the Fourth of July echoed through my head, haunting me: “Now you’ve got me thinking I might also be competing with a ghost.”
“Competing?” I’d replied derisively, brushing her concerns aside. “Kristin’s dead. You’re alive. Where’s the competition?”
But despite reassuring her that there was room for both of them in my heart, I still felt the struggle inside myself. I wanted to be faithful to both women, to keep my late wife’s memory alive without making my new girlfriend feel insecure, to look forward to my future with Natalie without forgetting my past with Kristin.
“Kev? You okay?” AJ’s words brought me back to the present.
I blinked. “Yeah… sorry. I just spaced out there for a second.”
“Thinking about Nat-a-lieee?” Nick asked teasingly, drawing her name out with a sing-song tone. He and the other guys grinned at me.
I just nodded, deciding not to tell them what I was really thinking. I didn’t want to drag the mood down by talking about my deceased wife during lunch.
When the waitress brought our food, I concentrated on eating my pizza without making a mess, letting the others talk while I listened. It wasn’t hard to do – AJ dominated the conversation, babbling on about Friends and sneakers and his almost-a-million followers on SocialCam, while Brian and Howie swapped stories about Baylee and James. Nick was unusually quiet, looking down at his lap in between bites of his salad. Leaning over, I saw him texting under the table.
“You talkin’ to Lauren?” I asked him.
He nodded without looking up, his thumbs flying across his iPhone screen.
“Everything okay?” I pried gently.
He nodded again. “I just miss her,” he admitted.
Noticing the pink tinge to his cheeks, I smiled. I had never seen Nick so smitten over a woman before, nor had I ever known one of his romantic relationships to last as long as this one had. “How long have y’all been together now?”
“Almost four years,” he answered without having to stop and think about it.
I nodded, remembering that he’d met Lauren a few months after he moved out of my house, the same year I lost Kristin. “That’s a long time,” I said. “Have you talked about taking the next step?”
“What, you mean marriage?”
“Yeah. Getting engaged, anyway.”
Nick shrugged. “I mean, sure, it’s come up in conversation. She’d love me to put a ring on it, but she also understands why I’m so reluctant to do it. Her parents are divorced, too. She knows I’m committed to her; I don’t see why we need jewelry and a legal document to prove it. I’d rather just go get tattoos together or something.”
“Tattoos?” I chuckled. “That sounds more permanent than marriage, sadly.”
“Eh… not necessarily.” He turned over his arm so I could see the skull and crossbones tattooed on the inside of his wrist, which covered up the name he’d foolishly had inked there during one of his past flings. I read the words emblazoned on a banner beneath it: Old habits die hard.
“You’ve matured a lot since then, Nick,” I said, smiling. “If you love Lauren and know you wanna spend the rest of your life with her, pick out a ring and pop the question. Looking back, I wish I’d proposed to Kristin a lot sooner. Life is short, you know?”
He nodded, offering a sympathetic smile in return. “I know, bro. I’ll think about it.”
I took a bite of my pizza, letting the issue drop. But as I chewed, Nick asked, “So what about you and Natalie? Are you guys getting serious?”
I thought about that as I finished chewing my food, waiting until I’d swallowed to answer. “Yeah, I’d say so. We haven’t used the L-word yet, at least not intentionally-” I blushed, remembering how Natalie had reacted when I’d let that word slip the week before. “-but we’ve gotten really close lately.”
Nick raised his eyebrows. “Does that mean you got laid?” he asked with a grin.
My cheeks burned. “Maybe,” I said, smirking back.
“Get it, Kev!” he cheered, punching me playfully in the shoulder. “I’m proud of you, dawg.”
I chuckled. “Thanks.” I raised a slice of pizza to my mouth and took another bite, mostly to avoid answering any more questions about my sex life. But as I chewed, I recalled another conversation I’d had with Nick as he helped me get ready for bed on one of the first few nights after I’d come home from the rehab hospital. He’d been curious, asking awkward questions about my bathroom routine and how much function I had “down there.” I didn’t know if I could still get hard, I had told him – not that it mattered much to me then. I had no interest in sex or romance; I’d already convinced myself that, with Kristin gone, I was never going to get laid or fall in love again and that, even if I felt ready to pursue a new relationship, no woman would want me the way I was now.
“You don’t know that,” Nick had tried to reason with me. “I know it’s too soon right now, but you may meet someone down the road. You’re still young. You could fall in love again… get remarried… Any woman would be lucky to have you.”
At the time, I’d found it hard to believe. But now, four years later, here I was, falling hard for Natalie – and hoping she felt the same way about me as I felt about her.
Swallowing, I used my napkin to swipe at a dab of pizza sauce I could feel clinging to the corner of my mouth. “You were right, you know,” I said quietly to Nick as I set the napkin down. Seeing a look of confusion flicker across his face, I continued, “A few years ago, when I was fresh out of the hospital and feeling sorry for myself, you reminded me that my life wasn’t over just because of what I’d lost. I didn’t really believe you then, but you were right. I still have a lot of life left to live and a lot to offer.”
Nick nodded, the lines on his forehead fading as his lips curved into a lopsided smile. “I do say smart things sometimes, huh?”
I smiled back but didn’t laugh at his self-deprecating remark. “You say a lot of smart things, Nick,” I replied seriously. “That was good advice you gave me, even if I wasn’t ready to hear it yet.”
“Thanks.” He took another bite of his salad. Then, swallowing, he added, “You were right, too, when you told me I might change my mind about getting married someday. I mean, I’m not there yet, but the fact that I’m even entertaining the idea says something. You know how anti-marriage I was a few years ago.”
I nodded. “Oh, believe me, I know. But, like I said before, you’ve changed a lot in the last few years, Nick.”
“Lauren’s been a good influence on me, huh?” He grinned, glancing down at his bowl and back up again. “I never would have ordered a salad over pizza for lunch before.”
“Sure, she has been, but you were already making healthier choices before you met her,” I reminded him. “Give yourself some credit, too. You’re the one who lost all that weight and turned your life around.”
Nick’s cheeks turned pink as he flushed with pride. “Well, you’ve changed a lot in the last few years, too,” he replied.
“Gee, really?” I said sarcastically, snorting as I looked down at the disabled body strapped into my wheelchair. “I don’t see any difference.”
“No, I wasn’t talking about that.” In a matter of seconds, Nick’s face darkened from light pink to bright red. “I meant, like, since I lived with you. Not only are you more independent, but you seem a lot more self-confident these days. More… I dunno… content, I guess?”
I understood what he meant. “I would agree with that,” I said with a shrug. “I guess I’ve gotten used to the way my life is now, even if it’s not the way I would have wanted it. I won’t lie – it’s a hell of a lot harder than it used to be, but it’s still worth living. I’m glad to be alive… and glad to be back here with y’all.” As I took a glance around the table, I realized everyone else was watching me. I hadn’t even noticed that the others had stopped talking and started listening to my conversation with Nick.
“We’re glad you’re here, too, cuz,” Brian said, smiling at me.
Howie nodded in agreement. “It’s good to see you happy again, bro.”
“Love you, Kev,” AJ added, his face splitting into a wide grin.
“Thanks, fellas.” I felt the love as I smiled back at them.
When the five of us headed back to the studio, accompanied by Q, I felt good about the direction we were going in – musically, professionally, and personally. Life wasn’t perfect for any of us, but for the first time in a long time, I felt like we were all in a good place. No one was drinking heavily, doing drugs, or dealing with any serious health problems or personal drama. We were all healthy, happy, and hopeful about the future.
Glancing up at the patches of blue sky peeking out through the clouds overhead as the afternoon sun beamed down on me, I was reminded of the song I’d started writing the previous day. I hummed it to myself as I rolled down the sidewalk.
In hindsight, I guess I should have been watching where I was going. I didn’t see the bag of trash lying on the curb until it was too late. By the time I felt the bump under my left front wheel and looked down to see what I’d hit, my chair had already begun to tip. I felt myself falling, the forward momentum causing my body to fold over as my seatbelt caught me across the middle. The next thing I knew, my wheelchair and I were both lying on our right side.
“Oh my god!” I heard one of the guys gasp. The next thing I knew, AJ and Q were hovering over me.
“Kev, are you okay?” AJ asked frantically, touching my left shoulder as Q reached from my arm rest to my seat, trying to figure out the best way to get me and my chair upright again.
“Wait!” Howie cried as he rushed over with Nick and Brian. “Don’t move him yet; he might have broken bones. Does anything hurt, Kev? Did you hit your head?”
“I don’t think so…” I lay there, stunned, trying to assess the parts of my body I could feel. The right side of my chair had taken the brunt of the impact, preventing my head from striking the pavement. I was shaken, but I didn’t feel any pain at first. “I’m okay. Just help me up, please.” I was still strapped into my chair, my right arm pinned beneath me.
“Is he all right?!” I heard a high-pitched voice shout. A few seconds later, a woman appeared, pushing a baby in a stroller. “I saw the whole thing from across the street,” she said breathlessly. “Shall I call an ambulance?”
“No! I’m fine; I don’t need an ambulance.” I felt my face heat up as my shock turned to humiliation. “Get her out of here,” I muttered through gritted teeth, hoping she hadn’t recognized us.
Q rose to his full height and stepped in front of me, using his body to shield me from her view. “Thanks, ma’am, but he’ll be okay. We’ve got it from here,” he said, polite but firm. “You have a great day now.” He waited until the woman had walked away before he turned back to me.
In the meantime, Nick had knelt down next to AJ and started loosening the velcro straps that kept my feet and legs from flying off the foot plates as AJ unbuckled my seatbelt, finally freeing me from my chair. “Watch his head,” Brian warned, moving my wheelchair out of the way as they carefully lowered me to the cold, hard ground.
Lying flat on my back with my head resting in AJ’s bony lap, I looked up at the cloudy sky and the five concerned faces that were staring down at me. “Really, fellas, I’m fine,” I insisted as Nick and Howie began inspecting my body for obvious signs of injury. “Is my chair okay?” I was more worried about the wheelchair than I was myself. Without it, I would be immobile, completely dependent on other people to carry me around.
“It looks fine to me,” Brian said with a shrug. “No worse for wear.”
“Good.” I let out a sigh of relief. “Then can y’all please get me up off the ground?”
Brian brought the chair back over, parking it behind me as Nick and Q picked me up. “Your elbow’s bleeding,” he observed while Nick moved around me, making sure I was positioned correctly and buckled in safely.
“Really?” I held out my right arm, rotating it until I could see my skinned elbow. Blood was slowly trickling out through the torn skin.
AJ winced when he saw it, his face turning white. “Damn, dude. Doesn’t that hurt?”
I shook my head. “I can only feel the inner side of my arm.”
“For real?” Howie frowned. “I didn’t know that.”
I nodded. “Yeah. The nerves for the outer side connect to a different part of the spinal cord, further down than my level of injury – T1 or T2, I think. That’s why I can use my biceps but not my triceps.” I twisted my arm from side to side to show him how half the muscles had atrophied, making it appear bony and slightly misshapen.
“Let’s get you back to the studio,” said Q. “You want a push?”
I planted my hands on my push rims and wheeled myself a few feet forward, making sure it wasn’t painful to push myself. “Nah, I’ll be fine,” I replied. “Thanks for the offer, though.”
We crossed the street, cutting through the park that was just down the street from the studio. Thankfully, we were only a couple of blocks away because, by the time we got back, my right shoulder was throbbing.
The camera crew was waiting for us inside the studio. “What happened?” one of the camera operators asked, his eyes widening when he saw the blood dripping down my arm.
“Had a little accident on the way back,” I said, relieved the cameras hadn’t been there to record my collision with the bag of rubbish. “No big deal. I’m fine.”
Martin found a first aid kit, and Howie helped me clean and bandage the cut on my elbow. “Thanks, Dr. Dorough,” I said as he wrapped a roll of gauze around my arm to keep the absorbent pad in place.
“You’re welcome, Mr. Richardson,” he replied with a wink. “You sure you’re all right otherwise?”
I shrugged. “As far as I can tell. My body will let me know if I’m not.” I knew I would develop autonomic dysreflexia if anything was painful or out of place below the point where my sensation stopped.
Sure enough, we had just gotten back to work when I began to feel overheated. “Is it just me, or is it hot in here?” I asked the others as we looked at the lyrics of the song Nick, Brian, and Howie had started writing before lunch.
Howie and Brian laughed, thinking I was making a joke since the song happened to be called “Hot, Hot, Hot.” But Nick and AJ both looked at me with concern. “No, it feels fine to me,” Nick said, frowning. “You having a hot flash?” Howie let out another snicker, but the knowing look in Nick’s eyes told me he wasn’t joking either.
I nodded. “I probably just need to pee,” I replied, realizing I hadn’t cathed since before we left for the restaurant. I hoped that was all that was wrong. “Excuse me, fellas – nature calls.” I rolled past the camera crew, escaping to the privacy of the bathroom to take care of business.
I was halfway through the process when I heard a knock on the door. “Hey, Kev?” Nick’s voice called. “You okay in there?”
“Yeah!” I called back as I fumbled with the catheter, feeling flustered. “I’ll be out in a few minutes!”
Normally, the hot flashes I got when my bladder was full went away as soon as I finished emptying it, but when I finally left the bathroom, I still felt flushed and sweaty. I also had a pounding headache, which was a telltale sign of the rapidly rising blood pressure that made autonomic dysreflexia so dangerous.
“You good, bro?” AJ asked as I rejoined the rest of the group, who were gathered around the seating area in the center of the studio.
I shook my head. “I’m getting AD. I dunno if it’s just ‘cause of my damn elbow or if I did something else when I fell.”
Nick jumped up from the couch and came over to me. “That’s what I was worried about.” He knew from living with me that, left untreated, AD was a medical emergency. My elevated blood pressure would continue to climb until it was high enough to cause a stroke, seizure, or heart attack. “Should we take you to the hospital to get checked out?”
I hesitated, then shook my head, not wanting to ruin the rest of our work day. “Only if we can’t figure out what’s triggering it. Hell, it could just be a wedgie or something.”
“You, uh… you want me to check for you?” he offered, shifting his weight awkwardly.
“Would you? That’d be helpful. Thanks.” I hated to cause a fuss or put Nick in an uncomfortable position, but I didn’t know what else to do. I considered calling Dawn, but it wouldn’t be wise to wait for her to come all the way to the studio from wherever she and Keith were sightseeing. If Nick couldn’t find the cause, we would be better off calling an ambulance after all.
“Wait, what’s going on?” one of the camera operators asked as he and his crew looked at each other in confusion. “What’s AD?”
I had almost forgotten that the cameras were rolling. “Can y’all please clear out of here?” I replied irritably. “We’ll fill you in later. I don’t want you to film this.”
“But-”
“You heard him!” Nick snapped, whirling around to glare at the guy who had started to argue with me. “Get the hell out!”
He didn’t have to tell them twice.
“Thanks, Nick,” I said gratefully once the cameras were gone.
“No problem. C’mon, let’s put you on the couch so I can take your pants off.”
“Now, there’s something you don’t expect to hear during a Backstreet Boys recording session,” Howie said with a snicker as I wheeled myself over to one of the couches.
“Right?” In spite of my discomfort, I cracked a smile, appreciating his effort to lighten the mood. “This is starting to sound like one of those weird fan fiction stories that have us hooking up with each other.”
“Wait, are you serious?” Nick had just knelt down to unfasten the straps around my feet when he suddenly looked up, wrinkling his nose. “Is that really a thing?”
I nodded. “Yeah, it’s a thing, all right,” I said with a shrug. “Don’t ask me why.”
“I was wondering more how you found out that’s a thing,” Brian said, grinning at me while AJ and Howie watched with raised eyebrows, waiting for my answer.
I felt my already-flushed face redden even more. “Let’s just say I was bored one night on the tour bus and went down a rabbit hole of google search results. The internet can be a scary place.”
“No shit.” Nick shook his head, still looking slightly disturbed. “Dude… what the fuck? I kinda wish you hadn’t told us that.” Nonetheless, he wrapped his arms tightly around me as he helped me transfer to the couch.
“I probably shouldn’t lie down,” I said as he turned me sideways and lifted my spasming legs onto the couch. “My blood pressure stays lower when I’m sitting up straight. Can you try to prop me up a little more?”
Nick piled throw pillows behind my back until I was sitting at a ninety degree angle with my legs stretched out straight in front of me. “How’s that?” he asked as he placed the last pillow.
“Better… I hope.” I wished we had the portable blood pressure monitor I’d brought with me to London, but I’d left it back at the house, not wanting it to take up space in the bag I carried on the back of my wheelchair. I suddenly regretted not packing it. Without it, I had no way of knowing how high my blood pressure had risen. I took deep breaths, trying to relax enough to bring it down.
Meanwhile, Nick had moved to the other end of the couch to take off my shoes and socks. “Check his feet first,” AJ advised him as he came over to help. “It could just be an ingrown toenail or a broken toe or something.”
Nick held my bare right foot in his hand, gently rotating it at the ankle joint as he examined it. “I don’t see any redness or swelling,” he said, frowning.
“Me neither,” said AJ, doing the same with the left one. “Nothing feels out of place.”
Next, they worked together to remove my pants. Nick wedged his hands under my ass, one cheek at a time, trying to raise me just far enough off the couch for AJ to work the waistband down to my thighs. “Sorry,” he grunted as he lifted my left side, rolling me onto my right hip. “I swear, I’m not trying to feel you up.”
“It’s okay. I’m used to it,” I said, forcing a chuckle as I flopped sideways into the couch back. There was a time when I would have found the whole situation completely humiliating, but those days had long since passed. I was hardly fazed by the fact that two of my bandmates were taking off my clothes in the middle of the studio. It couldn’t have bothered Nick or AJ much either, considering how many nights they’d helped me undress during the four months they had lived with me after the accident.
Nick held my legs up as AJ pulled my pants down. They had barely reached my knees when my right leg began to buck with another round of spasms. “Sorry, Nick,” I said, cringing as my foot caught him hard in the chest. He let go and stumbled backward, coughing.
“It’s okay,” he replied hoarsely, rubbing his solar plexus. “Not your fault, dude.”
“Watch it, AJ,” I warned as AJ attempted to slide the fabric over my knees without getting kicked in the face.
“Hey, I think I know what’s causing this now.” As he eased my pants down to my ankles, AJ nudged Nick in the shoulder and pointed to one of my exposed knees. “Looks like you banged that knee pretty hard when you landed.”
I looked down and winced. My right knee was red and had swollen to twice the size of the left one. “Yup… that’s probably it.”
Nick turned to Brian and Howie, who had been standing back out of the way, watching. “Can one of you go get him some ice?”
“Of course.” Howie hurried off to the kitchen.
“It’s okay to put ice on it, right?” Nick asked, looking back at me.
I nodded. “Sure, as long as we don’t leave it on too long.”
Howie came back a minute later with a handful of ice cubes wrapped in a towel. “I couldn’t find a baggie,” he said with an apologetic shrug.
“It’s okay. This’ll do.” Nick placed the makeshift ice pack carefully over my swollen knee.
I hoped it would help resolve the AD by relieving the pain, but after a few minutes, my head was still pounding, and my face was sweating profusely, in spite of the ice pack.
“Is it getting too cold, Kev?” Nick asked as he perched next to me on the edge of the couch, patiently holding the ice pack in place. He leaned over for a closer look at my right leg. “You’ve got goosebumps.”
“That’s probably from the AD,” I said with a shrug. “I can’t feel anything that far down.”
“Oh… right.” Nick’s face reddened. “How are you feeling otherwise?”
I shook my head. “Not good.” I suddenly felt like I was coming down with a cold. Along with the headache, my nose was stuffy, but I knew that was just another symptom of AD.
Brian cleared his throat. “Hey, Kev, I know you’re not gonna wanna hear this, but I texted Dawn and told her what happened,” he said, holding up his phone. “She said we should get you to a hospital so they can monitor your blood pressure and take a look at your knee, make sure nothing’s torn or broken.”
I sighed, briefly closing my eyes as my vision began to blur. “You didn’t have to do that; I could have told you the same damn thing. I know my own body, Brian.” Although I knew his heart was in the right place, it annoyed me to hear that he had taken it upon himself to text Dawn without talking to me first.
Brian’s nostrils flared. “Well, considering you can’t even feel most of your own body, Kevin, I think we should follow Dawn’s advice.”
As much as I didn’t want to admit it, I knew he was right. “Fine,” I said with a nod of resignation. “But I don’t need all four of you to go with me. And we’re sure as hell not taking the damn camera crew.”
“I’m coming with you,” Nick immediately volunteered.
“Me too,” Brian added.
“That’s fine,” said AJ, looking slightly relieved that he didn’t have to go. “D and I will finish up here and meet you back at the house later. Keep us posted, okay?”
“We will,” Brian promised as Nick helped me back into my wheelchair. I didn’t bother to protest as he pushed me toward the door.
***
Deja vu. Even in a different country, the emergency department looked the same – boring beige walls, white coats and blue scrubs. It smelled the same – like the sickly scent of antiseptic mixed with vomit. It sounded the same – rubber-soled shoes and rattling carts squeaking across the floor as an array of high-pitched beeps and alarms rang through the air. Only the staff’s English accents reminded me how far I was from home.
“Can I have your arm again, love?” asked my nurse, Emilia. I dutifully held out my left arm, letting her wrap the cuff around it so she could check my blood pressure. She had been monitoring it closely for the past two hours, taking it every five minutes at first. Now it was more like every fifteen.
That’s gonna leave a mark, I thought, wincing as I felt it inflate tightly around my arm. I imagined waking up the next morning with a ring of bruises where the cuff had been. They would go well with the ones on my right knee and elbow.
“One forty-seven over ninety-one,” she said after the cuff finished deflating. “Still high, but it’s coming down.”
I nodded. “Better than one ninety-one over whatever it was when I first got here, right?”
“Bit of an understatement there,” Emelia replied, raising her eyebrows. “That’s what we call a ‘hypertensive crisis.’ We just want to make sure it doesn’t reoccur while we wait to find out what caused it.”
“How much longer will it take to get the test results back?” I asked, glancing up the clock on the wall. It was quarter till six. I wondered if Howie and AJ were still working at the studio.
“I’m not sure,” she answered apologetically. “I’ll try to find out for you, shall I? Be back in a few minutes.”
Once she left the room, I looked over at Nick and Brian, who had been sitting with me since I’d returned from having X-rays taken. “Sorry about all this. Not the way I wanted to spend the afternoon, that’s for sure.”
“Gee, really?” Nick replied sarcastically, rolling his eyes. “And here I thought you planned the whole thing.” He shook his head and flashed me a sympathetic smile. “It’s okay, Kev. You can’t help what happened.”
“We’re just glad you’re all right,” Brian added.
“I hope.” I heaved a sigh, wishing they would hurry up with those results. “I should probably call Natalie and tell her what’s going on, huh? I would wanna know if she was in the ER.”
“Yeah, probably. You want us to step out so you can have some privacy?” Brian offered.
“Nah, that’s okay. Y’all can stay. Can one of you please get my phone out of the side pocket of my chair?” I looked longingly at my wheelchair, which sat empty in the corner.
“Sure.” Nick got up and fetched it for me, helping me thread my fingers through the handle on the back of my phone case so I could hold onto it.
I found a flirty text from Natalie waiting in my notifications. “How’s your day going? Hope you’re having fun singing lots of sexy love songs,” she’d sent along with a winking emoji that was blowing a kiss.
I couldn’t help smiling as I read it. It was going well up until a few hours ago, I thought, my smile fading as I opened my FaceTime app. There was no way to hide the wall of medical equipment behind my head. I knew Natalie would worry when she saw me sitting in a hospital bed, but I wanted her to see for herself that I was okay.
“Hey, babe!” she said brightly as she answered my call, her face appearing on my phone screen. I watched her smile transform into a frown, her forehead creasing with concern when she noticed the background of my frame. “What-?”
“Hey! Don’t freak out – I’m fine,” I said quickly before she could finish her question. “Just hanging out in the A&E – that’s what they call the ER here.”
“What happened?!” she gasped, her mouth hanging open.
“I had a fall on the way back from lunch. Scraped up my elbow and busted my knee,” I said, making a face.
“You poor baby!” Her eyebrows rose higher on her forehead. “How did you manage to do that?”
“I may have run over a trash bag lying in the middle of the sidewalk,” I admitted, feeling my face redden. It sounded so stupid when I said it out loud. “It went under one of my wheels and flipped my chair right over.”
“Oh my goodness! Babe! You’re lucky you weren’t hurt worse!”
I shrugged. “I didn’t think it was that bad, but I started having AD symptoms when we got back to the studio, so I went to the hospital to get checked out. They took some X-rays and did an MRI of my knee to make sure there’s no major damage, and now I’m just waiting on the results.”
“Are you feeling any better?” she asked. “As far as the AD goes, I mean?”
I nodded. “Yeah, they gave me a painkiller and put this nitroglycerin paste on me to bring my blood pressure down.” I pulled down the front of my hospital gown and aimed the camera at the patch on my chest that was covering the ointment Emilia had applied earlier. “It seems to be working so far,” I said with a shrug. “It’s weird because I can’t feel any pain in my knee, but the pain receptors down there must have been working in overdrive.”
Natalie shuddered. “Stop. You’re making me cringe,” she said, shaking her head.
I had almost forgotten how squeamish she was. “Sorry,” I said, flashing her a sheepish grin.
“You’re forgiven.” She smiled back sympathetically, then sighed. “I wish I was there with you. You’re not alone, are you?”
“Nah. I got Frick and Frack here with me.” I flipped the camera around so she could see Brian and Nick sitting beside the bed.
“Hey, Natalie,” they both said, waving.
“Hey, guys. Y’all taking care of my man for me?” That made me smile. It had been a long time since I’d heard a woman call me “her man.”
“Of course,” Nick said, nodding. “Don’t worry. We’ll make sure he comes back to you in one piece.”
“We’re gonna get him some knee pads to wear from now on,” Brian added with a grin. “Crash test Kevin.”
I rolled my eyes as I turned the camera back around. “Yeah… so that’s how my afternoon has gone. How’s your morning been?”
“Um, pretty uneventful compared to yours,” she replied. “I actually just woke up a little while ago.” She held up her coffee cup for the camera. “I plan to do nothing today.”
“You deserve a lazy day,” I said, knowing she was probably still jet-lagged from flying back from London the day before.
“Thanks for giving me an excuse not to clean my apartment or get groceries.” She grinned.
Hearing a knock on the door, I looked up to see my nurse walk through it, accompanied by the doctor who had examined me earlier. “Hey, sorry, babe, but the doctor’s here to talk to me. I’m gonna hand you off to Nick now.” I held my phone out for Nick to take so I could focus my full attention on the doctor.
“Mr. Richardson.” The doctor tipped his head toward me. “How are you feeling?”
“Better,” I replied. “I’ve got my girlfriend on the phone.” I motioned at Nick, who was aiming the camera at me so Natalie could see what was going on. “Do you mind if she listens in?”
“Not if you don’t,” he replied, smiling. “I’ve just gone over your scans with the radiologist, and I’m happy to say it’s all good news. Neither the X-ray nor the MRI show any evidence of a bone fracture or tear in your tendons or ligaments. It looks like you just sustained a contusion to your knee – a bad bruise that will heal on its own over time.”
“That’s a relief,” I said, grateful to hear it wasn’t something that would require surgery to repair.
“Try to rest that knee and keep your weight off it as much as possible-”
“That shouldn’t be a problem,” I said, trying not to laugh as I looked at my wheelchair. I heard Nick snicker.
“-and use ice and elevation to reduce swelling,” the doctor continued. “You can also take ibuprofen as needed for pain relief if you notice your symptoms returning. Continue to monitor your blood pressure at home, and call us if the top number increases by more than twenty points above your baseline.”
I nodded. “Does that mean I can go now?” I asked hopefully.
“I’d like to keep you here under observation until your blood pressure stabilizes,” he said. “Once it does, we’ll release you.”
“Fair enough.” I thanked the doctor, and he left.
“Good news, babe!” Natalie said as Nick handed my phone back to me. “I’m glad nothing’s broken.”
“Me too,” I agreed, nodding again. “Now if I could just get out of here…”
It took another half hour for my blood pressure to return to its normal range. After Emilia unstrapped the cuff from around my tender arm for the last time, Nick and Brian helped me put on my clothes and transfer back to my chair. By the time we left the hospital, the sun was hanging low in the sky.
“Well, another day down,” I said with a sigh as we rode back to the house. “Not our most productive one, unfortunately – sorry, fellas.”
“Don’t apologize,” Nick replied. “At least we got a good story out of it.”
“Who knows,” Brian added, smiling. “We may even get a good song out of it.”
I just laughed and shook my head, never once considering that he might actually be serious.
The others were waiting for us when we got back to the house. Dawn met us at the front door. “You okay?” she asked as Nick and Brian helped me over the threshold.
I nodded. “Yeah, I’ll be fine. I’m a little banged up, but at least nothing’s broken. I’ve been worse.”
No one could argue with that.
***