He Ruined Me—Now He Crawls Back Begging novel · Chapter 8 of 24

Chapter 8: Begging, Part One

The grandmother in bay four sat up on her stretcher to get a better look.

"Ooh," she said. "Is that your husband?"

"No," I said.

"Fiancé," said Gino.

"No," I said again.

I took my feet off the trash can.

I didn't stand up.

I pulled my chart out from under the roses and smoothed the page where the stems had bent it.

"You can't be back here," I said. "Waiting room's that way."

"I'm not here to wait." Gino put both hands flat on the counter and leaned in. He smelled like cedar and cold air. "I'm here to say I'm sorry."

The tech stopped pushing a wheelchair halfway across the floor.

The two night nurses put down their forks.

At the end of the desk, the charge nurse turned around very slowly on his stool.

"I was wrong," Gino said. He said it loud and clear, like a toast. "That night. I should have come. I should have flown down there and torn the place apart. I've thought about it every day since you came home."

"You've thought about it for three weeks."

"I've thought about it every day," he said again, like I hadn't spoken. "I've talked to a surgeon in New York. The best there is for faces. He'll see you next month. You won't even know it was there."

He reached across the counter toward my cheek.

I leaned back out of his reach.

"I know it's there," I said. "I put it there."

His hand stayed in the air a second. Then he took it back and put it in his pocket.

"Your father will unfreeze your money the day we set a date," he said. "I talked to him. You'll have your room back. Your car. Your life. You can quit this." He looked around the ER, at the bolted chairs and the bloody towel and the drunk handcuffed to a gurney, and didn't hide what he thought of it. "You can stop wiping drunks for nine dollars an hour."

"Thirty-eight," said the charge nurse.

Gino didn't look at him.

"Spring," he said to me. "A big wedding. Everyone who matters. They'll all see I came back for you."

That was the part he cared about. I could see it on his face.

Everyone who matters.

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