Total pages in book: 53
Estimated words: 49669 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 248(@200wpm)___ 199(@250wpm)___ 166(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 49669 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 248(@200wpm)___ 199(@250wpm)___ 166(@300wpm)
“Let go,” I demanded, though I didn’t try to pull free of him. He was way too big and strong to risk pissing off.
“Your family has no idea I’m here.”
“I don’t care,” I said as the fear inside of me began to grow. If I couldn’t drive him away with my words…
“Christopher…”
“I asked you to go,” I repeated sternly as I leaned my weight away from him in the hopes that he’d get the hint and release me. He ended up doing just that, but I hadn’t really believed he’d give up so easily, so when he did let go, I lost my balance and fell backward. I threw my right hand out to catch myself on the counter at the same time that Rush made a grab for me. My right hand scrabbled for purchase when it hit the metal drying rack on the counter. Without thinking, I closed my hand around the highest part of the rack—the utensil holder— thinking it would somehow help me get my balance. Unfortunately, instead of the holder itself, my hand closed around the blade of the large knife I’d rinsed off and put into the holder blade up just minutes before Rush’s arrival.
The knife slicing through my palm took a few seconds to register. There wasn’t even any real pain. It was the blood that my brain was trying to adjust to. It flowed down my wrist and dripped onto the floor, leaving me in a dreamlike state.
It doesn’t look any different, I heard the old, logical Christopher say. I didn’t hear much from him anymore. I was kind of glad about that.
It wasn’t until I heard Rush say, “Oh shit, Christopher!” and felt his fingers closing around the wrist of my uninjured hand that I came back to the present. “Here, let’s get some water on it,” Rush ordered as he tugged me toward the sink. He had the water going before I knew it, and then he was reaching for my injured hand.
His clean, bare skin and my tainted blood.
“Let me see,” Rush said gently as he began to close his fingers over my hand.
“Don’t!” I screamed at the top of my lungs. I yanked my hand away from him and stepped back and promptly slipped on something wet. Probably my own blood.
“Christopher, it’s okay,” Rush said calmly like he was talking to an enraged toddler. He reached for me again even though I’d managed to catch myself on the counter.
“No, don’t,” I repeated. But his hand kept up its forward movement, and the warning was out of my mouth before I could even consider the consequences.
“Rush, don’t touch my blood! My viral count isn’t undetectable yet!”
CHAPTER FIVE
RUSH
Despite all the personal issues I’d had with the military, in that moment I had to admit to being grateful for every ounce of training they’d drilled into me because that discipline and focus were the only things that made it possible to both process Christopher’s words and to react to them appropriately.
“You could have microscopic cuts on your fingers,” Christopher said in a rush. “You can’t touch me.”
I put my hands up to show Christopher I wasn’t going to. His relief was palpable.
“Put your hand under the water,” I ordered before striding out of the kitchen. It didn’t take me long to find what I was looking for because it was still sitting in the same place in the living room that it had been the day before.
Christopher’s medical kit.
I snatched the thing off the floor and hurried back to the kitchen.
During those thirty seconds, the reality of what the young man had told me hit me like a ton of bricks.
He’s HIV positive.
A soul-crushing sadness began to wash over me, but I forced it away. The last thing Christopher needed was pity. If and when he needed a shoulder to lean on, I’d be first in line, but for now, I needed to focus on the immediate problem.
“How does it look?” I asked as I returned to the kitchen. Christopher jumped.
“You’re still here,” he said in genuine surprise.
“Um, yeah, where did you think—”
I stopped abruptly when I realized what it was he’d been thinking. That I’d left him because of what he’d told me.
I practically slammed the medical kit down on the counter next to the sink. “We’re going to talk about that later,” I said stiffly as I searched out the latex gloves I was hoping to find.
As I worked them on, Christopher said, “Rush, you don’t have to. The cut’s not that bad, so I can handle it by myself.”
I ignored his words as I rummaged around the kitchen for a clean towel. As soon as I found one, I returned to his side and muttered, “I guess you’ve been doing a lot of that these days, haven’t you?”
As much as I’d tried to keep the anger out of my voice, I hadn’t been totally successful. I had no doubt at all that he hadn’t told anyone in his family what was going on. He, who had one of the most supportive and loving families I’d ever met, hadn’t leaned on them when he’d needed to the most.