weighed carefully to reveal the possible hidden meaning behind it.
The petty side of Alex wanted to wave his middle finger in Helen’s face and walk out of there, but the mature part—which Alex was still amazed even existed inside him—understood that they were both going to be in Noah’s life and therefore needed to learn to get along. Alex had firsthand knowledge how shitty it felt to lose family, so he would never be the one who’d cause a rift between Noah and his mother.
Alex took a deep, calming breath. Counted to ten in his head. Not everything Helen said was an attack. Sometimes the thing a person wanted to say just came out wrong.
“What did you mean, then?” Alex asked.
“Noah can’t donate blood when he’s in a relationship with a man,” Helen said.
“I feel like we’re going in circles.” Alex was trying really hard not to let his impatience show.
Helen stared at him. “What if he needs blood himself?” she asked slowly, eyes laser focused on Alex.
It was as if all the air had been sucked out of the room as it finally hit Alex. When getting a transfusion, blood types had to match, which meant that Noah with his Rhnull blood could only receive Rhnull blood.
The rarest blood type in the world.
Helen continued talking. The words moving through Alex’s mind, each of them sharp as a nail that Helen hammered into Alex’s brain with an almost cruel precision. “Noah’s blood type is so rare that it’s estimated there are only about fifty people with Rhnull blood in the whole world. Of those fifty, only ten are active donors. And of those ten, only one is in the United States.
“I know his blood donations have saved lives, so they have had a major impact for other people’s lives, but those donations could mean the difference between life and death for Noah himself, too.”
Helen took a deep breath. Everything she said, Alex had realized already, but he couldn’t find it in himself to stop her, so he just let her go on.
“He’s essentially donating as a safeguard for himself. If he doesn’t give blood and if something happens to him, what are the chances they can find a donor for him? In case of a scheduled surgery, there’s at least a possibility to find somebody and fly the blood in from the other side of the world, if necessary. But what if there’s an accident and he needs a transfusion quickly? If he hasn’t donated blood himself, it’ll be virtually impossible to find another Rhnull individual that quickly. He needs those donations, Alex. And as wrong and unreasonable as it is, right now, if he is in a relationship with you, the FDA won’t let him give blood.”
Her fingers clenched into fists on top of the table. “It’s so goddamn unfair, but that’s where we are right now.”
She looked at Alex, her expression pleading for him to understand.
“Shit!” Alex said weakly. How the fuck had he not thought about it before? How could he have been so stupid and not figure it out before Helen beamed a bright spotlight on the glaring issue that Noah, should he need a transfusion, most likely didn’t have a suitable donor?
He tried to think back on the day Noah had told him about his blood type. Noah hadn’t actually outright said the words, If I get anything other than Rhnull blood in me, I’ll be in deep shit. But they’d definitely touched on the topic, hadn’t they? Alex himself had pointed out that you could only get donations from people who had the same type of blood. No wonder Noah had thought Alex would get it.
He swallowed hard. Helen was saying more things, but Alex’s ears were ringing so loudly that he could only mutely stare at her lips moving. A glass of water was pressed into his palm, but Alex didn’t think he’d be able to keep it down, so he put it back on the table and lowered his head between his knees, trying to fight off the intense and sudden panic that had risen in his chest like a tidal wave, threatening to pull Alex under and drown him.
“I don’t… I didn’t even think about that,” Alex finally managed to say. He’d been stupidly happy about having Noah back in his life. Nothing mattered because they were in their safe little bubble and obviously it was impenetrable, and in his mind, it would have been smooth sailing from there on.
But what