her gaze.
A few days ago, I’d panic but now I immediately knew what she was up to. I put my palm on the top of the broom and settled in to watch the performance.
“I… I’m… my…” She worked her jaw as if it had suddenly become stiff.
There she goes…
“My… may…” She glanced around in a panic. “Mais, qu’est-ce qui m’arrive?”1
Dr. Milton gave a start. “Beg your pardon?”
I stifled a laugh in my shoulder as Thea’s eyes widened and her hands flew to her throat.
“Je ne peux pas m’arrêter de parler français!”2
Dr. Milton stared at Thea, his jaw opening and closing. Dr. Chen, however, crossed her arms and mutely shook her head at an intern to stop taking notes.
“C’est normal?” Thea begged of Dr. Milton. “Qu’est ce qui cloche chez moi?”
“There is nothing wrong with you,” Dr. Chen answered, a bemused smirk on her face. “Nice try. Four years of French, here. Et vous?”
“Six,” Thea said with a giggle.
“What…?” Delia stared in alarm, then slumped in her seat. “Honestly, Thea, there is something wrong with you. Very wrong.”
Thea burst out laughing. “Couldn’t help myself. I finally found a good use for it.”
Dr. Milton chuckled. “Quite a prankster.”
“It gets old, trust me,” Delia said.
“If we could get back to our evaluation?” Dr. Chen said.
Thea shot me another smile and a sheepish shrug. I held up both hands, giving a ten-out-of-ten score, then the doctors closed in around her.
Rita meandered over to me, her hands behind her back and a shit-eating grin on her face.
“What?”
“Can’t say,” she said. “Girl code. I can’t say that Thea talked about you at the mall.”
“She did?”
“And at the risk of sounding like we’re back in junior high, I also can’t say the words drop, dead, and gorgeous were thrown around quite liberally.”
I inhaled the possibilities, then sighed them out. “Chapter three of the employee handbook, Rita. You know nothing can happen.”
Between Thea and me. Us. Whatever that might be.
“I do,” she said. “But if Thea continues to do well, she won’t be a resident much longer.”
“Really? It’s only been a few days.”
“I know and the doctors—not to mention Delia—are going to want to keep her for observation.”
“Is it dangerous for Thea to leave Blue Ridge?” I asked.
“For longer than a trip to the mall?”
I nodded.
“In my professional opinion? Not necessarily. If she had someone with her at all times, at least at first. And I’d prefer she have a roommate, once she gets her own place, just to be safe.” She raised her eyebrows. “Any volunteers?”
“I’m being serious.”
“So am I,” she said. “Why are you asking?”
“I don’t think she’s going to be happy here for long.”
“Neither do I. She’s strong-willed. I don’t think any of us can talk her out of wanting her life back. But it’s too soon. Dr. Chen says so and she’s the final authority, not me.”
“But there’s no real danger?” I asked. “Medically speaking?”
“Honey, there’s danger in getting in a car to head to the corner store,” Rita said. “Thea knows that better than anyone. But Delia has power of attorney over her. It was set up when Thea was incapacitated.” She looked over to where Thea was answering the doctors’ questions. “Does she look incapacitated to you?”
She looks fucking perfect.
“Exactly,” Rita said, reading my expression.
“So Delia has to call off her power of attorney, right?”
“I doubt it. Ms. Hughes has been in control of every aspect of Thea’s life for the past two years.” She gave me a sympathetic glance. “She’s not going to give it up without a fight.”
----------
1: What is happening to me?
2: I can’t stop speaking French!
Later, when I figured the doctors had cleared out, I went back to the rec room. Thea stood in front of a blank canvas, a tray of paints beside her. She turned and gave me another of her so-happy-to-see-you smiles. It sent a warm feeling through my chest and heated my blood too. Being near her was becoming something more than good. Or casual.
I still wanted long conversations with Thea, only instead of having those talks while out on the grounds or in the rec room, my imagination conjured her in my bed, with her hair splayed over my pillow. The morning light revealed the marks we’d put on each other’s body the night before. Her lips were swollen from my kisses, and my shoulder blades stung where she’d raked her nails. We’d talk and kiss until kissing wasn’t enough. Then I’d take her hard and she’d come undone beneath me. We’d eat