“I’m quite busy right now, but thanks for letting me know.”
“Doctor, I think it’s important.”
I can hear him blowing air in my ear.
“Fine, put the call through the landline, and put it on speaker.” he says and the man who was delivering the news starts calling the extension for the receptionist.
Zach takes my hand in his and brings them to my face.
“What do you say, you wanna hold the clamp?”
“Oh, my God, can I do that?”
“Well, no, but I’m sure Shaw is gonna keep his mouth shut. He wouldn’t say no to a beautiful girl, right Shaw?”
“As long as you don’t kill this young fellow, I’m good with it.”
Zach looks at me and guides my hand over the open chest, making me hold the clamp. I am actually stopping the blood flow to his heart. How amazing is that?
“Dr. Ford, phone call coming in, I’ll put it on speaker.”
“Thanks, man. Hello, this is Doctor Zachary Ford, and if it wasn’t clear by now, I’m busy. I can’t come downstairs.”
“Hello, Doctor Ford, this is Isabella Castellani.” The suave voice of a woman fills up the room, and Zach freezes in place instantly. Out of instinct, my body stiffens up too, and a bad feeling installs in my gut. “I’ll wait you here.”
After that the line goes dead. What the hell, she’s not making a contraband exchange, what’s with the gangster telephone move? I don’t know who she is, or what she wants, but I can feel the tension in the room, and when Zach let’s go of my hands, I know she will get it. Twenty seconds later he jogs out.
“Let the clamp go, London, we’re done.” I don’t know why his tone feels very personal. “Shaw, you can close here, page me about post-op tests.” And he leaves, abandoning me in painful silence. And it’s getting worse when Emmy decides to break it.
“She calls and he runs to her. Pathetic. How are you taking this come back, London?”
“Who came back?” My voice is shaky. I don’t know why. I know nothing about this woman, but I know I won’t like this.
Emmy looks up with sympathetic eyes, like I’ve just been broken and damaged. Am I gonna get broken? Because if someone has the power to do it, Zach is that person.
“Isabella, his ex-fiancée. She ran away from their engagement party, eloping with another guy. I know it’s hard to believe, but he wasn’t born a bitter jackass.”
“Oh...” I don’t have the capacity to articulate anything else.
Isabella. His fiancée. Ex-fiancée. The woman that kept him away from me all this time. She’s why he lives to forget.
The fire runs through my gut.
I lacked the patience to stay and wait to take the elevator with other people who would want small talk, so I ran down the stairs. I ran. Like a pathetic bitch going to her pimp. Not much of a difference. Isabella used to make me jump through hoops all the time for scraps of happiness, I guess that is some form of prostitution too.
I step into the lit, open space of the hospital’s information desk and stop to catch my breath. From my right side, a short girl resembling a bunny rabbit and holding a shit load of files taps me on my shoulder.
“Dr. Ford, there’s someone waiting for...”
“I know.” I cut her off and the poor creature runs scared and hides behind her desk.
Dismissing her, I take a breath to try and prepare myself for whatever shit is about to fucking happen. I’m halfway through my breathing when I see her, five feet away, relaxed in chair. For a couple of seconds, I lose my head watching her. Isabella has always had this effect on people, forcing everybody’s eyes to fall on her. It’s like her presence sucks all the light out of a room, making her’s the most luminous in a mile radius.
Fuck.
She tilts her head up and her eyes find me immediately, as her gut told her I’ve been looking her from afar. It’s her, she’s really here. Queen bitch has returned to her crime scene. In one fluid movement, Isabella gets on her mile-long legs, throws her hair over her shoulder and starts walking to me, like a jaguar that just eyed one juicy rabbit. No, I don’t feel like prey, but I hate myself because she knows that once she had that power.
We get closer and closer until finally, she’s at an arm’s length.
“What are you doing here? Is...” But she doesn’t stop. Two more steps and her arms go around my neck, like octopus tentacles, and I find myself dragged down to meet her lips. The sensation is paralyzing.
Her soft, puffy lips cover my mouth, sensually sucking on my bottom one. I know this trick; this is her seduction move. Not many men can resist an Isabella who’s trying to lure you into her game. God knows I fell for it.
Her tongue touches my lips, and her hands go up, tangling in my hair. For one second - just one short second - I let myself take comfort in it.
The next moment I remember where we are. I remember how many people are watching right now. I remember that London, who I fucked like an animal just nights ago, is a few rooms away from me.
I shake away the numbness and step the hell away. The break was even more shocking than the contact, it was like a lightning strike from her lips to mine. The only thing that I’m capable to articulate is a whisper.
“What the fuck...?”
“I don’t remember you being shy, Zachary.”
Ha, that’s funny, because I don’t remember her being anywhere around the last two years. For forty-five minutes I waited for her in the lobby of the hotel where everyone came to celebrate our engagement: countless hours I spent climbing the walls, calling her, leaving messages. And then I spent the following week banging Annabella’s brains out, trying to trick myself and believe her twin sister was still in the bed with me. So, what the fuck does she want now?
“Can you at least say hello so I know you hear me?” There’s the poisonous bitch I know and don’t anymore.
“What are you doing here?”
“I’ve been back in town for a couple of days and of course I came to see you, Zach. You are my fiancée after all.”
Remember all those times I’ve been a jerk to London? I’ve called her names, I’ve fucked her up in her head? Yeah, it’s coming back now.
“Did you bang your fucking head on something, Isabella?”
She popped her lips, rolled her eyes, and crossed her hands under her bfoobs. Wait, are those bigger? She got fucking breast implants.
“It’s not just Bella anymore? And you never officially broke off our engagement, so...”
“So fucking nothing. I never had to break anything off because you ran out on me. All of our friends and family came to celebrate us, and you ran away with your side piece, Isabella. You fucking left me.” I try to keep it low, but my blood is slowly elevating to my brain.
She rolls her eyes, dismissing my words, treating things like I’m overreacting. This is a fucking joke to this woman. I am a fucking joke to her.
“Zach, can we just go somewhere else and talk? That way I can say what’s on my mind and you can scream freely.”
“We have nothing to talk about, Isabella.”
She bites her lip and nods her head like she is trying to explain where babies come from to a three-year-old toddler.