AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Dr. Tru nods and regards Severio, whose eyes are narrowed and looking between me and Tru. When I was in my early twenties, I went on two dates with Tuan Tru, but we didn’t work out. He tried a few times after that, but gave up when he got the clue I wasn’t interested. He’s a nice man. Treated me kindly. We didn’t have chemistry, is all.
I’d forgotten all about it. Not even sure why I’m thinking about it now, but maybe I’m wondering what my life would’ve looked like if I stayed with him. He married Sofia Favarolo, who teaches third grade. They have two kids and a Dalmatian.
“May I see your wounds?” he asks Severio as he sits on the living room table across the couch.
“No, you may not,” Severio says sarcastically. “I called you here to flirt with my girlfriend.”
The medical staff freezes, unsure what to do.
Corrado comes to stand near me again. “She’s not his girlfriend.”
This close to Corrado, I want to crawl out of my skin. I don’t notice how much nearer I move toward Severio until I’m plastered against him and his arm comes around my shoulder.
“It’s okay,” he comforts me again, and I just feel terrible that he’s having to do that while wounded. I’m handling this shooting like a baby.Grow up already.
But I can’t. Even though I’m not shaking now, it’s only been an hour since bullets flew all around us. Granted, it’s probably Severio who’s not handling it the way most people handle a brush with death, and I’m the one who’s being normal about it. He speaks calmly and remains chill enough to direct everyone around him when freaking out and being scared should be a part of the ordeal.
“Do everything you can,” Corrado says to Tuan, then points at me, crooking his finger. “Come here. I want to speak with you.”
It’s a good thing Severio tightens his grip around my shoulders. “She’s staying.”
Corrado fires back in a language I can’t make out. Not French, English, or Italian. Not Spanish either, but maybe adjacent. I’m trying to make out any Latin words, but they speak as if they’re fluent and sound like they’re arguing.
Most foreign languages sound like arguments, but I think this one might very well be.
Dr. Tru is examining Severio’s wounds, and when he uncovers the one on his calf, blood gushes out. Severio pauses and looks down. “Aw fuck.” His eyes roll into the back of his head and he sways, but Severio manages to steady himself. “If I pass out, Corrado will scare you because he’s worried about me. But he won’t touch you. Nobody will.”
With that, Severio’s head plops back, and his eyes close.
I sit up on my knees.
Tuan checks his pulse and then gets the nurses working on his patient. Corrado drops the back of the couch down so that it turns into a queen-sized bed we can use to turn Severio on hisbelly. I move out of the way when I see Nedda bringing bags of blood and hanging them up.
“We only had O pos at the blood bank and no time to type,” she says to Corrado as she hands the bags.
“He’s O pos,” Corrado says.
Wow. How does he know that? If this were my dad, I wouldn’t have known. It never came up.
The nurses and the doctor work on Severio. I wish he’d gone to the hospital, where they could care for him better.
I chew my nail.
Corrado leans in. “Are you worried he might live?”
I drop my hand. “I wish him well.”
“Do you?” Corrado jerks his head toward the bedroom. I follow him there, but he doesn’t enter, choosing instead to lean on the wall near the door.
I cross my arms over my chest. “Why do you suspect me? I was here when it happened. Do you think I orchestrated a hit on myself?”
“Was it Gio?”
“I don’t know.”
“You must know something,” he hisses in my face.
“I know nothing. I swear it.”
