AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Can’t sleep?”
Cornell jumped. “Sorry.”
“Don’t be. Help yourself.” John motioned to the bar in the corner.
Grabbing a short glass, Cornell reached for the whiskey. “You can’t sleep either?”
“Hard time turning it off tonight. She’s still out?”
Cornell nodded before sitting on the leather couch. “Should she be sleeping this much?”
“It’s the only way to recover,” John said with a sigh. “It will be less and less. Tomorrow she’ll probably be on her feet, begging you to take her home.”
I hope, Cornell thought. “I mean, maybe it’s better she does stay here for a while.”
“A few days at least. Bobbi will be here. She can look after her.” John took a sip of his drink. “This is an important time for you at work.”
Fuck work, Cornell wanted to say, but he respected John too much. “I mean, when she comes home, I can run in for a morning meeting and practice. She won’t be alone the whole day.”
“Not one person thinks any less of you for having to work. Or wanting to work. Especially Ali. You know that, right, Cornell?”
Cornell stayed silent. I think less of me.
John sighed. “There’s plenty of time for you to be by her side.”
“A lifetime,” Cornell whispered, his mind flashing to his mother’s ring, wondering what it would look like on Ali’s finger before he bit his lip, realizing what he had said.
“What was that?”
Cornell looked over at John’s curious face. “I um… you know, I feel like I should’ve planned this better and thought about something nicer to say.” He chuckled to himself. “It’s probably not the right time to say this.”
“The time to say what?”
Sitting straighter, Cornell gripped the glass tightly. “I know I should talk to Bobbi as well, and I will.” He cleared his throat, trying to dissolve the ball that had lumped up in his throat, and looked John dead in the eye. “I want you to know I’d like to marry Ali.”
John said nothing, and Cornell realized he had just asked for Ali’s hand in marriage wearing pajama bottoms and drinking whiskey with his hopefully-to-be father-in-law when they both were facing insomnia because of a near-tragedy. He felt the need to backtrack without quite backtracking.
“I… I didn’t want to ask you like that or say—”
“You’re the exact kind of man I’d want Ali to marry.”
The approval was simple, quiet, and exactly what Cornell needed at the moment, so he wasn’t sure why the next words left his mouth.
“I saw the car,” he told John quietly. “I went down to the lot to get Ali’s phone.”
John looked down at his glass. “Bad?”
Cornell nodded, taking a drink. His hand began to shake, and his teeth clinked on the glass. “I’m not sure how she made it out.”
“Sometimes, all this stuff is luck right down to the second. You know I hate saying that. But whatever it was, or whoever it was”—he paused, motioning up—“I’ll take what I can get—divine intervention, adrenaline rush, whatever.”
“No, you’re right. I just wish I didn’t see the car.” He released a burdened breath and ran a hand across his face. “Can’t get that out of my head even when she’s right beside me.”
“That image will fade,” John assured him. “And Ali will make a turnaround. So long as she’s alert when she is awake, everything will be fine. But I’ll ask Bobbi to track how much she’s sleeping after you go. Would be worth noting for the follow-up with the neurologist. You’re off in the morning?”
Cornell finished his whiskey, placing it on the small table beside the couch. “I should leave around eight. I didn’t tell you this, but my dad is in town. He’s at our place. I probably should relieve him of Mowgli duty.”
John raised an eyebrow. “Is that so? Well, that’s nice.”
