It doesn’t stop me from screaming at the top of my lungs like a little school girl when the driver shuts the car door behind me. I’m gonna get fucking married to the love of my life, and this time, it’s going to be forever.
16
Serafin:
“You need to fire that jackass before I have to come down there and take care of things myself,” I say to Jakub, pacing around my office. Mia is going to pissed if she finds out I called him on her behalf, but I don’t want Philip the freak thinking he can breeze in there and steal what’s mine.
“Well maybe if you were keeping an eye on him like I told you to, you’d be able to relay him yourself,” he says, laughing on the other line. “She scared him right off. You have nothing to worry about. Your girlfriend really is one in a million, Serafin. Everyone here loves her. She’s a huge asset to this place. Doesn’t hurt that she knows CPR in case I happen to keel over again.”
“Sorry, her mouth is mine now, Jakub. Maybe you need to stay off the blow and boner pills,” I chuckle.
Her mouth is mine. Her body is mine. Her heart is mine. It’s happening so fast, but I’ve lived a whole lifetime waiting for this day. I thumb the elegant princess cut diamond ring in the red velvet box. I had my great grandmother’s ring reset in platinum and studded with two little rubies on either side. Mia’s always brought color into my world of darkness, and my love burns for her red hot. I know she’s going to love it.
I wish I would’ve waited and got down on one knee proper, but she was so happy this morning when I showed her the paintings. She was so thrilled when I suggested she open up her own gallery. Seeing her so happy makes me just want to keep doing more and more. I want to give her everything in the world, everything she deserves.
“I gotta go,” I say, when an unfamiliar number pops up on the screen of my phone. I never know who might be calling, but anybody who has this number had to really go out of their way to get it.
“Hello,” I answer.
“Mr. Mazur, this is the Oakmont County hospital. Your mother has you listed as her emergency contact?”
Dear Lord, my mother has always been a drama queen, but if our conversation yesterday made her have an episode, she’s probably going to keel over and die when she finds out what I did to grandma’s ring.
“Yes, is everything alright?”
“She’s in surgery right now. She had an accident on the tennis court. It appears she fractured her hip. I wanted to notify you.”
“I’ll be over as soon as I can,” I say. I get the details I need and hang up the phone. It doesn’t sound super serious, but I want to be there when she wakes up. At the end of the day, no matter what shitty things happened in our past, she’ll always be my mother, and I’m the only last living relative she has.
I shoot Mia a quick text, just in case I don’t get service at the hospital, and hop in my Jaguar, heading down the highway to the hospital.
I have to laugh over the fact that on one of the biggest, most important days of my life, my mom would have to find a way to get attention. I’m sure she’s fine, she probably just had a few too many martinis and tripped over her shoelaces.
When I get to the hospital, they have her in a holding room, waiting for her to wake up from the anesthesia. This place gives me a bad feeling, reminders of the year I spent here staring at the floral wallpaper, wondering why I didn’t just die that night. I blow out a thankful breath, knowing it was all worth it as long as it lead me to today.
The doctor finally walks me back into her room, and I immediately get this feeling everything isn’t going to be alright. She looks so frail and tiny, tubes and wires coming out of her body. Her hands are gray and her face looks twenty years older than I’m used to seeing. I try to shrug it off, thinking maybe it’s just that I’m not used to seeing her without all the makeup on her face.
“I’m sorry, Mr. Mazur, I wish I had better news for you, but she’s got a long road to recovery ahead.”
“What?” I stammer. “She broke a bone. Can’t you just set it and move along?”
“There’s a lot of complications that can occur when elderly people break bones. Your mother may appear healthy on the outside, but even anesthetizing someone of her age comes with serious risks. She’s going to need a long time to heal and rest, and she’ll need a lot of physical therapy to get back on track. She may need to stay in a long term care facility for awhile until she’s functional again.”
I guess just because half her body parts are barely legal, doesn’t mean everything under the hood is young and healthy. I ball my hands into fists and throw my head back, wishing the last time I talked to her, I was a little bit kinder.
“I can hear you doctor,” she says, her voice weak. “I can stay
