I Pretend You're Mine

15. The Hospital

From the corner of her eye, Lucy saw that where he was seated next to her in his truck, Tim opened his mouth to try to speak. "Don't talk to me," she snapped.

The rest of the drive to the hospital was silent.

They barreled into the waiting room to find Dave.

"What happened?" Tim asked the other man.

"She fainted. One minute she was fine, and the next she wasn't. Doctors are running some tests," Dave answered with worry pulling his face into lines that showed his age.

"Where's Tamara?" Lucy questioned.

"Right after dinner, I asked Tamara to go get your car from the mechanic, since you told us your car was ready and hadn't had the time to pick it up. I called her after I hung up with you guys, and she should be here soon."

One second later, Tamara entered the waiting room. "Any news?"

"Nothing yet. Take a seat," Dave tried to sound as gentle as possible and motioned for her to join him in the row of plastic chairs.

Lucy could not even dream of sitting down. She was reeling from everything that had happened over the last few days, and her mind kept racing as she tried to collect her thoughts on the confusing place she found herself with Tim.

Days ago, he had tried to press her about Chris and why she doesn't love him. At that point, she was not ready to tell Tim that what was holding her back from loving Chris was that "he's just not you". She started to tell him. She said "he's just not" but left the "you" unspoken but easy to understand. Finally, an hour ago, Lucy had the strength to share with him the whole sentence and answer Tim's previous question. She told him "he's just not you".

He kissed her in response, which she thought was more than acceptable, and then they went into the cottage making out and stumbling all the way to the bed. Lucy told him she was ready for them to have sex, and she had every intention of sleeping with him.

Until the mood shifted when she confessed, "I love you". Tim was surprised, speechless, unresponsive. Actually, instead of saying ANYTHING to her, he answered an incoming call to tell Angela very emphatically that he and Lucy were not engaged.

The words and his tone of voice hurt Lucy more than words could describe, and she was grateful to receive Dave's call as a reprieve from her very painful one-sided conversation with Tim. But, Dave's call brought her to the hospital pacing the waiting room floor worrying about her sick aunt AND Tim.

It was all too much to think about at once, and Lucy thought she might explode.

Looking over at Tim did not help. He stood frozen just as he had when she told him she loves him. There was a sad look on his face, and Lucy wondered what he was sad about- Amy's condition, how he reacted to Lucy saying "I love you", his word choice when speaking with Angela, trying to start a relationship with Lucy in the first place? There were too many possibilities that she could not be sure what bothered Tim, and for the first time since their first shift together when he came into the shop with watering eyes and she saw that sad look on his face for the first time, Lucy did not try to comfort him. She could not tell him "It's going to be okay" like she had while he was being quarantined in a house and Lucy was stuck on the other side of the door. She could not even hug him like she had after he left his dad's hospice room. Lucy was at a complete loss of what to do.

A nurse came over and announced that Amy was ready for visitors. Everyone went to Amy's room immediately and found her smiling. "Hey, everyone! Before you start freaking out, I'm perfectly fine," she promised them.

"I was so worried about you, honey," Dave sighed and reached for his wife's hand.

"Oh, you're such a worrier! I'll be okay, well, I'm still terminal, but I'm not going anywhere yet."