Culinaria L'amore

Culinaria L'amore Chapter Forty-Five

All I want to say is that you guys are too cute :)

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Maybe two chapters left and then a good ol' epilogue. So could you guys maybe vote vote vote? I would really love to get into the Watty Awards finals and that can happen if you all vote for this chapter and vote for every other chapter.

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<3 Infatuated

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At first instinct, I thought that the man on the other side of the line was talking about Harrison. But then I realized that Orange County was in California and Harrison was probably playing his weekly tennis club match since it was Sunday.

Instead of feeling relief like I should have, after all, my boyfriend was safe, I felt more dread than before, along with a pinch of guilt. I should have felt relieved that Harrison was okay, but here I was, worrying over another guy, a guy that I liked too much to admit and a guy that I kissed on national television. The saddest part was that I only felt a little panicky when I thought Harrison was hurt, but now, as I realized Garrett had gotten into a car crash? The feeling tripled.

"Excuse me?" I managed to squeak, bracing my arm against the head of the couch.

"Madam, please calm down. Are you Kirsten Bellini?"

"Yeah, yeah, I am. What's wrong?"

"Your boyfriend, Garrett has gotten into a car accident on highway 416 and has been brought into the Orange County hospital. For the sake of confidentiality, we would appreciate if you could come down to the hospital. You're the first person on his contacts list."

Feeling faint, I nearly keeled over onto the couch; instead I focused on his words and scrambled around the hotel room, grabbing my jacket, shoes, and wallet. Thank God I hadn't left anything in the room Alonzo and Angela were currently in.

"Um, yes sir, I'll be right down. But, could you at least tell me how's he's doing?"

There was a pause on the other end that seemed to last for a decade before the guy on the other side cleared and throat and said, "Well, since you are his girlfriend.... we've placed him under an artificial coma. There has been some internal bleeding and he has a fractured left shoulder, but overall, nothing too serious or extreme."

I took a shaky breath, my tears blinding my vision slightly as I focused on my tembling hand, trying to get the right key to take with me. "Alright. Thank you. I'll be there immediately."

"Take your time miss. Mr. Bianchi will be in the West Wing."

Racing down the stairs, too impatient to wait for the elevator, I burst out into the cool, night air, dialing the local taxi number and requesting for a small yellow cab. When the car glided to a stop in the parking lost, I flung myself in, hurriedly asking to go to the Orange County hospital, before taking out my phone and dialling Angela's cell.

When she didn't answer after calling her phone twice, I sighed and left a short message. 'Hey. Garrett's been in a car crash. I'm heading to the hospital right now. Call you later?'

The drive turned out to be a thirty minute trip, giving me enough time to wonder how the hospital had assumed I was Garrett's girlfriend, and what Garrett was doing so far away from Los Angeles.

Neither question really got a direct answer as I dwelled on them, still lost as to what had happened in the past hour.

The road trip was quiet and dark, the big city lights fading a little as we headed towards the more southern California, the area getting more rural than before.