Best Friends Forever (11 page)

C
eline blinked the blurriness from her eyes and looked around to see what all the fuss was about. She heard a siren whistling in the background and a man saying that an IV was already being started. She didn't hear anyone respond, so she wasn't sure who he was talking to.

She blinked a few more times, and then she looked slightly upward and saw a man in uniform. When she looked in front of her, she saw Keith. At the same time, she noticed something covering her face. This was when she panicked.

“Baby, it's okay,” Keith said, rubbing her arm. “We're in the ambulance, and we're almost at the hospital. Please try to stay calm.”

Celine wondered what had happened to her and why she was being rushed to the ER. She tried to remember something—anything—but she couldn't.

“I'm here, baby,” Keith said, “and I'm not going anywhere.”

Suddenly Celine realized how groggy she was, but she heard the paramedic talking to someone again. He wasn't speaking to Keith, though, so maybe it was to a doctor.

Keith caressed her hair. “Hang in there, baby. I love you so much, and I won't leave your side, no matter what.”

Celine gazed at him, and while she didn't say anything, she was glad to have him there. As of this moment, she didn't care about what Keith had done or what the current state of their marriage was. She was just happy to have someone there with her—her husband looking out for her the way he was supposed to. It was also then that she remembered the doorbell ringing and how when she'd opened the door for Keith he'd been holding flowers. It must have been then that she'd passed out.

Celine raised her hand to remove the oxygen mask, but Keith stopped her.

“Try not to talk. We're almost there. You're gonna be fine.”

Celine watched him for a few more seconds and then closed her eyes. Before long, they arrived in front of the ER entrance, and the paramedics removed her from the ambulance and wheeled her inside. At the direction of a medical staff member, they rolled her down to her designated examination room and transferred her onto a hospital gurney.

“Good luck, ma'am,” the paramedic who'd been in the back of the ambulance with her said.

Keith shook his hand. “Thank you for everything. Thank you as well,” he said, turning to the driver and shaking his hand also.

“I'm Dr. Cates,” the attending physician said to Celine, and she saw two nurses, one typing information into the computer and the other connecting her to various hospital monitors.

The doctor moved closer to Celine. “I'm going to remove your oxygen mask, but you let me know if you feel like you're having shortness of breath.”

Celine shook her head and waited. Thankfully, she felt fine.

“Can you breathe okay?” Dr. Cates asked.

“Yes.”

“Good. So, while you were en route, we checked your patient file and see that you're in the midst of having daily radiation.”

“I am.”

“And your hemoglobin has been dropping a little as well.”

“Yes.”

“That may be the problem, but I'm ordering a full blood workup to see if we can figure out exactly what's going on. If your hemoglobin has dropped a lot lower, that would also explain your low blood pressure and your resting heart rate, which is very high.”

Celine took a deep breath and silently prayed.
Lord, please take care of me. Protect me
. Then she silently recited Matthew nine, twenty-two, the same as Lauren had told her to do before she'd had surgery.
Daughter, be encouraged! Your faith has made you well
.

When Dr. Cates left, the younger nurse with coal-black hair confirmed the correct spelling of Celine's name and her birthdate. Then she snapped a plastic ID bracelet around Celine's wrist.

“Are you in any pain?” the older nurse asked her.

“No, I'm not. I just feel really tired.”

“Well, hopefully they'll figure out what's causing that very soon. Someone from the lab should be in shortly, but in the meantime, just let us know if you need anything. Your call light is right there,” she said, pointing to it, “and you can also control the television from there as well.”

“Thank you,” Celine said.

The older nurse smiled. “You're quite welcome.”

When both women left, Keith took a seat in the chair at the side of the bed and grabbed Celine's hand. Celine looked at him and saw tears in his eyes.

“Baby, I am so sorry I wasn't here for you when you had surgery. I'm sorry for everything, and I know I was wrong. I have a lot of making up to do, and I'll do that if you'll just let me come back home. Let me take care of you.”

Celine gazed into his eyes but didn't speak.

“I can't lose you,” he continued. “Not over my crazy, heartless mistake. All I want is to spend the rest of my life with you. The way I promised I would years ago.”

Celine still didn't comment and finally looked away from him.

“Baby, just tell me what to do. I'm willing to do anything. But please don't make me lose my family. You and Kassie are all I have, and we both owe Kassie a chance at growing up with two parents.”

Celine was glad Keith was there because she was afraid to be left alone, but she didn't want to talk about their marriage. Not right now.

“Keith, I'm really tired.”

“Baby, I know, and I'm sorry to keep bothering you with this, but I just want you to know how much I love you and how sorry I am.”

Celine closed her eyes, and Keith didn't say anything else.

But then she opened them again. “Hey, can you do me a favor and call Lauren?”

“Of course,” Keith said. “What's her number?”

Celine recited it, and after Keith punched the digits into his phone, he passed it over to her.

“Hello?” Lauren said.

“Hey, girl, it's me.”

“Is everything okay? Where are you?”

“I'm at the emergency room.”

“Oh no, what happened?”

“I passed out, and they're going to run a few blood tests.”

“I'll be there as soon as I can.”

“You don't have to do that. Since my cell phone is at home, I didn't want you to call and not get an answer.”

“That's why I asked where you were. I didn't recognize the hospital's phone number.”

“I'm actually calling you from Keith's phone.”

“Oh really? How did that come about?”

“Long story.”

“I'll see you shortly.”

“I really don't want you to leave work. It's not that serious, and I'll call you when I know what's going on.”

“Come on, now. You know I'm not hearing any of that.”

Celine sighed and slightly chuckled. “I'll see you soon, girl.”

Keith took his phone back. “So is Lauren on her way?”

“Yeah.”

“She's been a very good friend to you, and I really need to thank her for that. She was there for you when I wasn't.”

Celine wished he wouldn't keep reminding her of that, because it was only making her angry.

Keith leaned back in the chair. “Gosh, I really messed up, but I'm here now and I won't ever disappoint or hurt you again,” he said, caressing her arm.

Celine wasn't sure how to feel about Keith, and that bothered her. She knew there was no way she should as much as entertain the idea of taking Keith back, but she couldn't help thinking about what he'd said not long ago: “
We both owe Kassie a chance at growing up with two parents
.” Then she thought about how upset Kassie had been this morning when she'd learned her father wanted to return home and Celine hadn't said he could. Celine was terribly confused and unsure about everything—all while laid up in the emergency room, wondering why she'd collapsed in her entryway. She hoped it was nothing serious and that she'd be able to go home in a few hours. She prayed that God would fix every aspect of her life and guide her decisions. Because she certainly had a lot of them to make. Could she actually take back a man who'd walked out on her for another woman? Could she ever trust him again? And if it turned out that she couldn't trust him, should she force herself to stay married to Keith for Kassie's sake?

Celine closed her eyes, tossing a number of thoughts through her mind. But it wasn't long before they turned toward the woman Keith had slept with. For some reason, Celine hadn't asked him more than a few questions about her, and even those questions hadn't been specific. But suddenly Celine wanted to know everything: the woman's name, what she looked like, where she worked, where she lived, if she had children, where she'd been born, if she had an ex-husband, did she attend church, etc., etc., etc. Most of all, though, Celine wanted to know what this tramp of a woman had that she didn't. What was it that had been so great about her? What had this woman done to convince Keith to move out of his own house, abandoning his wife and daughter? Yet now he was begging like a child to move back in? Not to mention, he'd only been gone for two months, and now this woman was already out of the picture? Celine wasn't sure what to think or how things were going to turn out between them, but she wanted answers. She wanted the truth and nothing less than that.

C
eline was glad to be home. It had taken Dr. Cates a little longer than he'd thought to get her results back, but once he had, he'd informed her that she was slightly anemic. She wasn't to the point where she needed a blood transfusion, but Dr. Cates had explained that if Celine didn't take it easy, she would. The doctor had also prescribed her some iron pills to take until she was better.

Lauren pulled the comforter closer to Celine's shoulders, and Keith stood at the side of the bed with his arms crossed. Since he'd ridden to the hospital with Celine by ambulance, he'd had to catch a ride back with Lauren—and he hadn't said one word the entire trip. He knew Lauren no longer liked him, and he was trying to tread lightly around her. Kassie, who they'd picked up from Delia's on the way home, sat very close to her mom on the bed.

Lauren placed the remote control on the nightstand so that Celine could easily access it. Then she reminded Celine of the doctor's instructions. “You do remember what Dr. Cates said, right? No caffeine, drink plenty of water, but more than anything else, he wants you to get as much rest and sleep as possible and make sure you stand up slowly when you've been sitting or lying down for an extended period of time.”

“Yes, Mother,” Celine said, smiling.

“Okay, you're joking, but you really need to take care of yourself. You've got to take it easy until you finish up your treatments.”

“I will. I promise.”

Kassie looked concerned. “So, Mom, are you going to be okay?”

“Of course.”

“Are you going to have to go back to the hospital again?”

“You mean for my treatments?”

“No, like you did tonight. And will they make you spend the night next time?”

“I hope not.”

“I hope not, too. I don't want you to have to stay there.”

“Well, either way, I don't want you worrying about me. All right?”

“I can't help it, Mom. I was really afraid when Auntie Lauren called Delia's mom and said you were at the hospital. I thought something really bad was going to happen.”

Celine smiled. “I know it must have frightened you, but as you can see I'm doing fine.”

“Are you still tired? Because you look really tired, Mom.”

“I am, but the doctor gave me some medicine to help that.”

“I hope it works.”

“So do I. But you know what else?”

“What?”

“It's almost your bedtime.”

“Awww, Mom. Can't I stay in here with you just a little while longer?”

“I wish you could, but it's already pretty late.”

“Okay,” she said, standing up.

“Now, give me a hug,” Celine told her.

“Good night, Mom,” she said.

“Good night, sweetie.”

As Kassie walked past her father, he touched the top of her head. “I'll be in shortly so you can say your prayers, and I can tuck you in.”

“Okay, Daddy,” she said, hugging him.

When Kassie left, Keith turned back to Celine. “Do you need me to do anything for you?”

“No, but I really appreciate you calling an ambulance and then staying with me at the hospital. It's a good thing you left work and came by when you did.”

“It was no problem, and if you want I can spend the night.”

Lauren hurried to speak up. “I've already got that covered. Plus, I'm taking Celine in for her radiation in the morning, anyway.”

Keith didn't respond, but he looked at Celine.

“I'm good, Keith. Lauren is staying, so I know I'll be okay.”

Keith paused before leaving the room. He seemed to want to make his case, but he didn't.

When he was gone, Lauren rolled her eyes. “He can't be serious. He actually thought you were going to let him spend the night?”

“I guess so. And he talked a lot about moving back home again, too. That's mostly all he talked about until you arrived at the hospital.”

Now Lauren sat on the side of Celine's bed. “Look, girl. I know this is none of my business, and that you're a grown woman, but please be careful.”

“I am.”

“I mean, I don't ever want to tell any woman to divorce her husband, but Keith was wrong and he knows it. When you really needed him, he was nowhere to be found.”

“I know.”

“And now he's all of a sudden hanging around, pleading with you to take him back?”

Celine agreed with everything Lauren was saying, but she couldn't help thinking about Kassie. She'd also be lying if she said she wasn't terrified of becoming a single mom. It wasn't the kind of life she'd signed up for, and she also knew she couldn't afford to pay all the household bills without Keith's income. She'd had no problem paying them for the last two months, but in another three or four, much of her savings would be gone—including her retirement account, since she'd used most of that to start her business. If she and Keith divorced and he paid her regular child support, she and Kassie might be able to get by, but they would still struggle to make ends meet. She just wouldn't have enough to cover the mortgage, utilities, and general home maintenance all by herself. She also wouldn't be able to shop for groceries the way she'd always done or buy certain things Kassie was used to getting.

But even if Celine pushed her potential financial woes to the side, there was something else that troubled her. No matter how callously Keith had treated her—no matter how he'd betrayed her love and trust, no matter how he'd slept with another woman behind her back—she still loved him. Regardless of how hard she tried to stop, she couldn't seem to do it. Keith was her husband and Kassie's father, and Celine wasn't sure how to get beyond this. Should she swallow her pride and stay with Keith or file for divorce as soon as possible? She'd eventually have to make a decision, one way or the other, as there was simply no getting around it.