Chardonnay: A Novel (22 page)

“Seen what?”

He didn’t speak, just threw his hand up and shook his head.

“What I’m trying to say is
,
you’ve played
me. You’ve had your turn. Now stop making me look like a punk,” The pain in his
eyes finally revealed how he felt.

“You don’t know it, but I’m fighting everyday out here for your
life...you’re
my prized possession and they know it.”‘

“So you gonna tell me how things started changing after the trip
in Paris—or how come I can’t remember shit before March?!”

Myron looked like a child caught in a lie, but he wasn’t sure how
to tell it.

“Just wait till Slim gets better and ask him...really not a good
time for this.”

I let it go seeing how Myron made it seem like it was something
Slim
had to tell me.

18

The
Fallout

Slim was at
Truman Medical Center located in the bellows of Kansas City, Missouri. The
hospital was known for operating gun shots wounds and delivering babies. Myron
parked his car in the car garage on the north side of the building and we
exited. I couldn’t understand why he just didn’t drop me off. He got my bag and
I made sure to get that necklace to show a getting well Slim. As we walked to
the elevators Myron stopped me and asked, “How do you remember that necklace?”

It was as if I wasn’t supposed to know about the damned thing. I
stepped back and said, “He gave it to me the night I fucked him.” I said that
to spite him so he would leave me the hell alone. It wasn’t twenty-four hours I
had just put my Pal pal in the ground. Although it seemed to have taken him
aback, he still provoked me for more answers.

“Char, I—I really need to talk to you...”

“Oh now you want to talk?”

“Don’t ask Slim anything—just for me. Please, not until he gets
better and you talk to me first.”

Now I was the one who wanted answers. But before I could purse my
lips to object his orders and ask him a few things, Myron walked off. His
behavior was out of character for him and that left me bothered.

When I walked in Slim’s room he was laying on a bed with bars on
each side. His head was turned towards the window and a tube of some sort was
coming out of his mouth with tape to the end so it wouldn’t displace. In fact
he had things either coming out of his body or hooked up to it from everywhere.
As I walked closer I could see his chest moving up and down slowly. His eyes
were closed and he slept like a child.
What could you possibly have to tell
me?
I asked him in my head as I looked at him. But as if he was void in
this world already, I couldn’t ask. I sat down gently in the chair next to him
and stared at him. All the things I didn’t give him before, I wanted him to
have now. Like my trust, my focus, and most importantly...my love. Tears fell
from my eyes and I touched his arm. I could hear someone walk in the room but I
didn’t look to see who it was. They approached me from behind and stopped
before saying,

“He can’t hear you.”

I turned slightly to see who was speaking to me and saw a fresh
face girl dressed in all white. She had to be a resident nurse or something. It’s
funny that the first thing doctors or nurses seemed to say to you when things
looked fucked up was that “They can’t hear you.”
I looked at her
familiar face and said,

“You are?”

“Oh I’m sorry,” she came around to face me and just as I had
guessed, she was a resident.

“My name is Syndclaire Vonseignuer...and your Jase’s little
girlfriend—right?”

“I could be his friend, how would you know.”

“Because I do—Chardonnay.”

This chick was starting to get on my nerve. She didn’t know me
like that to be coming at me in that manner. Jase’s sister or no sister, I was
a grown ass woman who didn’t have time for folks games.

“And you know my name how?”

“I told you...I just do. Plus Jase speaks fond of you...your
interning for the family company?”

“Uh, I don’t know.”

“You will,”
she said striking her jade green eyes at me.

I
frown
my eyebrows. Jase’s little sister
had major issues. But she was so beautiful it hurt to look at her.

“Skylar Morris will be on bed rest for a while. He’s not
responding to anything...and just to let you know, he’ll survive this although
he’s paralyzed right now...he will be able to walk eventually.”

It may have been the aggravation she saw in my face or the subtle
irritation I had in my tone when I spoke to her, but whichever the two, she
quickly closed her folder of information she had on Slim, took his vitals and
left. The girl was weird. What I couldn’t figure out though was how she knew he
would walk again...no doctor let alone a nurse could tell that, only God.

*
 
*
 
*
 
*

I twisted
and turned on the lounge chair that laid back like a bed that a doctor wheeled
in for me. As I twisted and turned I dreamed of the night Slim got shot. Only
this time he died right there on the scene. I could hear my subtle cries and
moans, but in my dream I was screaming. I fought hard to try and save him but
there wasn’t anything I could do. A dark figured appeared over us, just as I
had seen over my Pal pal, except it was a bright shimmering light, and took
Slim’s soul. I sat up out the dream and tried to calm myself down. When I
realized where I was again, I looked right over at Slim’s bed. He was looking
right at me. I gasped and couldn’t believe that his eyes were actually open,
blinking gently with flutters of his long eyelashes. He had been in a comatose
state for the last five days. Each day I massaged his feet and sung to him. I
had just about given up hope on the fourth day when he nearly flat lined and
the doctors had to push me out the room to resuscitate him. I broke down in
tears in the hallway as they got his heart to beat again. That was the one
night I went home to sleep in my own bed, but sleep never came. So here I was
on the fifth day and I had fallen asleep at mid-noon only to wake up to his
pretty eyes looking right at me. I jumped to his side and said,

“Slim—can you hear me?
Slim?!”

He nodded his head yes and tried to speak, but of course he couldn’t
with tubes down his throat. I rushed to the hallway, yet so scared to leave him
in fear he would not be all there when I returned. I caught Syndclaire, the
resident nursing student, in the hallway, as she was passing with a tray of
what looked like someone else’s vitals.

“He’s awake! Please come here and see!”

She rushed in the room and stood over
Slim
peering into his eyes with what looked like a small flash light.

“Okay, he’s very stable. I’m going to get Doctor Ambrosia.” she
said as she left out the door. A few moments later she returned with the tall
slender, dark haired, male doctor who had been looking over Slim for the last
week.

“Oh my God...” he said as he checked for every regularity he could
find on Slim’s body. He turned to look at Syndclaire and then at me. I was
asked to leave the room while they did whatever they had to do with Slim. One
thing was for sure that about ten minutes after I had left the room they had
gotten that tube out his throat, because he was hollering for me.

“CHARDONNAY!
CHAARDOONNNAAAY!”

I stood at the door to reassure him that I wasn’t going
any
where
! He calmed as the doctor spoke to
him softly and I could see Doctor Ambrosia speaking with Syndclaire about
something. She looked to me and nodded her head. When she moved towards my way
I
frown
my eyebrows and waited. She came out the door
and shut it gently.

“Hey, he asked me to talk with you. I’ma be real with you...police
has been speaking with Doctor Ambrosia and, some stuff came up about your name.
But I’m not supposed to tell you that...so.”

“WHAT? Why would my name come up?”

 
“Don’t know. Some females
came by here yesterday to see him, they asked about you too, one said her name
was...uh Yasmine or”

“Zasmyth.
That’s one of my best friends.”

“Oh...well where I come from, you only get one.” she laughed to
herself.

I breathed in air and then let it out as I waited impatiently for
Slim’s and
I’s
reunion...for more than one reason.

“He through?”
I asked.

“Actually he wanted me to tell you that it would be better if you
left for the day since he has a lot of test to do on Skylar.”

“Uhnt uhn, I ain’t going nowhere—”

“LOOK! Do you want him to get better? Or do you want him to soak
off you?”

I mugged her. She was coming at me too wrong, but she had a point.
I didn’t want him to well up in misery as I stood by. I wanted Slim to be the
man I had grown to love again. But there was no way I was going let this girl
play reverse psychology on me. I was a pro at any and every game that was
created, Myron Kent made sure of that.

“That’s cool and all but, I at least want to say hi...I miss him.”

“Well, I’ll see what I can do.” Syndclaire said as her jade eyes
twinkled. Her skin was a bright creamy, tawny shade. Although her hair was
pulled up tight neatly in a bun every time I saw her, I could tell it hung to
the middle of her back...at the least. She was tall. About six foot, even. She
wore her make-up like a pro, evenly applied and a little blushed a tint dark
than her regular shade, shit, her skin was flawless. The closer I looked at
this girl the more I realized she was doing more than nursing. Any chick with
her features and in their right mind would be doing something other than
nursing. As I observed her features, she took in mine. Almost immediately she
said,

“We need to talk.
How about Starbucks on the
Country Club Plaza?”

I shrugged my shoulders seeing how I needed a change of
pace...coffee was not my thing.

“I guess. You
buying?”

She smirked and nodded her head yes.

*
 
*
 
*
 
*

I let the
Slim
thing go, for the moment. He needed to be alone I
decided after Syndclaire had grabbed my purse and we headed to Starbucks for
her lunch. Truman Medical Center was at least fifteen minutes from The Plaza as
we called it for short instead of the Country Club Plaza. This Syndclaire
girl,
was definitely new around here. She found decent
parking and we walked through a bit of traffic to get to the spot. For a
Tuesday, the Plaza was busy. Mostly White folks out shopping, not to mention it
was summer time. I saw a few familiar faces from high school, but avoided the
recent ones I knew like Tiffunie Washburn. Just as she passed me and
Syndclaire, who was still in her nursing suit which may have prompt Tiffunie’s
question, she asked about Slim. I just shrugged my shoulders
in order
for me to keep my stride. We entered the Starbucks and man...it smelled
delicious. None of the people I hung with drunk much of the bean, except for
Myron maybe, but we tended to hang out there a lot.
 
Syndclaire found a quiet couch area with a
low round table and took her Louis Vuitton clutch purse off her shoulder.

“Hey, I’m getting a Caramel Macchiato, how about you?”

“I’ll take whatever you get, just make sure you add skim milk.”

She walked off professionally...like I had seen some runway model’s
do. I sat my purse in my lap as I sat down and took in the surroundings. There
were small clumps of people, all different races talking, laughing, or just
holding deep conversations in different parts of the coffee shop. Before I knew
it Syndclaire was on her way back.

She
sat a cup down in front of me that read grande on the side of it with a chalk
marking of SKM on the side.

I assumed it meant skim milk. She sat on the lounge couch diagonal
to me and took her first sip while she looked at me.

“So, what did you want to talk about?” I asked.

She savored her drink and then sat up in her seat.

“When I saw you a while back at the restaurant you looked
different...just a touch.”

“Had to be my makeup.”

“No...
you
looked happy...when you were
sitting across the table from my brother.”

I smirked. I was taking glances in at Jase that whole night.

“And I’m guessing you’re wondering why I’ve hurt him?”

“No, Jase doesn’t talk much about his relationships with women. In
fact he didn’t even tell me about you hurting him.
How so?”
Syndclaire looked at me peculiarly and
winced
her
eyes.

“Well, we have been seeing each other in different spots, and the
chemistry just seems right...but it doesn’t—”

“Seem like the right time.” she said cutting me off and finishing
my sentence to the T.

We both smirked at each other. She went on to say,

“Because it’s not.
It sucks finding someone you could
love when the timing isn’t right.”

I took a moment to think of her words...I liked her.

“So you aren’t mad at me? He tells me you’re protective.”

“I usually am, but I have a good feeling about you,” she said
winking her eye.

“Well I also wanted to talk to you about modeling.”

“Yeah.”

“I don’t live here. I’m here in town on a Go see.”

“What’s that?”

“Well, you must not watch much of America’s Next Top Model.”

“I don’t watch t.v. Period.”

“Hmm.
Well, it’s when you take yourself and your portfolio and show it
to a person or panel of people. They may ask you to walk for them, try on
certain outfits, or even some times, get fully undressed.”