Chapter 13.

I had a doctor's appointment on Wednesday to have the stitches removed. I was apprehensive about going there alone, the hospitals always gave me heartache, I was afraid of seeing blood and having a panic attack while alone.

Living with hematophobia was a hassle. I always had to be careful not to hurt myself, and it always have been that way. At school I couldn't play like all other children, and if by accident a child hurt himself in the playground in my presence, I always had panic attacks.

Luckily I wasn't often sick so I didn't go to the hospital too much, and the few times I went there, my father was always with me.

I had never been sick since I moved in Miami, this was the first time I was going to be alone in a hospital.

I was getting ready to go there, when I heard someone knock on the door. I wondered who it could be. I went to open and was surprised when I saw Gina all dapper and smiling.

"The cavalry has arrived." she announced me by taking me in her arms.

"What?? What do you mean by cavalry? What are you doing here?"

"I came to accompany you to your doctor's appointment"

"How did you know? Oh no, don't tell me that Flo called you, I told him that everything would be fine and I'm telling you too. Thank you very much, but it wasn't worth bothering you."

"Oh no, Flo didn't call me, it's that idiot who serves me as a brother, he's the one who spoke with the doctor the other day remember? And he never forgets anything. And it doesn't bother me, it's not as if I had something else to do."

I was speechless, this guy will never cease to surprise me. How come he remembered my appointment at the hospital. And I had to admit it, it made me happy.

I finished getting ready and we left.

The appointment went smoothly, Gina was very careful with me, she took care of all the formalities, I admit that it took a weight off my shoulders that she was there. After removing the stitches, the nurse told us that the doctor was coming to see us. We waited for him a moment, and he came a few minutes later.

"How are you Miss Wyatt?" he asked me.

"Good."

"Your wound is almost healed, you will have to do exercises with your arm, not hard, like lifting a book or a plate just so that it can be used to movement. Wait a few days to get back to work."

I nodded and he continued.

"I would like to speak to you about your hematophobia, how long have you had it?"

"Since I was four years old."

"Did your parents try to get you treated?"

"Yes I did a therapy when I was little until adolescence but it didn't really work"

"Well, As I recommended it to your friend last time, there are many ways to deal with this, if one hasn't worked others might? Like hypnotherapy for example."

Of course I knew there were other ways to deal with it, but the problem is that it is so expensive, and I couldn't afford it.

But that wasn't what bothered me about the doctor's speech, what bothered me was the fact that he had discussed it with Mr Davis. He was the one who spoke with the doctor, and I assumed that by "my friend" he meant it was him. That embarrassed me a lot.

"Thanks Doctor, I'll do some research about it." I said getting up to leave.

We said goodbye and left the hospital. Gina proposed to go eat something and I accepted. She drove us to a small Chinese restaurant, it reminded me of the restaurant in Bellevue that we used to go to with my father.

We weren't rolling for gold but every Saturday we always had a dinner for two. That was our tradition. I told Gina about it.

"You and I have that in common, I was also very close with my father, when he died I thought I was not going to survive." she had tears in her eyes when she told me that.

"I'm sorry !" I took her hand.

We were given the menus and while we were consulting it, Gina asked me to tell her more about me.

"What do you want me to tell you, there's nothing to say, I'm an only child, I was only raised by my father in a small town called Bellevue, Idaho."

"And your mother ?" That was a topic I didn't like to talk about.

"Oh that's a long story, she left when I was six."

"Bug, sorry." she said shocked.

"No don't be, I think leaving was the best gift she's ever given me." The waitress interrupted our discussion by coming to take our orders. I waited for her to leave to continue.

"And you, I understood that it was not all joy with your mother." she opened her eyes wide surprised that I knew. I had heard that during the private party at the club.

"How do you know ?"

"I am a bartender, I remind you."

"Ah yes that's it" she took a breath and went on; "The problem between my mother and me is that I was never the perfect daughter she wanted to have." She looked at me for a moment and continued. "At sixteen I was a teenager in need of affection. At the time, my brother had just moved out, he had found his way in his nightclubs, my father was working a lot and my mother was busy in her stupid association. I went out a lot and drank a lot for my age, one evening I came home drunk, there was my mother's brother who had come to visit us. I was not aware of what I was doing, but I imagine that he was." she paused and continued. "He abused me and I got pregnant. I told my mother everything and all she could tell me was that I had looked for it. When she found out about the pregnancy, she didn't say anything to my father or my brother. She took care of giving me an abortion, after that I sank into a terrible depression, I hardly left my room anymore and I rarely ate, I spent my days crying. I wasn't even going to class anymore. That's when my father realized something was wrong, so he asked me to accompany him on a business trip. I ended up telling him everything. That's when the problems started between him and my mother. My father made sure that my uncle was arrested, all in pure discretion because it would have affected the family affairs. Then he took me to see a psychiatrist, but things between my father and my mother have since deteriorated, and I think that my mother always blamed me for it. Everyone knew she always preferred Greg to me, but after that, she made sure to let me know that I meant nothing to her. Luckily there was my father. "I didn't believe what I was hearing. It was awful what she had been through.

"And your brother in all that?" I asked him.

"He never knew anything, neither about the rape, nor about the pregnancy, not even about the problems between dad and mom. He traveled a lot at the time, and he had bought his own residence where he lived, so he hardly came to the house anymore. He is too close to my mother, so I never dared to tell him, because it would have caused problems between them, and my mother would never have forgiven me." The waitress came back with our dishes and we waited for her to leave.

"After the death of my father, I could not bear to stay under the same roof as her. So I decided to move here. Since then, we no longer speak to each other. Even during the party she didn't even calculate me when we hadn't seen each other for months. What kind of mother is that?" she asked me. Honestly, I admired the way she talked about it, it would have been me, I would never have had the courage to talk about it.

"You know you're the first person I tell about this?" I was flattered.

"I'm glad you trusted me." and I meant it. I was starting to think that we were going to be great friends.

"Okay enough talking about depressing things, let's talk about other things." she pretended to think, "Tell me about how you and Flo met." I smiled as the memories came to me.

"He came to Bellevue for his grandmother's funeral, we were six and seven years old. His grandparents were our neighbors, and when my father had to work late, he always asked them to babysit me, so you can imagine that I was saddened by the death of his granny. After the funeral reception, dad and I stayed to help them tidy up, he had stayed in a corner all alone so I went to talk to him."

"And you have been friends since?"

"Yes, he came back every summer on vacation to visit his grandfather so we became closer and closer. After high school he moved here, he kept on telling me how good Miami is so I picked a college here and we became roommates."

"Frankly I was jealous of your complicity when I saw you, I've never had a friendship like that. I even thought you were together."

"You're not the only one, not everyone believes it when we say we're just friends."

"But, didn't you ever thought of getting together, I mean, maybe either of you could have developed feelings for the other?"

"Never, he's always been like a big brother to me. And the two of us together I think it would have never worked out." we had just finished eating and the waitress came to clean up.

"Fortunately, because I think my brother would not have been happy at all if there was something between you." I frown.

"What's your brother doing in there?" I took my glass of sparkling water and drank.

"Come on Meg, anyone can see there's something going on between you and my brother."

"There's nothing going on at all. Where are you getting these idiocy?" she looked at me strangely."What?" I asked her

"You are blushing!" she said laughing and I laughed too.

"No I'm not!" I felt embarrassed.

"I swear"

We paid the addition and got out of the restaurant.

"I clearly saw that you don't want us to talk about it but I have to tell you something." She said once in the car.

"It's worth what it's worth but it's the first time I've seen my brother take care of someone other than me or my mother as he did with you, and just for that, frankly, thank you for bringing out that side of him that everyone does not see."

I couldn't find the words to answer her so I just nodded with a smile.