Free Tempting Fate by Amber Lin Page B

out. There’s a cabinet that’s too high for me to reach properly, and I wanted to ask you a question about renovating the upstairs. Then we have the rest of the night to…speed up.”
    “Okay, hang tight.” The tick-tick-tick sound of a turn signal interrupted him. “I’m just parking, and I’ll be over.”
    Curious, I wandered to the window, which was free of blinds or curtains. His silver Lexus was backing into a spot across the street, the red-and-yellow brake lights blurring in the rain. I put my fingers to the cool window as I’d done that first night. Back then, it had seemed like this was as close as we’d ever get, watching through the glass.
    Now we had touched, and we would again tonight. All the nights unfolded before us, my newfound lust stretching its legs, a strengthening hope finding its balance. Truthfully, I wanted as long as he would have me, but I knew better than to tell him. Surely that would scare him away—as it would any sane man after a week of pseudo-dating.
    I started to turn away from the window, to go downstairs and unlock the front door and let him in, but something caught my eye. A flash of white splashed across the brick-faced wall across the street as a small delivery truck careened around the corner.
    It was too slippery for him to stop, he wouldn’t stop. I could see it happening. I shouted, but my words were caught by the glass and the storm. Drew crossed the street with his head down, just a blur of black suit jacket and pale, vulnerable flesh.
    In a blur of white metal, he was lying in the street. I flew down the stairs, hurtled across the street, and held him, crying for him. Is he okay , they asked me, milling around, taking up all the air. I don’t know, of course not, he can’t be okay after being hit like that, oh God, oh God, I don’t know.
    His eyes were closed, the side of his white shirt stained black, but he was breathing. Faintly, barely—I pressed my ear right to his chest and clung there. And then a person was telling me they’re sending an ambulance .
    Thank you, bless you, oh God.

Chapter Six
    The world was unnaturally quiet, as if someone had turned the volume down. I could still answer the cop’s questions, I could hear the nurse tell me no, they couldn’t share information with me, but it all came through a misty white haze.
    I huddled on a wooden chair, staring blankly at a late-night talk show on the small TV. There was a cup of lukewarm coffee in my hands, though I couldn’t say where I’d gotten it.
    If only he pulled through…if only, if only. I prayed to a God I was sure had turned his back on me a long time ago. In the end, I knew it would come down to a handful of luck, a toss of the die that would decide our fates. Easier to believe that than to blame myself.
    I couldn’t help but wonder if I could have, should have prevented this. He was coming to see me, after all. If I hadn’t invited him over…if I’d never stripped for him at my window…then I would be trapped in my tower, but he would be safe.
    Though I hadn’t examined every possible outcome, my fear had been consuming—and damned certain. Break free and something bad will happen. I just thought it would happen to me instead, and now I wished it had.
    People came and went through the waiting room, as if they were on a subway: come sit down, wait awhile, then get up and leave. But I never left, barely ever moved, just went round and round the tracks, a dry and rattling husk.
    Jarring footsteps clicked down the hall toward me, and Philip rounded the corner.
    “Jesus, are you okay?”
    Everyone kept asking that. I wasn’t even sure what okay felt like at the moment.
    Luckily, Philip was a force of nature. He didn’t require my input to whip through the hospital wing and tear their official privacy procedures apart with his money and his threats.
    In fifteen minutes, we had a doctor standing outside the doors telling us that Drew had come out of surgery in stable condition,