Free Twenty-Four Hours by Allie Standifer

Chapter One
     
    Getting old was a bitch.
    Courtney Museo might not look her forty-one years, but today her body sure as hell felt like it thanks to the poking and prodding of hospital staff. Too bad she’d made a small miscalculation in the tanning salon and opened her eyes in the tanning bed too soon. An ultraviolet burn on the corneas was no fun. Thank god she’d found a top notch ophthalmologist or she’d have been in big, big trouble. Sitting in the room at the clinic she laughed to herself and wondered how bad the gauze and patches looked on her face. From a simple tanning session to twenty-four hours of blindness. Didn’t it just figure she’d be the one in a thousand to do something this dumb? She was just grateful it wasn’t any worse.
    Vanity thy name is woman , she laughed to herself.
    Maybe she should cut back on the tanning sessions but they certainly gave her skin a youthful glow. She didn’t feel like an old woman and had no intention of acting like one. She frequently rollerbladed in some of Houston’s parks, had joined a rock climbing club at her gym and spent at least an hour a day swimming laps in her private pool. Though she hadn’t succumbed to plastic surgery, she hadn’t ruled it out either. Nothing but a few touch-ups to brighten her face. Maybe next year.
    Now a victim of her own vanity, Courtney waited for the nurse to bring a wheelchair to her room. Twenty-four hours of ointment and bandages and the world would again be crystal clear to her. She couldn’t wait.
    “Ms. Museo.” A soft-spoken nurse interrupted her thoughts.
    “Yes, I’m ready to go.”
    “I’m afraid there’s a problem. The doctor refuses to release you until there’s someone able to care for you for the next day or so. I believe he explained all that to you when you arrived.”
    “What?” Courtney’s mind refused to comprehend the words. She’d long ago left behind the need for permission. “I’m calling the car service that brought me and they can take me home. I’m past the age of forty. I think I can take care of myself.”
    “I know how you feel, but think about this. You’ll be totally blind for the next twenty-four hours. How will you even get around in your home? You could fall and seriously injure yourself.”
    “Get Dr. May in here. I’ll straighten this out.” She spoke firmly but gently, knowing it wasn’t this poor nurse’s fault. Dr. May might be the best eye man in Houston but he wasn’t giving her orders. She knew her way around her place. She’d be fine.
    “Yes, ma’am.” The door swooshed shut softly behind her.
    Think , Court, think . Without a doubt the stubborn doctor would refuse to release her, for her own good without what she could only think of as a keeper. Ha, like she bought that line. Oh no, the good doctor assumed since she was single all bets were off. Old fart hound dog. More than likely he’d stop by after rounds wanting to play hide the stethoscope.
    If only she’d called the car service to pick her up before the bossy nurse showed up all of this could have been avoided. Then again…
    Carefully feeling across the table she found her cell phone and hit number one.
    “What have you done now?” The voice that answered was half-amused and half-exasperated.
    “Watch it, Mason.” She tried to sound firm. “I am your boss.”
    “So the devil tells me every time I exchange blood for my paycheck. What do want of me, oh fearless leader?”
    Most people in her position wouldn’t put up with Mason Jefferies’ brashness, but over the years Courtney found that Mason had a keen insight to people and situations. He was invaluable to her, as his frequent raises proved. Not to mention the absolute charge she got just looking at him.
    “That damn doctor won’t release me,” she complained.
    A deep sigh traveled over the phone. “I tried to tell you that would happen and you should be prepared, but would you listen to me? Oh, no.”
    “Can it, Mase, I need help