Thank God You’re Awake

TINA

That smell. I hated it. The smell of drugs and some strange chemicals. My eyes were shut. I could feel a mattress beneath me, which meant I wasn’t lying on the ground. I was lying on a bed.

My body seemed not to respond when I tried to move, but I didn’t feel any pain to begin with. In fact, I felt all right.

It took a lot of effort to open my eyes. The scent I’d perceived confirmed my suspicions.

I was in a hospital. Terrific.

Glancing to my right, I spotted a pretty nurse in green scrubs writing something in a file by the table. I watched as she frowned in concentration. Her hand moved quickly as she wrote something down.

I shuffled myself into an upright position. Somehow, I didn’t hurt.

Her brown eyes widened.

“Oh, my goodness.” She placed a hand over her heart in surprise, then composed herself. “Thank God you’re awake.”

“How did I get here?” I asked.

“It’s better you rest back a bit.” She didn’t answer my question. “I’ll get the doctor.”

She dashed out and left me alone.

From the light outside the window, it still seemed like it was morning. I looked out at the sky, which was all I could see from the window. I was exhausted, but I made myself stay awake. I had to know what had happened to me.

The nurse reappeared minutes later with the doctor. He had the look of someone in his late thirties. He wore a white lab coat and glasses that fitted his gray eyes.

“Miss Campbell.” His smile was welcoming. “How are you feeling?”

“What happened, doctor?” I asked. I discovered I could sit up properly, and I swung my legs off the bed to touch the floor. I wanted to go home.

“You narrowly escaped an accident.” The doctor tilted his head slightly. He placed a hand over my forehead. “You don’t remember?”

I shut my eyes and tried. And then the memories came back. The dissolution of the bank. The loss of my job. Brooding on the way home. And that car. The car that nearly hit me. I had only heard it.

My eyes fluttered open and I sighed.

“Do you remember now?” The doctor stared at me expectantly.

“Yes, doctor.” I nodded.

“Thankfully someone brought you here,” he said. “He said you weren’t hit by the car, but you fainted. We’ve been monitoring you for your safety.”

He turned his attention to the nurse.

“You can call the gentleman,” he said.

“Yes, doctor.”

Someone had been waiting for me? I was both flattered and confused. Had he hit me after all, with the car? Maybe he wanted to make sure his version of the story was what I believed? Did he think I would sue him? I was so confused. And I didn’t have the money for a hospital bill.

She opened the door a bit and poked her head out. I heard her mumble some words, and then she came back in. The door opened, and two strangers entered. The man who came in first was obviously in charge. He wore a tailored suit, and he was older and looked Hispanic. Beside him stood an old man dressed in a sharp suit. He looked like a chauffeur.

The first man’s eyes zoned in on mine. There was a relieved look on his face.

“My child.” He sat on a chair at the edge of the bed. “I am so relieved to see you well.”

I stared at him, feeling very confused.

I must have shown it on my face because he gave me a gentle smile.

“I was the one who brought you here,” he explained. “It was my car that nearly hit you. It was only right to make sure you were okay.”

The doctor excused himself and left the room alongside the nurse.

“My name is Armando. They told me your name. They got it from your identification.”

I had no idea what to say to that. At least I had woken up, and it seemed like I was okay. Perhaps I should be thankful for that. I decided I should say thank you to him, but then his phone rang.

“Pardon me, my dear.” He raised a hand toward me and fished out his phone. He answered it.

“Hello,” he said. “No…I’m at the hospital…No, not me…Sí… All right. Bueno.”

He ended the call and placed the phone back in his pocket with a sigh. There was a slight frown on his face.

The other man stared at him with a look that conveyed some kind of message. Armando nodded.

“Is everything okay, sir?” I asked. I could tell it wasn’t.

“Yes, yes.” He quickly forced a smile.

“Oh, I almost forgot…” He gestured to the man beside him.

“This is Gustavo, my chauffeur.”

The man bowed formally, keeping his face straight. So I’d been right about which man was in charge here.

“Pleased to meet you,” I replied.

“So, child, tell me what happened to you,” Armando said. “Before that near accident, you were clearly absent-minded. What was in your mind that made you wander into the road like that? If it wasn’t for the expertise of Gustavo here, we would not be fortunate enough to have this conversation right now.”

I clasped my hands together, feeling stupid and guilty under the concerned gaze of the old man. I’d decided I liked him, and that he really was just here to make sure I was okay. It occurred to me that maybe he wanted to know if I’d stepped into the road on purpose.

“I’m so sorry about that, sir.” I felt my eyes water. “I lost my job today, all of a sudden. The place where I was working closed out of the blue. I wasn’t thinking. I was just trying to get home. I didn’t realize I’d walked into the road because I was so distracted.” I left out everything about finding Mike with the other woman in my bed, and how heartbroken I was. I so desperately wanted a partner—someone who could be my equal, and who would care about me the way I cared about him.

I saw the concern on his face shift to sympathy.

“There, there, child,” he said. “Do not despair. Sometimes, things don’t always work out for us, but it shouldn’t weigh on our minds so much that it could cost us our lives. No matter the grave situation we find ourselves in, we must dust ourselves off and move on. I had very little when I started in business, but I was willing to try.”

I saw Gustavo nod curtly in agreement.

That’s when I worked out that Armando must be pretty rich. He had a chauffeur, and it sounded like he ran an important business. Plus, he sounded humble and wise—like he really had learned things the hard way, and that doing so had made him kinder. It had never occurred to me that rich people might be kind or wise.

There was a small knock on the door, and someone entered.

I thought it would be the doctor—the way they knock and don’t wait for you to tell them to come in.

But it was the face from the magazine. I knew who he was immediately, from the few TV interviews I’d seen: Alejandro Gonzalez, the heir to Gonzalez Industries. He was so handsome.

“Padre?” he said. He looked at me, but it was as if he didn’t see me at all.

“Let’s step outside.” My new friend Armando got to his feet and gave me a reassuring look. “Excuse me.”

They left me alone with Gustavo while I worked out that the man who’d nearly hit me was the CEO of Gonzalez Industries. Armando hadn’t been on TV at all, or at least I’d never seen him there. What were the odds?

I blushed, thinking of how I must look. I supposed it was just as well that his son Alejandro had looked right through me.