First Sight (17 page)

“
Great
, I’ll send it your way later on then.
 
I’ve got to finish
editing a few things
first
, so it probably won’t be until later this afternoon.
”

“
T
hat’s fine.  I’ll talk to you later then
,” Travis said,
giving me a quick smile before
turning to
go.

“Bye
,
”
I
called out
, watching
him
leave. 
Marissa
was
laughing on the phone
,
and from the sound of things, her conversati
o
n was not even close to being over.
I
reluctantly
logged back into my computer and
quickly checked my
email
before getting back to work
.

***

I was just finishing up around
6:30 that evening when Travis stopped by my office.  “
Hey
,” I said with a smile
as I looked up at him
,
quickly
glancing
back at my computer and clicking
“
send
”
to
email
the
finished reviews to the web developers
, who would
post
the
m
on our
website
first thing in the morning
.

“
Hey,
Maddy
.
 
Still finishing up
?” he asked, casually leaning against the doorframe.
 
His
coat
was
draped over his arm
and
his
messenger bag s
lung casually over his shoulder, but he didn’t look like he was in a big hurry to leave.

“
I was
, but I actually just
sent everything off
. 
Thanks again for looking at that piece earlier.”

“Sure, no problem.”

“So what are you doing at the office this late
?  You’re usually out of here earlier than this.”

“I was just trying to get caught up on a few things.”

“Right,” I said nodding.  “Well hang o
n a
minute;
I’ll walk
out with you.”

“Sure thing,” he said with a smile.  I logged off of my computer and grabbed my purse from beneath my desk.  My cell phone started to ring just then, and I pulled it out
of my bag
, seeing that it was
Brian
calling.  “My brother,” I said apologetically to Travis, not wanting to be rude and keep him waiting.
  “I’ll just be a sec.”

“Hey
Brian
,” I said into the phone.  “
I’m just heading out. 
Can I call you back in a little while?”

He said something unintelligible, and I figured
that
his voice breaking up
was just
the
bad reception in the building.
 
“What?  Hang on, I can’t hear you.
I’m walking over to a window.”  I
walked across the room and stood
behind
Marissa
’s desk,
looking out the window into the dark night
.  “Okay
, what did you say?”

I could see Travis’s reflection in the glass as Brian started talking, but soon
all I could comprehend were
words like “accident” and “mom” and “hospital” coming from my brother’s voice
on the other end of the line
, and I lost all awareness of my surroundings.
  My vision seemed to
blur
, and the only thing I could
picture
was my brot
her
, talking frantically to me on his cell phone.  I felt a little dizzy as I tried to focus and concentrate on what he was saying.
 
“What?” I asked i
n surprise, panic rising in me as I tried to
grasp the meaning of
his words.
“Is she okay?”  My voice cracked as I spoke, and I saw a motion in the window reflection as Travis stepped into my office, dropping his messenger back onto the floor.

“Okay,” I said hastily
, nodding as I clutched
my cell phone.  “Okay. 
Right.
  Bye.”  I flipped my phone shut and turned around to face Travis, tears welling up in my eyes.  His eyes were searching my face, nothing but concern evident on his.

“My mom’s in the hospital,” I stammered, and as the tears started to fall, he was already crossing the room toward me.  I stepped out from behind
Marissa
’s desk and straight into his arms.
He pulled me to his chest,
and as I fell against him,
at that moment I didn’t care that it was Travis holding me, trying to comfort me. 
I didn’t care about anything;
I just wanted to see my mom.

“What happened?” Travis asked in a low voice, gently stroking my hair as I sobbed into his chest.

“She was in a car accident,” I said, my voice muffled by his shirt.

“A car accident?”

“I have to go see her,” I said, pulling back
and
looking up
at him
.  He rested his hands gen
tly on my shoulders
, and he had a pained look on his face
as he
gazed
down at me
, as if his
own
heart were somehow breaking.

“Okay,” he said softly, calmly.
  “I’ll take you there.”

“It’s more than an hour away,” I said, tears spilling down my cheeks.

“I’ll take you,” he said again,
his
voice as soothing as before.  He reached
out
and gently
, hesitantly,
brushed some of my tears away
with his fingertips
, as if he was afraid to touch me.  “I’ll get your coat.”  He turned and was striding to the door, which he seemed to know I kept my coat hung on the back of.  In moments he was back at my side, helping me to slip it on.  I couldn’t look at him as I walked over to grab my purse off my desk.  I was too upset to even think coherently
, let alone
to speak, and he seemed to understand that.

Travis followed me into the hall, and we silently rode the elevator down to the lobby.  Once we were outside, I started to hurry in the direction of the nearest metro station, but Travis caught my arm.

“I’ll hail a cab,” he said, voice deep and authoritative.  “It’ll be faster.”

“Okay,” I
replied
, too
upset and
anxious to think of logistics.

Travis
raised
his arm, and a moment later a yellow cab was pulling to the curb in front of us.  Travis opened the door for me, and I slid across the backseat
.
He
climb
ed
in beside me. 
As h
e gave his address to the driver, I leaned back against my seat, closing my eyes.  I wasn’t sure where Travis lived; I knew it was somewhere in DC, but
as we bumped and bounced along the city streets, it
felt like the absolute longest cab ride of my life.
  I couldn’t hear anything in the cab besides the sound of my own breathing, but maybe that’s just because I was concentrating on it, trying to stay calm
, trying not to burst out crying again.

We reached Travis’s apartment building
ten
minutes later, and I opened my eyes only when I heard Travis
quietly
talking to the driver as he
hand
ed him some
money. 
Travis
opened the door and got out, and he reached for my hand as I slid across the seat after him.  I felt
the
warm
th of his
touch as his strong hand
wrap
ped
around mine
,
and in that moment I had an odd feeling that Travis would always protect me.
  The worry on his face revealed the same thing, and I followed him to
the parking lot
,
trusting that somehow I’d hold it together with
him
here beside me
.

“Okay,
now
tell me how to get to the hospital,” Travis said once we were safely inside
of
his car.  I hadn’t even noticed what type of car he drove
as I’d gotten into the passenger side
, and I briefly found it ironic that I’d been so interested in him for months, and was finally at his apartment building and in his car, yet couldn’t care less.

“You need to get on 66,” I
said, referring to the highway that led from Washington out into Virginia’s sprawling suburbs.

“Okay,” he said quietly
, lost
in his own thoughts
, as he navigated through the city streets.

Just over an hour later we were pulling off the interstate.  I gave him directions to the hospital near my parent’s house.  He pulled into the vast
complex
and seemed to hesitate for the first time.  “Where do you think we should park?”

“Uh, I’m not sure. 
Emergency room?”
  Just saying it sounded scary,
and
right at that moment
I watched
as
an ambulance c
a
me wheeling in, sirens blaring
.
  Travis drove over to the
correct parking
lot
and pulled into a
n empty
space
.
 
I shakily got out of the car, and he quickly walked around to my side.  Glancing down at me, he held out his arm.  I clutched onto him as we
hurried toward the entrance. 
In another place,
at
another time, we might just be some couple walking together
, maybe out on a date
, maybe heading home.
  But as it were,
tonight,
he was my coworker, offering me his help.  And I was here
at a hospital
to see my mom.

I gave my mother’s name to the nurse manning the
front
desk, but as she searched her computer, I heard my brother calling out my name.
 
I turned to see him hurrying in my direction. 
“Brian!” I
called out
, running over to him. 
His face looked tired, and his brown hair was slightly disheveled.  I figured that he had just come from work as well because he was wearing a dark suit. 
I threw my arms around his neck, forcing him to bend down and hug me in return.  He was as tall as Travis
, a
lthough with a more lanky build
. 
“How’s Mom?”
I asked
anxiously
.

“Dad’s
i
n with her now, but she’s going to be okay.
  She hit her head pretty hard in the accident, so they were worried about her having a concussion, but so far there’s been no swelling.”

“
Oh
,
thank God
,” I said, exh
aling
with relief
, not even realizing that I’d
been holding my breath
as he answered my question.
  “Can I
go
see her?”

“Yeah, in a few minutes.
  The doctors are in with her now.”

“Okay,” I said, nodding, and suddenly releasing how utterly exhausted I was. 
All the adrenaline rushing through me had kept me going for the past hour, but now I
felt like I could collapse on the chairs here in the waiting room. 
It had been s
uch a long night already, and a
ll I
wanted to
do
right now
was
sit down and spend some
quiet time alone with my mom.

Travis came
slowly
walking over
to where I stood
with Brian
.
  I guess he’d wanted to give
us
a few moments alone
.
 
“Any word
o
n your
m
om?” he asked as he approached us.  I repeated what Brian had just told me, and Travis nodded, looking relieved himself.