Chapter 13: Kitt

Wednesday, July 26, 2023

I got home from the gym at around 11 a.m. Uma was in the kitchen on her hands and knees, scouring my oven while wearing a pair of short pink shorts and a tank top. I stopped myself from giving her an exasperated look because I had already told her at least a dozen times she didn’t need to clean anything. It didn’t help.

“Hey,” she said with a faint hint of a smile. “How was the gym?”

I sighed and threw my bag on the floor against the wall behind the door. “Good. Wore me out.”

She eyed my body in my gym clothes for the briefest of moments before looking away. “You look good. Keep it up.”

I didn’t tell her I wasn’t sure I even needed to go to the gym. It was possible my body would remain permanently fit thanks to Lilly’s gift, and even without exercise, I would look like Thor and Captain America had a baby together. But I had no idea. I hadn’t asked Lilly.

“Thanks for cleaning my oven,” I said in a tone that sounded more annoyed than grateful, “even though I specifically remember telling you I didn’t want you cleaning while you’re here.”

Uma stopped scrubbing and looked at me. “I can’t just sit around and watch TV or whatever. I’m out of here tomorrow. This is my way of saying thank you.”

She looked much better. The redness of her face had disappeared first. As far as I could tell, she’d been slapped repeatedly but not punched or kicked above the neck. Her arms, legs, and thighs were greatly improved, but her butt still bore large bruises, and every time she sat down, she did so very slowly. But the bruises and welts, once purple and blue, were now more sickly green and yellow.

I had not asked her again to tell me the details of what had happened to her at the hotel, but she had let me help arrange her affairs to avoid getting into trouble at work. She had called and said she needed to take a short leave of absence for a family emergency. One of her neighbors was a doctor at the hospital, and she didn’t want to risk him seeing her coming in and out of her place or spotting lights being turned off or on when she was supposed to be away. To help maintain her cover, I drove to her home each day, cared for her dog, brought her clean clothes, watered her plants, and did anything else she needed.

Meanwhile, she hunkered down at my apartment until she could return to her place.

Initially, it was a little awkward when she emerged from my bedroom and began moving about my apartment, but we quickly learned to stay out of each other’s way. We talked a little, but I think she avoided conversation so she wouldn’t open herself up to more questions from me. It was eating me up inside to know what had happened to her, but it wasn’t time to ask.

Leaving her to clean the oven, I showered and dressed in scrubs. For the next few days, my shift was from 1 p.m. to 1 a.m., which was the absolute worst time for me to work since I needed to head over to the hotel and try again with Carol. I wasn’t sure what time her shift ended, but I decided to go during my break and give it my best. When I came out of my bedroom dressed for work, Uma was cleaning my fridge.

“Seriously, Uma,” I said exasperatedly. “Please stop cleaning.”

“I have a hard time taking orders from you,” she said, still not quite smiling. “I think it might have something to do with our work dynamic.”

I went to take the cleaning spray out of her hand, but she didn’t let go. Our eyes met, and she gave me a dramatic glare.

“I don’t have a hard time giving you orders when you’re in my apartment.” My words came out both stern and playful, which was how I meant them.

Her pretend icy glare flickered, and for a moment, there was something much different in her visage. Was it fear? No. Timidity? Like a child needing something? Maybe that wasn’t it, either. I couldn’t be sure, and it was gone a moment later.

My phone buzzed, and our unofficial staring contest ended, but we still stood face to face, holding the spray bottle of cleaning solution. Bethany was calling. I answered it. “Hey, what’s up?”

Bethany sounded annoyed. “I’m at the car shop. My stupid car still isn’t fixed even though they told me it would be. We’re on the same shift. Could you please give me a ride?”

“Of course. Send me the address, and I’ll be there soon.”

“Can you run by my place and get my scrubs too?”

I glanced at my clock. “Uh ... yep. I’ll have to leave now, but that should be fine.”

“Ugh! I love you. Thank you!”

“Wow.” Uma wrenched the spray bottle from my grip. “She loves you.”

I rolled my eyes. “She’s my best friend, and I’m doing her a favor.”

Uma didn’t say anything. She just bent over and went back to cleaning. I tried not to think about her fantastic ass. Her body was so toned, so shapely. Even bruised, she was gorgeous, and I couldn’t help but want her even though it was not meant to be. I turned away, grabbed my keys, and said I’d be back after 1 a.m.

I swung by Bethany’s place and found the pair of scrubs she wanted. They were in her closet. The top drawer of her nightstand was open, and I couldn’t help but peek inside. The first thing I noticed was something I definitely was not expecting to see.

A dildo was inside her drawer.

It was flesh-colored, about seven inches long, and pretty thick. Had she recently used it? How long had it been since she had told me she didn’t masturbate? A month or two? Had she lied, or was this a recent purchase?

Instantly, I mentally pictured my best friend playing on the bed using the toy on herself. I looked away but then wondered if I should close the drawer. If she came home and saw it open, she would wonder if I saw it. But what if I closed the drawer and she remembered she had left it open? I figured I would rather take that risk, so I closed the drawer, grabbed the scrubs, and dashed out of her place.

It was a quarter to 1 when I got to the car shop. Bethany stopped outside the passenger front door, bent down, tied her shoe for at least thirty seconds, and finally got in. Her hands were black from either car grease or dirt, and she used a wipe from her purse to clean them. Her hands shook as she wiped them as though she’d physically exerted herself recently.

“Working on your own car?” I asked as I hit the gas and sped us to the hospital. “I didn’t realize you moonlight as a mechanic.”

Bethany side-hugged me while I drove. “No. I sabotaged it. This is what it takes to get time with you outside of work.”

“You know what? I would not put it past you to orchestrate this whole thing just to say that.”

Bethany cackled like a mad genius. “Maybe. But seriously, let’s hang out after work tonight. We can watch a movie at your place.”

“Ugh. I want to, but I can’t.”

“Oh, come on, Kitt!” she begged. “What about that Mission Impossible marathon you keep going on about?”

“I really want to, but I can’t tonight.”

“What? Is a girl coming over?”

“No.” I realized instantly I should have said yes. That was my out. But I didn’t take it. Lying to Bethany didn’t come easily. “I—I’ve had someone staying at my place for a few days. It’s no big deal. Just a friend in a bind who needed a place to crash.”

“Oh? Who?”

I realized then what a terrible excuse I’d given Bethany. She and I had almost all the same friends. We’d gone to school together for years. Just about anyone I knew, so did she.

“I can’t tell you. It’s someone you know, and they want it to stay private. That’s—that’s why you can’t come over.”

Bethany’s voice changed instantly. “Oh, ok. Well, I can respect that.”

“Thanks.”

We got to work right at 1 p.m., and immediately the shift supervisor was up our ass about not being a few minutes early. The ICU was chaotic. There’d been an accident. Teenagers in two cars racing down a highway had collided with a minivan, and now the ICU was almost at capacity.

Dr. Morris, the chief ICU doctor, approached me just as Bethany and I reached the nurse station. “Do you have any idea how to get ahold of Dr. Granger?” he asked in an irritable tone. “We have been trying to contact her to see if she can end her leave of absence a day early. We’re overrun here.”

“Uh...” I stalled, trying to think of the best possible answer. “No?” It came out more as a question than a statement. “She’s out of town.”

“Well, Dr. Greenwall saw you going into her house yesterday. Apparently, you’ve been taking care of her property while she’s away. Are you telling me that you haven’t been in touch with her at all since she left? She left you with no way to get in touch with her?”

I glanced at Bethany for the slightest moment, then looked back at Dr. Morris. “I am pretty sure she won’t be available until her leave of absence is over. But I haven’t gotten a phone call from her.”

Dr. Morris grunted and pushed past me, his mood even more sour than before.

“Wait, what?” Bethany asked. She wore a smile, but she had an inquisitive tone. “Dr. Granger asked you to watch her house while she was gone? Why?”

I shrugged. “I was the first person she talked to when the emergency happened.”

“You just said you haven’t talked to her since she left.”

“I have,” I said, “but I’m not telling him that. She’s gone on a personal trip. Family trip. Emergency. A family emergency. Blah.” I was stumbling all over my words because of the way Bethany was watching me.

“What is going on?” she asked with narrowed eyes.

“Nothing!”

“Don’t lie to me, Kitt. I can tell.” She dropped her voice, still smiling, but no dimple. “Is there something going on between you and Dr. Granger you haven’t told me about?”

“No.”

Bethany still wasn’t buying it.

“Please drop this. She and I are not a thing. Nothing.”

“Why are you so defensive then?”

“I’m not.” I tried very hard to keep my tone even.

Bethany rolled her eyes and walked away. I wanted to shout after her that I had seen her dildo in her nightstand drawer, but I wisely let the urge go unfulfilled. I watched Bethany leave. She was right about one thing: I was not being a good friend to her. I had promised to spend more time with her, but I was having trouble keeping my word.

She knew I was leaving town regularly but didn’t know where I was going or why. She knew I was hiding more than that but hadn’t figured out what. It was only a matter of time. Part of me screamed to tell her about my FFE page and get it over with. Would that hurt her less than letting her find out on her own? But I couldn’t bring myself to do it. I didn’t want to see the disappointment on her face.

I kept one eye on the clock throughout my shift. We were so busy that I started worrying I might not even get a mid-shift break. Fortunately, toward the evening, things in the ICU began to calm down. Bethany found me with one of my patients and asked if I wanted to grab dinner together.

“I have to run an errand during my break.”

“That’s okay. I’ll come with you and keep you company. We can pick up something on the way. My treat?”

I put down my patient chart. “I appreciate the offer and would love to, but I need to check on my friend staying with me.”

“Oh, right.” Bethany smiled another dimple-less smile. “Okay then.”

I practically sprinted out of the hospital, tore out of the parking lot, and drove as fast as I safely could to the hotel. I only had two days left on my contract with Lilly, and if I didn’t finish it soon, I was screwed. Everything was gone.

I strolled into the hotel at about 7:30 p.m. Carol was not there. Neither was Becky, the clerk. It was a guy named Rick. I asked Rick if Carol was available, and he went to get her. Carol came out of her office, took one look at me, and made an unpleasant face. “I can help you over here, sir.”

I strode over to her desk.

“You can take your break now, Rick,” Carol said. “I can help this gentleman.” As Rick walked away, she said, “How can I help you, sir?”

In a low voice, I said, “Did you get my note?”

Carol eyed me coolly. “Yeah.”

“I’m so sorry. I would never have done that on purpose.”

“I stuck my neck out to do that, and you got cold feet. Admit it. What you did was sick. I should throw you out of my hotel.”

“I was just as excited as you were,” I insisted. “I was literally walking into the door when I got a text from a friend. She was covered in bruises and needed my help. I wrote the note and went straight to her. Do you want to see the text?”

“Sure.” She thought she was calling my bluff, but her face changed when I whipped out my phone and pulled up the photo I’d gotten from Uma. I showed her the time stamp and everything. Carol chewed on that for a moment. “Okay. Even if that’s true, why didn’t I see you leave? You would’ve walked right past my desk. You could have explained it to me face to face.”

“Because she was staying in this hotel.”

Carol’s jaw fell open a little.

“Look at the picture again.”

Carol studied my phone once more. “She was in the other penthouse? That room was a—”

“I know.”

“You’re shitting me. Your friend made that mess in there?”

“It’s a fucking crazy coincidence, but it’s true. I went to the lobby, bought hoodies, hats, and sunglasses, and we walked right past you. She didn’t want anyone to see her.”

“Wait ... I remember that. That was you?”

I nodded. “I’m sorry for standing you up.”

Carol looked at the floor; then her gaze met mine again. “Even still, it’s for the best. I’m married. I can’t be doing shit like this.”

“That’s not how you felt three days ago.”

“Three days ago I wasn’t in my right mind.”

I didn’t know what to say to change Carol’s mind, but deep down, a part of my brain recognized three linked facts: Lilly wanted me to bed Carol. Second, Lilly had made me the Demigod of Sex. Third, if Lilly wanted this to happen, there must be a way.

“That’s too bad,” I finally said. “I did want you. I still do. And I promise you it would have been worth it.”

Carol looked at me, then looked away.

“I mean, I came back, right? That’s gotta mean something.”

“You are very handsome, and your body is something from a movie my kids watch with people wearing capes and tights. And I haven’t been—” She swallowed. “Never mind. The answer is no.”

“If you change your mind, you have until Friday at midnight.”

I didn’t rush out of the hotel, but I did run back to my car once I exited the lobby. I sped back to work and barely made it in time to avoid getting yelled at by one of the doctors. Bethany saw my sweaty face and frowned.

“Did you run home?”

“I drove.”

Bethany’s frown deepened. “Uh-huh.”

She turned around and walked away.

“Bethany...” I called. “Hey! Bethany!”

She wouldn’t speak to me.

My mood was less than pleasant for the remainder of my shift. Between Bethany ignoring me, Janiqua gushing about her new boyfriend, the insanely negative vibe in the ICU, and two ticking time bombs about to detonate in my life, I hated every second I was at the hospital.

Uma was still awake when I came home after 1 a.m. She still hadn’t started washing her clothes or gathering her stuff in preparation for leaving my place Friday morning. I supposed she would do that tomorrow.

“How are you feeling?” I asked.

“Pretty good. It only hurts a little to sit now.” She gave me a sarcastic smirk. “You look like you got run over by a gurney a few times today.”

“It’s been crazy in the ICU. Everyone is asking about you.”

“Me?”

I nodded. “They wanted to know—well, Dr. Morris wanted to know if you could return to work a day or two early. That crash with those high school kids has turned the place into a circus.”

Uma nodded uncomfortably, guilt obvious on her face. “You think I should go in?”