Mia and I walked into Grace’s hospital room the next morning to find Liam sprawled out on a cot that was way too small for the large man. He looked to be fast asleep but when I took a step towards Grace, Liam jerked awake and pulled a gun on me. He quickly realized who I was and lowered the weapon and rubbed a hand over his stubble-covered face. I didn’t blame him for the reaction and continued into the room to see that Grace was fast asleep. Mia was a step behind me when we entered the room, but now I was frozen in place with a cardboard holder filled with three large coffees. Liam noticed her reaction and stood slowly with his eyes focused on Mia.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you,” Liam said in a soft voice.
“Th-that’s okay,” Mia stammered and held the coffee up, “I brought c-coffee.” I glanced between the two of them with my eyebrows raised. I had never heard the polished professor stammer before and I wondered if it was more than just gun at play here. When Liam stepped closer and wrapped his hand around Mia’s to steady the container as he pulled out one of the coffees I saw Mia’s cheeks flood with color.
The professor was blushing at scary as hell Liam. Who would have thought?
I shook my head and looked back down at Grace. She must have heard them because she started blinking her eyes open and when she focused on me her hand reached out and grabbed onto mine. I smiled down at her and placed the bag of clothes I had brought on the foot of her bed before covering our joined hands with my free hand.
“Good morning Grace,” Mia purred out in a calming voice that was much more like her than the stammering mess she had been with Liam. “How are you feeling this morning?”
“Okay,” Grace responded in a small voice, “ready to get out of this hospital though.”
“That’s great! Because Payton has a surprise for you.” I glared over at Mia. I had hoped that we could postpone revealing my high-handed move with the condo until later. The room had dropped into a silence waiting for me to tell Grace about the surprise, but I found that my lips wouldn’t move.
“What is it?” asked Grace in a voice that held anticipation and a little excitement. After hearing the differences in her voice I knew I had to tell her.
“Yesterday I went to your apartment to pick up some of your clothes and I met your roommate,” I hedged.
“She is awful. I hope she didn’t give you any trouble.” Well, at least I had gotten that part right. It could have been possible that Grace was friends with Ms. yoga pants and wanted to live with her.
“She was fine, but I agree that she is awful. I didn’t think that you should have to deal with her right now and that you might like living closer to the Columbia campus.” I took a moment to take a sip of the coffee that Mia had handed me and looked down at Grace’s hand within my own. “So, I moved your stuff into a different apartment in Harlem.”
The room was silent for a beat before Grace asked, “You got me a new apartment?” I looked up at her and nodded.
“If you don’t like it, we can get you a different one. Or move you back with your roommate if you prefer.” I didn’t know why but I felt like the air was being slowly sucked out of the room while I waited for Grace’s response. A slow smile started to spread across Grace’s face as she processed what I had said about having a new apartment and then suddenly, Grace sat up in bed and wrapped her arms around me. I stiffened in response. Between Oliver, Mia, and now Grace I had been hugged more times in the last month than I had in my entire life.
“Ohmygod. I hate my old apartment and Jessica is such a bitch. I was not looking forward to having to deal with her. Thank you, thank you, thank you. And Harlem? That is such a nice part of the city and super close to campus. Can we go see it now?” I looked over to Mia for a little help. I knew how to interact with Grace when she was feeling unsafe and vulnerable because I could relate to that. But I had no idea what to do with this bubbly talkative Grace. Mia just smiled softly back and brought her coffee to her lips. Mia was not going to help me out of this one.
“Yes, we can go see it right after we get you checked out,” I finally responded.
“Awesomeness! I will go get changed.” With that Grace let go of me and grabbed the bag filled with her clothes and tried to walk to the bathroom. But she had an IV and the clear tubing stopped her. Liam shook his head and then stepped to her and released the IV tube from the port in her hand. Grace stood on her toes and planted a kiss on Liam’s cheek. This caused Liam to let out a small smile.
Once Grace closed herself in the bathroom Liam turned to me and asked, “Is that where you were yesterday? Getting Grace a new apartment?” I remembered that Liam had been in the observation room watching as I had told Javier about my past and my history with Joey and found that I couldn’t meet his eye.
“I needed something to do and I thought that a more secure apartment in a better part of town would help Grace cope and put your mind a little more at ease.” The room still felt stuffy to me and I had a sudden urge to flee. “I am going to go check with the nurse about the checkout procedure.” Then I walked out of the emotion-filled room.
I did check with the nurse that Grace was ready to be checked out and then I went down to the billing office to pay for the medical bills for all the women that they had found in the warehouse. I had set up an email where the psychologists and lawyers could contact me about anything that the women would need moving forward. I had checked it this morning and found notes from most of the psychologists indicating that the women were in much the same shape as Grace. Shaken up and scared, but physically they were going to be released from the hospital today. After buying Grace a condo, I had written back to ask the psychologists to let me know if the other girls needed funds to secure safe housing. I was willing to use the dirty money I had funneled out from the family to help these women get back on their feet, but I didn’t want to personally interact with them. Dealing with the emotions that Grace was throwing at me was about all that I could handle.
When I returned to Grace’s room she was fully dressed, and the IV port had been removed. Grace’s doctor was sitting in front of Grace while Liam and Mia were standing side by side behind her. I looked between Mia and Liam and thought that the two drastically different people contrasted each other but also seemed to fit together. Liam was big and bulky while Mia was skinny with very few curves. Liam was dark and fierce while Mia was light and comfort. But both stood in clear support of Grace.
When the doctor was finished, Grace’s face was more somber and she stood and walked over to me and resumed holding my hand. I squeezed her hand in my own show of support and then our group walked out of the hospital and piled into the new rental car. Grace reverted back to refusing to let go of my hand, so I sat in the back with Grace while Liam drove and Mia sat shotgun. We stopped at a drive-through to get breakfast and then drove over to the condo in Harlem in New York City traffic.
When Liam parked at the address that I gave him, he looked at the building boasting luxury condos and then turned in his seat to stare at me. I sensed that he was going to refuse the condo before he even saw it out of some sense of propriety, so I opened the door and dragged Grace out of the car. Grace’s somber manner was replaced by one of wonder as we entered the revolving door and were greeted by the doorman. I glanced over at Liam in the elevator and saw that his jaw was tightly clenched.
Maybe this wasn’t a good idea after all.
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