Fighting To Stay Read Free Page A

there looking angry. What time is it? Reaching up, I wipe my eyes and the tenderness reminds me that I had crawled into bed to rest after the biopsy.
    “Why are you sleeping,” he hisses.
    “I had the biopsy today, remember? I’m tired,” I say, attempting to lay back down.
    Vince yanks the covers from my bed and towers over me, glaring down at me. I look up at him in complete astonishment and confusion. If he thought for one second that I’m going to lay here and deal with his attitude—he picked the wrong woman. I’m tired, cranky and not in any mood to deal with whatever tantrum he is attempting to throw.
    “Where’s my dinner?”
    “In the fridge and pantry,” I retort blankly as I climb from the bed and gather my blankets. “I’m tired. You can fend for yourself tonight. Maybe when I wake up you’ll be in a little better mood,” I say as I make my bed to lie back down.
    He grabs my arm and whirls me around. Smacking me hard across the face, I stumble back onto the bed.
    “You’ll get down there and make my dinner now. While you’re cooking, you can think about talking back to me again.”
    The shock of him hitting me wearing off, I stand from the bed and start shoving him. With each shove, a pain shot through my armpit, but it only fuels my anger.
    “You don’t ever put your damn hands on me! You can take your supper and shove it down your throat. I pray you choke on it. I won’t save you. Oh yeah, be sure to get the hell out of my apartment before you do. You are not welcome here again. We are OVER!”
    Moving around him, I open the door and shove him hard out of the apartment. “I dare you to come back,” I threaten.
    Slamming the door, I lock it and slide the chain in place. Tomorrow, I’m going to have to buy all new locks and be charged by the complex for doing it, even doing it myself. In a way, a weight is lifted from my shoulders, but at the same time, my heart is broken.
    This is a man I’ve devoted a good chunk of my life to and he not only seen me as a maid, but he laid his hands on me. In my heart of hearts, I knew this was coming. He is not being supportive about the possibility of me having cancer. Instead, he is more concerned on when I would be into having sex again—feeding him... etc.
    You know what they say ‘Hindsight is 20/20’. Isn’t that the truth!
     

     
    My knee bounces as I wait in the office of Dr. Garrett Hepner. No matter how hard I tried over the past couple days, I couldn’t shake the worry over what the results will be. However, it is not just the results—UGH—it is everything that keeps running through my mind. At some point, I am going to have to tell my siblings about Vince. Frankly, I’d much rather talk about whatever these results were than tell them what went down between us.
    The door opens and clicks close. “Thank you for coming in on such short notice,” Garrett starts.
    “No problem,” I say not taking my eyes off my hands that seem to fascinate me completely in this moment.
    “How have you been? Any complaints about the…” his voice trails off as I raise my head. “Oh my God, what happened to you?”
    He kneels before me cradling my face in his hands, his thumb slowly running along my still bruised cheek. The concern and anger in his eyes touch my heart.
    “Would you accept that I had a klutz moment?” I ask hopefully.
    “No, no I wouldn’t,” the barely hidden anger shocks me.
    “Can you tell me the results?”
    Shaking his head, never moving his hands. “No, I can’t. Not until I know what happened to you. Please Donna, tell me what is going on. What happened?”
    Shocking me, more than his words is the tender kiss he places over the bruise. My skin tingles where his lips touch and heat floods my cheek. Then reality hit me just as hard as Vince’s smack did. In school, I had a massive crush on him, but we were friends and I didn’t want to lose that. His friendship meant far too much to me to risk over my heart being