Chapter 24

Andrea had been dragged halfway to the elevator before she realized what had just happened.

“Annie, stop!” Andrea shouted, wiggling loose from her cousin’s grip and jumping in front of Annie so she couldn’t move forward. “Do you realize what you just did? You may have just ruined the best thing that’s ever going to happen to you!”

“Don’t you think I know that? But I think you are forgetting what happened with Antoine! I am not putting myself out there again; I am not going to vulnerable to another man! Now I am leaving, with or without you.” Annie started to push past Andrea, but Andrea grabbed her arm to stop her.

“Excuse me? Do not talk to me about not putting yourself out there again! My husband was killed for Christ’s sake, and you kept pushing, telling me to not give up on love, to get out and find someone. Why can’t you do the same thing? Losing someone you love, for WHATEVER reason, isn’t harder just for you!” Andrea yelled back at her cousin.

“You’re husband was killed, he didn’t cheat on you! He didn’t have sex with his secretary in your bed! He didn’t screw another woman senseless in your bathroom while you were in the kitchen making dinner for the two of them and her husband! You have no idea how I feel and it’s not the same thing as Michael dying!” Andrea stood there in disbelief, her mouth gaping open.

“How dare you,” she reeled, her head spinning. “You were always so jealous of my marriage, of my husband. Saying all the hurtful things you can think of is not going to change the fact that you always wanted what I had and because you ended up with the most unfaithful man in the northern hemisphere instead of someone that actually loved you and wanted to be with something more than just a great piece of as$ you’re going to run away from something, someone that could make you so happy!” Andrea inhaled deeply to catch her breath after giving that entire speech on one mouthful of air.

“You have no idea what you’re talking about,” Annie snapped as she tried to get past Andrea. Andrea would not let her pass. “Get out of my way!” she ordered, her anger and frustration increasing with every beat of her heart.

“You are not going to run away from this,” Andrea said as calmly as she possibly could. “You brought me here to find love, and I did; now it’s your turn.” She tried to push Annie back towards AJ’s room, but Annie was too far-gone with emotion to understand what Andrea was trying to do.

“GET OUT OF MY WAY!” she screamed at the top of her lungs and she shoved Andrea out of her way and ran down the hallway to the elevator.

Annie pushed her cousin with so much force it sent Andrea flying backwards into the wall. She stumbled, trying to catch herself but failed. The back of her head smashed into the wall so hard it essentially ricochet off of the wall and propelled her forward again. Andrea, as limp as a wet noodle, fell forward hitting her head once more; this time it was her forehead on the wood trim along the floor. The angle and strength her head hit the trim with caused the skin on her forehead to break. The last sound Andrea heard before she slipped into oblivion was the resonance of the bone in her arm breaking as she landed awkwardly on it.

Annie stopped dead in her tracks when she heard the multiple thuds and ran back to her cousin who was crumpled on the floor. “Oh my God, Andrea, I am so sorry!” she yelled trying to lift her cousin up off the floor. “Andrea, wake up! Oh my God wake up!” She shook Andrea as hard as she could attempting to arouse her from the unconsciousness she had slipped into. “Help! Someone help me!” Annie screamed hysterically as she took off her sweatshirt and pressed it against Andrea’s head.

“Jesus Christ, what happened?” a man asked as he ran out of his room to see what all the commotion was about. “LIZ, CALL 911!” he yelled back into his hotel room after he saw Andrea. Three other doors opened and people came out to see what was happening and why 911 needed to be called. There was so much noise in the hallway, people were shouting and running from door to door banging on them to find someone that could help until the ambulance arrived.

Nick ran over to AJ as the door slammed shut. “C’mon man, don’t go down like this,” he prodded, pulling AJ back up. “Everybody’s got skeletons in their closet, and Annie’s apparently is commitment related. Go after her and work it out.”

As AJ was standing up, he heard screaming and yelling in the hallway; they all did.

“What is going on out there?” Kevin asked rhetorically. “Sounds like someone is yelling for help,” he quickly concluded, about to run out the door and help.

“Kev, wait! What if it’s some girls trying to get our attention or something? We will get out there and get mauled! Call security and have them check it out,” warned Nick.

Kevin walked over the phone, but as he was picking it up they heard pounding on their door. “Open up, we need help! Open up!” a voice yelled from behind the door.

“Doesn’t sound like some teenage girls to me!” Kevin yelled at Nick as he flung open the door to see what was going on. “What’s wrong? Who needs help?” Kevin asked the person at the door. He looked down the hall to where the man was pointing and saw a huddle of people just standing in the hallway looking down.

“I don’t know what happened, but there’s a woman bleeding from the head and she is not conscious. Is anybody in this room a doctor or EMT or anything?” the man at the door frantically asked.

“I know some stuff, like CPR,” Nick said out loud, a little shocked that he hadn’t thought about it until now. “I learned as part of my scuba certification.” He ran out the door with the man, followed by the other guys. None of them could have been prepared for what they found when they got there.

“No she’s not conscious. Yes, it’s still bleeding. No, the bone isn’t sticking through the skin but it is clearly broken. Okay, okay, mmhm, uh-huh, thank you,” Liz said into the phone. She replaced it on the cradle and ran out into the hallway. “Don’t move her anymore!” she yelled, remembering everything the 911 dispatcher had told her. “We don’t know if she’s got a spinal injury! Keep pressure on her head and keep her arm stationary! The ambulance is on its way!”

“Move! Get out of the way! I found someone that knows what to do,” the man that had been pounding on doors said. “Let him through for God’s sake!” The crowd parted enough to let Nick into the action. He could not believe what he saw.

“Christ, what the hell happened Annie?” he shouted as he bent down next to Andrea. He placed two fingers on her neck and felt a pulse and then lowered his face down to her mouth to see if she was breathing. He noticed her arm, bent the wrong way and a bone sticking up under the skin. “Oh my God, what happened?” he asked again looking at Annie.

She didn’t answer him; she was curled up in ball on the floor, sobbing and repeating the words “I’m so sorry” over and over. AJ and Howie had pushed their way through the herd of people while Nick was checking Andrea’s pulse and were shocked when they saw “the woman” who needed help.

“Oh my God, what happened? Annie, what happened?” AJ frenetically asked as he hugged her, trying to get her to calm down.

“I did it, it’s my fault, it’s all my fault, I didn’t mean to push her so hard, it’s all my fault,” she sobbed as AJ rocked her in his arms.

“Shh, shh, it was an accident,” AJ said softly rocking her and rubbing her head, not understanding what happened. “Tell me what happened, its going to be okay,” he prodded.

Between sobs and fits of hysteria Annie told him what happened. By the time she had finished the ambulance had arrived and the EMT’s were tending to Andrea. Nick had been listening to Annie’s story as well. He crawled over to her but she would not look him in the eye.

“Annie, look at me,” he said softly. “It’s going to be okay.” She slowly brought her eyes up to meet his, crying even harder as she did so.

“I didn’t mean to, I didn’t even know I pushed her that hard or that she was hurt until I heard her fall. I was almost on the elevator by that time. I’m so sorry.” She started shaking and crying harder. Nick put his arms around her and hugged her tightly.

“It’s going to be okay,” he repeated gently. “I’m going to ride with her to the hospital. You stay here with Alex, calm down, and when you are ready, he will bring you to the hospital, okay?”

Annie nodded her head and folded back into AJ’s arms, the only place she felt safe and secure. “I’m sorry Alex,” she whispered as he held her. “I was afraid, that’s all. I was afraid to be with you, afraid to be hurt again. I don’t want to leave.” AJ pulled her up off the ground and they began walking back to his room.

“I am afraid too,” he said truthfully. “But I know that I don’t want live without you.” He opened the door to his room and they walked into inside still wrapped in each other’s arms. “Please don’t make me live my life without you in it?” he requested as they sat down on the end of the bed. “Don’t leave me, not like this and not for that reason.”

Annie nuzzled her head into his chest, taking a deep breath in. She loved the way he smelled, the way it felt to be in his arms, they way her body fit so perfectly against his, she loved everything about him; and at that moment she knew without a doubt in her mind that she loved him.

“I won’t leave you, not ever,” she whispered softly as she melted into his embrace. “I love you.”