December

Chapter 9

I left for the hospital the next morning at around noon, which is when I was told to come pick Grammy up so I could take her home. She was done recovering from her surgery and was able to go back to her home. The doctors told me to make sure she took her medicines, but more importantly, keep her from feeling any stress at all. They wanted me to keep her happy. Because her heart was weaker, she was less able to handle any stressful news. I had to make sure her life was easy, which meant that I would be away from work for a while.

"Ryan, would you please stop yelling for a second and just listen to me!" I exclaimed as I walked down the street, making my way to the hospital.

"Stop yelling? Stop yelling?! Arya, I hired you because you're responsible and timely! And now you're telling me that you're going to be away for a while? You think this is OK? Who the hell is going to do all of your work?!" Ryan shouted on the line.

"I will. I will still do all of my work. I'll just have to fax it to you or something. I'm coming back later today to pick up all of the files I need and I promise, I'll still get everything done on time.  I just need you to understand my situation right now," I said.

"What situation?" he asked.

"Well, if you stopped shooting your mouth off while I was trying to tell you, you would have known!" I exclaimed.

"Quit the dramatics, Hansen. What's going on?" he asked, clearly sounding frustrated.

"My grandmother just had heart surgery. The doctors said that she's weak and so is her heart and she needs me to take care of her now. She can't be home alone," I explained.

"Why can't you just stick her in a nursing home?" he asked.

"Ryan, she raised me as a child when I was orphaned. If I did that, it would be like sticking my mother in a nursing home and I'm not going to do that," I said. I heard him sigh on the other end.

"Ugh, well, fine then," he said. I rolled my eyes internally.

"Besides, it's just temporary until I can convince her to come back with me," I said.

"Well, then use your skills of persuasion and get working! I can't have you working away from the office for too long. I don't know how long Matthews will allow this," he said.

"Kylie will be just fine. It's you whose acting like a child," I said back, turning the corner and waving to Mrs. Knolls. She bounded her way towards me, but I pointed to the phone, silently telling her that I couldn't talk. Thank God. The woman would have eaten my ears out.

"Well pardon me for needing my paralegal," he said.

"Just admit that you miss me," I said.

"Yeah, that's not going to happen," he replied. I rolled my eyes and shook my head, even though he couldn't see me. "I better see your perky ass in here before I leave for the night. I'll talk to you then," he said.

"Yes, sir," I said.

"See you, babe," he said.

"Bye," I replied, pressing the end button. I sighed and ran a hand through my wavy brunette locks. It was only 12:30 in the afternoon and I was already exhausted. I had a long day ahead of me.

I walked into the hospital and waved to the front desk greeter, who was an old man that smiled pleasantly at me. As I walked by, I did a double take.

"Larry?" I asked, squinting at the man to make sure I was seeing correctly.

"Arya Hansen," he replied back with a toothy smile that showed off his dentures. "For a second there, I thought you might have forgotten me," he added.