Pansies and Peonies

The walls were white and sterilized. Everything shone brightly and little pastel-colored details were jumping at me. I was struggling not to completely destroy the flowers I had bought. I didn’t know what would be his reaction when I entered the room. Maybe he called for security. Or maybe he wasn’t even awake and I could just leave a note and make a run for it. 

A nurse dressed in a baby blue pajama had told he was in room 628. The elevator was cold, there was no music playing and the doors opened with a ding each time. An old lady dressed all in black smiled kindly at me. “Visiting your boyfriend, sweetie?” 

“Not exactly,” I replied. I was mortified and I was sure my cheeks had turned the same shade of bright red as my lipstick. Maybe I shouldn’t have worn red lipstick to a hospital, jeez. The little bouquet of pansies and peonies was trembling in my hands. I couldn’t just enter his room; I had run him over with my car. Damn it, Clara, why did you have to run him over? I cursed at myself. 

And there I was: room 628. I heard a woman laugh inside and I froze for a moment. What if he had a girlfriend who leaped at me for putting him in the hospital? I breathed slowly and then decided to throw caution to the winds. It could not be worse than it already was. I knocked and someone told me to come inside. 

“Umm, hi, Mr. Morgan?” My voice trembled a little, but I didn’t know if it was because of fear or embarrassment anymore. Turns out there were two beds in the room. Another patient, a woman was in the bed next to the window, reading a magazine. That must be who I heard laugh, because there wasn’t anyone else in the room. Apart from poor Mr. Morgan, of course. 

“Oh, hi! Aren’t you the one that hit me with your car?” He said cheerfully. 

“Yes, I am deeply sorry for what happened, I…” My words got tangled and I just couldn’t finish my sentence. I just sighed and offered him the flowers. 

“Those are wonderful! Thank you miss..?” 

“My name is Clara Jens, Mr. Morgan. And you don’t have to thank me, it’s the least I could do after what happened.” 

“Please, don’t call me Mr. Morgan, that’s my dad. My name’s Aiden, and you should stop apologizing, you saved me from a nightmare of a meeting at the office. Why don’t you sit down and tell me a little about your life? You seem quite interesting.” 

I didn’t understand why this boy was being so nice to me and it was only making me feel worse about everything. “Oh no, I wouldn’t wanna bother you. And surely you have other things to do, I am not that interesting.” I put down the flowers at his bedside. “Thank you for not pressing charges against me, I hope you recover soon.” 

I was about to run out the door when he called out for me. 

“Clara please, stay for a while if you’ve got time. My sister is out of the country, you know? And I haven’t got that many friends, so this has been quite boring so far. I would love to talk to someone.” He sounded so sweet and sad. Clara couldn’t just get out of there now. She sighed again and sat in a chair beside him. 

“Okay, what do you want to talk about, Aiden?” His smile was absolutely radiant and it only faltered when the woman in the other bed snorted and said “Wow, I can’t believe that worked.” 

He looked at me surprised and the tension suddenly seemed to leave my body. I started laughing, impressed that this man had somehow managed to flirtatiously ask me to stay even though we didn’t know each other. He smiled at me again, wider this time and just started up a conversation.