15-05-2021-052358It-Ends-with-Us

tenderness. I try to forget what happened in the kitchen, but it’s
everything right now.
He pushed me away from him.
Ryle pushed me.
For fifteen seconds, I saw a side of him that wasn’t him. That wasn’t
me. I laughed at him when I should have been concerned. He shoved
me when he should have never touched me. I pushed him away and
caused him to cut his hand.
It was awful. The whole thing, the entire fifteen seconds it lasted,
was absolutely awful. I never want to think about it again.
He still has the rag balled up in his hand and it’s soaked with
blood. I push against his chest.
“I’ll be right back,” I tell him. He kisses me one more time and
rolls off of me. I walk to the bathroom and close the door. I look in
the mirror and gasp.
Blood. In my hair, on my cheeks, on my body. It’s all his blood. I
grab a rag and try to wash some off, and then I look under the sink
for the first aid kit. I have no idea how bad his hand is. First he
burned it, then he sliced it open. Not even an hour after he was just
telling me how important this surgery was to him.
No more wine. We’re never allowed vintage wine again.
I grab the box from under the sink and open the bedroom door.
He’s walking back into the bedroom from the kitchen with a small
bag of ice. He holds it up, “For your eye,” he says.
I hold up the first aid kit. “For your hand.”
We both smile and then sit back down on the bed. He leans against
the headboard while I pull his hand to my lap. The whole time I’m
dressing his wound, he’s holding the bag of ice against my eye.
I squeeze some antiseptic cream onto my finger and dab it against
the burns on his fingers. They don’t look as bad as I thought they
might be, so that’s a relief. “Can you prevent it from blistering?” I ask
him.
He shakes his head. “Not if it’s second-degree.”
I want to ask him if he can still perform the surgery if his fingers
have blisters on them come Monday, but I don’t bring it up. I’m sure
that’s on the forefront of his mind right now.
“Do you want me to put some on your cut?”