But the longer Giovanni didn’t call me back, the stronger I fumed. Not this again. I’m not even in Provo and he still manages to avoid me? I have got to find a way to break it off with this guy. He’s poison, but I love him.
“Baby, please!” Giovanni pleaded. I could tell he’d been snorting drugs because his nose was plugged up. Ironically, his behavior was causing me to take drugs, too. I’d gotten some anti-anxiety drugs from Mahalia three months ago. I liked them so much I was trying to find a way to get a prescription for more without my boss, an orthopedic sports surgeon, finding out. “Please, baby! You know how much I love you!”
“It’s a strange sort of love,” I seethed, “that forces you to stay out all night and stumble in at six in the morning.” He’d obviously stumbled in at six, fallen into bed, and was just now calling me at three. Only Giovanni could have gotten away with this at the age of thirty-three. His father bought him apartment buildings to renovate, and he could do it at his leisure. Any other guy would’ve had to have gotten a regular job a long time ago.
“I don’t know how I get so carried away!” he cried. “I just lose track of time. Besides, where are you? Where’s Avalanche?”
“It’s where Mahalia lives, as I’ve told you several times.”
“Oh, down near St. George? Me and my dad took a trip down through Zion once on our way to go house boating in Lake Powell. Man, there are some canyons and rivers in there—”
“Knock it off, Giovanni. I’m done with you. You didn’t even know I was fucking gone and you still stayed out all night with those moronic friends of yours.”
“It’s not their fault, baby. It’s me. I’m weak. You’re the best thing that ever happened to me. Don’t leave me. Please, baby, please—”
“I’ve had it, Giovanni,” I shouted louder, as if he’d finally hear me. “I can’t deal with your immature fucking ways anymore. I’m a fucking RN with a boyfriend who can’t seem to come home at night. How do you think that makes me feel?”
“I don’t blame you for—”
“I don’t care what you think. It was just a rhetorical question.” I was bellowing so loudly standing out on the back kitchen deck, it was a good thing most of the homes in the neighborhood were empty. The closest occupied home was the Save Our Baby Brides safe house, four homes down Little Wing Street. “Why don’t you just take some time to think about your priorities, Giovanni? I’ve got business to attend to down here.” And I punched the END button on my phone so violently it’s a wonder I didn’t break it. I only barely stopped myself from throwing it over the railing, into the big backyard that had never been landscaped.
“Argh!” I shouted, hugging myself tightly. It was cool in early December, but the briskness was bracing. I didn’t want to be so wide the fuck awake. “I need a fucking drink.”
It wasn’t until I was actually in the kitchen that I realized I didn’t have any booze. I didn’t like beer, the only thing the Avalanche grocery run was allowed to sell. There was a state liquor store out on Route 15. I headed for my purse on the living room couch, but was stopped by Deloy Pingree. My new roommate.
“Nurse Warrior!” he cried, as though he hadn’t seen me in a year. “Dingo just brought me back from the dental assisting school in St. George. It was amazing!” Deloy described “amazing” with his hands spread wide. I had the feeling he was equally as amazed by Full House reruns, sales on canned chili, and balloons. But his enthusiasm was infectious.
“But I thought you wanted to be a dentist. I found out the only school is in Salt Lake.” It was true. The school in St. George I thought was for dentists was now only for dental assistants.
“But that’s insane, Nurse Warrior.”
“Call me Oaklyn.”
“Oaklyn. Who’s going to pay my way while I attend dentist school in Salt Lake?”
“Who’s going to pay your way while you attend dental assisting school in St. George?”
Deloy splayed his hand against his chest. “I am. Like you said, I’ve got a small nest egg saved up, thanks to Levon Rockwell.”
“Thanks to yourself.”
“And Gideon’s offered me this house for free. He owns it, but it’s an investment for him, while he spruces up this town. It’ll be worth way more in a few years once we get this town together.”
Now I really needed a drink. “What’s this ‘we’ business? Are you planning on becoming the town’s first dental assistant?” I’d developed a sense of ownership over Deloy Pingree during the past few days. I was a nurse. I knew that a woman’s fertility started to decline once she hit thirty. The cutoff age had been going down and down with each new study done. Soon they’d be telling us the cutoff age was really twenty-five. And with no halfway feasible man even remotely on the horizon, my biological clock was ticking. I wanted to mother the hell out of some boy, and Deloy Pingree was it.