Precaution

It had been a two months

The walls of this hospital were no longer caging me in, no longer protecting me from the outside world. In the past month and a half that I’ve been allowed to work, I’ve been absolutely consumed by surgery.

Katarina, Mark, Lexie, Olivia and myself were all bent over the lunch table in the cafeteria, taking bites of the array of cakes that littered the surface.

“The raspberry chocolate tort.” Kat said with an encouraging nod. “The raspberry chocolate tort needs to be at the wedding or I’m not coming.” She said, stabbing her fork into the cake. Lexie just shook her head and Mark chewed thoughtfully.

“No, the red velvet is to die for.” Lexie said through a mouthful of the red velvet. “If I had to choose between eating this and living past seventy, I’d choose the cake. “

I just leaned back in my chair and stared at the miniature cakes, biting on my plastic fork as I looked at the cakes.

“The meyer lemon mousse, with the whipped vanilla buttercream. I think that’s the one.” I said finally, taking another bite to be sure. I nodded in affirmation, leaning back again in satisfaction. “Lemons are my favorite fruit.” I said with a shrug before taking a sip of my diet coke.

“That’s not a favorite fruit, that’s a disinfectant.” Kat said, disgusted at my choice. She claimed the remainder of the raspberry chocolate tort. “What does Derek think?” she asked after another bite and I gave another shrug.

“I didn’t ask because this is the only thing I control. The cake. I barely get control over my side of the guests.” I said, stabbing at my cake. Lexie looked up from her lunch curiously.

“So who’s doing all the planning? Derek?” she asked softly,

“Ha. His mother and her wedding planner. She says we fucked it up the first time so—“ I trailed off and shrugged yet again. I stared down at hands, looking at the smaller ring that donned my ring finger. It was Derek’s idea to get a second ring that I could wear around because I refused to put on the original. So now I had two rings, an overbearing mother in law, a tense friendship with someone I was still regrettably in love with, and eight tester cakes. How did I end up here?

“Anyways, I’m leaving because I’ve worked eighty hours and according to the chief and the new rules, that’s too much.” I said and Kat nearly dropped her cake.

“What? I already have 86 hours” She asked nervously and I gave her a sad nod.

“Old rules being enforced. They’ll find you, Swenn. Better run.” I said before getting up, digging around in my phone that had just begun to ring.

“What’s up?” I said as I pressed talk, seeing Lucy’s cell number light up my screen.

“Please come. Please come right now because they’re here and it’s awkward and they’re talking about fashion week and all I have are trees, Violet. I don’t know who Kate Moss is, I don’t know what a Miu Miu is—all I have are my trees and oh my god, she’s so Russian. Violet please come. You will save me from this.”

“First off, breathe and explain to me what’s going on because I miss sane Lucy. She was fun. Second, I don’t know anything about fashion week either.”

“Chloe, Evgeni and his girlfriend, Sidney and Kris all came over to Marc’s place and I’ve spent the past half hour nodding along as Chloe and Oksana talk about god knows what and when they ask me things I don’t know the answers! Marc is talking to Sidney, Kris and Geno and he just left me here, Violet. Left me to die in a mix of vodka and double processed blonds. “ Lucy whispered hurridley and I tried not to laugh.

“Okay fine. I’ll be there in a second. But if there’s no booze by the time I get there, I’m going to make them initiate conversation with you.” I threatened before turning a corner, making my way over to Marc’s place.

---

I got out of my car slowly, making my way to the door before ringing the bell. The sound barely had time to travel through the house before Lucy opened it and pulled me in the house. She linked arms with me as we traveled through to the living room, passing the kitchen where the boys were all seated. I waved hey and tried to keep my focus off of Sidney, but my eyes held his attention for a moment too long. Lucy elbowed me not so subtly and I could see Kris stifle a laugh.

“Violet, hey. You’re off from work?” Marc asked, standing up to go give Lucy a hug. I nodded a little sadly.

“For the rest of the week, actually. New rules say we can only work eighty hour weeks. “ I added, grabbing a cookie from the tray.

“So that means you’ll be able to have a life?” Kris asked and I reached over to smack him.

“More of a life you’ll ever have, Letang. “ I said and he laughed, looking back to Sidney and then back to myself. “So what sort of evil is going on here?” I asked, trying to get his attention off of the obvious tension.

“Evil? I never do anything evil. I’m an angel.” Marc said and Lucy rolled her eyes.

“That’s a lie.” She added before he gave her another big exaggerated hug.

“Obviously something evil has to be going on here to make Lucy call me in fear.” I said, taking another cookie. Lucy threw Marc an apologetic look and he laughed.

“You should have come with us in here. Why do you think we all left?” He said and Luce gave him a nudge with her shoulder. Sidney nodded from across the table.

“I didn’t know what a Miu Miu is, so I don’t think I could have lasted in there.” Sid said before taking a drink.

“It’s a designer. Duh.” Kris said and we all looked at him. Kris just shrugged. “I’m French.”

“Let’s go somewhere fun.” Marc said and Lucy gave him an odd look.

“Can we ditch the girls? Violet and myself excluded, of course.” She said and leaned into him with a mischievous smile. Marc had a hard time saying no with Lucy hanging onto his waist.

“Lets go see a movie.” Kris said and Lucy and I nodded in agreement. Sidney got up and walked over to the living room while we quietly watched from the kitchen as he told Oksana and Chloe the guys were heading to the rink to go over a few drills. When asked if they wanted to join us, they shook their heads in a resounding no. Lucy and I gave each other silent high fives.

Kris, Mark and Evgeni all headed quietly for the door and Lucy and I followed while Sidney trailed behind.

“Smooth moves there, Crosby.” I whispered and he laughed before pressing his hand against my back to hurry me along.

“Hustle, you’re going slow Anderson. If we ever had to escape prison, you’d go last. “