This is just a small victory. A sour victory. I am finally able to see Eddie again. Lillian got the station to drop the charges. Thankfully, I’m no longer a suspect in Eddie’s assault case, but that just means there is someone else out there who hurt him. It makes me sick to my stomach to think that someone is out there walking around free.

Now that my name has been cleared in the assault case, I still have the business negligence and accidental homicide by poison to worry about. The lawyer working the lawsuit has been working overnight, and more and more people are signing up to sue me. Just my luck. My business is going down the drain, Éclair is pissed at me for running out on her, and I am just barely keeping my head on straight.

Thankfully for me, Sylvia is back in town after her brief skiing and snowboarding trip in Utah, so she is with me on my first day back to see Eddie. Luckily, he is physically looking better. He is still on life support, but the doctor seemed a bit more confident that he is not going to stay that way. The doctor says he might actually make a recovery. I find myself slightly more relaxed in that thought –the thought that I actually might get to talk to Eddie again.

I sit next to his bed reading a book out loud. One of the nurses told me that coma patients can sometimes hear you, so I figured I would give him something to listen to just in case he could hear me. I feel kind of like a dumbass sitting here reading The Outsiders, but it’s the only book I had lying around my apartment. Eddie had actually been the one who had lent it to me, so I assume he liked it.

As I am finishing another chapter, I notice in the corner of my eye Sylvia starting to nod off. I feel kind of bad. She’s been sitting there being all sweet and supportive for hours. I realize I can’t keep her locked up in a hospital room all day. I close the book, slamming it and making her jump just to kind of be a jackass and tease her a bit. She laughs. “Sorry,” she says.

“Listen,” I say, “My money is still frozen… I’d love to take you out on a fancy date, but until Lillian gets that worked out for me-”

“How about I treat you to lunch?” she suggests with a smile.

I smile back, “You’re too sweet. I was going to say I have ten bucks in cash so we could get a dollar menu lunch, but that works too.”

She laughs again. “Okay, well, I’d rather have some real food. Are you in?” I nod. She can tell I’m reluctant to leave. She nods towards Eddie, “I can give you two a minute.” She says and steps out into the hall.

I’m glad she did that. She’s really thoughtful. It makes me feel like a real asshole for sleeping with Éclair again. She told me she knows I’m sleeping around and that she’s okay with it, but it still makes me feel guilty when she acts so sweet and perfect and understanding. By comparison, I know I’m coming off as a complete pig.

I sit by Eddie for a while longer. I talk to him –tell him about all the shit going on. I talk about Éclair and about Sylvia. I tell him about my awkward first meeting with Lillian Lioness and her lesbianism and me coming off as a dumbass not knowing –he probably would have found that funny. I tell him how confused I am about Sylvia. How I can’t figure out what I want. I tell him about how worried I am about the lawsuit and how I wish he was awake so that he could tell me what to do. He would know what to do. He is smarter than me.

After talking to him for several minutes, never getting so much as a flinch from him, and I head out into the hallway to go have lunch with my fantasy girl. Hopefully lunch with Sylvia will allow me to forget my troubles if only for a little while.