Friends & Fortune Cookies: A Sudden Falls Romance by Elizabeth Bemis

that we keep you here in the ER rather than admit you. If everything’s fine, you can go home early in the morning.”
    “How long before he’s back on his feet? We’re in construction,” he said, although it was probably obvious to her given our matching “Baker Restoration” tee-shirts, dusty jeans, and steel-toed boots. Although my boots seemed to be missing, and I could now see the leg of my jeans had been cut up the inside.
    Dammit! I’d really liked these jeans.
    But Alex’s question was a good one. We had less than five weeks until we had to have the house ready, and it was going to require all hands on deck.
    “As ankle breaks go, you kind of lucked out. I’m going to recommend you stay completely off of it through the weekend. We’ve set you up to meet with an orthopedist on Monday. That doctor may send you home with a walking cast. Now, your ribs are probably going to slow you down more than the ankle. Be kind to them, and they will be kind to you. Treat with ice for the next seventy-two hours.”
    She whipped a couple of sheets off her clipboard. “Here’s a prescription for a painkiller and that follow-up appointment with the orthopedist.” She held them out to Gracie. “Mrs. Baker?”
    Gracie’s face blushed red, and she didn’t immediately reach out for the pages. “Oh, I’m not...”
    I almost laughed at her discomfort until Dr. Stark pulled her hand back and reattached the papers to her clipboard. “Oh. You’ll probably want to have someone around for the first couple of days. You’re going to have limited mobility and a fair amount of pain.” She sighed. “Maybe we should admit you.”
    I tensed up to protest when Gracie put her hand over my arm. “What I meant is we’re not married, yet. ” She squeezed my forearm. “Of course, I’ll be there for him.”
    I could have kissed her at that moment. Even if she drove me home and kicked me out at the curb, it would be preferable to being cooped up in a hospital for several days. I nearly shuddered at the thought.
    Alex’s gaze went back and forth between Gracie and me. But fortunately, he didn’t blow our cover.
    The sheets of paper came back off the clipboard, and this time Gracie took them. “All right, then, Mr. Baker. No more falling off roofs. I’ll have the nurses keep an eye on you tonight, and if everything is okay, we’ll send you home in the morning. Good luck.”
    The doctor stepped away from the curtain, and I finally met Gracie’s eyes. Her makeup — which I had noticed had been pristine every time I took her to Café Diem—was a little worse for wear. If I didn’t know better, I’d swear she’d been crying.
    “I’m glad you’re okay.” Her voice sounded a little quiet and hoarse.
    Had she been crying?
    “I’m going to go fill these prescriptions at the hospital pharmacy,” she said. “Do you have your insurance card?”
    Alex grabbed a bag hanging from the end of the bed, dug around inside, and came up with my wallet. I didn’t protest as Grace opened it up and plucked the insurance card out. Had she noticed the photo of us that I kept sealed in the thin vinyl photo pocket that came with my wallet? It had been in there for years, since just after the camping trip where we’d taken it. The trip where we managed to repair our post-prom fallout. Before she’d starting dating some guy from her freshman English class, and before I went through a long, miserable tour in Iraq and two not-quite-as-long-but-equally-miserable tours in Afghanistan where that picture was one of the few things that got me through.
    If she had noticed it, she didn’t linger over it for long. Snapping the wallet closed, she handed it back to Alex. “I’ll be back in a few,” she said as a nurse came in. My cousin plopped down in the chair Gracie had vacated as the nurse took my blood pressure and asked me a few questions about what day it was, who was president, and where I was.
    I answered without giving her any sass, and she