One Day Soon (One Day Soon, #1)(22)

“I was given a new case,” I said, shoving food in my mouth. I hated cooking. So my diet typically consisted of pre-prepared meals and boxes of cookies. I liked cooking, but could never summon the energy required to actually bother.

“Oh yeah? Do tell.” Lee sat up, looking interested.

“This homeless guy was brought in. No one knew who he was,” I began.

“Oh, a mystery. Well that makes things interesting at least. Any luck?”

I wrapped pasta around my fork but didn’t eat it. I had suddenly lost my appetite.

“Im, did you find out who he was?” Lee prompted when I didn’t answer.

I dropped my fork on the plate and gave my friend a strained smile.

“Not yet.”

And it was true. I didn’t know who he was now.

But I’d learn.

I wasn’t going to lose the chance to find out exactly who Yoss Frazier had become.



Lee didn’t stay that long. He got a call from Kevin twenty minutes later and my neighbor left to have dinner with his boyfriend.

“When you find out more about this mystery patient, let me know. It sounds intriguing,” Lee said, kissing my cheek before he left.

“Sure thing.”

After he was gone, I cleaned up the dishes, changed into a pair of leggings and a baggy shirt, then sat down on the couch, flipping through channels. But I couldn’t concentrate on television.

My mind was somewhere else. With someone else.

Right now, that someone was lying in a hospital bed only five miles away. The knowledge that he was so close made me feel restless and full of an indescribably energy.

I glanced at the clock on the wall. It was just after eight. It was late, but I knew I’d never be able to settle down.

I just needed to see him. I couldn’t wait for tomorrow.

So I grabbed my car keys and headed out the door.



“What are you doing here this time of night, Imogen?”

I gave Michelle, one of the nurses on duty, a sheepish smile. “Couldn’t sleep. I just kept thinking about all the paperwork I have to do in the morning.”

Michelle shook her head. “You’re crazy, girl.”

That was the understatement of the day.

I glanced towards room 102. “How was he this evening?” I asked.

“He’s been in and out of consciousness. Dr. Howell came by just before he left for the day to update us on the blood work that came back. It wasn’t good. But the doc was going to wait and speak to Mr. Frazier when he was more lucid.”

My stomach flipped over and my head felt fuzzy. “Not good? What did the tests say?”

“His panels indicate that he has hepatitis B. We need to run more tests to see the extent of the disease and what the treatment options are, but Dr. Howell didn’t appear overly optimistic given the level of viral proteins in his blood and his already jaundiced skin. He needs to determine whether there’s damage to his liver and if so, how bad it is.”

Michelle’s words seemed to come to me through a fog.

“Hepatitis B,” I repeated. I had worked in a hospital long enough to know how serious that was.

How potentially life threatening it could be if left untreated.

“It’s so sad. But given his lifestyle, it’s not surprising.”

His lifestyle.

It seemed everyone in the damn hospital knew the unsavory facts of Yoss’s life. And that seriously pissed me off.

I took a deep breath and calmed myself down.

“I’m going to check on him before heading down to my office for a bit,” I told the nurse, who only nodded before turning back to the computer.

I quietly entered the room and made my way over to the curtain, pulling it back as gently as I was able to. I peeked around the corner and was both relieved and disappointed that he was asleep.

He had been so hateful earlier, I hadn’t necessarily wanted a repeat, but I was also almost desperate to see his green eyes again. I had missed how he used to look at me.

Like I was everything.

He was sick. And badly hurt. And a shadow of the man I used to know.

What had happened to change him so much?

I wanted to touch him.

He had always hated physical contact. Which was understandable given the things he had gone through. But he had let me in.

Yoss moaned in his sleep, his brow furrowing, his hands grasping for something only he could see.

“Imi,” he half-sobbed, his eyes still closed.

I sucked in a breath, my eyes blurring, my heart racing.

“Imi,” Yoss moaned again. “Imi.”

Over and over again he whispered my name as he slept.

I couldn’t tell if my name was his prayer.

Or his nightmare.





Fifteen Years Ago

Two weeks had passed since I had run away and Yoss had found me. And he hadn’t left my side for a moment.

We woke up beside each other every morning. At first it had been awkward. At sixteen, I had never shared a bed with a boy. But things were different now.

Milestones came with increasing frequency. Time simultaneously sped up and slowed down. Some things felt like they were happening so fast. Others felt like they were taking entirely too long.

Feelings were heightened. I lived my life in a constant state of paranoia and hyper vigilance. I swung through manic states of excitement and anguish. There were times I couldn’t tell if I was coming or going.