“We still want to run a few more tests, but…”
“I’m fine!” called his dad from the ambulance. “Will you get these wires off of me? And why are you touching methere?!”
“We think it was a panic attack,” added the paramedic. “Between thinking you were intruders, and uh…” He glanced at me and cleared his throat. “Other things. He got a little over-excited. We see this a lot in older folks. The excitement accelerates their heart, and they mistake it for a heart attack. And then they panic. And well…that’s why it’s called a panic attack.”
“So he’s fine?” asked Cole in disbelief.
“We’re pretty sure. Yes.”
“Oh thank God.” Cole let out a huge sigh. “You didn’t flash my dad to death!” He grabbed me and planted a big kiss right on my lips.
I laughed as he twirled me around.
His mom climbed out of the ambulance. “I guess you heard the good news,” she said.
“That dad was just being a big drama queen?” asked Cole. “Yup, we heard.”
Mrs. Halifax laughed with him. “I’ve always said your father is a big baby. You should see him when he gets the sniffles…”
“Hey!” called his dad from the ambulance. “I heard that!”
We all laughed and Cole’s mom gave him a big hug.
“It’s so good to see you, honey,” she said. “But what were you doing sneaking in at 4 in the morning? And who is this?”
“This is Raven,” he said. “Raven, meet my mom.”
“I’m sorry I almost killed your husband,” I said.
“It’s okay,” she said. “I’m pretty sure that was the most excitement he’s had in years. Maybe a littletoomuch excitement.”
I looked away. I couldn’t stand the awkwardness of this conversation.
She leaned in and whispered super loudly in Cole’s ear. “She’s really pretty. Is she your girlfriend?”
He laughed. “You’re terrible at whispering, Mom. And we can chat later, but right now we really need to use your computer.”
“We don’t have it anymore,” she said.
Cole cocked his head and looked at her like she was crazy. It was nice to see him give someone else that look for once. “What do you mean you don’t have it anymore? I just bought it for you like two months ago.”
“I don’t know what to tell you.”
“Did someone steal it? Is that why dad got a gun?”
“No, nothing like that. It just didn’t work right.”
“What do you mean it didn’t work right?” asked Cole. He was getting more and more frustrated. “That thing cost like three grand.”
Mrs. Halifax shrugged. “It worked great at first. But after a few weeks all these strange things started popping up every time we logged into the AOL.”
The AOL?I held back a smile.
“You mean pop-ups?”
“Yes, pop-ups.”
“You must have gotten some sort of virus.” Cole and I briefly locked eyes. I was pretty sure we both knew exactly what had happened to that computer.Porn.Lots and lots of porn was the only thing I knew of that caused tons of pop-ups. Not that I knew firsthand or anything…
