Holding Together by Sue Brown

Author:Sue Brown [Brown, Sue]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Publisher: Total-E-Bound Publishing
Published: 2013-06-24T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Six

The numbers didn’t add up. Whichever way Darius looked at the columns of figures, the numbers didn’t add up. He growled loudly and decided—not for the first time—that Luca’s insistence on keeping everything on paper was insane. For a man in his early thirties, Luca was technologically challenged.

He was about to give up in disgust when the office door flew open and banged into the office cabinets behind the door. Jimmy stared at him, his eyes wild.

“Jimmy, are you okay?” Darius asked, getting to his feet.

“Dar, you’ve gotta come. It’s Luca.”

Darius was about to shout at him for calling him Dar, but at the frightened look in Jimmy’s eyes he said, “What’s happened?”

“He’s in the gym. I think he’s having a heart attack.”

“What?” Darius started running towards the gym. “Has someone called an ambulance?”

“I have,” Gary called from the desk.

Darius didn’t respond, charging through the double doors to find a crowd at the treadmills.

“Let me through. Get the fuck out of the way. Luca?”

The men parted and let him get to his boyfriend. Luca was propped up against a client, his face grey and drawn. Darius saw his struggle to get a breath.

“Luca, love, what happened?”

“He was showing me how to use the machine when he collapsed,” one of the men said.

Darius looked up at the sea of worried faces, knowing Luca would be hating all the attention. “Guys, carry on with your workouts, yeah? Jimmy, can you make sure this gentleman is looked after?”

Jimmy nodded and moved everyone away, except one young black man kneeling by Luca who said, “I’m a nurse. I’ll stay with you until the ambulance arrives.”

Darius noticed the nurse had his fingers resting lightly on Luca’s wrist. “Thank you…?”

“Stefan.”

“Thanks, Stefan.”

Darius stroked Luca’s sweaty face. “You okay, Daddy?” Then he realised he shouldn’t be calling Luca that in front of the gym clients.

Stefan kindly didn’t make any comment and Luca gave a weak smile. “Gym. Gotta stay here.”

Darius shook his head firmly. “No chance. You have good staff. I am coming with you to the hospital.”

“Keys,” Luca managed.

Darius dug the keys out of Luca’s pocket and called for Jimmy. “Can you lock up tonight?”

The man nodded, giving Luca a confident look. “Sure. We’ll look at the rotas and make sure the gym is covered. Don’t you worry, boss.”

“Thank you,” Darius said. His own heart was pounding as he held Luca in his arms and tried to think of everything that Luca would be worrying about. “Can Ahmed run the classes tonight?”

“I’ll call him. Let me and Gary worry about the gym. You just think about the boss.”

Darius nodded then the paramedics were coming through the doors and his attention was completely focused on his boyfriend.

He was pushed out of the way as they got to work, their calm manner reassuring Darius. Luca was still finding it difficult to speak so Darius answered their questions about Luca, and Stefan gave them the information about the last half an hour.

The female paramedic looked up. “Is this the

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