“Then in room number three… we have a guy who cut himself during a little fishing trip. He’ll probably need stitches. He’s going to the restroom now, then he’ll be ready to go.”
I let out a lon
g breath. Talk about boring. I hated nights like tonight. They were slow, and they dragged on for eons. If I was in the ICU, like normal, I could be keeping a watchful eye on Mr. Gibson—an elderly man who was hit head-on by a truck going over forty miles per hour. He had emergency surgery to fix a collapsed lung, plus a plethora of other injuries to take care of. He’s been touch-and-go for awhile, but when he’s “go”, he’s by far my favorite patient. (FYI, we’re not necessarily supposed to have a favorite, but we all secretly do.)
“I want the little kid!” Kelly said, grabbing the purple file. “I love kids, and I can calm the dad down. After all, the same thing happened to Noah when he was around three. It’s no biggie.” Kelly fixed her bright blonde hair and adjusted her scrub top, all but skipping down to room number one.
“Which one do you want?”
I decided to go with the stitches man. After all, that was much more exciting and time-consuming than a possible concussion.
I grabbed the correct file and started to walk down to room number three. Just as I was a few yards from the door, I stopped dead in my tracks when I saw the man entering his room from using the restroom.
I sucked in a huge breath when I realized who it was. I muffled a squeak, causing Jackie, another one of the ER nurses, to glance over at me, but I didn’t have time to explain. Instead, I jumped through the door closest to me.
“Oh my GOD! Why does this shit happen to me?” I cried out, resting my head against the back of the door that I had not so subtly slammed.
“Why does what happen to you?” I heard a deep voice ask from behind me. Of course I would jump into a room with someone already inside…I stood up straight, embarrassed that I not only had burst into an OCCUPIED room, but I had also managed to talk to myself like a crazy person while there.
I was about to turn around and explain myself (okay, make up an excuse), but the door opened again after me so quickly that I had to jump back. I was met with two very amused, almond-shaped eyes.
“So, you’re not taking patient three?” Jackie whispered, grinning.
“Nope. I’ll take this one.” I peeked around Jackie’s body and gave the patient a quick smile before coming back in front of her. “I changed my mind.”
“Yeah, I think the entire hospital heard you change your mind. What was that about?” Jackie’s whispers weren’t even close to whispers. I knew for a fact that the patient could hear her. Jackie was one of those “loud” people. You know, the ones who just couldn’t seem to control their volume, no matter what, when they talked.
I whispered a real whisper back, “I’ll tell you later.”
“Oh no, feel free to tell her now. I’m interested, too.” The deep voice arose from behind us, and I had to hold back an eye-roll. Obviously, I can’t seem to whisper right, either.
“Is there something I should know about that patient?” Jackie asked, while giggling flirtatiously in the direction of the deep-voiced patient.
“No. It’s just…” I felt my neck start to get a teeny bit warm. How can I explain this without being totally mortified?
I can’t. That’s how.
“Fine,” I huffed, no longer making an effort to whisper. I crossed my arms over the front of my navy scrubs and squeezed my eyes shut. Maybe if I can’t see them, they can’t see me?
“I went out on a blind date with patient number three, and…” Oh my God. I couldn’t believe I was saying this in front of another patient. This has got to be breaking, like, five thousand rules.
“Go on,” the patient said, in an overly arrogant voice. I peeled my eyes out from under my clenched eyelids and almost glared at him, but I couldn’t do that for more than one reason. I’ve already started the night out completely unprofessionally, so I didn’t want to dig myself an even bigger hole, and, my thoughts of annoyance vanished when I really took a look at him…he was stunningly handsome. Almost too handsome to be real.
“Seriously, come on. Don’t leave us hanging,” Jackie probed.
I cleared my throat. “And, he was so obnoxious at dinner while eating steak like a grizzly bear, that I told him I was going to the restroom, and I got up and left…him…there.”
An undeniably tense silence emerged from the other two people in the room. Great. Now they both thought I was the biggest bitch in the entire world, and maybe I was. But I had kind of been scared for my life. I’d half-expected Dustin to eat me after he was finished with his hearty steak.
I literally jumped from the cackling laughter that burst from Jackie, and then the handsome specimen joined in with a low chuckle. Jackie’s face turned a shade darker than her red lipstick and she was holding her stomach, barely able to breathe. I scowled and continued to cross my arms until they were both done laughing. I knew my face must be a deep shade of red from embarrassment. But seriously. How did it happen that, number 1, Dustin was here, in the ER; number 2, I wasn’t even supposed to be working the ER; and, number 3, somehow, he was my patient…?
My life was full of clever little jokes, I tell ya. They’ve gotten increasingly worse this past year, too. I would almost bet my life that Alexander was somehow having a play in all this shit.
“Okay, okay, okay!” Jackie said, gathering herself to stop laughing. The second she met my face, she snickered again.
“Seriously, it’s not that funny. Now, you go deal with him because I just…can’t.”
“I think you should punish her and make her go deal with him. Serves you right, after bailing.” My eyes narrowed into little slits at the patient. He thought he got a say in this?