I looked around as the men seated at the table. I smiled and then raised my glass and said, “Here’s to your success too. Here’s to your fiancée and here’s to the success of Mercury Wild.”
“Cheers!” everyone cried out and drank.
I was really thankful to be here. Marcus was here; he worked at a bank. Dylan was one of our closest friends and he was a big deal real estate broker. Seated beside me was Damon, an actual professional football player. I only just recently got to know him but so far he’s turned out to be a really chill guy. Then there was Daxter. He used to be a firefighter but one day he saved a woman who turned out to be an agent for a modeling company. She figured he was hot – I guess he should be since girls were always flocking to him – and he became a model.
Out of our whole group, Trevor was the one with the biggest success. Sure, he wasn’t as financially successful as Dylan or Damon but his fiancée, Jasmine, made all the difference. Ever since she came into his life, things turned up for the better.
Mercury Wild really grew in popularity and it was all her doing. Just a few months back it was down in the gutter and the owner, Trevor Wild, had to wipe tables and serve customers himself because he only had a handful of workers. Then Jasmine came. She worked for a business consultancy agency and it was her ideas that made his business bloom.
“Hey, where’s Jasmine?” I asked Trevor as soon as I finished my drink.
“She’s doing some QA work with the bookkeeper. You know, you ought to get a girl like her, man.”
“We all wish we had a girl like yours,” Marcus commented and everyone agreed.
Right now, I didn’t need a girl like Jasmine. I just wanted someone like that goddamn nurse. Even now I could picture her in my head… I could still see her jet-black hair, milky white skin and that tight, firm body wrapped in that kinky nurse uniform.
But fuck it. She may look like my type but she was also a freaking uptight bitch. She had a sarcastic mouth and she seemed a little too prim and proper. She reminded me of those know-it-all church girls who lose their virginity at forty-five. That nurse needed a proper fucking.
“Hey, Pres,” Dylan nudged me with an elbow. “You okay? You look pretty down, dude. You should be celebrating.”
“Oh, yeah man, I’m fine,” I excused myself. “There’s just a lot on my mind.”
3
Lyla
TWO MONTHS LATER
What was that incessant ringing? My eyes fluttered open as my mind tried to process the annoying sound echoing in my room. I turned to the bedside table and saw my phone lighting up. Someone was calling.
“H-hello?” I greeted as I answered the call. It was six in the morning on my day-off. There better be a damn good reason for waking me up like this. I just hoped it wasn’t the credit collectors; I still owed like over two grand in credit debt and I still owed my landlady two months of rent.
“Hello Lyla, it’s Robert,” his familiar deep voice echoed on the other line. It sounded like he was at work in the hospital.
Almost immediately, I sat up. Anytime my boss called me during my day-off, it either meant someone screwed up and I had to go to work or because someone was absent and I had to go to work. In the end, it just meant I had to give up my day off and work. I could already feel a groan growing inside me.
“Oh, good morning sir,” I tried to sound as calm as possible. “How can I help you?”
“I need you to come in later,” he told me. That one line hit me like an egg slamming against a speeding truck.
“What time sir?” I asked. I needed some time to get my uniform cleaned.
Then he hit me with a surprise. “Anytime during the day but it has to be today. I just need to talk to you and sign some papers.”
“Oh,” was all I could reply. “Uhh, sure sir, I’ll be there by eight.”
“Okay, thanks,” and he then ended the call, leaving me in silence and confusion.
What the heck was that about? That question pervaded my mind all throughout the morning. As I had my breakfast, showered and prepared to leave, all I could think about was Robert’s intentions. Was I getting promoted? Was he changing my shift? Was I getting demoted or something?
I didn’t want to waste time any further and drove my way to work, stopping only at a gas station to fill up my rackety old car and get a cup of coffee. When I did get to the hospital, I noticed some of the other nurses were looking at me strangely.
Was there something wrong with my face? Did they know something I didn’t?
I knocked at Robert’s house and he immediately opened it for me and welcomed me to sit by his desk.
“Good morning sir,” I greeted.