He was the first one Lauren had ever encountered, but she didn’t comment, noticing Emma’s dress for the first time. It was perfectly professional, but accentuated Emma’s tiny waist and petite, curvy body in all the right places. Emma started toward Andrew’s room and Lauren frowned, darting into the workroom and back out again, a knee-length white garment in her hand.
“Emma? You forgot your coat.”
Lauren found herself in the infusion center after lunch. She liked to walk through occasionally and check on the patients she knew, and chat with the nurses she’d become friends with.
Her eyes definitely weren’t searching the chairs for a specific patient.
And if she was, it was purely out of professional interest. Per Emma’s report to Dr. Patel, Andrew had done well after his first treatment and didn’t need any changes to his regimen. Lauren wasn’t convinced, though. ABVD was a nasty chemo combination.
He was young and healthy, sure. Strong and…virile, even. But you never knew with chemo, and the common phrase “everyone’s different” was 100 percent true. They could give the same chemo to an eighty-year-old woman and a nineteen-year-old man, and the former could waltz through it while the latter landed himself in the hospital with fever and dehydration.
There was no way to know. He might have a medication question that he forgot to ask Emma, and maybe Lauren could help.
So. As she said…professional interest.
As she passed through a nursing station, her phone buzzed, and she fished the device from the pocket of her white coat. She’d received a text from a number she didn’t recognize.
Hi, do you remember me from McNellie’s the other night?
Lauren frowned at the screen. She considered not responding, because it had been two weeks since Emma had given Lauren’s number to that guy at the bar. Either he was too busy to be dating, or he was playing games. Both were equally unappealing.
Lauren:Kind of…it’s been a while. Logan, was it?
Logan:Yeah. Sorry it’s taken me so long to send you a message.
He offered no additional explanation. Lauren locked her phone to put it away, but it vibrated against her hand.
Logan: I’m not an asshole, I promise. I had a family emergency I had to deal with.
Logan: Forgive me?
Lauren:It’s fine.
Logan:What are you up to?
Lauren:I’m at work, so I can’t really talk right now. Can I text you later?
Logan: Sure.
“Hey, Lauren.”
She cringed internally when she heard the voice behind her. She turned around.
“Hey, Gavin.”
He wore black scrubs today, the top way too small for his bulky frame. Either he was clueless when it came to shopping, or he was attempting to show off the muscles he seemed so proud of.
“Heard you had a crazy patient in the clinic this morning. You okay?” His ice-blue eyes barely connected with hers as he spoke, which drove her crazy. Did he think she wouldn’t notice the way he watched her mouth or looked at her chest? He leered at her when he spoke, but then when she responded he often glanced around aimlessly, like what she had to say was less important. And yet, he had repeatedly heaped useless flattery upon her and had asked her out on multiple occasions.
She assumed it was an ego thing, because she always turned him down.
He didn’t know a thing about her, and his current display of concern for her well-being was almost laughable.
Instead of laughing, Lauren stiffened, feeling protective of Zeke. “He’s not crazy. He’d just received terrible news and didn’t handle it well. He’s not a bad guy.”
“Coming here wasted off his ass is pretty crazy, if you ask me. But okay.” He ran a hand through his wavy blond hair. “A bunch of us are going on the Plaza this Saturday. You should come.”
“No, thanks.”