by Susan Stoker
Chief barked out a laugh. “Indian shit?”
“Yeah, like, all woo-woo mystic or somethin’?”
If someone had told Chief he could make the injured, sullen teenager smile, he would’ve laughed in their face. Seeing the smile on Diontray’s face was worth all the money in the world.
“No. No Indian woo-woo shit. It’s called being a man. A real man.”
Diontray eyed him for a long moment but didn’t respond, so Chief continued. “When I make love to a woman, I want it to mean somethin’. For her and me. Sure, I could go out to a bar and go home with someone, but what’s the point? I need to get off, I got my own hand for that. When you connect with a woman, it’s amazing. Out of this world. And that’s no Indian woo-woo shit. It’s a fact. Do I want to sleep with Sophie? Yes. Eventually. If she decides to gift me with her body, it’ll be a gift I will treasure and be thankful for. But I want to know who she is as a person first. Make sense?”
Diontray nodded. “I guess.” Then he yawned and flinched, most likely at the way the bandages pulled at his burnt skin.
“You think maybe I can come visit again?” Chief asked.
“If you want,” Diontray said as nonchalantly as he could.
“Good. I’d like that.”
“Will you…is my mom around?”
“You need her?” Chief asked.
Diontray shook his head. “No, I just…I don’t think she’s eaten today.”
“I’ll make sure she gets something,” Chief reassured the boy.
“Thanks.”
“No problem.”
“Chief?”
“Yeah, Diontray?”
“My friends call me Tray.”
“Cool.”
“Will you be seeing Sophie soon?” the boy asked.
“As a matter of fact, we’re having lunch in the cafeteria when she gets out of a meeting.”
“Will you tell her thanks for me?”
Chief wanted to tell the boy to tell her himself, that it would mean more to Sophie if he did, but he didn’t want to push his luck. “Of course.”
“Good. See ya around?”
“See ya around, Tray,” Chief told him, then stood up. He put the chair back against the wall and patted the boy’s arm.
“Later.”
And with a smile on his face, Chief left the room to track down Traynesha and make sure she had lunch.
* * *
“The building is an eyesore and dangerous to boot,” Doctor Shane Kingsley whined—yes, whined. “It needs to be demolished, like yesterday.”
“You’ve said that several times,” the chief of staff said in a tone that was decidedly less patient than it had been the last fifteen minutes or so ago. “Can we please move on to discuss our current patients? Ms. Carson, how is Mr. Washington doing?”
“Why are you asking her?” Shane asked. “She’s not a doctor, and besides, I’m not done talking about that abandoned building.”
“You are done,” the chief of staff said, his patience obviously at an end. “We all know exactly how much your parents are willing to pay to have your name put on a new building that takes its place. But money never has been, and never will be, my motivation for doing anything in regards to this hospital. I’ll do what’s best for the patients and employees here, and for the city. If you can’t sit there and participate in the discussions about our patients like an adult, you may be excused.”
Sophie bit her lip to try to keep her smile from escaping. Shane had been obnoxious throughout the staff meeting, and when he hadn’t gotten the support he’d obviously expected, he’d become more out of control.
Without another word, Doctor Kingsley sat back in his chair and crossed his arms over his chest.
“Thank you. Now, Ms. Carson, the latest burn victim?”
“Diontray is responding well to the trial cocktail of drugs,” Sophie told the doctors and nurses in the room. “He s-seems to be depressed, but that’s normal, I guess. I’m trying to get s-some people I know to come in and connect with him. I’m convinced all it’ll take is one person breaking through whatever barriers he’s put up for him to begin to get better. I’m working closely with Doctors Harris and Adams to m-make s-sure the new s-skin grafts are going to take on his s-skin. The s-spray we’re testing s-seems to be s-speeding up the healing of the burnt s-skin cells. The nurses are only having to s-scrub his burnt s-skin for twenty m-minutes at a time now instead of thirty-five. It’s looking promising. I’ll keep you informed.”
“Good,” the head doctor said. “Dr. Harris, can you elaborate?”
Sophie listened carefully to the rest of the conversation. She wasn’t a doctor, Shane had been correct, but she’d worked with hundreds of burn victims and was a damn good scientist. Working closely with her friends, they’d come up with synthetic skin that could be used in conjunction with a patient’s own skin from a graft. It seemed to be helping speed up the healing process.
But more important than the synthetic skin was the spray they’d been testing. Essentially it was a mixture of the person’s own skin cells and healthy cells from a donor. It was used on the burnt skin to try to minimize the amount of scrubbing that had to be done to remove dead cells. The pigment of the donor skin cells hadn’t ever been taken into account before, but it was Sophie’s opinion, as well as that of her friends who worked in the lab, that healing would be faster, and more aesthetically pleasing, if the donor cells came from someone of the same ethnicity as the victim.
There were also other things in the spray, including silver, which was an antimicrobial agent, and strong topical painkillers, which Sophie hoped would decrease the amount of pain and increase the speed in which the burn victim healed.
Sophie was all too aware of how painful the scrub brush was on burned skin, and had spent her life trying to find ways to lessen that pain for each and every victim who came through the doors of the hospital.
The review of other patients was completed without any more drama and the doctors all filed out of the room. Sophie saw Doctor Kingsley in deep conversation with the chief of staff, and made sure to give them a wide birth. The last thing she wanted was to get sucked into a conversation with the asshole doctor. He’d never liked her, and the feeling was mutual.
She glanced at her watch. Twelve-twenty. She had ten minutes before she was supposed to meet Chief. She made her way down to the cafeteria, figuring she’d scope out a table before Chief arrived. She’d pulled her phone out of her pocket, wanting to check to see if he’d canceled for some reason, or otherwise changed his mind, when she ran headlong into someone standing against the wall as she turned the corner.
“Oh!”
A low, masculine chuckle met her ears—and Sophie knew she was blushing as she looked up into Chief’s eyes.
He’d grabbed her arms, steadying her and making sure she didn’t go flying back when she ran into him. She looked up into his eyes and decided right then and there that she could look at Chief for hours and not get tired of it.
“Hey, Soph. You okay?”
“Yeah, s-sorry. I didn’t s-see you.”
“Obviously. You ready for lunch?”
Sophie nodded. “After the m-meeting I just had, I’m ready for anything other than talking to jerks who just like to hear themselves s-speak.”
Chief didn’t say anything in response, and Sophie realized what she said could probably be taken out of context.
“I didn’t m-mean you,” she hurried to reassure him. “I just—”
He put her out of her misery and chuckled. “I know you didn’t. Relax.”
As they went through the line in the cafeteria, they spoke about her meeting and how her day had been. They walked to a table and Chief pulled out her chair, indicating that she should sit.
Sophie looked up in surprise. “Thanks,” she murmured. It wasn’t that she hadn’t been treated with respect before, but they were in the cafeteria, not a five-star restaurant. His actions surprised her.
As if
he knew what she was thinking, Chief winked at her.
After a bit of small talk, Sophie finally relaxed. She still couldn’t believe she was sitting in the hospital cafeteria eating lunch with her gorgeous neighbor, but for now, she was going with it.
* * *
Chief was impressed by Sophie. Oh, he’d gotten the message loud and clear that he’d underestimated her, but the more he was around her, the more he realized exactly how much he’d done so. She wasn’t like any of the social workers and leeches he’d grown up around. She genuinely wanted to do what was right for people, not use them for one purpose or another.
“My name isn’t really Chief,” he told her during one lull in the conversation.
“I figured,” Sophie told him. “I m-mean, I picked up on the fact that you guys have nicknames when I was at your s-station.”
“Do you want to know what my name is?”
Sophie put down her fork and leaned on her elbows as she looked at him. “Only if you want to tell m-me. S-Some people are embarrassed about their real name. I’m okay calling you Chief, if you are.”
“Roman. My name is Roman,” Chief told her. “I’m not embarrassed about it at all. I just haven’t heard anyone call me that in so long, I hadn’t really thought about it until just now.”
“Roman,” Sophie said. “It’s nice.”
Hearing his given name from her lips was surprisingly intimate. He wasn’t sure why, but he liked it. A lot.
“Yup.”
“Any particular reason behind it?”
Chief shook his head. “Not really. Not that my mom ever told me. I think she just liked the way it sounded.”
“Well, s-she did good. It’s a nice name.”
Chief smiled.
“S-Sophie. Can I eat with you? I haven’t seen you in ages and ages and I have my peanut butter and jelly sandwich today and I want to save the crusts for Charlie.”
Chief tried not to be annoyed at the interruption from Mark, but he knew going into the date that there was a good chance one of Sophie’s friends would show up.
Sophie looked up at Chief before answering, as if asking permission. Chief nodded at her, and was pleased to see her entire face light up. She mouthed, “Thank you,” before turning to Mark.
“M-Mark, of course you can eat with us.”
Mark had already sat down and was unwrapping his sandwich by the time she answered.
Chief shared a grin with Sophie as they watched the other man shovel in his food as if he hadn’t eaten in days. He inhaled his food, carefully peeling the crusts off his sandwich before he devoured it.
“You remember Chief, right?” Sophie asked.
“Uh huh. He’s an Indian,” Mark informed them.
“Actually, that’s not what you’re—”
Sophie’s words stopped mid-sentence when Chief put his hand on her leg and pressed down. She looked at him with her eyebrows raised.
Chief shook his head, letting her know he wasn’t offended by Mark’s statement.
She nodded and turned back to her friend, who continued to babble on, oblivious to the undercurrents between the other two people at the table.
Pleased that they seemed to be able to communicate without words, Chief ate the rest of his lunch with one hand…leaving the other on Sophie’s leg.
After Mark finished his sandwich, he got up without a word and headed out of the cafeteria.
“He didn’t even say bye,” Chief mused.
Sophie shrugged. “He usually doesn’t. When he’s done with s-something, he’s done. Talking, eating, whatever. You get used to it.”
“I spoke with Diontray this morning,” Chief told Sophie, changing the subject.
“How did it go?” she asked.
“Started out pretty iffy, he wouldn’t look at me and was obviously very angry about what happened to him.”
“Yeah, that’s how he’s been with m-me every time I’ve visited. Were you able to break through?”
“I think so,” Chief told her.
Sophie squeezed his hand resting on her leg and beamed. “Really?”
“Yeah. He told me how he got burned and then we talked about some guy stuff.”
“Guy s-stuff? Like what?”
“I’d tell you, but then I’d be kicked out of the club,” Chief told her with a smile.
“Whatever.”
“He did say that you told him you’d been burned when you were little.” Chief regretted saying anything when Sophie stiffened next to him. The relaxed woman who’d teased him was gone. Now she was tense and uneasy. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to bring up something painful for you.”
She shook her head. “No, It’s okay. I just don’t have very good m-memories from back then, that’s all.”
“Then let’s talk about something else.”
“It’s not really a s-secret, I just—”
“We can talk about something else,” Chief insisted. “We’re just getting to know each other. I think you’ve finally forgiven me for being a jerk to you. I don’t want to press my luck.”
She gave him a small smile.
“Anyway, I made sure Traynesha got some lunch and then lurked around the cafeteria until I was getting the side-eye from the doctors and nurses.”
“S-Shut up, you did not,” Sophie told him, relaxing now that they weren’t talking about how she’d been burned.
“Swear,” Chief told her, lifting his other hand as if he were swearing on a Bible or something. “I heard one woman say to her companion that they needed to hurry in case I got out my machete and tried to scalp them.”
Sophie rolled her eyes at him. “You’re s-such a dork. They didn’t s-say that.”
They hadn’t, but he’d made her laugh and that was all that mattered to Chief.
They talked about a few of Chief’s latest calls at work. Including a sad story about a car accident they went to where Chief had gone to help the driver, only to find she’d already passed away. But another call had gone better—he’d gotten to deliver a healthy baby boy.
Thirty minutes later, and after visits from two other friends of Sophie’s, they were done with lunch. Chief had enjoyed watching Sophie interact with others. She was gracious and funny, and had no problem introducing him to everyone who sat with them.
That hadn’t always been the case in his life. Once when he’d been on a date, a woman had deliberately not introduced him to her friend. When he’d asked her later why she hadn’t, she’d said that her friend didn’t approve of her “dating outside their social circle.” Needless to say, he hadn’t asked that woman out again.
But Sophie hadn’t shown one ounce of reticence in being with him in her workplace. In fact, she bragged about his job as a firefighter to each of her friends who briefly sat at their table.
“You’re very popular around here,” Chief noted, smiling when Sophie blushed.
“Not really. I’m just here all the time. I’ve gotten to know a lot of people.”
“I’m here all the time too, and you don’t see people rushing over to talk to me,” Chief told her.
“Oh well, I’m s-sure it’s not because they don’t like you,” Sophie told him diplomatically.
“Thank you for having lunch with me. Have you forgiven me yet?” Chief asked.
She nodded immediately. “Of course. I’m not one to hold grudges. Do you really believe that I’m not out to s-screw people?”
Chief moved his hand from her leg and up to the table, covering her hand. He brushed his thumb back and forth over the back as he spoke. “I do. I told you before that I let my background influence me, and it’s true. You know I grew up on a reservation, and we had people coming in all the time, promising to help, give us money, treatment…but in the end, all they wanted was an ‘Indian’ for their studies. They didn’t care about us at all. It was all about having the right amount of black, Native American, Asian, and white people in their studies. It got old,” he finished lamely.
“I’m s-so s-sorry,
” Sophie said, putting her other hand on top of his on the table. “That’s horrible. I m-might target certain ethnicities, but it’s only s-so I can help them better.”
“I realize that now,” Chief told her.
They stared at each other for a long moment before Sophie blushed anew and tried to pull away from him. Chief grabbed onto her hand, halting her retreat. “I’ve enjoyed this,” he said. “Any chance I can get you to agree to come over sometime and let me fix you dinner?”
“Come over?”
“Yeah. You live next door; come over. I’m not a gourmet chef, but I can manage to put together a halfway decent meal if you’re game.”
Chief tried to be patient as Sophie stared at him for the longest time.
Finally, she asked, “Why?”
“Why what?”
“Why are you inviting m-me over?”
“Why am I asking you out?” Chief countered. She nodded. “Because I like you. Because you fascinate me. Because I want to get to know you better. Because I’m attracted to you.”
Sophie bit her lip and looked down at their clasped hands.
“If you aren’t attracted to me, it’s okay,” Chief said softly. It was a lie, but he figured if she didn’t agree, he’d just have to keep trying.
“It’s not that,” she said immediately. So much so that Chief had to work hard to hold back the grin that threatened to escape.
“I just…I feel like you went from hating m-me to asking m-me out really quickly. It m-makes m-me nervous.”
“It’s been two weeks, but we can wait,” he told her. “As long as it takes for you to not be nervous anymore. I’m sorry I said what I did to you. It was rude and obnoxious.”
“Is S-S-Sophie being rude and ob-ob-obnoxious again?”
The voice came from above them, and Chief turned his head to see a man standing there with a tray in his hands. Sophie tried to tug her hand out from under his again, but Chief tightened his hold, not letting her go.
He narrowed his eyes at the man.
“Go away, S-Shane,” Sophie told him. “At the m-moment, you’re being rude and obnoxious.”
“Don’t let her talk you into supporting her little experiments,” the doctor sneered. “She likes to pretend she’s a scientist, when in reality she barely graduated with her bachelor’s degree.”