by Sandra Marie
If it weren’t for her bizarre exit, he would’ve chalked last night up as the one he’d recite to his grandkids—the moment he’d fallen in love with their grandmother… and she hadn’t even known it was him.
That had to have been it. She’d finally caught a glance of him—his mask had been dangling from his face when she’d leapt away. Did she realize she was making out with her boss?
His heart sunk as he came to a stop light, and he slammed his head on the steering wheel. There was no way he could let this go, but he was terrified of the conversation.
A horn rang through the early morning, and he sent up an apology wave to the guy behind him and accelerated through the green light. The hospital was just a block away. He needed to get into the doctor mindset, do his job, and then deal with his jumbled thoughts of Cassidy later.
***
Jon tucked his fingers in the edge of the bloody latex glove at his wrist and pulled, dropping it into the bio garbage. He put on a reassuring smile, facing his patients.
“They’ll take good care of him,” he told the brand-new mothers. It’d been a rough delivery; third degree tears in the delivering mother, and the baby had swallowed so many fluids that he was taken immediately to the NICU. Neither mother had held him yet, and he knew both were clinging onto each other to compensate for the emptiness in their arms.
“Let’s get you into your room, and the nurse will update you as soon as you can see little Jeremy.”
“Thank you, Dr. Bateman,” Vi said, rubbing her wife’s sweaty hair back. Tears rolled down Bethany’s cheeks, her face red, her eyes baggy with exhaustion from pushing. Jon’s lip twitched, and he patted their joined hands resting on Bethany’s now deflated stomach.
“I’ll come check on you in a bit, too,” he assured them. “I know it’s tough, but try to get some rest. Jeremy’s stable and healthy. Little guy just needs some oxygen.”
They nodded, and he gave their hands a squeeze before leaving the delivery room. The hallways were buzzing, nurses coming in to take over for the night shift, doctors doing their rounds before heading to their offices. Jon found a traffic-less hallway, all decorated with playful skeletons and spiders for the kids, and rested against the wall, taking a breather.
That’d been a rough one. Three hours of touch and go, the baby’s heart rate going down and down and then up and up; he’d contemplated emergency c-section more than once, but ended up deciding to move forward with the vaginal delivery. It was done with now, but he grasped his hair and pulled, fighting the thoughts of if he should’ve done the cesarean. Bethany wouldn’t have torn so badly, and he could’ve saved Jeremy from swallowing so much fluid on his way out. They could be holding the little guy right now instead of wondering, worrying… They’d see so many tubes in him when they finally held him in a few hours.
He shook his head, sucking in a deep breath and letting it out on the count of ten. They were all alive, they would all be okay, and that was better than some of the deliveries he’d witnessed, and he would remind himself of that when this delivery started plaguing him, as it inevitably would when he was alone with his thoughts.
He pushed from the wall and made his way to the cafeteria. If he didn’t take the chance to eat now, he probably wouldn’t eat at all.
The hospital food was actually pretty good, and his doctor title got him first in line and free grub. When he started officially as a doctor, he was hesitant on the handouts, but after one week of nothing but cafeteria food at seven bucks a cinnamon roll, he got over that hang up real quick.
“Joe B!” Tyler, the kitchen manager said from the back when he spotted Jon taking a breakfast burrito—or two. Jon wrinkled his nose at the nickname, which the kitchen staff prided themselves on coming up with. Joe B… OB… for some reason, it made sense to them. Jon didn’t know if they knew his real name.
Tyler wiped his hands on a rag and came around to the counter, leaning his beefy, tattooed arms on the stainless steel. “You’ll want to try the salsa with that. Gabi did her secret salsa trick she refuses to share with the rest of us.”
“You’ll post it like you did with the sesame sauce!” Gabi called, waving a red-covered spoon. “See if I trust you again, even with those puppy eyes.”
Jon smirked. If those two weren’t hooking up, he’d be shocked. “Can’t wait to try it, Gabs!” he called back to her. She smiled and waved her spoon again, then disappeared behind a rack of bagels.
Tyler jabbed a thumb over his shoulder. “I’ll get it out of her.”
“Good luck with that.” Jon snagged an orange juice and a plastic fork, then nodded a goodbye.
“Enjoy,” Tyler said to his back before chatting up the next person in line.
Jon took a spot near the wall of glass windows that looked out to the hospital’s garden and fountains. The morning crew was out there, clipping the trees and leaf blowing. The bottoms of their pants were soaked, wet grass clinging to the fabric. The concrete sidewalk had puddle spots every few steps.
Jon took a bite of his burrito—the salsa was to die for—hoping Cassidy had found a way home last night. He’d waited for a good hour in case she came back out and needed a ride. She was blind, after all. But after dozing off a few times, he figured he’d better get home before he fell asleep at the wheel.
He poked at his burrito, suppressing a grin at the reminder of her propped up on the bathroom counter, hand over her eye, teasing him about asking doctor questions. Was she okay with a doctor, but not specifically him? That had to be it. She recognized him and took off.
“Jon?”
He looked up, searching the cafeteria for a familiar face. His lips spread into a wide smile when he spotted Raelynn, his cousin’s lifelong friend, just a few tables away.
“Hey!” His heart lifted, and he pushed from his seat and joined her. The universe must’ve known he needed a distraction.
Raelynn stood, her short red hair half pulled back in a messy bun, her body draped in a gray, shapeless suit with a tail sticking out the back. She gave him a big bear hug, which she was the best at, and then plopped down into her chair. “Tommy told me you delivered here, but I didn’t expect to run into you.”
She boldly cut some of his burrito and took a bite, her eyes brightening at the taste. He batted her hand away and kept his plate close. “Just finished one. Baby boy. In the NICU.”
She frowned, her round cheek full of his breakfast. “Preemie?”
He shook his head. “Some complications at delivery, but he’ll be all right. He’ll be the biggest guy in the newborn ward.”
Her shoulders shook with a small laugh. “I so relate, little dude.”
Jon’s smile faltered, and he resisted the urge to roll his eyes. Rae had always referred to herself as Thomas’s fat friend, insisting that fat was not a dirty word. She loved being fat and being fat didn’t mean she was unhealthy. When Jon got his doctorate she lectured him on not recommending diets to her just because she had a butt that filled an entire couch cushion.
“So, that’s a fun outfit,” he said, taking a bite from his burrito and nodding to her clothing.
“Isn’t it?” She dragged a hand down her torso and let it land on her hip. “I went as an elephant this year. Left the head and gloves in the car.”
If she was still in costume, he imagined it was because of his stupid cousin. Jon let out a sigh. “What’d he do this time?”
“Snapped his wrist.” She shook her head, taking a generous bite of her gooey cinnamon roll. Jon reached for some with his fork, and she growled at him playfully before offering the tiniest taste. “Tommy decided he was a crowd surfer last night.”
“Naturally.”
“The pit of zombies was not exactly prepared.”
Jon chuckled. Thomas was an obnoxious fool, and Rae was a bad influence. It was probably why they spent almost every waking hour together.
“Great… another cool story for him to tell at Thanksgiving.”
“Right?” She wiped her lips w
ith a napkin and nodded toward him. “Reminds me… you bringing a date this year?”
He groaned, tossing his head back. “Not you, too? I get plenty of dating lectures from dear ol’ Mom.”
“I have money on this,” Rae said, pushing her empty plate to the side. “I’m only hedging my bets.”
“There’s a pool for if I come alone or not?”
“Yep. Odds are ten to one.”
“My family is so loving.”
“There’s also a bet on if Tommy’s date will back out and he’ll use me as his classic backup. So, it ain’t just you.”
He tried to laugh, but when he thought about it, that whole situation was sad. Rae never indicated that she had feelings for Thomas—and after knowing him for as long as she had, really… why would she?—but if by the small chance she did, being a backup probably wasn’t the best place to be in.
He crumpled his napkin and tucked his plate underneath hers. “I didn’t plan on a date.”
She frowned. “Well, you have a month and a half. Maybe get on that.”
He thought of Cassidy, how much fun she’d be around his family. They’d tease him mercilessly, probably tell her all about how he claimed Reservoir Dogs was his favorite movie but it was really Wreck-It Ralph. They’d tell her about how he could stick his belly out and look pregnant, how he used to do it for entertainment at family shindigs—in his twenties. He’d be forced into showing her his Disney sidekick tattoo collection on his back, but she already knew about Flounder.
A small laugh fell from his lips. He wouldn’t mind if she knew all of that, to be honest. That was who he was. Maybe it was worth a shot to at least ask her out.
“Yeah… maybe.” He spun his orange juice around before snatching it up as he stood. “All right, which room is my stupid cousin in?”
Cassidy squinted at the computer and ran her fingers over her ten key. She’d gone through the numbers about fifty times, and still they didn’t add up.
“Dr. Bateman, why aren’t you getting paid?” she mused as her fellow billing gals finally poured into the office after their “fifteen minute” smoke break. She pushed in her earbuds and ran through the numbers again. Nope… still a hundred missing from the Blue Cross payments. What a pain-in-the-butt afternoon she had ahead of her, getting hold music stuck in her head while she was transferred to and fro around the insurance call center.
Cassidy adjusted her earbuds, trying to ignore the chatter from Hallie and Bethany behind her, but it was darn hard when they were talking about her.
“Of all the people to hook up with someone, right?” Hallie shot across the room. “She was wearing fake boobs and still got more action than I did.”
Ugh, apparently word had gotten out. She hoped it stayed within the OB clinic; at least Westley wouldn’t get wind of her boob bags.
“It was most likely some uggo under that mask,” Bethany said, not bothering to keep her voice down. Cassidy had pretended to listen to music to avoid answering stupid questions many times before, and now it was biting her in the butt. She gritted her teeth and clicked her Spotify playlist, searching for some Greatest Showman. When in desperate need for some happy, go to Hugh Jackman.
As soon as she found The Greatest Show, she turned it up to eleven and drowned out the gossip behind her. She could get a guy if she wanted. Maybe. Probably.
She dragged her finger down the list of codes, trying to find the right one for Dr. Bateman’s latest patient. She’d gone into labor over the weekend, and she wasn’t sure if he’d done a c-section or a vaginal. Doctors and their handwriting. Maybe that was the minor discrepancy in the balance.
She waited till the song was over before making a grand gesture of pausing her music and unplugging so the sisters could stop talking about her lack of sex appeal right in front of her.
“Rebecca?” she said into her phone after pressing Dr. Bateman’s nurse’s extension. There was no answer, so she let out a sigh and pushed from her desk. Well, at least her billing cohorts could talk about her without her in the room.
The OB offices were situated in a sort of L-shape, the billing department on one end with the doctor’s offices at the other. Cassidy treaded lightly as she passed the fake plant she’d nose-dived into last week, and watched as Big Bully Barry swam alone in his fish tank, now king of the thing after Little Goldie belly-uped over the weekend.
“Oh, Cass… did you have time to talk with a patient?” Julie said from reception, a long line of patients waiting to check in wrapped around her desk. Mondays were always busiest. “She had a few billing questions.”
“Sure.” She smiled at who she assumed the patient was. “Have a seat in the billing office. I’ll be there in a minute.”
She’d offer one of the other girls to assist, but she knew as soon as the patient walked in, they’d become suddenly very busy.
Cassidy picked up her pace, going past reception, through the waiting room, and back to the nurse’s station. Rebecca wasn’t at her desk, so Cassidy found a sticky note and slapped it on the paperwork for Dr. Bateman’s last delivery.
Can’t read this. C-section or vag?
-Cassidy
She set it on top of Rebecca’s keyboard and fixed the crooked sparkly skeleton decoration hanging from one of the cupboards.
“It was a vaginal delivery,” a light voice said from over her shoulder. She jumped out of her skin, knocking that skeleton right back into its original position.
Westley?
She turned, shoulders slumping when she saw Dr. Bateman. There was no way he was Westley. He’d been pretty adamant about skipping the office party, and she really couldn’t blame him for it.
“Thanks,” she said, avoiding the gaze of the young doctor. Dr. Bateman was Chris Pine hot, and after her not-so-smooth moves over the weekend, she was understandably intimidated by Captain Kirk look-a-likes.
He leaned against Rebecca’s desk, crossing his arms over his lab coat. “In my defense, I almost had to do the cesarean.”
“Explains why there are so many eraser marks,” she said with a grin. “But not so much the illegible chicken scratches.”
“They teach us that in Doctor 101.”
“That explains so much.”
He chuckled, and a buzz ran through her belly. The sound reminded her so much of her Dread Pirate Roberts, and she bit her lip, wishing she’d forgone the boob bags on Halloween. Maybe she’d be bouncing around this Monday morning in after-coitus bliss.
She almost said something, but stopped in her tracks. It wasn’t him. He had hazel eyes, mostly green, but that wasn’t an exact match. His smile was crazy handsome, but that was hardly a one-person-only trait.
And he wasn’t there, you dope. Gosh, was she so desperate that she picked the first man in the office and started fantasizing?
She took the sticky note off the paperwork and marked it vaginal. “Just need your signature, then,” she said, pushing it toward his hip. His brow furrowed slightly, and he paused for just a moment before reaching around her for a pen.
“There you go,” he said, clicking the pen closed and sliding it into his lab coat.
“Thanks.” She gave him a friendly and hopefully professional smile. Impressing the doctors was on everyone’s priority, since they were in charge of raises and promotions, and if they moved practices, they took the best with them. Dr. Bateman was new, but that only meant everyone felt they had a fresh start. Bring their best selves and all. Cassidy just wanted to do her job and hope that someone freaking noticed.
She went to move around him, get back to work and let him get to his patients. His schedule had to be packed with the upcoming holidays and such, but he straightened and stepped in her way.
“Hold up,” he said, running a hand over the back of his neck. His dirty blond hair was mused like he’d been pulling at it all morning. There was a nervous energy around him, so unlike the other docs, and darn it, it was contagious. Cassidy fiddled with the paper in her hands, concentrating on the big sign
that said BOO! on the midwives office door.
“Do you have a second? I wanted to talk.”
Was she fired? Was she about to get lectured? She wracked her brain for a discrepancy in her work. There was the missing money… Did he think she was stealing from the company? Oh dear Thor, she couldn’t breathe.
“I… I have a patient in my office,” she blurted, squeezing her eyes shut. “I know I’m supposed to drop everything for you docs, but—”
“What?” Genuine confusion pulled at his brow. “No… this can wait. Yeah, it’s fine.”
“Okay. Thank you, Doctor.” Gosh, she sounded like a child who’d talked her way out of the principal’s office. His shoulders slumped as she stepped around him and hurried back to her desk. As predicted, Hallie and Bethany had ignored the patient and gotten very busy with balancing the latest payments. Well, at least something was getting done.
Cassidy pushed a smile on her face and greeted the patient. Before she got cornered by Dr. Bateman again, she was going to chat with Shellie and see if they could figure out what that coding error was. Then maybe the knot in her chest would loosen.
***
The day had gone by so quickly that it was five before Cassidy knew it. Hallie and Bethany flitted out the door at four-thirty, claiming they’d come in early so they could leave early. It was bull, and Cassidy could bring it up to Shellie, but if she did, she’d be accused of using her friendship with the boss to make the other girls look bad. Like they needed her help, but it’d happened before, and it was bound to happen again. And she did not want that drama on Shellie’s head.
She sighed at the paperwork that still had to be done before tomorrow—Tuesdays were also crazy busy—and unplugged her earbuds. Tapping the intercom button, she hit Shellie’s extension and asked if she was still around.