Six hours later, she pulled into Kansas City. She stopped for gas and food and continued on. Finally, after another six hours of driving down the lonely freeway, she pulled into Oklahoma City. She found a Holiday Express hotel with a Sonic Drive-In next door. Once she checked in, she walked over to the drive-in to get a burger, fries and a sundae. Even though it was nine in the evening, the temperature was still around 75 degrees. She knew she was going to like the warm temperatures of Phoenix. She headed back to her room. Morning would come quickly and she still had a long drive ahead.
It had been tough to get up in the morning. She was tired; nonetheless, she got up knowing if she didn’t, she wouldn’t make Phoenix before dark. Now, six hours later she pulled into Albuquerque. She filled her tank, grabbed a sandwich and was back on the road again within thirty minutes.
About nine she pulled into Phoenix and her apartment complex. She opened the door to her apartment and carried in her blow-up bed and bags. It didn’t take long before she had the bed ready and herself ready to go to sleep. The truck would be here early in the morning and she wanted to be awake.
The truck arrived promptly at nine, the next morning. Within three hours, they had everything unloaded and were gone. Shana spent the rest of the day unpacking. By evening, she felt like she was organized and somewhat comfortable in her new home. She set out pictures of her parents and sat down on the couch to view her results.
The room looked well put together and homey. It looked and felt comfortable. All she needed now was some groceries, but it was late, so she would wait until morning. Heck, there was always a Domino’s Pizza. She could have it delivered. It was Saturday night, she had a television and soon she would have pizza!
Sunday was her day to check out the city in which she now lived. She found a grocery store and bought groceries. She drove past the hospital where she would start her new job tomorrow. This job was her new start in life. She was excited to be a part of the real world again with a full time job and benefits. With insurance. Yes, she would have insurance again. Vacation, sick days and even a 401K. Yes, she truly was a real person again. She even got to do something she liked, and was good at. She was the new Events Planner for the Arizona Memorial Hospital in Scottsdale. She would be in charge of their information booths at trade shows for Job Fairs and would also set up all hospital and employee events.
Before she knew it, it was Monday morning and she was on her way to the hospital. Her first stop was Human Resources. After filling out numerous forms, she was given a tour of the hospital and escorted to her new office.
Shana sat down at her desk and looked out the window. There was a smile on her face. This definitely was the first day of the rest of her life and she was going to make the best of it. It had been a long time coming; finally she was feeling happy again. Really happy.
* * * *
Thursday was the yearly Medical Job Fair at the Phoenix Convention Center. Shana spent her entire first three months at Arizona Memorial Hospital preparing for this big day. The hospital recruited and hired the majority of their nurses, doctors and administrative employees at this event. Anyone graduating in the medical fields, hoping to land their first job attended. She was responsible for all the advertising/marketing literature to be distributed, all the signage for the booth, and scheduling slots to keep the booth manned with hospital personnel.
People from various positions in the hospital would be there to answer questions from potential new employees and to accept resumes. Mostly nurses and administrative people worked the booth. Rarely did doctors show up. If they were there, it was only to give mini seminars or to attend one of the mini seminars presented by other doctors. Shana would be there to be sure everything went smoothly and to make sure the booth was manned at all times.
She was nervous. This was her first show for her new job and she wanted everything to go well. The hospital had sent her to a couple of one-week conferences on job fairs and events planning strategies. She’d also flown to Chicago and Dallas to attend their Medical Job Fairs. She was nervous but felt good about the event. She was prepared and everything was ready to go.
Shana left work early to grab dinner and head home. She wanted to get to bed early because she needed to be at the Convention Center bright and early. She spent the day, today, setting up the booth. She was drained. Tomorrow was her big day and she would enjoy it. Her fingers were crossed hoping everything would go as she had planned.
* * * *
Arizona Memorial Hospital’s booth looked sharp, very eye pleasing as she approached it. The backdrop was filled with pictures of the hospital, the different specialty floors, doctors, nurses and administrative staff of the hospital.
The main doors to the halls would open in five minutes and she’d been informed the future graduates from the colleges and universities were already lined up and waiting to get in. Two nurses were ready to answer questions and two people from the administrative staff were available to hand out literature and take applications or resumes.
There was a loud banging noise as the doors swung open and were latched to keep them open. People flooded the aisles. Shana grabbed a handful of brochures to help hand out. As an extra enticement to turn in an application, they had canvas bags with the hospital name embroidered on them to give out when a job seeker submitted a resume.
It was after one, when Shana headed out to grab a sandwich for lunch from one of the food vendors. As she walked to a table to sit down she glanced down the hall filled with people, then froze. She reached for a chair to steady herself and quickly set the food tray down on the table, before sitting down, trembling.
Chapter Five
There simply wasn’t anyway it could be him. She was in Arizona not Minnesota. It couldn’t be him, although it sure had looked like him. Why would he be here? She had to get a grip. She’d only seen a glimpse of the man. It couldn’t be him. She hadn’t seen him for almost three years, so what were the odds she’d run into him now? And in a totally different state, besides. No, it couldn’t have been him. And even if it was, so what? He probably wouldn’t even remember her. Or recognize her. Her hair was layered and she was dressed much more sophisticated then when he met her. Hell, she was only a one-night stand to him. So he wouldn’t remember or recognize her. She had nothing to worry about.
Shana glanced down the hall again. There was no sign of the man she’d seen a few minutes earlier. She picked up her sandwich and shook off the odd feeling she’d had when she saw that man. Her thoughts drifted off for a moment to her lost baby. A place she didn’t want to go. She quickly redirected her thoughts to the job fair.
As Shana walked back to the booth, she couldn’t help scanning the crowd for the man who looked like Kal. There was no one who looked like him. She felt better by the time she got back to the booth. The crowd had thinned somewhat nevertheless was still steady. Throughout the day, she scanned the crowd. She’d managed to convince herself the man she saw only looked similar to Kal, but wasn’t him.
The rest of the day was pretty much uneventful. The booth equipment was all packed up. Her first event was done and now behind her. It had gone extremely well and she felt proud. It was a huge accomplishment for her new career and herself. She’d come a long way and, best of all, she really liked her new job. It was fun and exciting. Yet, it was challenging and she liked that.
Driving home, she thought about Kal. She couldn’t stop thinking about him. What if that man actually was him? What if he had moved to Arizona, too? What would she say to him if she ever saw him again? Well, it just couldn’t be him and she would never see him again so she simply didn’t need to waste any more time thinking about it. And that was that and she wasn’t going to think about it or him anymore.
* * * *
“Nice job, Shana,” her boss, Carol said.
“Thank you,” Shana replied.
“We had a record number of resumes turned in yesterday.”
“That’s great. I know we were extremely busy.”
“Have to run to a meeting, catch you later,” Carol said looking at her watch, as she headed out the door.
Shana sat down at her desk and breathed a sigh of relief. Whew! She’d done it. Her first event and her boss was pleased. Now on to the next project. She had various luncheons and Christmas parties to plan. There were appointments at local restaurants to check out their banquet facilities and taste their food. First, she needed to go to a meeting with the nurse supervisors to see what they suggested for their Christmas party. The meeting was on the sixth floor.
Standing in the elevator waiting for the door to close, a doctor walked up the hallway and Shana gasped and grabbed the railing in the elevator just as the door closed. It was him—Kal.
The elevator stopped at the next floor, the door opened and Shana stepped out. She proceeded directly into the restroom, into a stall and closed the door. Her hands were shaking. She wasn’t sure why. She assumed he was a doctor at Arizona Memorial Hospital, which meant sooner or later she would run into him. She also knew, eventually, she would have to talk to him. What would she say? I didn’t know where to find you and our baby is dead? But then, he would have no way of knowing what had happened or what she’d done, so she wouldn’t have to say anything. Heck, she didn’t even have to acknowledge she knew him. It would be up to him. If he didn’t say anything, she wouldn’t either. She would avoid him at all costs. She regained her composure and went to her meeting.
After the meeting, she pulled up the directory of doctors at Arizona Memorial Hospital on the computer. She scanned through the list. There was only one doctor with the name of Kal. Kalvin Paxton, General Practitioner. Now that she knew he worked at Arizona Memorial Hospital, she would be sure to avoid him. After all, it was a big hospital, so it might be possible.
As the weeks passed, Shana checked all her meetings to see who would be attending. So far so good. She felt like she constantly had her guard up while in the halls. Watching for him. She’d been lucky, so far.
Today, her luck ran out. At lunchtime, she was in the cafeteria eating when Kal walked in. He didn’t look her way, however she had seen him. She didn’t think he’d seen her. He went through the line, got his lunch and sat at a table outside on the patio. She’d gotten a good look at him on his way to the patio. The windows had a reflective coating on the outside, so you couldn’t see in from the outside even though you could see out from the inside. This allowed her to observe him fully without him knowing.
She’d forgotten how handsome he was. In the bright sunlight even, he was hot! No wonder she’d been attracted to him. She was sure all the single nurses in this hospital must be after him. Granted that he was still single. That was something she hadn’t thought of. Maybe he’d gotten married. It had been almost three years. He certainly could have. She would have to check that out without being too apparent in her motive. And what was her motive? Well, if he were married maybe he wouldn’t acknowledge her even if he recognized her. That would be great.
But man-o-man he was good looking. Tall, dark hair, nice body. He must work out every day. If he was single and they hadn’t had that past encounter, she would actually be interested in dating him. Although they did have a past, and he would never understand why she did what she had to do. Her heart was racing just looking at him. It was a good thing he couldn’t see through the glass to see her blatantly assessing him.
The past was the past. There wasn’t anything that could be done to change what had happened. So maybe it would only be her secret and he would never have to know? A part of her wanted that to be true, but she knew and she would eventually have to tell him. However, only if they went out. So she would have to make sure that never happened.
Chapter Six
Kal couldn’t believe his eyes as he carried his tray to a table on the cafeteria patio. Shana. It was her! What was she doing here? His palms were sweating and his forehead perspiring profusely. After moving to Phoenix, he’d convinced himself he would never see her again. She could potentially ruin his career, his life. Maybe it was only someone who looked like her. After all, he was in Phoenix and she was in Minnesota. At least that was where she was supposed to be. Where he’d left her. Unfortunately, many Minnesotans came to Phoenix to vacation or visit friends or relatives. Maybe she was just visiting someone in the hospital and would be going back to Minnesota soon. He would simply have to be careful not to run into her while she was here. But then again, they claim everyone has a twin, so maybe this woman he’d just seen looked like her. Yes! That had to be it. In fact, this woman looked different. The hair was different and she was dressed very professional yet still sexy. He was attracted to her. Damn!
As he pulled into the hospital parking lot the next morning, he wondered if she was in the hospital now. He reached for a napkin lying on the passenger seat and wiped his perspiring forehead. “Get a grip!” he shouted out loud.
He got out of the car and walked into the hospital using the doctor’s entrance. Kal got to his office and sunk into his desk chair. There just wasn’t any point getting all worked up about this. Odds were it wasn’t her so he was going to forget about it. Hell, he should’ve never come in today. He wasn’t even supposed to be here. He’d taken the day off to go golfing with a friend; unfortunately, his friend had to go out of town unexpectedly and canceled. So he decided to come in and do some paperwork and attend the doctor/vendor luncheon today. He would attend it since he was here and then he was leaving. For now, he was going to not think about her anymore. At least not this morning. He had paperwork to do and that would take his mind off her.
* * * *
Shana’s day had started out great nevertheless wasn’t going as smoothly as planned. The vendors giving the doctors’ luncheon had experienced flight delays and requested to reschedule for tomorrow. This all sounds simple in theory although trying to reschedule doctors wasn’t so easy with their tight schedules. She had to and would need to see how many could attend tomorrow. The incentive for the doctors to attend was the vendors always sprang for a top quality luncheon with great food and expensive complimentary gifts. This was why the doctors cleared their schedules to attend. Granted, the doctors always wanted to be informed of any new drugs and equipment, too.
Shana called the caterer to reschedule and sent out an email to the doctors who had confirmed their attendance and to all who had declined. Hopefully, the numbers would come out the same because some who accepted wouldn’t be able to make it now, then again some who declined would be able to come. They had to reply by noon, so they’d have a count for the caterers. Shana’s assistant was in charge of getting the new counts and printing a list.
It was lunchtime and the counts had come in only slightly over the original, so they would be fine. Thankfully, the room she’d reserved for the luncheon wasn’t being used for anything else, so they could leave the decorations up for tomorrow.
Shana walked into the luncheon room to inform the janitor to leave up the decorations since the event had been rescheduled for tomorrow. She turned and walked toward the door to the hallway, the janitor apparently left open, to see if Meg was there yet. She stopped abruptly in the doorway. Meg was a few feet away talking to a doctor. That doctor was Kal. Meg’s back was to the door so she couldn’t see Shana. But Kal faced Shana and looked directly at her. Shana stared at him. She was sure she looked as white as a ghost, because she felt all the blood drain from her face. She could hear Meg still talking, but Kal was staring right at her. In that moment she knew it was him. He said nothing only nodded to Meg, turned around and walked away.
Shana turned slowly and looked for a chair. She felt faint and needed to sit down. As soon as she reached the chair at the closest table, she sat down and rested her head in her hands with her elbows braced on her knees. She took deep breaths of air. She needed to relax and calm down.
“Shana, are you okay?” Meg asked.
“Dizzy,” Shana managed.
“Do you want me to get a doctor?”
“No, I’ll be fine.” Shana forced herself to sit up.
“Are you sure? You don’t look so good.”
“Yes, I just got a little dizzy for a moment,” Shana said and stood up.
“Maybe you should go home. You look pale. We don’t have anything else today since the luncheon was rescheduled. I can take care of the counts and any late emails we get,” Meg suggested.
“Actually, I think I will.” Shana rose from the chair and walked to the elevator.
Shana collected her purse and bag, closed up her office and walked to her car. Every minute she prayed she wouldn’t run into him. When she made it, she opened the car door and sank down in the seat. “Thank heavens.” She started the car and drove out of the parking lot. She didn’t want to go home so she drove to the mall and pulled up at Starbucks. She ordered a sandwich and frozen coffee drink. She needed to think. She walked outside to the patio tables, sat down and ate her sandwich. Maybe eating would help since she hadn’t eaten anything yet today.
The Starbucks was part of an outside strip mall surrounding the main, larger indoor mall. It was located on the end of one of the buildings and the outside patio had a rock water fountain and garden filled with small cactus and azaleas. It certainly was decorated quite ornately and helped her to relax.
She had to figure out what she was going to do. Now, that she was certain it was him. He had stared deeply into her eyes, as if he was trying to see inside her. The recognition was definitely there. He recognized her yet he hadn’t said a word, just left. Why? Was he embarrassed because he left her apartment that morning and never contacted her again? Maybe he simply didn’t want to acknowledge her because he thought she was the type of woman who took men home all the time and had no morals. That was probably it. He thought she was a whore. And he was a prestigious doctor. Actually, that would be fine with her. They could behave as if they’d never met before—be socially polite at work and only talk to each other if absolutely necessary at the hospital. That could work. Yes, everything would be okay.
Taking Chances Page 5