by Amber Burns
Parking in visitors parking, he strode up to the emergency room doors. The smell of antiseptic and sanitizer invaded his senses as it had when he had to stay for a few nights. Cade grimaced at the bright white lights. He couldn’t stand hospitals or clinics, they were so sterile, boring, “perfect”. Walking up to administration and registration he asked for Cindy Watkins, and they pointed him down a corridor to the left.
Passing the hospital gift shop and café, he saw families enjoying meals and visitors purchasing gifts for their sick loved ones. A few nurses and doctors in scrubs sat and ate their breakfast, exhaustion clear on their faces. He continued down the corridor, passing one or two patients being pushed in a wheelchair or walking in robes with a mobile saline drip attached. He saw what looked like a nursing station and walked towards it. His heart grew excited when he saw Cindy leaning over the nurse’s station, a stack of charts in front of her.
Then he stopped as a man in a white lab coat strode up to Cindy, his eyes were fixed on her bottom and he leaned against the counter on his elbow. His hair was black and slicked back and his young-looking face placed him in his late twenties, maybe early thirties. If he was in his twenties, Cade wondered how he already wore a lab coat embroidered with M.D. on the pocket. His face crinkled into a smile as he talked to Cindy. He watched as those same roving eyes moved up and down her body, not even looking at her face for more than a second. His intentions were clear. She seemed indifferent to his perverted assessment of her body. Rage bubbled in the pit of Cade’s stomach and he itched to walk over and punch that smug face. He continued towards the pair.
“Hey beautiful,” Cade said loudly enough to ensure the doctor also heard him clearly.
Cade smiled as Cindy turned and her face beamed when she saw him. Smug face in a lab coat frowned as he looked at Cade, his face scrunching up as if he smelled something sour. Cade presented the bouquet of flowers and the cocky doctor chuckled. Ignoring him, Cade watched Cindy’s face process the gift and her smile deepened.
“They are perfect, thank you.”
She reached up to kiss him on the lips and he hooked an arm around her, pulling her in close. She laughed, but squirmed as she wiggled away.
“Not at work!”
He smiled and noticed that the young doctor had disappeared.
“Don’t you have like, an on-call room or something,” Cade asked as he cocked a mischievous eyebrow at her.
“You have watched far too much television! Even if I said yes that we have one, it will most likely be full of sleeping interns or exhausted doctors.” Just then a page came over head for her. “Looks like I gotta run. I hear you will be at the dinner tonight?”
“I will.”
“See you then.” She walked off with the bouquet in her hands.
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Cindy knew what Todd was doing when she was standing at the nurse’s station. She also knew that Cade was clearly jealous. It was adorable though and she thought he was rather well behaved as he made it obvious that she was his and his alone. Todd’s disapproval almost cracked her up. Now he was paging her under the false pretense that there was an emergency.
“Yes Todd?” She asked, hiding her annoyance.
“It’s Dr. White, and we have bedpans that need cleaning in room 318.”
“Hmmm. That seems rather mundane to being paging me.”
“If you were the patient, you wouldn’t think so. Also, do something with the flowers before you cause a patient to go into anaphylactic shock.” He shook his head.
With that, he looked at his watch and stormed off down the hall. She cursed him under breath, the arrogant fool. She used one of the pans they handed to patients to vomit in to rest her beautiful bouquet in as she went in to visit one of her patients, Mr. Hall.
“Good morning Mr. Hall, I hear you need your bedpan cleaned.” She smiled as she entered the room.
Mr. Hall had been in for almost a month, a car wreck had left him widowed. He was a sweet sixty-eight-year-old man, and she enjoyed his company and his stories.
“That pompous fool could have taken it himself,” his raspy voice crackled as he spoke and coughed.
Cindy tried to maintain her professional bearing, but she had to stifle her laugh as if she too was coughing.
“Well, is there anything else I can do for you Mr. Hall?”
“A large chocolate bar, you know one of those one pound blocks of sugar and cocoa in the gift shop?” He smiled, a twinkle in his eyes, despite the tube running into his nose, feeding him.
“Oh, I would happily get that with you if you will share.”
“Deal.”
“Call me if you need anything dear.”
With that, Cindy left, collected her flowers and made her way back to the stack of charts she had left at the nurse’s station. Cade had left some time ago, and Annie looked at her from behind the counter; her dark curly hair resting against her dark skin.
“Who was that handsome fella?” She looked over her gold rimmed glasses.
Annie had been a nurse for more than thirty years. Cindy wasn’t sure how she could do it for so many years, but she had and she was very knowledgeable. Any questions regarding proper nursing practices and protocols, you could find Annie and she could tell you the page and paragraph to find it.
“His name is Cade and I think we may be dating.” She blushed.
“May be dating, how do you not know if you are a couple?”
“We haven’t really called it anything, we have just been out two or three times, but I feel like I am falling fast for him.” She leaned against the counter, slightly embarrassed about her sudden feelings for someone she only barely knew, but she felt like she had known him forever.
“Well, he sure was into you. At least he kept his eyes on your face, even if his hands were roaming.” She rolled her eyes and Cindy blushed.
“He is a little rough around the edges,” Cindy admitted. “But so far he seems to have a soft and kind heart.”
“Just be careful young lady. Try to protect your heart, until you know his true intentions.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Don’t get smart with me, I know a thing or two about what these young studs want from a pretty little lady like you.” She puffed up a little as she looked at Cindy and she shook her head.
“I will be careful, you don’t have to worry.”
Cindy really didn’t think there was anything to worry about. Cade had been the perfect gentleman so far. She checked the time and thought about what she could bring to the dinner tonight. The easiest thing would be stopping at the store and buying a pack of premade rolls, which is probably what she would do. She grabbed her phone and texted Heather.
Cindy: Hey, what do I need to bring tonight?
Heather: We could use rolls and maybe napkins. Do you think you could bring those?
Cindy: Done! See you at seven!
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Cade left the hospital and went to the liquor store. Rows of wine lined the walls and in the center of the stores. He was more of a beer drinker, but he had occasionally enjoyed a glass of wine. However, he had no idea what he was looking for, other than pinot noir.
“Can I help you?” An older gentleman behind the counter stepped out with a friendly smile.
“I need to find pinot noir and I am slightly out of my element.”
“Here, let’s get you taken care of. Do you have a price range?”
“Um, I suppose like… thirty bucks?”
Cade didn’t know, but he had heard that the higher the cost the better the quality with wine. No idea if that was true or not, but he knew that top shelf liquor was delicious.
“Let’s see, here this one has a medium tannin, with notes of cherry and vanilla, it was aged in oak barrels for ten years. It is one of my best sellers.”
The old man’s eyes twinkled as he described the wine to Cade. Cade just smiled, wondering what a tannin was.
“Uh, Ok. I will get one bottle of that and what’s your
next best seller?”
“Well, I have this Sangiovese that is one of my top sellers. It’s a little dry but also semi-sweet, I think you will find that your company will be most pleased.”
Cade nodded and walked to the counter to pay.
“Thank you for your help sir. I am lost when it comes to wines.” He gave an apologetic smile.
“No worries. I think you may find yourself surprised when you try one of these.” He tucked each bottle in its own brown sack and handed them to Cade.
“Have a nice day,” the shopkeeper said with a smile.
“You too.”
Cade left and made his way to the shop. He had a few hours so he wanted to drop in and see how things were. Cadence stood at the front, hands on her hips in a heated conversation with a young girl.
“Honey, you have to be at least sixteen for that and then eighteen for the other. You do not have a parent or guardian here for the consent, and I am not going to risk my own job just so you can walk around with metal and holes in your body. Come back in a year when you are sixteen and we can talk.”
Cade watched the young girl turn on her heel and stomp out of the shop. Teenagers could be the worst, but he remembered how hard those years were and didn’t envy the youth one bit.
“Hey boss,” Cadence greeted once she caught sight of Cade.
He looked at her, seeing that she had changed her hair again. She changed it so often, Cade wondered how it didn’t fall out. Today she sported a short black bob cut with bright red streaks running through. She actually had minimal piercings, but a half sleeve covered her bicep and she had been talking about covering her other arm sometime soon.
“Hey, scaring off potentials I see.” He laughed at her, giving her a hard time. “Is Alex in the back?”
“Yup.”
He walked to the back room and found Alex deep in work on a customer’s forearm.
“That looks good,” Cade complimented as he looked at the design taking life on the man’s forearm. Alex just grunted and continued.
When Cade returned to the front of the store, he thought he caught a glimpse of a shiny shaved head with a strip of hair down the center. He ran outside, but saw nobody on the sidewalk. He ran his fingers through his hair and touched his beard. If that kid really was looking for him from the fight, he wanted to know what the hell the kid wanted. If it was another fight, Cade would be happy to kick his ass again, but he didn’t need some kid stalking him.
His phone vibrated and a message from Cindy lit up the screen. It was a picture attachment, he opened it. Her flowers sat in a vase on top of a nice marbled counter top. He assumed inside of her apartment. He put his phone back in his pocket and gathered his things. He wasn’t afraid of the kid, but he wanted to know what was going on. He had fought many sore losers in the past, but none resorted to stalking him. It was creepy more than anything.
Cade headed home to get ready for the dinner at Heather and Tommy’s. There wasn’t a special occasion that he could think of, but he was excited that he would get to see Cindy again. Back at his apartment, he had to pick out a nice outfit. He didn’t want anything too casual or too formal, but he wanted to look good. The time ticked down until he had to hop on his bike and head over. Once there, he parked his bike on the curb and walked up towards the two story brick home they had purchased a couple years ago. There was a sign by the front door now that read Mr. and Mrs. Tommy Lane, est. April 2016. He smiled at their sign and knocked on the door.
Heather opened her door and Cade stepped into the foyer of their home. There was a chandler over the large stairwell and their dog Rosco came running around the corner of the stairs to sniff the intruder. He took off his leather coat and hung it up on the coat rack by the door. Following Heather into the kitchen, he placed both bottles of wine on the counter. The smell of food was intoxicating his senses as he moved to the dining room table. Cindy was running late. Almost thirty minutes later she knocked on the door and stormed in, apologizing. They had waited on her and were more than ready to dig in when she came through the door.
Sitting around the table, conversation erupted. Cade watched Cindy and smiled. She had worn a little red dress and had tied her hair back again. His mind raced with ideas of what was under that pretty little red dress.
“Cade, hey, Cade.” Tommy was calling his name and Cade nearly had to shake himself from his daydream. “We have a cruise planned for this fourth of July, do you think you could keep Rosco for us?”
Cade looked at the drooling brown mutt in the corner. He had kept the dog before, and was fine with doing so again. Rosco’s tail began wagging at the mention of his name.
“Of course. Where are you guys going?” They looked at each other and smiled.
“Alaska!” The word came in unison.
“Well that sounds fun!”
Their conversations continued and unfortunately, family became the topic.
“Well, my big brother is doing just fine as the doctor in the family. I am happy as the nurse,” Cindy finished.
Cade had listened to Cindy talk about her wealthy family. Her parents sounded disappointed in her career choice, but he couldn’t understand why.
“What about you Cade, any siblings?” She took another bite of food.
“No, just me,” he kept short.
“Were your parents supportive of you and your art?”
She was prying again. She had pried before and he had not given any information, but he would eventually have to share his background he assumed.
“My parents died when I was four, I don’t talk about it too much.” He shrugged and took a sip of the Pinot Noir, it was delicious as the salesman had said.
“Oh, I am sorry, was it an accident?”
Her eyes were full of pain and sorrow. He didn’t want her or anyone to feel sorry for him, and he felt guilty that he was growing angry at her questioning.
“Uh, yea, an accident.”
He put down his fork and took a big sip of his wine. He hoped she would get the idea, and was thankful that she did. Her eyes still seemed pained, but she didn’t press any further.
“Hey, we have cake!” Tommy interrupted and jumped up and ran to the kitchen.
They sat in silence and waited. Cade hoped that Cindy would not look at him differently now, like so many had before.
After the dinner, they both stood on the front porch and told their two friends good night. They looked at each other and he placed an arm around her waist. She leaned against him and he felt her rest her weight against him.
“I am sorry,” she whispered. “I didn’t mean…. I didn’t know.”
“It’s ok,” Cade assured as he stroked her hair. “I will tell you about my family, just not tonight, ok?”
He rested his bearded cheek against her head and felt her nod. They made their way down the steps to his bike. He wrapped his jacket around her and placed his helmet on her head. They rumbled down the street towards her condo. At the curb, she held his hand and looked at him, the sadness was no longer in her eyes. A heat had filled those bright blues and he felt that same desire began to throb as he looked at her in that tight little red dress.
“Would you like to come up tonight?” Her husky voice practically purred.
“Yes,” was his instant reply.
He followed her up the stone steps and through the large navy door. Inside, the condo was huge and very well polished. Her décor was clean and crisp and he was slightly overwhelmed by the prosperity of it all. While he had been distracted soaking in his surroundings, he had not even noticed she was standing on the steps waiting for him to join her. He followed her up to the second floor, where a large king bed invited him to curl up in its soft sheets.
“Would you like anything to drink?” Her bright eyes seemed nervous, as if this was not their second time but their first.
“Maybe later.”
He walked towards her and pulled her in close, kissing her and stealing the breath right from her. She tasted warm a
nd sweet tonight, hints of wine on her tongue. She stepped back and turned so he could slowly unzip her little red dress, allowing it to fall to the ground. Her black strapless bra and red underwear enticing him as he unclasped the back of her bra and allowed her breasts to fall free from their confinement. He reached around and caressed the soft skin, lightly pinching her hard and inviting nipple. She sucked in a breath as he moved down to pull her red underwear down. She turned and surprised him as she pressed against him, kissing him and pulling his shirt up in a fevered attempt to undress him faster.
Her hands fussed with the button of his jeans and he helped her unsteady hands as he stripped the rest of the way down. Then he pulled her in close, feeling the warmth of her naked skin against his own and relishing their closeness. His hard cock throbbing against her thigh, he was trying hard not to bend her over and pound her from behind. He wanted to take his time, but he was also aching to be inside her.