Unexpected Love Story

by Natasha Madison

  “Nope, not happening.” I don’t even listen to what he has to say.

  “Gram said if you said no, she is going to get you here one way or another, so I’m not sure how you feel about that.”

  “Fuck you. I don’t have a choice now, and you know that.”

  “See you tomorrow. I’ll pick you up at eight. Besides, you get to meet your new nurse. I haven’t met her, but Doug said she’s hot as fuck.”

  “You need to tell Doug to go fly a kite and not fucking touch my staff members.” He doesn’t even answer; instead, he just laughs out loud, and I disconnect him. The next day, Doug arrives right on time. I throw on my oldest jeans, t-shirt, and baseball cap.

  “Good morning, sunshine,” Brody says when I climb into the truck. I just grunt at him while he drives us to the house. We arrive, and I hear Brody yell.

  “Ladies.” All the women there turn around—my grandmother; Walker’s mother; Darla, Brody’s wife; Crystal; and who must be her cousin. “This is my best friend, Doug.” Doug just nods at us as Brody continues the introductions. “This is Kingston,” he says of the middle one. “Now, this one is Gabe.” He looks at Crystal. “And her boss.” He points at me, and my hands go to my hips. “Can we finish this today, please? I have a shit load of stuff to do this afternoon.” My voice comes out harsher than I wanted it to as I jump into the back of the truck and begin unloading the boxes. It takes us three hours to unload most of it, and the last pieces are the second bedroom set. “That one is for the upstairs bedroom.” Doug smiles, grabbing one side of the headboard while I grab the other side. I walk up the steps to her bedroom and find her standing in the middle of the room looking out the window.

  “Where do you want us to put it?” Doug asks.

  “Right in the corner diagonally,” she says, gesturing in the direction with her hands.

  “You can’t have it that way. You are going to lose all kinds of space,” I tell her as I place it down against the wall. Doug walks out of the room to head back downstairs.

  “You can’t tell me where to put my bed in my own room.” She puts her hands on her hips, hips that I grabbed when I pounded into her. I shake my head to clear the memory.

  “I can’t tell you anything apparently.” I slap my hands together. “Don’t leave the bed like this; you will get more use out of the space.”

  “Last I checked, this was my bedroom. Therefore, I can put my bed where I want.”

  “You know what? This isn’t going to work.” I put my hands on my hips. If she is this hardheaded about a bed, I can’t imagine how we would work together. “You’re fired.” As soon as I say the words, I know I’ve made a mistake.

  “I’m what?” She glares at me. “Oh, fuck no. I’m not fired because guess what?” Pulling out her phone, she dials someone on speakerphone as I look at her and she glares at me. My father answers right away.

  “Hello?” he says, and Crystal starts.

  “Dr. Walker, I’m sorry to do this to you, and it may be unprofessional of me, but I can’t work with your son.”

  He laughs and then asks, “What did he do this time?”

  “Well, he came into my home and demanded that I follow his rules. I simply can’t work in that type of environment.”

  I open my mouth in shock that she just blatantly lied. “LIAR,” I mouth.

  “I’ll take care of it,” he says as he hangs up. My phone suddenly rings, and it’s my father.

  “Hello?” I say, glaring at her while she turns her hand and looks at her nails.

  “I don’t know what you did, but you’d better undo it,” he hisses.

  “Dad,” I try, but he ignores my pleas and continues.

  “She is going to be the best thing to happen to that nursing staff in forever, and I will not let you and your craziness turn her away.” I look back at Crystal who is almost tapping her foot. “Be nice,” he says then he disconnects.

  “Are you okay?” she asks me. “The vein in your forehead looks like it’s going to explode. Do you need medical attention?”

  I swear I’m going to throttle her. Right after I kiss the shit out of her.

  I turn and storm down the stairs, out the door, and straight to Darla’s car. I’m really fucking glad the keys are in the ignition, so I start it up and get the fuck out of here. What the fuck was I thinking? From now on, no more thinking of that fucking night. She works for me and nothing else. Easy, I can do this. I head to Walker’s house because he’ll know what to do. When I pull up and go inside, I find Mila on the couch watching The Boss Baby.

  “Uncle Gabe!”

  “Hi.” I smile at her, going to kiss her head.

  I walk to the kitchen, open the liquor cabinet, take out a glass, and down a shot. “What’s gotten into you?” I pour myself another two fingers. Once the burning fades away, I hang my head. “So are we discussing this, or are you just going to sulk in the corner?” he asks, and I glare at him.

  “I just met the woman replacing Laura,” I tell him as he whispers, “Oh.”

  “Yeah, that,” I say, going to sit on one of the stools. “Plus, she lives in your old fucking house.”

  “Don’t even fucking think about it.” He points at me. “She doesn’t need you sniffing around her just to add another name to that list of yours.”

  I look at him with a confused look on my face. “What the fuck are you talking about? What fucking list? You know Crystal?”

  “Oh, her.” He crosses his arms over his chest. “I thought you were talking about Hailey.”

  “And if I was?” I ask him now, my eyebrow shooting up.

  “Why are you so pissed about it?”

  “She wants to put her bed in the middle of the room. Diagonally,” I tell him, gesturing it with my hands. “Who does that? We would never be able to work together so I fired her.”

  “So you fired her?” he asks me, folding his lips and trying not to laugh.

  “Yes, but then the little … the little,” I try to come up with a name, “the woman called my father and quit.”

  He doesn’t even try to hide his laughter as he belly laughs out loud. “It’s not fucking funny. He took her side.”

  He puts his hand in front of his mouth and gasps. “Shocking?”

  “Fuck you, Walker,” I say. “I knew she was fucking trouble from the moment I got her application. She comes from one of the top hospitals in the US. She was even given a reference from the head of surgery, who called and begged me to turn her down.” I get up, getting more scotch. “I told my father to turn her down, that it wasn’t a good idea, but then Gram came in, and it was a done deed.”

  “Why would she want to leave a big hospital for a small medical clinic?” he asks, but then the oven beeps and he goes on dad duty. I sit at the counter with Mila eating fish sticks with her. When Walker goes to give her a bath, I sit on the couch and watch SportsCenter. And as I fall asleep on his couch, I hear her moans in my dreams.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Crystal

  The alarm goes off at six a.m., and I groan. I was so nervous about starting my new job today that I didn’t get to bed until way after two a.m. Rolling out of bed, I step in the shower, finally waking up when the cold air hits my ass. I grab my blue scrubs and slip them on, feeling like going home. I grab my white Nikes and slip them on, too. I put on a coat of mascara and pin my hair on top of my head.

  I try not to make noise when I make my coffee and toast and grab things to make lunch. The hot coffee hits my tongue first. “I would give up sex I think for coffee,” I tell myself. “Okay, not sex. Maybe after-sex conversation.”

  The toast pops up just as Hailey storms into the kitchen ranting and raving about a dog who bit her. I roll my lips together when she mentions the asshole neighbor.

  “Okay, I have to go.” I pick up my bag, looking at her. “You have bail money saved up in case, right?” Grabbing the keys to the car, I walk out and make my way over to the practice.

  I get there, and the parking lot lo
oks almost full. I grab my stuff, take a deep breath, and pull open the door. The lady greets me with a huge smile. “Good morning,” she gets up, coming to me. “You must be Crystal.” She holds out her hand. “I’m Debra.”

  I shake her hand. “I’m excited to be here.” I smile at her as she opens the door to the back.

  “You can go on into the back, someone will show you around.”

  “Thank you,” I tell her, smiling at her. I turn and walk back to the center of the nurses’ station where I find four nurses standing around talking about their weekend. The blonde one looks over at me. “Hey.”

  “Hi there, I thought I would be the only early one.” I smile at them.

  “Are you kidding?” the blonde answers. “Mia is here a good hour before we start. She makes us look like we are always late. I’m Ava.”

  I nod. “I’m Crystal. Is there a staff room or employee fridge or anything?” I ask them, and the one who I think is Mia comes forward.

  “I will take you.” She turns, and one of the other nurses follows us. “Emma,” she asks the nurse who followed us, “is the locker near you taken, or is it still free?”

  “It’s free,” she says. “Come on, I’ll show you.” I follow her into a small room filled with light brown lockers against the wall. “This is the changing room; showers and the bathroom are through that door.” She points at the side door on my right. “That door”—she points to my left—“leads to the kitchen.”

  “That’s easy enough,” I tell her. “Which one should I put my things in?” I ask her, looking at the lockers.

  “The one at the end isn’t taken; it was Laura’s.” She raises her eyebrows, and I know there is more to the story. But I don’t ask her. I place my bag in the locker, then take out my stethoscope, and put it around my neck.

  Turning with my lunch in my hand, I walk to the kitchen. I’m surprised by its brightness; back at the hospital, we had a corner, and you were lucky if you found your lunch when it was your turn to eat.

  Windows line one wall, causing the green tiles to pop from the natural light. A table sits in the middle of the room with a huge bowl of fruit on it. “Dr. Margaret Walker, the Mrs., brings in fresh fruit every Sunday. She usually only comes in on Fridays to take care of some of the older patients,” she informs me as I look around.

  There is a Keurig on the counter and a huge stainless steel fridge. I open the fridge and find it almost empty. “The fridge is cleaned out every Saturday, so if you leave something in it, too bad. It’s tossed out.” I nod, taking in all the rules. “The coffee pods are all stored in that cabinet, help yourself whenever you like.” I smile at her.

  “Thank you so much, Emma, for taking the time to show me around.”

  “I’m going to go use the bathroom before the shift starts,” she says, going into the room. I turn to grab a water bottle out of my lunch when I hear voices coming into the room.

  “If he would give me the time of day, I would make sure he forgot all about being left at the altar,” Ava says, pushing open the door. “Sorry, I didn’t know anyone was in here.” She smiles, and there is something about her that I just don’t like. You know what they say … smile and wave. I also see that I have landed in grand central gossip. As a former nurse in an ER, there was only one thing we loved more than doughnuts, and that was knowing the latest gossip, and oh was there ever gossip.

  “I was just getting my water bottle,” I tell them with a smile. “So have you guys worked here long?” I try to be friendly.

  “I’ve worked here three years, and Corrine just started six months ago.” She points at the other brunette.

  “I’m excited,” I tell them.

  “You should be. You get first dibs with Gabe today,” Ava says, and my eyebrows pinch together. “He always works with the new nurse for about a month before we go into rotation again. He needs to get a feel for how you work.”

  “Really?” I say, taking a sip of water. She is about to say something else when we hear a beep on the intercom. “Let’s rock and roll, girls.” I follow them out to the nurses’ station. The six of us stand around while Mia talks.

  “This is the patient roster for the day,” she says, pointing at the whiteboard. There are three columns: Dr. Walker, Sr., Dr. Gabe, and Emergency. The whole day is filled up, so at least it won’t be boring. “Since it’s Crystal’s first day, Mrs. Walker is stopping by to bring lunch.”

  “High five,” Emma says to herself.

  Mia begins discussing the day when I see Gabe walking out of his office. The lab coat fits snug around his biceps. Watching him from my peripheral vision, I notice his eyes find me, then look away.

  “Good morning, everyone,” he says, looking at the whiteboard. “Going to be a smooth day, right?” He smiles at us, and I want to do two things. One—roll my eyes, and two—I want to feel his lips again. I shake my head. Bad idea, Crys, bad fucking idea.

  The intercom beeps again. “Go time, people. Crystal, you’re with me,” he says, walking to a room. I follow him and see that he is going to his office. “Since we didn’t have a chance to talk about your experience and stuff, I think it’s good if we discuss how we work.”

  I cross my arms over my chest. “Are you the type of doctor who is going to be leaning over my shoulder?”

  He leans against his desk, crossing his legs, and I swear his package looks like it’s bulging. “I’m the type who is going to be watching to see if we are a good fit. I need to have confidence in my nurses.”

  “I have no problem with that. I feel the same way,” I tell him. “Do you want me to get to the patients before you come in, or do you want to be there when I get their information and their vitals?”

  “To begin with, I’ll be in there with you, and then we will see how it goes.”

  “Perfect,” I tell him, nodding while his phone buzzes and we hear Debra’s voice.

  “Um, Dr. Walker, Bethany is on line one.” If I thought the vein in his head was throbbing yesterday when we fought, it’s nothing like now.

  “You can go ahead and get started. I’ll be right there,” he tells me, not moving from the front of his desk. I nod and walk out of the room.

  I look at the whiteboard when I walk back out and see that I have a patient in room two. Grabbing the chart, I walk into the room to a middle-aged woman who is texting away on her phone. “Good morning,” I greet her as she looks up. “My name is Crystal.”

  “You’re the new one?” she asks, and I just nod.

  “That I am.” I place her file down. “Are you here for any particular reason?”

  She looks down and then looks up again. “Nope, just a follow-up. I had my physical last week, and the results came in.”

  “Perfect.” I smile at her. “I’ll just take your blood pressure while we wait for Dr. Walker.” I wrap her arm with the inflatable cuff. “It’s one ten over seventy,” I tell her, documenting the measurement in her chart. The door opens, and Gabe comes in.

  “Hello, Mrs. Brewster, how are things?” Gabe starts as I hand him the chart. He takes it, nods, and opens it up. “All your results came back normal, so unless things change, you can come back in six months.”

  “Well, there is something I think we should discuss. Ever since menopause started, I’m not really in the mood.” She looks at her hands and then up. “And before, I was, well …” She tries to search for the right word.

  “Active?” I help her try to find the word, and she smiles.

  “Yes, I was active, very active. But now it’s …”

  “I see,” Gabe says. “I can prescribe you Addyi. It’s the female version of Viagra.”

  “Yes,” Mrs. Brewster says as Gabe writes her a script. He hands her the paper as she thanks him and walks out.

  “Go start in room four.” His voice is soft, but he doesn’t look up while he writes his notes. I walk out, and for the rest of the morning, it’s almost as if we work in sync.

  Until we get an emergency call and I rush out to see
that Hailey is carrying Mila in her arms, her feet bare and bleeding. “She got hurt,” Hailey says, trying not to move Mila, who whimpers.

  I open the door for her. “Someone get Gabe.” I look over as Hailey follows me. “What happened?”

  “I was sitting outside eating an apple because my eyes were hurting from the computer, and I saw her and that fucking dog playing.” The tears pool in her eyes. “She got hurt, but she was so brave.” I move around her, taking in the weird angle of her arm. “I think it’s her shoulder or her wrist.” It’s definitely broken, and the way her shoulder just lays there, I would say it’s dislocated also.

  “Hey, Princess Mila, you think I could see what is wrong with you?” I try to not give away anything while Hailey talks to Mila, and I take in what I thought all along. I take her wrist in my hand lightly as she cries out.

  “Look at me, Princess. Just … I know it hurts, but I promise you she will make it all okay.” Hailey tries to calm her down, but now the tears are falling down her face.

  “Don’t cry, Hailey,” Mila says. “I won’t cry if you don’t cry.” I nod just as Gabe walks into the room.

  “What is going on?” he says as he takes in Mila on the table. “Where did all this blood come from?” he asks, and Hailey looks at him confused, and then looks at the floor and sees that the blood is from her feet.

  I’ve worked alongside some of the top doctors in the states, but working along Gabe is even better. He swings into motion. “We are going to have to pop the shoulder back into place.” He looks at me as I nod.

  “I think her wrist is broken.” He nods at me.

  “Your cousin is going to need stitches on her feet.” We work around it until Mila’s father comes in and treats Hailey like a second-class citizen.

  “Okay, folks, I have to put her shoulder back in place.” Gabe looks over at the man who I found out is called Walker, when he showed up at Norma’s spewing shit, “It’s going to hurt, and she will cry, but there is nothing we can do about it.” I stand on the right of Gabe when Hailey starts asking Mila questions, so she doesn’t look at what he is doing. With one snap, it’s back into place.