by Kira Barker
My urgency went up a notch when I picked up my phone from the kitchen table and saw that I had a text from Kara.
Just as I was perusing the few words that had landed in my inbox, the door opened, spilling Marcy in. I only gave her a cursory nod of greeting, but before I could duck back into my room, she made a beeline for the fridge, accidentally cutting off my exit.
“You really missed out by leaving early in the morning today,” she pointed out, but ignored my state of undress. “You know that I always laugh at people when they ask us if the hospital is like these overdone TV shows, but today that was pure comedy. Almost missed it myself, but I thought I’d hit the ER before going to get some grub because I wanted to ask you if you’d join me, but you weren’t there anymore.”
“Yeah, I left right after my night shift was over.”
“So the wrong decision, girl!” She laughed. “Anyway, where was I? Right, so I’m in the ER, looking for some hapless intern who likely knows where you are at all times so he can avoid you, when Tyne comes barreling down the hallway, screaming at some guy who’s trying not to look like he’s running away from her. I know, you keep telling me that she’s a spitfire, but none of your anecdotes had anything on this! She’s all red in the face, spitting mad, flinging expletives around, half of which I swear I haven’t even heard before. So I ask a nurse who’s standing beside me with a grim yet satisfied look on her face who the dude is. Turns out, he’s her ex-husband who’s taking over the ER as of tomorrow, and there’s no need to guess who of them has been wearing the trousers all through their marriage. By the way, did you know that the reason she divorced him was that she was cheating on him with a woman?”
“Her girlfriend,” I helpfully supplied.
“Of course you know,” she huffed, but wouldn’t let me get a word in edgewise. “And you would have loved watching this. When she ran out of insults, she tried to slap him, but the guy’s like a full head or more taller than she is, so she starts jumping up and down like a blonde gummy ball, still screaming at the top of her lungs. And everyone is just staring—the nurses, the doctors, the patients, the EMTs—and no one makes a move to help him.”
As much as I tried to get away, I couldn’t resist being curious.
“Do you know what had her in such a tizzy?”
“Everyone knows! That’s the best part about it. Apparently the board kicked her out because someone filed a lawsuit against her, some weird shit of improper conduct and stuff. Made it out as if she’d hooked up with one of her patients, on duty no less. But now it turns out that the P.I. has come forward and claimed that he’d tampered with the ‘evidence,’ and all has been in the then-still-husband’s name. Apparently he knew about the affair, then set it up that an actress he paid and the P.I. both got admitted into the ER. The girl did some touching and leaning in so the P.I. could take the supposedly compromising pictures. The whole thing came up when he broke his arm for real and one of the nurses not only recognized him from before but from an ad she’s seen online, and then it was only a matter of some arm twisting, know what I mean?”
I hoped for the guy’s sake that she didn’t mean literally, but knowing Zoe, I didn’t get my hopes up. Marcy took my noncommital grunt as affirmation and went on.
“Now the thing’s out in the open and the hospital has already suspended our new head of the ER the day before he starts the job, investigation pending. Seriously, I have to ask around if someone filmed this with their phone. You had to be there, sure, but as you missed out, you deserve to see at least some of it.”
I opened my mouth, about to tell Marcy that her recount already served as comedy enough, when I heard Jack clear his throat behind Marcy’s back.
“Does that mean they’ll consider giving her the job back? Would at least make it easier to get back in if you’re chummy with the boss, Erin.”
I winced just hearing Jack’s voice, but he being, well, him, he could easily top that.
Marcy whipped around with a small yelp, then her eyes went wide as she took Jack in.
“Hey there, Jack. Hey there, Jack’s underpants!”
And there wasn’t anything else he was wearing, and no way to do damage control now. Marcy turned back to me, a calculating look on her face.
“At least you did something worthwhile in that absence! Or, should I say, someone?” she jeered, showing way too many teeth for that grimace to still count as a smile.
Now both Jack and I made a face, but there wasn’t really any sense in denying it. Didn’t mean I couldn’t put my foot into my mouth, though, as it turned out.
“It’s not what it looks like.”
That got me a weird look from Jack, which Marcy of course didn’t miss.
“It isn’t?” she asked.
“Yeah, am I wearing too many clothes? I thought you’d be less comfortable with me wearing your panties instead,” Jack supplied, helpful as always.
“It’s complicated,” I deadpanned at them both before brushing past Marcy and trying to get back to my room. Jack didn’t even make an attempt to move aside, and trying to stare him down wasn’t yielding any results.
“I must be missing something vital here, because there’s only so much complication two people can rack up,” Marcy informed us both.
“Move it, damn you!” I hissed at Jack, then shot Marcy a look over my shoulder. “Two people, maybe, but if you throw in a third, you get a real mess.”
I probably shouldn’t have said that, but it made Jack flinch, giving me a chance to shove him aside and squeeze into my room. I hastily put on a less-torn pair of jeans than I had worn to work and started sniffing bras until I found one that hadn’t suffered through several shifts in a row, giving Marcy plenty of time to consider. Once all clothes were in their appropriate place and I’d put on enough deodorant to hide what my brief wash-up hadn’t removed, I ducked back under Jack’s arm.
Marcy was looking at him with shrewd consideration, as if that alone would let her work out all the details. Jack busied himself with returning her scrutiny with a slight smile that held just enough smugness to make me want to wipe it off his face.
“That explains a lot,” she surmised, likely trying to make me spill more details that way. “So who was it who didn’t use enough lube and left her sore for an entire day—you or Simon?”
It shouldn’t have surprised me too much that she jumped to the obvious conclusion, but it still pissed me off that Jack was only too happy to confirm it.
“When was that, during the week or on a weekend?”
“You worked out a schedule?” She chuckled, shaking her head. “Week, I think.”
“Then it was likely Simon’s fault. Some of us do keep normal working hours, so I likely missed out on that one.”
Glaring at both of them, I made my way to the hallway to hunt down some shoes.
“It was Simon, and there was some lube involved, but that wasn’t the reason I couldn’t sit for a whole day.” Then it occurred to me what else I’d just dished out, and cursed under my breath. “Damn it!”
“Hey, I don’t judge,” Marcy replied, raising both hands, but her grin was of the shit-eating kind. “We’re all one big, happy family where everyone knows everyone’s sex stories! Or it’s just the moon phase. Whatever. Guess in the light of full disclosure I should probably tell you something now.”
That made me halt in the middle of putting my jacket on.
“You’re pregnant?”
Not that I thought she was, but it would have fit the bill. Marcy scowled for a moment but shook her head.
“Nope, but remember Luke, my on-again, off-again boyfriend? Turns out, he proposed last weekend, and I said yes!”
I was too stunned to react for a moment, but Jack thankfully jumped in to deliver the hug that I was obliged to. Marcy didn’t seem to mind, engagement nonwithstanding.
“That’s great—congratulations!” I finally got out once she was free of half-naked hunk again.
Her smile clearly showed tha
t she thought so, too, but then it dimmed a little.
“I didn’t know when to tell you, with all the shit you’ve been going through lately. Thing is, he also asked me to move in with him, and I said yes to that, too!” Which meant that I was quickly running out of options of how not to get evicted end of next month. Marcy must have expected my less than frenetic reaction, because she was quick to raise her hands. “Not right now, unless, you know, you’re of a mind to move out yourself.” She sent a fake conspiratorial look in Jack’s direction, then frowned when he just stared back at her blankly. “Luke’s starting a tour with Doctors Without Borders in a couple of weeks, and we decided to make things official once he’s back. But you know that I’ve been thinking about going myself for years, and that would be the perfect opportunity.”
I didn’t have to think about what to reply, even if it made me even more uneasy.
“Of course—you go. Don’t worry about me.”
“We’ll find a way to make things work,” Jack offered me my own words from earlier back.
The fact that now he seemed to believe them made me feel just a little better myself.
“I won’t be long. You can stay here if you’d like. I’m halfway sure Marcy won’t kick you out if you don’t wear a shirt.”
“Gotta make the best of my last months as a free woman!” Marcy crooned, then looked at Jack sideways. “Something wrong, because you’re looking like a lost puppy who just got abandoned. I promise I won’t make you look at bridal magazines.”
“Nah, I’m good,” he replied, but his voice was hoarse.
Sighing, I rubbed my eyes.
“Wanna come with me? But, quite frankly, I doubt it will be smooth sailing either way, and as much as a sensitive man who can show emotions is nice sometimes, I don’t see how this will work better if you start crying in the thick of it.”
So maybe I was an insensitive bitch, but Jack looked a step away from needing a box of tissues, and Kara’s message made me guess that she was going to chew both of us out if we made the mistake of showing up together. Or at all, and in Jack’s case I wasn’t sure he’d survive that right now. Her, Bitch, I’m going to cut you for this! was clear enough.
“You’re probably right, but that still makes me feel like a damn coward.”
Exhaling loudly, I tried to offer him a smile, if a shaky one.
“You don’t have to fight my battles for me. Besides, if this works out even half as well as I hope, there’ll be plenty of discussions that you can join later.”
He nodded but lingered as if he wanted to say—or do—something else, but if I didn’t leave now, I’d never make it out of that door.
“I’ll let you know as soon as I know more. Promise.”
With that I turned around and left, feeling like half of my heart and the better part of my courage remained behind with Jack.
Chapter 17
As such things go, I was running exceedingly late. First, I missed the train, then the bus took forever to pull up to the curb, and finally I got stuck in the heavy Friday evening traffic. When I ran out of patience, I decided to walk the last couple of blocks, but although that was without a doubt faster, it also made me show up at the venue of the book party annoyed, winded, and with way too many jumbled thoughts lodged inside my head.
I knew I was out of luck the moment I walked inside and checked my watch. With only five minutes until the bash started, there was no way I could track Simon down and have any sort of civil conversation with him. I had only a moment to gather myself before someone called my name behind me, making me jump.
Flight was no longer an option, I realized, when Linda Chalks, also known as Simon’s mother, waved at me, already herding her husband before her in my direction. Any other day I would have welcomed meeting them, particularly somewhere I didn’t really know anyone, but right then they were at the top of my list of people I’d hoped to avoid like the plague.
No one in their right mind would have accused Simon’s mother of being old enough to have a son his age, but for the first time, I could actually see him in her. Temperament-wise he was more like his father, but I’d never noticed that he had her smile. Or maybe I was just projecting, which was entirely possible.
And over her shoulder, off to the side of the foyer next to a small bar area, I caught a glimpse of Simon and Kara. They were both sitting on a low bench, him sunk over with his elbows on his knees, face in his hands, while she sat next to him, prim and proper and obviously bristling like a cat while she kept talking to him nonstop, not even pausing to draw breath. My heart ached just seeing him like that, but before I could move in their direction, Linda had caught up with me, and there was no evading her.
“So good to see you again, Erin! Simon wasn’t sure if you’d have time when I asked him last week. Come, let me look at you—you are such a beautiful girl!”
I wondered briefly if that was an improvement. Most days she said I had a beautiful soul, and once she’d even used the term “aura.” I was half convinced she’d been high that evening. It happened.
It was surprisingly easy to return her smile with one of my own, likely because I’d always gotten along great with her, even if she scared and confused me half of the time. Lacking my own biological role-model for comparison, Jack’s mom had always been my point of reference, and the two women couldn’t be more different. Linda was loud, foul-mouthed, got offended when anyone addressed her as anyone’s mother, and was more likely to offer me a joint than a tray of cookies. I didn’t even know if she could cook. What she could do was throw parties and paint pictures that held more emotions than other people’s movies. Like her son, she could rock that whole “not of this world artist” thing, and as she looked me over critically, I got the sense that, also like Simon, nothing escaped her if she just set her mind to finding it.
Simon’s father was the polar opposite to her—quiet, laid back, and often prone to accidentally offending people by asking them inappropriate things. There was a reason for why we got along great. Dinner conversations with him were always hilarious, at least for me, although Jack had told me on more than one occasion that if I explained one more time how a vaginoplasty was performed, he would run out screaming. Today I wished for that to happen for another reason than simply to annoy him. Having dinner again at Simon’s parents’ home implied that by the end of the day the three of us would still be talking to each other, which sounded like a huge improvement from what ate at my soul right now.
I got through the usual greetings—and Thomas’s question about whether I’d performed any interesting surgeries lately—with a straight face, but by the time I hoped I could extract myself from them, Kara suddenly appeared at my side, with no hint of Simon anywhere. Her focus was on Simon’s parents as she greeted Thomas cheerfully, then did that weird French air-kissing thing with Linda. Very European, very not me. Another day I might have said something snarky, but I couldn’t even run away now, as a minute later the microphone-enhanced voice of a woman, presumably Simon’s publicist, announced that everyone should please join her in the main room, and refreshments would be served presently. Before I knew what was happening, Kara had looped her arm around mine and started dragging me through the open doors, then quickly took a left that made us end up at the back wall of the room where we had a good view of the stage and were as out of earshot of anyone as we could get and still be in the same room.
Kara’s eyes remained fixed on the busty platinum blonde on the stage who was now prattling on about Simon’s many accomplishments, a fake smile on her face that showed enough teeth to make a shark turn green with envy.
“Didn’t think you’d show up here today,” she started, her grip on my arm tightening slightly as if she was afraid I’d try to run.
The thought might have occurred to me.
“Because of your heart-warming message?”
For a second, her smile turned real, but quickly flipped back into a grimace.
“As if that could deter you. No
, because of what apparently happened today. I figured you’d hole up somewhere and throw yourself a pity party.” She leaned closer then, and it was too late to pull away when I realized that she was sniffing me. How she pulled that off without actually looking at me was beyond me. “Ah, the smell of cheap deodorant and desperation.”
“You should know. You’ve rolled around in it way more often than I.”
Kara opened her mouth, doubtlessly to deliver some scathing remark, then paused as she sniffed again.
“So that’s where Jack ended up. I was wondering when he didn’t pick up his phone. Guess it makes sense that you reek like him when you’ve been literally rolling around in his sweat. Classy as always.”
“At least I don’t blabber about other people’s private lives to just anyone,” I remarked dryly.
Now her eyes flitted to me and remained on my face for a couple of seconds before returning to the stage.
“I might have heard more about your sex life today than I ever wanted to know, but Simon’s been surprisingly constrained regarding details. It’s kind of hard to keep up with the proceedings when half of what you’re listening to gets redacted.” She paused, and her real smile re-appeared, this time to stay. “Guess I never told him about the time Linda called me when she renovated his old room and accidentally stumbled over his porn stash. We had quite a lot of fun researching the implications together. I think by the end of that neither of us could sit upright from how much we’d drunk. If you were ever wondering about the cryptic remarks she keeps dropping sometimes that make him look at her cross-eyed, now you know what’s going on.”
I’d never really noticed that, but then I’d been rather oblivious about that side of Simon until it directly involved me.