“That guy over at the bar bought them for you,” she said, taking the empty pitchers.
Isabella squinted toward the bar. James was sitting at the bar, alone, with a smirk on his face. One of the tipsy interns waved at him, prompting James to approach their table.
“Thanks for the drinks,” Jordan said.
“This gift comes with some strings attached,” he said. “Consider this my tip to you. Enjoy this free beer, and in return, you do whatever I say.”
They all nodded in agreement, refilling their glasses.
“Do you want to sit down?” Justin asked as they drained their glasses.
“No, we’ve got to keep some boundaries, don’t we?” he teased, winking at Isabella. She gave him a sleepy smile in return.
“I see you’re taking it easy tonight,” he said sarcastically to Isabella.
She giggled. “I’m always easy,” she slurred softly.
Luckily, everyone was too entrenched in their drinks to notice their short exchange.
“On that note, I will be leaving now,” he said, turning toward the door. He let out a long sigh as he left the bar, imperceptibly shaking his head.
After they finished their drinks, they left, splitting off into different directions. Isabella decided to walk home, giving her time to sober up before bed.
Once home, she stripped off just inside the door, brushed her teeth, and flopped down on her bed. She felt like she was floating—from the surgery, from her interaction with the dreamy doctor, and mostly, the alcohol. In the morning, she was certain she would regret it all, but for the time being, she basked in the high.
Chapter Four
The next Monday came too soon for Isabella. All of Saturday was spent nursing a hangover. She tried to catch up on her reading on Sunday but was overwhelmed by the bulk of information she wanted to get through. That, and distracted by how much she was dreading seeing James at work.
On Monday, the rest of the interns were more cordial toward her. By meeting them for drinks, she had proven that she could be one of the guys. This was the only positive result of the night.
She avoided James at all costs, which was extremely difficult since he was their superior and they reported to him. When he spoke, she averted her eyes, and when he asked questions, she waited for others to answer for her.
On Tuesday, he assigned them tasks during rounds and gave Isabella her assignment last.
“Is everything okay? You don’t seem like yourself.”
“I’m fine.” She quickly dismissed him.
“Yeah, it’s just that you’re always first to answer questions, but yesterday, you stood in the back of the group and looked at the floor the whole time.”
“It’s nothing.”
“Dr. Carter,” he pressed. “You’re not fooling anyone. Either you tell me what is going on, or I will figure it out myself.”
She took a deep breath and finally looked him in the eye.
“Fine. I’m just a little embarrassed about Friday night.”
“And why is that?” he asked, his smile growing wider.
“I’m not used to getting drunk around anyone, especially my instructors. It’s not professional.”
“Is that all?” he said exasperatedly. “Listen, it’s not a big deal. I wouldn’t have bought you guys all that beer if I didn’t want you to loosen up a little. You’re truly embarrassed because you thought you were being unprofessional?”
She nodded, biting the inside of her lip.
“Nothing more?” he coaxed.
“No. That’s all.”
“All right,” he said, handing her a chart. “Prep this patient for her appendectomy and answer any questions she has.”
Isabella hurried off. She didn’t want to spend too much time alone with James. He was too flirty around her and she didn’t want him to get in the way of her work. She especially didn’t want the other interns to get the wrong idea about them, especially since things were going so well.
During the rest of the week, she made a point to volunteer for tasks that involved other people to reduce her chance of being alone with James. She worked with other doctors and dragged Jordan around as much as possible.
“You know, I have things I need to get done too,” Jordan said to Isabella after she asked her fellow intern to go to the cafeteria with her for a late lunch. “I already ate. I don’t see why I need to be back here again. People will think I’m a glutton.”
“Shh, just eat your ice cream,” Isabella said. “If you must know, I think James has been acting weird around me ever since we saw him at the bar on Friday.”
“I think you’re the one who’s been acting weird,” Jordan said. “I don’t see him dragging his coworker around so he can’t be alone.”
“Fine. Go,” Isabella said shortly. “But when I face my downfall, I’ll remember when you refused to help me.”
Jordan rolled her eyes and left the cafeteria.
Isabella felt childish for avoiding James just because she was afraid of developing a crush on him. Men were a danger when it came to careers, though.
She had seen it happen with her own mother more times than she could count. Each rich husband was just another reason to not work. Her mother was a talented interior designer, but it was easier just to redecorate her homes instead of making a living doing it for other people. Her mom could hardly go for more than a year between men because then, the money might dry up.
Isabella had also seen her mom heartbroken with each breakup. Weeks of wining and shopping did little to ease the pain of being left by another benefactor. She watched as her mother got drunk and trashed her home until another man came to sweep her off her feet. It was hard to live with. These men funded their lifestyles, but if she could, Isabella would have traded the money for a little stability. Leaving home for college was a great relief for Isabella because she didn’t have a front-row seat for the crazy that was happening within her family.
At the end of the day, the interns met up with James to discuss the surgeries on the schedule for the next day. Isabella stood close to Jordan.
“I forgot to mention this to you earlier,” he announced. “I’m on-call tomorrow night, which means that all of you are on-call too. I hope you didn’t have any plans for your weekend, because you’ll be spending the night here with me. Think of it as a fun work sleepover,” he said cheerfully. “See you then!”
There was a collective groan from the group. They could forget about sleep, or studying, or any kind of free time over the weekend. They were prisoners in their own career.
“I just keep reminding myself,” Craig murmured. “One day, this will all be worth it.”
The next day, Isabella ran into James in the stairwell on her way to a patient’s room.
“Are you ready for your first night on-call at the hospital?” he asked.
“Yes, I believe so,” she responded shortly.
He grinned his sly grin and continued jogging down the steps.
Later, he observed her as she examined a patient. She wished the other interns could be there to take some of the heat off her. He made her nervous, standing too close for comfort.
After dinner in the cafeteria, she went to the on-call room to look at her phone. The doctor’s lounge had also been newly remodeled, so they had a common area with couches and a television, a locker room, complete with showers, and smaller sleeping rooms with tiny cots for the rare occasion that they could get some sleep.
Isabella sat on the bench in front of her open locker, reading text messages from her phone. Apparently, her mother’s wedding to her new (she guessed seventh) husband in Aruba had gone well, and she was looking forward to catching up with her daughter when they returned. She shut her locker door to see James, wearing nothing but a towel around his waist, turning his combination lock.
Isabella jumped, completely unaware that someone else was in the room with her. At the sight of his near-nakedness, she shielded her eyes with one hand.
�
�Relax. I have a towel on,” he said. “Anyway, you’re making a living dealing with the ins and outs of the human form. Act like you’ve seen a naked body before.”
She dropped her hand down to her side. Trying not to stare, she peeked at the attending. For someone who rarely left work, he had chiseled muscles. He pulled his scrubs on, not caring about shielding his body from any onlookers.
Isabella had only seen James in dress clothes, so seeing him in scrubs was a new experience. The short sleeves revealed bulging biceps and deltoids. He tied the drawstring on his pants so they sat slightly below his hips. She felt herself blushing just thinking about his body.
“Well,” he said, slamming his locker shut and bringing Isabella back to reality. “I’ll see you out there.”
She waited a few seconds, mentally admonishing herself for being so awkward, and then followed him out into the hallway where the other interns were waiting.
James grabbed a stack of charts from the counter at the nurse’s station. “Where shall we begin?” he said eagerly, looking around the group. He handed charts out to interns like he was delivering presents. “You’re in charge of these patients for the whole night. Don’t let them die,” he said dryly. “Let’s see,” he thought out loud. “Dr. Green and Dr. Carter, you’ll be in the ER with me.”
Jordan shot a look over to Isabella as if she were wishing her luck or giving her sympathy.
“If something goes wrong, page me immediately. Any questions?”
The group was silent.
“Let’s go.”
The first few hours of the evening were pretty calm. Isabella tended to a few lacerations, broken bones, and high fevers. She managed to patch up her patients with ease and only had to admit a couple of patients. It was simple. In fact, as quickly as they were treating patients and discharging them, it looked like they might get some sleep after all. Justin and Isabella sat on an empty gurney, relaxing for the first time in days.
“What time is it?” James asked the interns.
“A little after one,” Justin replied.
“Wow, a slow night in the ER. That’s a first. I’m going to take a nap. Call me if anything happens.”
No more than twenty minutes later, a nurse came rushing inside.
“Two-vehicle accident coming in,” she said breathlessly. “Two injuries. One appears to have minor injuries, and the other is bleeding pretty badly.”
Once she finished talking, the paramedics brought them in on stretchers. Isabella rushed toward the first. Justin followed to tend to the second. Isabella had drawn the short straw. Her patient was losing a lot of blood, and his vital signs were nearly nonexistent.
“I need some O Negative, she said, looking for the sources of blood. One nurse pressed gauze on a head wound. Isabella took scissors and snipped away at the man’s shirt. He had bruising—definitely broken ribs, maybe internal damage. She cut away at his pants, and the floodgates opened. Blood was pouring from a deep cut in his leg. His pants had restricted some of the flow from his femoral artery, but there was nothing to stop the bleeding.
Suddenly, it occurred to her that in the panic, she forgot all about James.
“Call Dr. Johnson immediately,” she yelled to a nurse.
She wrapped a towel around the man’s leg, putting strong pressure on the wound. Luckily, the nurse came back with bags of blood and started the transfusion.
Amidst the chaos, Isabella was inexplicably calm. She had never been in control in a situation like this, always just a bystander. Now, she knew what to do and gave directions in a clear and calm voice.
She was so in the zone that she didn’t even hear footsteps running up behind her.
“Justin,” James called out. “What’s the status on your patient?”
“Stable,” he responded. “Possible head injury. I’ve ordered a CT scan.”
“Good. Isabella?”
“He’s bleeding out. We’re losing his vitals.”
James put his hand on top of Isabella’s to see the laceration.
“You’re right. He’s nicked his femoral.”
He pressed his hand back onto hers.
“Let’s take him to OR 1. Isabella, keep doing what you’re doing.”
They wheeled the patient into the operating room as the life slowly drained from his body. James expertly clamped down on the severed artery and started repairing it. Isabella monitored his vitals and assisted James with his work. Once they stopped the bleeding, James cauterized and closed the wound while Isabella tended to the more minor injuries. After another hour, the patient was wheeled out and taken to a room to recover.
Covered in blood from their patient, Isabella and James went to the doctor’s lounge to get changed before the next patients arrived. Isabella was on a high. She controlled the ER and assisted in surgery. Nothing could stop her.
“You were great in there,” James said as they stripped off their soiled scrubs. “Honestly.”
There was a fire inside her. Without thinking twice about what she was doing, she grabbed him by the arms and pulled him in, kissing him hard on the lips.
James was understandably caught off guard, but he kissed back, grabbing Isabella around the waist. She pinned him up against the wall, hips pressing against his. Weeks of flirtation and tension between them melted as they grabbed at each other’s body.
She dug her tongue into his open mouth and he cupped one of her breasts in his hand, gently squeezing. He had one hand grasping the drawstring of her scrubs when he was paged to the ER over the loudspeaker.
They broke apart, and he quickly tugged on a clean top and ran out the door. Isabella plopped down on the bench and leaned against the cool locker. Every inch of her body was buzzing. She wanted more.
Chapter Five
The rest of Isabella’s first night on call was uneventful, especially compared to the previous events. James hung around the ER for long enough to make sure he wasn’t needed, then he went back to the doctor’s lounge. Isabella treated a toddler with strep throat and a man with chest pain that just turned out to be gas cramps.
She caught Justin nodding off in an unused exam area.
“Dude, you can go to the lounge if you want to,” she said after watching him nearly fall off the table.
“You sure?”
“Yeah, I can always page you if things pick up.”
In another hour, it would be daylight, and the interns would be joining the other doctors for morning rounds. Sleep would have done her body good, but she couldn’t have slept if she tried. She couldn’t get James out of her mind.
She was exhausted but still felt pretty good. She had gotten more medical experience in one night than she had during her four years of medical school. She had successfully saved one person’s life and treated several more.
She watched the sunrise through the sliding glass doors at the front of the emergency room. The fluorescent lights buzzed above her, and every so often, she heard a nurse walk down the hall, but otherwise, it was silent.
While her time alone with James in the locker room was nice, Isabella knew that she had to put a stop to it. Before, when she sensed his interest in her, she completely avoided him, and that didn’t do her any favors. This time, she had a renewed sense of confidence from working alongside him as an equal and was going to be direct with him. It would be awkward at first, but she thought that eventually, they’d both forget all about it.
Slowly, more staff members began to arrive, and the hospital livened up. Patients came in for appointments, and there were more doctors on staff to see the sick and injured. At a quarter until seven, Isabella finally ditched her post and went to the cafeteria for a large coffee and a bagel. Her sleepy brain craved the carbs, and she was about to toast a second one when Jordan walked in.
“Morning,” she yawned. “How was the ER? Did you get any sleep?”
“Not a second,” Isabella bragged. “How about you?”
“Luckily,” Jordan said, selecting the donut with the mo
st sprinkles, “my patient was in a medically-induced coma. I slept on the recliner in the room, set my alarm for two-hour intervals, did my checks, and went back to sleep. It was pretty easy.”
“I helped reattach an artery in a car crash victim. He lost a ton of blood, but he should heal up quite nicely.”
Jordan’s jaw dropped. “You have got to be kidding me. How was it?”
Isabella grinned. “It was incredible. You have no idea.”
“Damn, all along, I thought you were stuck with the worst job. That sounds amazing.”
Isabella gave her friend a play-by-play of the surgery. Jordan listened intently, as if she were taking mental notes.
“Oh,” Jordan added. “How were things with everyone’s favorite hot attending?”
Isabella turned a bright shade of red and choked on her mouthful of coffee.
“Fine,” she sputtered.
“Bullshit,” Jordan said. “Spill the beans.”
“Well, after the surgery, we were both covered in blood, so we went back to the doctor’s lounge. I don’t know what came over me—I was feeling exhilarated from saving that guy’s life, and we were alone in the locker room. I wasn’t even thinking. I just jumped him.”
Jordan gasped, wide eyed. “You had sex?” she whisper-screamed.
“No, no, definitely not,” Isabella hissed, trying to keep her coworker from creating a scene. “We made out. That’s all. He got a page about a minute later, and that was it.”
“Wow,” Jordan marveled. “Your night was infinitely more exciting than mine. Good for you, honestly. I knew you couldn’t be celibate for your whole residency.”
“This will not be happening again. It was a one-time mistake. I lost my head. Everyone, including you, will forget that this little incident ever happened. Do you understand?”
“Relax, Isabella. Don’t act like you’re the first intern to hook up with another doctor. I’m sure it happens more than you think. If I were you, I’d go for it. It’s not often a beefcake like James is single and willing.”
“I can assure you, whatever happened was a fluke and will never happen again.”
Forbidden Prescription: A Stepbrother Romance Page 3