by Ruby Cruz
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Jerk Alert
I considered calling Ana the next day, but I was working. When I did get a moment to call her later that evening, she didn’t pick up, so I left a message as well as texted her. I suspected she was avoiding me, but I gave her the benefit of the doubt and decided to wait for her to respond. If she didn’t get back to me within the next couple of days, then she was definitely avoiding me.
As for her brother, he finally called me after my shift the next day. After apologizing for missing our phone call the previous night, he explained, “Aunt Catherine insisted we have a business dinner, which turned into drinks. We didn’t end until late.”
“Please text me next time, just so I know you haven’t been mugged and are lying in an alley somewhere.”
“That’s a bit melodramatic.”
“So, your aunt has you working like a dog.”
“She’s working hard to establish herself within the company and make sure this merger doesn’t fall through. Unfortunately, this is happening in the midst of an important project, so I’ve had to do a lot of catching up so we don’t lose any forward momentum in any of our research areas. I promise it won’t always be like this.”
“Don’t make any promises you can’t keep. I know your insane work ethic.”
“Unfortunately, you have a point.”
“Do you still want me to come into the city this weekend?”
“Yes, of course.”
“You won’t be too busy?”
“I’ll make sure I have time for you, especially since I have some secret plans for you.”
“How mysterious. Can I get a hint about the secret agenda?”
“I wouldn’t want to spoil the surprise, but trust me, you’ll enjoy it.”
I wanted to tell him what had happened between Chase and Ana the night before but didn’t think it my place. I knew Darcy had lukewarm feelings about Chase to begin with - there was no way to predict how he’d react if he knew Ana had somehow become involved with him. I really needed to talk to Ana herself about the situation, so I hoped she returned my call soon.
“Is everything okay?” he asked as the silence stretched between us.
“Hm? Oh, yeah.” Should I even tell him that Chase was in town? I couldn’t tell him the reason without hinting heavily about my surprise gift, so I opted not to share that nugget of the information.
Instead, I talked about work and my classes. He spoke vaguely about the projects he was involved in. I inwardly lamented we were both bound by confidentiality laws and couldn’t speak plainly about our shared patients like we used to. When conversation lagged, I thought about how much our relationship had been based on us just being together, co-existing side by side. Yes, we had our sexual relationship, but much of the time we spent together was spent physically doing something - hiking or walking in town or just taking a drive. Getting a cup of coffee. Sharing a meal. We never had awkward silences or lapses in conversation, or maybe we did and were just content to be. Without his physical presence, somehow the long silences on the phone seemed to stretch forever.
“Are you even going to hint at what you’ve got planned for this weekend?”
“Bring a nice dress,” he answered. “Or more than one.”
“Fancy.”
“Maybe.”
~
The next day at work, I cared for a young mother, Martha Wheeling, who needed cardiac monitoring after giving birth to a healthy baby girl. She was sullen and upset with being in our unit since the maternity ward couldn’t provide cardiac monitoring, and her baby wasn’t allowed to visit other areas of the hospital and risk chance of infection. I could understand her frustration, but at the same time, I was having a hard time dealing with her surliness.
I discontinued the foley catheter she’d had since her c-section and had just finished cleaning up when she asked, “You have kids?”
“No. But I helped raise my niece when she was born.”
“How old’s your niece?”
“She’s three and a half. She lives with her mom and stepdad, so I’m not involved as much now as I used to be.” I pulled out my phone and showed her the latest picture I had of Chloe.
“She’s pretty.”
“She looks like her mother, which is lucky for her.”
Suddenly, Martha began to cry. “I need to get out of here. I need to see my baby. I don’t understand why they can’t just let me go back and be with my baby. I feel fine.”
Inwardly, I had to agree with her. She’d been on our unit for twenty-four hours, and there had been no further signs of arrhythmia or excessive bleeding. “I’ll see if I can find the doctor and figure out what the plan is.”
The rounding cardiologist hadn’t been by to assess her yet, and I asked around to see when rounds were expected. It was mid-morning - usually someone would arrive by now. I was considering paging the on call cardiologist and risking getting myself in trouble for circumventing the system when Charlie came by. He was obviously working, but his expression was harried. “Hey, Lizzy, you have a moment?”
“Yes, of course.” I logged out of the workstation I was using and stepped into the dictation room with him. “What’s going on?”
“You haven’t talked to Jane lately, have you?”
“No. Not really. Why?”
“It’s about Chloe’s father, Bob.”
“What about him?” This couldn’t be good if Charlie was approaching me without Jane around.
“We’ve started the process for me to adopt Chloe.”
“Really? That’s great.” When Charlie’s face remained grim, my smile faded. “I guess that’s not great?”
“No. I mean, yes. I want to adopt Chloe, but Bob hasn’t been very cooperative. He refuses to relinquish his paternal rights.”
“What? He didn’t even want her to begin with. He dumped Jane as soon as she told him she was pregnant.”
“I know, Jane told me. But we can’t force his hand.”
“I’ve always hated that guy. Narcissistic asshole.”
“I need you to make a statement to our lawyer stating what you just told me, that he never wanted to be a father. I don’t know how much it’ll help, but we need every scrap of evidence we have to prove that he never wanted to be a part of Chloe’s life and is doing this just to spite Jane.”
“Of course. Just let me know who I need to contact. But why all the secrecy?”
“Jane’s been very emotional lately over everything. I know a lot of that is probably hormonal, but when Bob refused our adoption request, Jane didn’t handle it very well.”
“She never said anything to me.”
“She didn’t want to bother you with it. She said you had enough on your plate.”
“I’m never too busy for you guys, you know that.”
“It’s Jane. You know how stubborn she can be when she gets her mind on something.”
“So I just need to talk to the lawyer?”
“For now. If it goes to court, we may need you to testify for the judge.”
“Okay. Whatever you need.”
“Good.” He ran a hand through his hair and blew out a breath, but his eyes were still worried.
“Everything else okay? How’s Jane feeling? I’d ask her myself, but I know she’d say she was fine even if she wasn’t.”
“She is feeling okay. Just tired all the time. And she can’t keep anything down.”
“She had a rough time of it with Chloe also.”
“That’s what she told me, but I still worry about her.”
“She’s tough, and lots of women go through it.”
“I know, but lots of women aren’t my wife.”
“Just let me know if you need a break and I can watch Chloe.”
He smiled. “We just went on our honeymoon. I doubt Jane will want to be away from her so soon.”
“I’m just putting it out there. When you guys were
gone, it made me realize how much I missed having the munchkin to myself sometimes.”
“Believe me, we’ll probably take you up on that offer once the baby is born.” He laid a friendly hand on my arm. “Thanks, Lizzy. I’d better let you get back to work.”
I had to admit, my conversation with Charlie only served to distract me from my patients. I had half a mind to march down to the dealership and confront Loser Bob myself and chew him out for being an asshole. If there was anyone who deserved happiness, it was Charlie and Jane. Douche-y Loser Bob could go to hell.
~
“What’s going on with Charlie?” Lydia asked me when we had a moment to talk in the med room. “Things looked serious between you. Is everything okay with Jane?”
“Yeah, so far.” I wondered how much I should tell Lydia about their issues with Loser Bob but figured it shouldn’t hurt. She was bound to find out sooner or later - after all, she was our stepsister.
After explaining the situation, she seemed as angry as I’d been when I’d first found out. “That rotten ass. Him and his smirky face and fake smile. I don’t know what the hell Jane saw in him in the first place.”
“He can be charming when he wants to be.” I refrained from telling her that George had been the same way, but I didn’t need to.
“What is it with these douche bags? Jane and Loser Bob, me and George…I’m so sick of having to deal with these fake guys. If I didn’t like sex so much, I’d go join a convent just so I wouldn’t have to see any more stupid men.”
“You’re not Catholic.”
“No, but I would convert if it weren’t for the whole abstinence thing.” She sighed. “So what’re they going to do?”
“They’re fighting it, of course. He’s not providing any child support, he hasn’t attempted any type of visitation, but abandonment is tough to prove since it’s not like he disappeared completely. He could claim that Jane never told him of the pregnancy.”
“That’s bullshit!”
“I know, but I’m not the judge or a lawyer, and Bob’s rich enough he’ll be able to afford a good one if he wants to make a real stink out of it.”
“Would Jane really allow him to have visitation or joint custody if he really wanted it?”
“If he truly wanted it, I don’t think she’d begrudge him that, but we both know he’s doing this just to be an ass and not because he wants to have any real relationship with Chloe.” I clenched my fists in frustration. “Ugh, if he were here, I’d punch him in the face.”
“That makes two of us.” She glanced over my shoulder. “Red alert, at your six. Talk to you later.” She walked past me and pushed her way out of the med room. When I turned around, I saw our manager through the med room door window.
Dolores had started two months ago when our previous manager Cathy had moved to Canada when her husband’s job relocated him. I didn’t care for her very much. She was too serious, had zero interest in her employees other than as warm bodies to staff the unit, and she was known to lie to people’s faces to get what she wanted, which usually involved working extra shifts and coming in to work on our weekends off and vacation time.
The previous day, I’d had a brutal shift at work, starting with one of my patients falling when she attempted to climb out of bed without assistance, and I suspected this discussion would revolve around the fall. After asking Lydia to watch my patients for me, Dolores escorted me to her office and closed the door.
“Lizzy, please have a seat.”
Uh oh, this wasn’t looking good.
“Is there anything wrong?”
Dolores avoided eye contact with me. “I received the incident report you filed on Myrtle Davis. You state in your report that the bed alarm had been activated and that is how you were alerted to your patient climbing out of bed.”
“That is correct.”
“What I’m attempting to understand is how your patient fell if the bed alarm was on. Shouldn’t it have sounded as she was attempting to climb over the side rails before she fell?”
“Yes, but it was not on the most sensitive setting, and she was too fast. By the time the bed registered that she was climbing over the rails, she had fallen.”
“So you admit to being negligent.”
“I never said I was negligent. I said that I did not place the alarm on a more sensitive setting. She had been sleeping all night, no complaints, no restlessness. There had been no prior indication that she was a high fall risk, so I thought the medium setting on the alarm would have been appropriate.”
“Well, you’re extremely lucky she was unharmed in the fall, but note that this report will be placed in your permanent record.”
I gritted my teeth. All incident reports were placed on the permanent record, but I resented she had to make this personal. “Understood.”
She checked the clock. It was well past the lunch hour. “I hope you don’t plan on taking your break any time soon. I think you’ve had enough personal time today with your conversation with Dr. Bingley interfering with your work.”
Anger at the unfairness of her statement burned within me, but I held my tongue. No use in adding fuel to the fire, and I needed this job at least until I graduated which, given the circumstances, couldn’t come soon enough.
Even though all I’d been able to consume since starting my shift was a Jolly Rancher and a slug of water, and I hadn’t yet peed after more than seven hours, I nodded.
She dismissed me with a show of shuffling paperwork on her desk and checking the clock. “Good. I’m glad we have an understanding, Lizzy. You may get back to work.”
~
The weekend couldn’t come quickly enough. Ana still wasn’t returning my messages, and Chase texted me that he was returning to the Hamptons to complete his work, as he had all the preliminary sketches and photos he needed.
Thursday night, just as I started packing for my trip into the city right after my shift the next day, Darcy called me. “I have some news.”
“What?” I definitely did not like the tone in his voice.
“I can’t leave as planned. Something has come up in the San Francisco office that I need to take care of.”
My heart sank. “It can’t wait until Monday?”
“I wouldn’t be staying if it weren’t crucial. I’m sorry I have to cancel our plans.”
“I guess it’s a good thing you kept them secret. I don’t know what I’m missing, then.” My tone was light, but a keening disappointment made my chest tighten painfully.
“I’m working through the weekend, but I should return on Tuesday. I’ll stop by Meryton before I return to New York.”
“Really?” At least there seemed to be some bright spot in all this suffocating darkness.
“I promise. We’ll have dinner.”
“And maybe some ‘alone time?’” I asked with a smile.
“Definitely some ‘alone time.’ I miss waking up next to you.”
“Same here.” I stared at the dress I’d laid out on the bed. “I’m supposed to work next weekend, so we won’t be able to talk to your aunt.”
“I know. We’ll figure it out.”
“Maybe you should talk to her without me there. It might soften the blow.”
“I’ll consider it, but I think it would be better if you were there with me, by my side.”
“Can’t say I didn’t try.”
“Don’t think you can get out if it that easily. Plus, I didn’t think you were one to run from a difficult situation.”
“Not usually, but you and your aunt together can be a scary combination.”
He chuckled. “Fair enough. Ana mentioned she had dinner with you the other night.”
“Yes. I’ve been trying to get a hold of her, but she hasn’t been returning my calls.”
“That’s partially my fault. She arrived in San Francisco today. We’ve been keeping her busy.”
“I didn’t realize she was so involved in
what you guys are dealing with.”
“It’s a delicate situation. I’m afraid we didn’t give her much lead time, especially with her duties at the center.”
“Will she be staying the weekend also?”
“Yes.”
I couldn’t imagine what could be so important that Ana had to drop everything to fly out to the West Coast on a moment’s notice. “What about your aunt? Is she going out there also?”
“She’s staying behind. There’s still a lot to take care of on this end.” I heard a murmured voice and then, “I’m sorry, Lizzy. I love you.”
“I love you, too.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Strong Hands
Disappointed couldn’t begin to describe how I felt that Darcy and I wouldn’t be meeting in New York. I’d looked forward to our weekend for days, and knowing we wouldn’t be able to formally announce our engagement was an additional blow.
I refused to let the disappointment pull me down, though. After all, midterms were quickly approaching and with my manager watching my every move through a microscope, I couldn’t afford to be distracted.
Another two weeks passed with only the daily phone call from Darcy. We tried to video chat, but somehow, those conversations felt even more unnatural than conventional calls. He seemed uncomfortable with facing the camera and always seemed distracted, and I found it difficult to talk to him if he wasn’t looking at me - it was like talking to someone who looked like they weren’t listening. So we spoke a few minutes every day, just little updates that didn’t really feel like we were communicating anything.
I kept reminding myself that the situation was temporary, that we could weather the storm, et cetera, but to anticipate our phone calls only to feel mild disappointment when they were over was frustrating.
With my clinicals, I spent sixteen hours a week seeing patients in addition to my shifts at work. My preceptor, Sidney, worked at an urgent care near Philly, and we spent the time diagnosing broken bones, strep throat, and other ailments. On top of studying for midterms and trying to make sure all that information didn’t just leak through my ears, my social life shrunk down to a few minutes of conversation in the med room with Lydia and Kate and the occasional phone call or text to Luke.