“Well, the answer to your question is simple, Dr. Banks. As the attending during the shift of this, as you put it, ‘so-called medical emergency,’ Dr. Hashings and I decided to treat him the best way possible.” Elijah shrugged, feigning nonchalance. However, the smug smirk on his face said otherwise. “I hope I haven’t walked in on you scolding Dr. Hashings concerning the way she thought to treat the patient, considering Mr. Masterson is alive and well thanks to her quick thinking.” He glanced from the faces of Dr. Banks and Dr. Hashings. Finally, his dark gaze fell to Melissa.
It was as though time stood still. Melissa heard the swift intake of his breath, saw flaring of his nostrils, and the widening of his beautiful, brown eyes as recognition filled them. Elijah blinked once, twice, and a third time in rapid succession, then slowly shook his head. “Melissa? What are you doing here?”
“Good morning, Dr. Grayson. I… uh,” she cleared her throat, chancing a glance at Dr. Banks and Dr. Hashings, who watched the exchange with curiosity, “needed to speak to Dr. Banks since I was assigned to a couple of her patients. I wanted to—”
“Wait,” Elijah held up a hand, cutting Melissa off. “Assigned? You work here?”
“Yes, sir, Dr. Grayson,” Melissa said, emphasizing his title to remind Elijah of where they were and who was listening. However, one look at Dr. Banks’ pursed lips and arched eyebrow, Melissa knew it was too little too late.
“So,” Dr. Banks divided a glance between them, the edge returning to her voice once more, “I take it you two know each other.”
“Yes, we do,” Elijah answered slowly.
He took a step back, and instantly Melissa missed the warmth radiating from his body. She told herself his putting a little space between them wasn’t personal at all, but was him wanting to appear professional in a situation that was anything but.
“I met Nurse Gaines at the INAPC a few months ago.”
“Hmmm … that’s interesting to know. But as cute as this little reunion is, I have to get to my patients, and since Nurse Gaines will be working with me today, I suggest she follow me.” Stepping between them, Dr. Banks headed toward the CTICU without saying another word.
“It’s great seeing you again, Nurse Gaines,” Elijah called, stopping Melissa in her tracks as she followed both Dr. Banks and Dr. Hashings. His voice held a hint of confusion, although he appeared to have a professional air about him. “We’ll have to find some time to catch up soon.”
Melissa’s heart thundered in her ears. The deafening sound caused all other noise around them to fade into the background. She cleared her throat, praying the lump lodged there wouldn’t prevent her from speaking. “S-Sure.” She glanced over her shoulder, and her gaze connected with his. “Soon.”
Her mind screamed for her to move, but her feet were rooted in place by the blatant need reflected in Elijah’s eyes. They definitely needed to talk, and given everything Elijah couldn’t say and his response to her being in Baltimore, Melissa couldn’t anticipate the direction the conversation would go. Suddenly, the background noise of her surroundings filtered to her ears, reminding Melissa of where she was. She turned back around to head into the CTICU and was met with a stony, ice-cold glare from Dr. Banks.
Melissa fought back a groan. Nothing about this situation is great.
Melissa Gaines.
Elijah shook his head as images from their earlier encounter rushed back with the force of hurricane gulf winds. Melissa was here. His Melissa was here in his city, working at his hospital. If Elijah didn’t see Melissa with his own two eyes, he would’ve sworn the beautiful woman who’d stood next to him was a figment of his overwrought brain, which craved the peace only Melissa could bring him while working a grueling, thirty-six-hour shift.
Truth was, Elijah had been so irritated, after learning—from a nurse—that Dr. Banks was reprimanding one of the Cardiothoracic Fellows in front of the entire CTICU, he’d seen red. He didn’t look at the faces of the women standing there. His eyes had gone directly to Dr. Banks and stayed there until he finally took a look around the group, noting the embarrassment on Dr. Hashings’ face and the absolute look of horror written on Melissa’s.
Elijah hadn’t known how to react when his gaze landed on Melissa. Well, that wasn’t exactly true because after the initial shock wore off, the only thing he wanted to do was pull her in his arms and kiss her until he ran the risk of passing out from the lack of oxygen in his lungs. Despite their regimen of calling, texting, and video chatting during the weeks since their time together in Chaud, a little over a month passed since he saw Melissa in the flesh, and damn if Elijah didn’t desperately need her. Their weekend in Savannah, Georgia, wasn’t enough time, and Elijah had been looking forward to spending time with Melissa this past weekend at a conference he was speaking at in Orlando.
Unfortunately, she canceled at the last minute.
Elijah hadn’t asked Melissa for details about her reason for canceling their time together. He trusted her with his whole heart and knew enough about her whatever her reasoning was, it was necessary. The little info she’d volunteered was that she’d been asked to come in for an interview. However, she hadn’t told him when or where, nor had Elijah asked. He’d been so upset about not being able to spend time with Melissa, nothing else mattered. Elijah begun craving the time they’d carved out for one another during those weekend rendezvous.
Just like a much-needed glass of scotch after a long day of work or the cure to every one of his ailments, Melissa was precisely what the doctor ordered, integrating into his busy life and reality like she belonged there. And maybe she did.
Or maybe…she does. She was a gift he couldn’t wait to unwrap. Her presence meant a lot more to him than Elijah would’ve ever guessed. His growing appreciation for her was as deep-rooted as his passion for medicine. It forced him to confront the alarming depths of his feelings for Melissa. Emotions he’d tried to surpass instead of accepting what he knew to be the truth.
Elijah had fallen fast for Melissa.
In a few short months, the woman who Elijah had been unable to stop thinking about on a tropical island became the woman he never wanted to be without, and truthfully, it scared the hell out of him. Yet, he welcomed his growing feelings for her with open arms, recognizing the gift that was Melissa Gaines and how she bettered his life.
It was during those long, twenty-four-hour and thirty-six-hour shifts when he could barely keep his eyes open, and his brain resembled mush, that Melissa’s voice acted like a calm in the midst of a storm. He thought back to the night he lost a patient, a father of three. His gut instinct told him to text Melissa, knowing her response would act as a soothing balm to his broken heart in those crucial moments following having to tell the patient’s family. But she’d beat him to the punch, texting him after he talked himself out of texting her. Melissa said she woke up out of her sleep needing to talk to him because she felt he was sad or hurt. At first, Elijah couldn’t understood how someone thousands of miles away could feel the shift in his emotions, but he’d gotten a crash-course lesson about a week later when for an inexplicable reason, he’d needed to check on Melissa and learned she’d had a run-in with her ex-boyfriend, and was upset by what transpired. Hell, even Elijah was pissed off, and it took everything in him not to hop on a plane, beat the hell out of her ex, console her, then fly back to Baltimore in time for his shift in the morning.
Elijah enjoyed their banter on different topics, such as movies, television shows, books, politics, food, and music. Those weekly “Battles” they had, each selecting a comparable musician and battling song-for-song with the other, were the highlight of his week, along with the selfies she sent him. Each time his phone dinged with her specialized notification sound, Elijah couldn’t stop the smile that would cross his face, knowing whatever it was would brighten his day. The increase in his schedule, after a fellow attending was forced to take paternity leave when his wife delivered their twins prematurely, often made it difficult to talk to her every
day, but Elijah made sure to send good morning or good night texts because he wanted her to know she was the first and the last person he thought about daily.
This was why Melissa not mentioning her move to Maryland or her job at BCMH threw Elijah for a loop. Along with the thick blanket of confusion smothering him, Elijah felt a sense of betrayal that left a numbing ache in the center of his chest. The more Elijah thought about it, the more he could see everything the moment he’d laid eyes on Melissa. How his body responded to the inebriating scent of the perfume, she dabbed only in a couple of places, but mixed with her body’s natural pheromones, created a mouthwatering aroma he couldn’t get enough of. The ramrod positioning of her spine. How her beautiful eyes were filled with trepidation, but how there wasn’t a glimmer of shock in her orbs. As if she’d known he would be there but was horrified at the timing of the meeting between them.
“Did she purposely apply to BCMH to be closer to me?” The second the words slipped from his lips into the sanitized air of the empty elevator, Elijah groaned, shaking his head. There was no way in hell things could’ve played out that way, not with Melissa. It took weeks—sometimes even months—to be hired at any hospital across the country, let alone one with the reputation as impeccable as Baltimore City Memorial Hospital, and he and Melissa had spoken, in great detail, about her frustrations at the lack of communication she’d received from the jobs she’d interviewed for. Elijah experienced the depths of her depression, encouraged her to remain steadfast in her faith, and speak her employment into existence. There was no way she applied to BCMH for him. Besides, Melissa wasn’t the kind of woman who would allow a man to influence a life-altering decision. She’d done so once, with her ex, and she wouldn’t do it again.
So, what happened, and why didn’t she tell me?
Elijah would readily admit life, both personal and professional, became complicated in the last week or so. After returning from the conference, his rotations increased, with him being called in on what was supposed to be his day off when the on-call doctor suffered a family emergency and could not make it in. There was also a formal announcement from Dr. Simeon. He would be retiring at the end of the year, thus leaving his position as Head of Cardiothoracic Surgery open. He’d later called Elijah into a meeting to tell him he and Dr. Banks were on his shortlist of candidates to fill the spot. Melissa had tried calling him that day as well, but Elijah didn’t answer. Instead, he’d sent Melissa a text message stating he would call her when he got the chance. Only the chance never came.
None of this made sense to Elijah. The more he thought about it, the more questions bombarded him, and the only one who could bring clarity to the situation, was the one person Elijah was having a difficult time pinning down. It had only been a few hours since the bombshell of her working at BCMH dropped, and every time he’d seen Melissa in the halls, around the CTICU, and near the nurses’ station, Dr. Banks hadn’t been too far behind. The last thing Elijah wanted—or needed—was to have Dr. Banks inputting herself anywhere in his business, especially when it came to Melissa. He’d checked his cell phone while on the way to speak with a patient and noticed he received a text message from Melissa saying they needed to talk ASAP. According to the time stamp, Elijah guessed she sent it about an hour or so before they saw one another, which further confused him.
Stepping off the elevator, Elijah glanced to his left and then his right, nodding hello to several doctors and nurses he passed on his way to Patrick’s office. Once he reached the door, Elijah walked right in. He closed the door behind him, then slunk into one of the two visitor’s chairs.
“’Bout damn time your ass got here,” Patrick said, standing to his full six-foot-five-inch height. He pushed the chair back and walked around the desk to perch on its edge. With his intimidating height, broad shoulders, muscular build, and piercing, onyx-colored eyes, Patrick looked like he should have been a professional football player instead of a plastic surgeon. “Now, what in the hell is going on? You were cryptic and shit in your texts?”
“Relax, Pat. Let the man breathe and get comfortable. This is probably the first time he’s sat down all shift.”
“Shut the hell up, AJ, and get off the man’s nuts. You know damn well you wanna know what’s going on so your lame ass can get back to the NICU to stare at the new nurse.”
“Oh, I’m lame because I don’t do messy entanglements like you? You would be the one out of the three of us who would sleep with two nurses knowing they’re related.”
“Damn right, and I’d do it again.” Patrick shrugged, flashing a gap-toothed grin. He scratched the trimmed beard covering his jaw. “But that’s not why you’re lame. You’re lame because you keep staring at her on some Peeping Tom, Swim Fan, Ali Larter going after Beyoncé’s husband in Obsessed kinda way. I don’t get either of y’all. Jay-Z ain’t drop gems in “Big Pimpin’” for y’all to be sitting here stressing over women.” He snorted in disgust. “I don’t—”
AJ held up a hand, cutting Patrick off. “Before you launch into another one of your long-winded ass lectures with no real point to be made insight, can we please get to the reason why we’re here?” He shifted in his chair to face Elijah. “What’s up, bruh?”
Elijah, who’d been listening to the back and forth between his best friends—his brothers—finally lifted his head from the palms of his hands and sighed deeply. “I don’t even know where to begin.”
“How about the beginning?”
Ignoring Patrick’s slick remark, Elijah closed his eyes. Images of Melissa came rushing to the forefront of his mind with the speed of a runaway train. Talking about her shouldn’t be so hard. She’d been the topic of their conversation several times since Chaud.
“Y’all remember Melissa, right?” Maybe the question was meant to refresh their memories or meant as a stalling tactic, but given the incredulous looks both his friends gave him, Elijah knew his friends saw through his bullshit.
Patrick stared. “Lemme ask you, is that a trick question or something? Or do you actually believe we forgot Melissa when you were walking around the hospital looking like the leprechaun from that cereal talking ’bout how she was magically delicious?”
“Right,” AJ chimed in. “What about her? Are y’all planning another getaway? I swear you have more leave than me and Pat combined.”
“Nah, we haven’t planned another trip together.” He paused, swallowing the lump forming in his throat. “At least not until Melissa tells me how long she knew she’d be working here and when she planned to tell me.”
AJ’s brows furrowed. “What do you mean ‘working here’?”
Elijah stood, and began pacing the office. “Exactly what I said.” He explained his initial run-in with Melissa. “What confuses me most is how she didn’t seem surprised to see me. It was almost like dread, and I can’t stop wondering if she anticipated this reunion to happen.”
Patrick whistled. “Damn, do you think she came here on some Fatal Attraction type thing?”
“I won’t pretend like it didn’t cross my mind, but I shook it off a second later.”
“Rightfully so, because it doesn’t make sense.” AJ scratched his beard in thought. “You told us she quit her job and applied at several hospitals and had a couple interviews while you were on the island.”
“She did.” Elijah thought back to the many conversations he and Melissa had about her career path. While they were far and few in-between, he knew she applied to several hospitals but her heart set on working at the one she applied to while in Chaud because Jayla—who was in the process of transferring after landing a position as a neonatal nurse in a NICU—encouraged her to apply at the hospital where she was going.
“Wait …” Elijah muttered a series of curse words. Bits and pieces of his and Melissa’s conversations, along with something Patrick said to AJ, began connecting in his head. “AJ, please tell me the new NICU nurse’s name is not Jayla.”
AJ’s eyes widened. He slowly nodded his head, confirming E
lijah’s suspicion.
“Do I even want to know how you know Nurse Daniels’ name?”
Elijah gave a half-hearted shrug. “I know it because I met her. Jayla is Melissa’s best friend.”
Patrick leapt up from his seat. “Wait, you’re telling me that the woman who AJ has been eye stalking is the same person who stole two bottles of champagne from a nightclub? Woooow.”
Whether or not this was a good thing had yet to be determined. But by coincidence or a comical twist of fate, Melissa applied to work at the same hospital as him.
The ringing of his phone sliced through the deafening quiet of the office. Elijah instantly recognized the ringtone. He removed the device from his pocket and pressed a button to connect the call. “I won’t pretend I wasn’t just talking about you.”
“Good things with good people, I hope?” Melissa asked with a soft chuckle. It floated to his ears and hit him with the force of a punch from Muhammad Ali, Mike Tyson, and Floyd Mayweather combined. He’d missed the sweet melody of her laughter and its healing properties. Still, Elijah could hear the uncertainty and nervousness in her voice, though she tried using humor to mask her false bravado.
“More like confused questions with questionable friends.” Elijah glanced over at Patrick, then AJ, and mouthed, ‘Melissa.’
“I figured.” She sighed deeply. “This isn’t a conversation I want to have on the phone. Nor is it one I think is appropriate to have while at work.”
Work. The one word yanked Elijah from the trance the lull of her voice placed him under. It served as a reminder that Melissa was no longer just his girlfriend. She was his co-worker. He was her superior. They definitely had a lot to talk about, and there was no way it could happen here. Elijah ignored the wide-eyed stares of Patrick and AJ. “You’re absolutely right.”
“I get off at seven. Does that work for you?”
“No. I’m here until nine tonight.” Elijah half expected Melissa to suggest another day. It would’ve been a suggestion he would have quickly turned down. It was eating away at him to not tell Melissa to meet him in his office so they could talk. There was no way in hell he would last days not knowing what happened and where they stood.
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