“River!” My name is called as I rush down the hallway toward the blaring sound of the beeping alarm. As I round the corner, I realize it’s coming from room 448. McKenna Black’s room. Mrs. Black is screaming my name, urging me to hurry. My aide, Jenny, is already inside the room waiting for me.

I memorize all my patient’ files word for word. I know their personal information and their medical history. It’s part of my job at Milwaukee Children’s Hospital where I treat sick kids in the PICU—pediatric intensive care unit. No matter how long they’ve been here or how short their stay is, my photogenic memory allows me to remember every detail of their conditions and treatment plans.

“What’s her O2 level?” I ask Jenny as I silence the alarm. She rambles off the baby girl’s stats, and I immediately unwrap my stethoscope from my neck so I can listen to her heart.

“She’s seizing,” I say aloud before rolling her little body to the side. McKenna is only five weeks old and in a fragile state after being diagnosed with bacterial meningitis. She’s been here for a week and is on a twenty-eight-day antibiotic treatment, but side effects like this from the medication or illness are common with these types of infectious diseases.

“What? She’s seizing?” Mrs. Black cries from the end of the metal crib.

“Call Dr. Weasley,” I order Jenny. “She’s going to need anti-seizure medicine before it happens again.”

“River, what’s going on?” Mrs. Black cries out again, her voice filled with panic.

Before I can explain, Jenny speaks up. “Dr. Weasley isn’t here.”

I wave my hand in the air. “Whoever’s on call then. She needs something before it gets worse.”

“Worse? Why? What’s wrong?” Mrs. Black is frantic, concern evident in her voice. She’s in constant fear of her daughter’s life, and it breaks my heart. It’s something I see here every day.

I watch as her stats start to level out and breathe out a sigh of relief.

“She’s okay, Mrs. Black,” I face her and say softly. I try to get to know my patient’s family as best as I can because it helps put their minds at ease and builds trust as we give the best treatment possible. I know all too well what it feels like to be in their place and feel alone. “It was a tonic seizure. I’m going to have the doctor prescribe some medication to prevent it from happening again.”

“Wh-what’s that?”

“It’s where her body stiffens and muscles spasm. It’s most likely caused by the infection, and although not uncommon, we want to control it and make sure it doesn’t happen again. Otherwise, it could make things worse.”

“Worse?” She gasps. Shit, I should’ve left out that part. I always try to be honest and up-front with the family, but I know sometimes I have to leave out things that will only cause more concern.

“The infection that’s in the spinal fluid leading to her brain can cause seizures depending where the infection is, but the seizure subsided, and her stats are already normalizing, but the meds will help stop it from happening again. Okay?” I place a hand on her shaky fingers that are gripping the crib rail.

She nods, keeping her eyes locked on McKenna. Her tiny little body is covered in PICC lines, an oxygen line, a feeding tube, and artery lines in both of her cute, chubby thighs. Her face is swollen from the fluids, and her tiny arms are in casts so the lines stay in.

It’s a sight no parent should ever have to see, but in the PICU, it’s an everyday occurrence.

Hours later after McKenna gets her medication, I finally take my break. I work twelve-hour shifts on rotation and have been on my feet for ten hours straight. As I’m sitting in the cafeteria about to stuff my face, Natalie plops down across from me.

“You look like hell.” She bites into a carrot stick, and it makes a loud cracking noise.

“Should’ve seen me before I fixed my hair and makeup.” I reach for my coffee and take a long sip. “I can’t feel my feet, and I’m pretty sure my ankles have swelled to twice their normal size.”

“Isn’t your shift almost over?” She looks down at the time on her phone. “You’re taking a late break.”

I nod, agreeing. “Had to wait for the on-call doctor to prescribe some medication for my patient and then once I administered it, I wanted to wait to make sure she was stable. Her mom was upset, and I didn’t feel right leaving.”

“You know your aide could’ve stayed with the patient’s mom so you could leave for twenty minutes,” she reminds me. Natalie works in radiology and is constantly telling me to take care of myself, or I’ll burn out, but I can’t help it. I love my job and my patients.

“I’m fine, Mom,” I tease.

“You need a vacation,” she says matter-of-factly. “Get some sun on your pasty ass.”

I snort. “Sure. Vacation for one!” I roll my eyes. “And your ass is probably as pasty as mine.”

“I sunbathed nude on the rooftop all summer, so joke’s on you.” She smirks.

“Thanks for that.” I wrinkle my nose. “Didn’t need that visual.”

She rolls her eyes, and I laugh.

“But seriously. You could use a vacation. Or a distraction. Find a hot guy and bang his brains out.” She waggles her brows with a sultry smirk.

Still chewing my food, I burst out laughing and shake my head at her. “Banging random men isn’t going to change the fact I gave the last six months of my life to a man who ‘forgot’ to tell me he was married.” I suck in a deep breath and exhale the anger that’s been weighing on my chest for the past three weeks since finding his wedding ring hiding deep in his dress pants pocket.

“Oh, screw—what’s his face anyway…” She scrunches up her face in disgust. She never liked him much anyway based on the few times they met. “Asshole.”

“Andrew,” I fill in for her, feeling bile rise in my throat at saying his name aloud.

“Andrew. Asshole. Same thing, really.” She curls the corner of her lip. “Screw him. Go on a single’s cruise and find yourself some hot man meat!” The tone of her voice is serious, which terrifies me. Once Natalie gets an idea in her head, she pushes it until I cave in. We’ve been friends since elementary school and attended the same college, so we know everything about each other. The good, bad, and ugly.

“Hot man meat?” I arch a brow. “We graduated from middle school over a decade ago,” I inform her with a teasing grin. “The only hot meat I want near me is a big fat turkey.” I smile, getting excited about spending Thanksgiving with my family next month up in Eagle River where I’m originally from. I moved down here for college, and once I got hired at the hospital, I made it my permanent residence.

“Okay, so no singles cruise.” She frowns.

I give her an eye roll, then reach for my purse. I dig around inside until I find my prescription bottle. Once I open it and grab a pill, I toss it down my throat and swallow it with a big gulp of water.

“What’s that?” she asks, tilting her head to read the bottle as she takes another bite of her carrot stick.

“It’s my STD medication. A parting gift from Andrew,” I deadpan. She starts choking on her carrot, and I nearly die of laughter.

“River! That isn’t funny.” She smacks her chest as tears form in the corner of my eyes.

“Oh my God. The look on your face was priceless,” I say, wiping tears from my cheeks.

“You’re seriously a bitch. You deserve an STD after that.” She scowls.

Once I’ve controlled my laughter, I shove the bottle back in my purse. “Don’t be so dramatic. My doctor prescribed it for my sinus infection; thankfully, it’s almost gone now.”

“Oh my God!” She slams her palm down on the table, the loud bang echoing through space. I jump at her unnecessary spasm.

“Jesus, Natalie,” I scold. “Nearly made me pee myself.”

She points a finger in my face. “You deserved it.” She smirks. “Anyway. I just got the best idea. Adam and I are going to Key West soon for two weeks. You should totally come!”

I furrow my brows at her like she’s crazy. “I’m not going on a couples’ vacation with you and your boyfriend, Nat. That’d be weird.”

“No way. We’d have a blast,” she insists.

“I’d be the third wheel,” I correct.

“Hardly. Adam plans to go fishing like every morning. You can keep me company on the beach drinking margaritas and checking out the local eye candy. Then when he’s back, the three of us can find fun stuff to do like snorkeling or sailing.”

“That sounds fun, it really does, but I can’t just tag along on your couples’ trip. I’d feel like such a burden.”

“Girl, stop it. Adam and I are basically an old married couple. Truth be told, I’d have more fun with you hanging around anyway. Once Adam starts talking about fish and worms, and God knows what else, I start to fall asleep.”

“Oh, so now you want me to be your buffer. This is sounding better and better,” I muse.

“What’s it matter?” She grins. “Just come and enjoy the sun and the beach and the water and forget about the STD married asshole man.”

“For the record, I don’t have an STD, Natalie!” I whisper-shout.

She waves me off as if it’s irrelevant.

“Just think about it, okay? You can book a separate room at the same resort. We can head down to the pool and have breakfast together and read books by the beach, and then when you get yourself drunk enough and find a hot, single man, you’ll have a room all to yourself for slutty banging time.”

I groan at her words but laugh at the eagerness in her tone. She’s nearly begging at this point.

“I don’t know. Two weeks? I doubt I’ll be able to get off work in such a short amount of time.” I pick at the remaining food on my tray, thinking it over.

“You work nonstop, River. You deserve a vacation.” She stands up and grabs her baggie of carrot sticks. “Just think about it.” She winks before walking away.

As I finish the rest of my shift, the thought of spending two weeks on the beach and how nice it’d be to get away for a bit invades my mind. Once I finish charting and clock out, I walk to the bus stop near the hospital and wait.

Digging my cell out of my purse, I turn it on and see I have a few new voice messages. As soon as I hear Andrew’s voice, my body tenses.

Hey, baby. I miss you. I know you hate me right now, but I promise I can explain—

I delete the message before he can continue his lies. I click on the next one.

I can’t stop thinking about you, River. Please come back to me. I’ll—

Delete.

Any guesses who voicemail number three is from? Asshole.

Shoving my cell back into my purse, I stand as the bus comes into view from down the road. Within moments, another bus passes and drives through a puddle only to splash muddy water on my shoes and uniform. The gentleman standing next to me steps to the side, glaring at me as he takes in what a mess I am.

Oh my God!

I’m completely drenched, except my hair. Not that it matters because it looks like a bird set up home there anyway. It’s early October in southern Wisconsin, which means the temps have dropped into the forties and fifties. Stupidly, I wasn’t wearing my winter jacket, and now I’ll sit on the bus freezing my ass off.

Once I’m home, I strip off everything before I enter the kitchen. The ride across town was complete hell, and I’m cold to the bone. My shoes, scrubs, and bra find their way to the floor. My roommate is a girl I went to college with years ago, but she’s never home. Sasha spends most nights at her boyfriend’s place, which makes being her roommate easy. As long as she pays her half of the rent, I don’t care if she’s home or not. The only complaint I have is how she leaves her cat, and I’m constantly feeding and watering him since she seems to forget that responsibility.

“Hey, Leo,” I coo as he jumps on my bed, begging for some kind of attention. I pet him briefly before grabbing my towels and heading to the bathroom for a shower.

The hot water feels amazing and soothes my tense muscles. My legs and feet are sore from walking so much today, and I can’t wait to climb into bed with my Kindle. But as soon as I turn off the water and wrap a towel around my body, I hear noises coming from the hallway.

First, pictures are falling off the wall. Next, I hear giggling. Then more smacking against the wall.

What the fuck?

Tightening the grip on my towel, I open the door and peek out. Long brown hair falls loosely down Sasha’s back, and her legs are wrapped around a man’s waist as she dry humps him against the wall.

Blinking, I’m shocked to see her home at this hour on a Tuesday night, considering I know she works early in the morning. But then I look over at the guy she’s sucking face with, and that’s when I realize it’s not her boyfriend.

It’s Asshole.

By the time I get to work the next day, I’m still in shock. Suffice it to say, I had a shitty night’s sleep. Not because I found my roommate with my ex, but because Andrew is loud in bed. Once I started thinking about it, I understood why he was that way. He was overcompensating for his teeny weenie by insisting he loved eating pussy more than making love.

I roll my eyes so hard at the revelation.

No guy needs to make that much noise while feasting between your legs. The woman should be the loud one; if he’s doing it right, anyway.

After texting Natalie on the way to work to tell her what happened, she insisted it was a sign. A sign I needed to go to Florida with them, and after hearing his voice and seeing his nasty face, I could use a vacation more than ever.

During my break, Natalie and I meet up again.

“I can’t believe he left you a voice message and then hours later ended up in your apartment with Sasha,” she says for the third time, just as shocked as I was.

Well, there’s a club she can join because I can hardly believe it either.

“Yeah, he probably thought I was her, considering I have bleach blonde hair and she has dark brown hair. It’d be easy to get us confused.” I snort.

“God, I’m so glad you broke up with his nasty ass. I should send Adam over there to kick his butt.” She starts to get all worked up.

“Natalie,” I say, covering her hand with mine. “I appreciate the sentiment, but Adam would hurt himself before hurting Andrew.”

She scowls. “Hey, he’s muscular.”

I chuckle. “I know he is. I wasn’t saying he isn’t, but Andrew ate steroids for breakfast, so no one stands a chance. He’s a fake, liar, and cheater, and not worth anyone’s time or energy.”

She frowns. “I’m sorry you had to find that out the hard way.”

I shrug, lowering my eyes to the floor. “Live and learn, right?” I blink and meet her gaze. “Besides, he left his six-thousand dollar watch in my room.” I grin.

“Holy shit!” She gasps. “What kind of watch costs that much? It better come with fifty-five hundred dollars and a male stripper on the side.”

Bursting out laughing, I’m easily reminded why Natalie and I are friends. She always finds a way to make me smile in the worst of times.

“Some hoity-toity designer, but it was a gift from his job when he got promoted last year.”

“Oh, boo for him.” She wiggles a finger down her cheek to mimic a tear. “You should pawn it instead.”

I snap her a look. “That’s a little vindictive.”

“Or…” She snaps her fingers. “It’s being resourceful and now paying for your well-deserved vacation. Think of that as a real parting gift.” She starts to hold up her fingers. “He cheated, lied, and now screwed your roommate in the same apartment as you. That dirtbag deserves a lot worse.”

I can’t argue with her, but I don’t feel right pawning it. Though, he doesn’t exactly deserve to have the watch returned to him either.

Or does he?

After my shift, I head home and sit on the edge of the bed. Deciding to take the high road, I grab the watch from my nightstand and stare at it. It really is a nice-looking watch. Too bad he doesn’t know a good thing when he has it. He should know better than to leave valuables lying around.

Thankfully, he and Sasha were gone this morning before I left for work because I’m not sure what I would’ve done. Thinking back to the night before and hearing them in the room next door boils my blood even more. I’m so pissed I wasted my time on him. I replay moments of us together and realize all the signs pointed to this. I should’ve known from his sketchy behavior and random phone calls. I shouldn’t have been so naïve, and I almost can’t believe how vengeful he is. Fucking my roommate and knowing I’d be home was just a low blow. That bastard.

I take his watch and place it on the kitchen counter. A moment passes, and I stare at the shiny gold band and diamonds on the face. Searching through the drawers, I find a meat tenderizer—well suited name, too—and grip it firmly in my hand. Raising it above my head, I lower it and slam it against the watch. I do this over and over, groaning and grunting until only tiny pieces are left.

Whew! That felt fucking great.

Next, I find an envelope, shove all the remaining pieces inside, and before sealing it, write him a little note.

---

---

Feeling satisfied, I write his business address on the front and shove the envelope into my purse, so I can mail it first thing in the morning before work.

Looking around my apartment, I realize all the anger and resentment I’ve been harboring, and it makes me really consider Natalie’s offer.

I grab my phone from the nightstand and type out a text to her.