Chapter Seventeen
Darla
Here we go again, lugging the equipment across campus for a screening. But this time, Shelby scheduled the screening in the evening. So no matter how long we’ve been at work already, we still have to work into the wee hours of the night to do screenings on the nursing staff that work the night shift. I’m not a night owl, so this is torture.
Since Mallory has an administrative job, the chances of her being at the hospital at this hour are slim to none. Theo is a different story, and with my luck, anything is possible. I want to see him again and again, but I get so tongue-tied around him. At this pace, I’ll never work up the courage to tell him about Stella.
I still cannot get the last conversation I had with Theo out of my mind. He really doesn’t know about Stella. He’s totally clueless. He would certainly remember something this important, especially since he wants kids so much. And the fact that he thinks he can’t have kids when he actually has one is more than I can process right now. We were having so much fun on our picnic that it would have been the perfect opportunity to tell him. But I could not make my mouth say the words. The longer I wait, the harder it is going to be. I’m so afraid he’ll freak, and I don’t know if I can handle rejection again.
I know he got my emails, though. I know he replied to me. He didn’t want anything to do with us. But something does not add up. I mean, come on. He remembered everything about our one night together, even the fact that we had sex twice. Maybe he had someone else checking his email for him. It is possible Mallory deleted them before he had a chance to read them, but when I ran into her, she didn’t act as though she was trying to hide anything. And I know Mallory—she’s not a good actress. She would have given me a clue that she saw something. So if he didn’t tell me to bugger off, I can’t imagine who it could have been.
I’ve lived in a pit of sorrow for seven years because I thought he didn’t want us. Somehow, I knew he couldn’t be that callous. I knew he wouldn’t ignore us. Even so, he’s here now, and I have the chance to make it all right. If it wasn’t Mallory, it had to be someone in his family. Maybe it was his preacher father. The man could have been trying to protect his image. Or it could have been his mother. She may have thought I would try to get child support from him.
“You’re lucky Stella’s out of town, or I wouldn’t be able to do this,” I say to Shelby as we lug our equipment up the sidewalk.
“Why do you think I scheduled it this week?” Shelby asks. “I’ve got to squeeze every ounce of opportunity I can. Keeps you from missing her.”
“How about a movie next time?” Isaac suggests.
I agree. “Yeah, a movie sounds really good right now. Or face time with my sweet girl.”
“Let’s just get this behind us,” Shelby says.
We push our carts through the hospital and onto the elevators up to the ninth floor. Another boring session of tuberculosis skin tests, immunizations, and whatever else the nurses need to be compliant with hospital regulations. Next, we move down to the eighth floor. At least the tests go quickly and smoothly. By midnight, we are finally done. Fluffy pillows call my name. And I didn’t run into Mallory or Theo, so it wasn’t completely awful. After a midnight shift, I look and smell like death warmed over. The only thing making me cringe is Isaac’s latest earworm. If I never hear Vanilla Ice again, it will be too soon.
Shelby collapses onto a couch in the nurses’ lounge. “Thank God that’s over.”
Isaac yawns so big, I can see past his molars. Even yawning, he still bobs his head to the tune of “Ice Ice Baby.” He takes in the break room, scrunching his nose. “No offense to you, Juliet, but nurses are messy as hell.”
He doesn’t deserve an eye roll. Talking trash about my profession and calling me that? I’ll have to give him a nasty pinch when I’m fully conscious.
He grimaces and points to a slice of pizza sitting on the table.
I shrug. “Nurses rarely get to finish a meal, so they eat what they can when they can.”
“Let’s hope they wash their hands before entering patients’ rooms, because they don’t practice good hygiene in here.”
Shelby gasps. “Unprofessional.”
“The least they could do is clean up after themselves. That slice of pizza needs a shave. No telling how long it’s been sitting there. I bet you could manufacture enough penicillin from that single slice to treat this whole hospital unit.”
I laugh. That’s gross but funny at the same time. “Throw it away if it bothers you so much.” I finish packing my supplies into the cart and stretch out my back. My sore muscles sure could use a massage right about now. And I know the perfect hands for the job. Stop it.
“Nu-uh. I might get hepatitis or encephalitis or some other form of itis.”
Shelby giggles. “I think you already have.”
He sticks his tongue out at her. “Juliet, you’re a nurse. You throw it away.”
Groaning, I massage my temples. “I will if you’ll stop calling me that.”
He claps, knowing he has won this battle.
“Oh, for crying out loud.” I toss it into the trash.
“I can still see it.”
“Ugh. You could never be a nurse or a mother.” I snatch some paper towels off the counter to cover my hand and shove the pizza down farther into the trash. A sharp pain shoots through my hand, and I jerk it back. My hand is covered in red, and it’s not pizza sauce.
“Oh no.” I hold up my left hand, displaying a deep, jagged cut on my palm. Blood is seeping out of it. On a scale of one to ten, this is an eleven.
Shelby rushes to me. “Jesus Christ. What happened?”
I grab more paper towels and cover my hand with them. Blood soaks through them within seconds and trickles down my arm.
Isaac backs away from me. “I think I’m going to be sick.”
Shelby pushes me into a chair and rips more paper towels out of the dispenser. She covers my hand with them and holds my arm in the air. “Isaac, go get Bonnie, the charge nurse, now.”
He rushes out of the room. I think he’s relieved he got to leave.
“I’m okay,” I say to Shelby. “No big deal.” The throbbing pain takes my breath away.
Shelby cringes. “I don’t know. It seems pretty bad.” She inspects the contents of the trash can. “A tuna can got you.”
“I’m an idiot.”
“No, Isaac’s the idiot.”
“Am not,” he says, returning to the lounge with Bonnie.
She plants a wheelchair next to the door. I don’t need that.
Bonnie leans down in front of me. “Let’s take a peek.” She peels off the paper towels, and more blood gushes out.
I suck in a breath. Shit, that hurts.
“Okay, that wasn’t a good idea,” she says.
“I think a butterfly bandage should do the trick,” I say to her.
She presses a gauze bandage to my hand and goes into full nurse mode. “You need stitches.”
“I’m fine.” I stand up, and the room spins.
Shelby catches me. The charge nurse plants my butt in the wheelchair and pushes me out of the lounge, into the elevator, and down to the emergency room.