Chapter 2
The next week wasn’t quite hell, but it was about as close as Tera had ever gotten. She was used to studying and being in school. She was used to being an underdog and learning her way around new places.
She wasn’t, however, ready for all the people that didn’t like her. She was a bubbly, happy person. At the very least, she tried to put up that front to people. Nurses needed to be caring people. When she walked in, she had a new life. She left behind everything that might have been bothering her and she was now a caretaker. She was going to be their friend and their protector. It seems like the least they could do to appreciate it. Instead, she got lots of people that acted like she was about to graduate kindergarten instead of college. She’d spent years studying, but everyone got a look at her and were thoroughly unimpressed. One guy even wanted a new nurse before she even said anything to him.
She was a great student and a tremendously hard worker. When the times got hard, she hunkered down and kept going. So, when people didn’t seem to care for her age as a caregiver, she tried harder. Most people loved her, but there were those few that were determined to make her life hell. They’d complain that she wasn’t doing it right, or drill her about if she’d ever graduated high school. She was startled. Every other part of working at a hospital she had expected—the long hours, the hardships, blah blah blah. She hadn’t expected some many bitter people. They were in pain. That’s all it was.
Time and time again, when these people got angry with her, in would swoop in Richard. At first, he tossed her out there and let her flounder. He fell into the category of people who didn’t like her. Slowly, though, she started to change his opinion. She showed up before most of the rest of the staff. One time, she was ready before he showed up. He seemed to be showing her at least some respect for her work dedication, which she thought was well earned. After a few weeks of working under him, she started to see past his exterior as well. He put up a shield. She wasn’t a psychologist, but she studied him because they were together almost all the time. She was shadowing him, so she got to be as close to him as almost anyone. She learned a lot about him. She knew all his accomplishments coming in when she’d researched him to see who she should pick as a doctor, but she learned other things. He liked dogs and hated cats. His favorite color was green. He always wanted to go to Machu Picchu. Eventually, he seemed almost human to her. She suspected he put up the shield of being an asshole to protect himself. The things that he had to say to people, the news that he had to deliver, would crush a normal man. His solution was simply to not let anything through to hurt him. Every now and then, she’d catch a glimpse of his kindness. He always tried to hide it, but he failed a few times.
Tera’s life during this time was a chaotic mess. She commuted from college to work, running back and forth all the time like a chicken with its head cut off. She spent most of her class time absentmindedly doodling and thinking about the hospital. More than that, she spent most of her time thinking about one particular doctor at the hospital. Richard. He intrigued her and amazed her. She couldn’t deny that he was attractive. Every now and then, she’d have to slap some sense into herself. She couldn’t catch feelings for him. The guy was an asshole to her, pretty much around the clock. She’d made the mistake of telling him that people used to call her Tinkerbell, so that was her official name. Worse, it stuck on the whole floor. Tinkerbell’s here! Oh boy!
It was about that time that things got confusing.
One of her patients was scolding her one day. This wasn’t a slap on the wrist. This was fifty years of anger that had finally come undone. She’d made a small mistake, nothing life-threating. She’d forgotten to bring him the color of Jello that he liked, but you would’ve thought that she had just declared that she was Hitler’s sister by his response. He tore into her, and all she could do was stand there and take it. She couldn’t argue with the patient. She tried to ignore him, but the words stung. Her confidence plummeted practically overnight.
It was about then that Richard asked her to dinner.
“What?” she asked, sitting in the break room and trying unsuccessfully to bottle up a lot of anger.
He eyeballed her. “I said, would you like to go to dinner?”
“Like, as a date?”
“Don’t overthink this. You’re clearly upset. You need to clear your head, and frankly, I don’t trust you to be this upset without anyone to rein you in.” There was a hint of humor in his voice. She’d garnered the reputation as a bit of a hothead around the hospital.
She tried to smile. “I’d love to.”
The plan was for Tera to have a nice dinner with a friend. What ended up happening was that Tera went too heavy on the alcohol at dinner, and she ended up spilling her guts on basically everything. She wasn’t a drinker. She had only drunk a few times, most notably when her best friend died, and so when she got drunk, she got pretty wrecked.
“You’re drunk,” Richard finally declared at the end of the night. “You need to sober up.”
“I’m not your patient,” she told him. “Let me have some fun. It’s been a rough few weeks. I’m gonna go to a bar.”
His eyebrow cocked up. “I’m not certain that’s a good idea.”
She shrugged. “I dunno, man… I insist. Come with me!”
Although he wasn’t eager to go, she talked him into it and eventually they hopped in a cab and drove to the nearest bar, where he ended up getting drunk also. She remembered bits and pieces. She remembered dancing. A lot. An awful lot. To her, then, she was a beautiful dancer, but it was probably awful. Fast forward a few hours, when she woke up.
In the bed of Richard Pyre, 31-year-old doctor star.
She was lying in his bedroom. It was a nice place, very modern and stylized. Cool art hung on the wall, and it opened up on one side with a massive glass wall to the city far below. It was a spectacular view. She was naked, with only his sheets covering her otherwise nude body. Her hair was wild and messed up. She was sore, and she had the mother of all hangovers.
“Oh God,” she whispered to nobody in particular.
Richard Pyre was sleeping next to her. Was he nude? She felt she should confirm. She lifted up the sheets and held in a gasp. Sweet heavens! Had they really been that drunk? She remembered very little, other than a few glimpses of ecstasy. Color rose to her cheeks as she stared at him. She should probably look away, but she didn’t. He was even more attractive than she had expected, smooth-shaven and muscular. Apparently, he had a tattoo of a Chinese dragon stretching across his shoulder. She’d never seen it under his coat.
Part one was over with. She had come to grips with the fact that she’d slept with him. The shocking part was out of the way. The next part came up—what the hell now? Should she hurry away and act like it never happened? Talk to him about it? She was a relatively shy gal. She didn’t do things like this. She felt herself blushing up a storm.
Slowly, very slowly, she slid out of his bed. She kept eyeing him, expecting him at any moment to leap up and yell at her or something. No response came from him. She kept her eyes locked on him as she slid fully out of his bed. It ended up being a bad idea, because she didn’t know his room that well and she tripped on a Roomba and faceplanted. She missed the lush carpet and fell, butt naked, onto the cold tile floor.
“Mother-fuc—” she stared to shout before she snapped her mouth shut. Stealth. That was the name of the game. Stealth. She scrambled up. Her skin felt like ice. Why the hell did he have it so cold in there?
She hustled to the bedpost and found her panties there with part of her scrubs nearby. Well… at least it was progress. The location of her top was a mystery, but she slid into her panties and pants. Oh Lord. Had she gone to a club in scrubs? What kind of weirdo does that? She mentally facepalmed. She snuck out towards the door. She found her shirt and pulled it on. She had no idea where her bra was, but at that point, she was ready to get the hell out of Dodge and cut her losses.
Apparently, Richard had a dog.
A mean, big, scary dog.
That didn’t like Tera trying to sneak out.
She turned out of his room and came face-to-face with a beautiful bull mastiff. He stared at her and bared his fangs in a low growl.
“Whoooaaa, big boy,” she said, trying to sooth it. “I’m a friend! You shouldn’t attack your friends…”
She backed away from him towards the door, keeping a happy face. She hated big dogs. When she was little, she’d been playing rough with one of her friends. Her buddy’s dog decided it should protect his owner and bit right into Tera’s thigh. Still had the scar to this day. “Easy… Easy…. Easy, big guy…”
She got to the door, threw it open, and slammed it shut before anything else could happen. She stared down the hallway.
Oh man.
What had she done? More importantly, what next?