Friday was my second favorite F word. And since my other favorite F word wasn’t appropriate to use in a work environment, I settled for repeating the one word that I could. Both of them brought me joy.
“Friday. Friday,” I singsonged as I finished cleaning up exam room five. “Thank God it’s Friday.” I continued the tune as I skipped toward the nursing office to make sure there weren’t any outstanding voice mails from patients waiting to be called.
“If you say Friday one more time, I will strangle you with this blood pressure cuff,” Marlene huffed in her designated chair in front of her designated computer. I scrunched my face behind her back.
No, we didn’t all have our own chairs and desks and computers—just Marlene. She’d claimed hers, thirty-five years ago, according to her, and it was a certainty that unless you wanted to see the giant white light guiding you toward the pearly gates, you stayed the fuck away. The torn-up piece of masking tape haphazardly placed across each item even said that in black Sharpie. This is Marlene’s. Stay the fuck away.
“Oh, c’mon, Mar,” I said with a grin. “Everyone loves Fridays. It’s like a universal religion. It melts people from all over the world into one big pot.”
Though, the truth of it was, I’d had a fucking knot in my stomach ever since I’d turned Will down, and some of my weekend cheer was probably a means to cope. But she hadn’t turned down one of the nicest guys she’d ever met for the date she’d been fantasizing about ever since she’d met him.
Had she?
“Not me,” she muttered. “Especially when it’s my weekend to be on call.”
See what I meant earlier? Tuesdays were Marlene’s favorite day of the week.
I honestly didn’t know what she did on her days off. I’d often try to imagine it, but I usually ended up picturing her yelling at a young grocery store cashier about the rising prices of pork loin.
“You shouldn’t have too many calls, though,” I reassured, even though I knew it was useless. “There’s only a handful of patients that could deliver this weekend, and most of them are on their second and third pregnancy. It’s old hat for them.”
“Yeah, right,” she huffed her disagreement. “I’m sure one of the thirty-weekers will gorge themselves on chili dogs and then call in a panic because they’re confusing gas pain with contractions.”
“Always the optimist,” I teased with a laugh.
“Keep laughing. But I know you’ll be just like me one day,” she stated with a pointed brow in my direction.
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Remember this conversation after you’ve been doing this job for another twenty years, and then you’ll understand.”
Doing this job for another twenty years?
Jesus Christ, I hoped not.
I mean, I didn’t mind this nursing job. I often found myself enjoying the patient interactions, and since Will had recently added hospital deliveries to my list of job responsibilities, I hadn’t found myself getting bored.
But deep down, I knew this wasn’t my final career stop. Eventually, I wanted to do something else, something more. I wanted to feel like I had a true purpose.
Running a women’s clinic for the underserved population.
It had been on my mind since Carmen’s prolapsed cord delivery. I couldn’t shake the nagging thought that her situation could have ended terribly. Sure, no medical professional can predict emergent situations like a prolapsed cord, but in her case, she could have been more educated. She could have actually received prenatal care throughout her entire pregnancy. Her baby’s fate wouldn’t have had to rest on a struck of luck.
Because Carmen and her little girl were lucky.
If she hadn’t been at the hospital the exact moment her water broke, the baby wouldn’t have made it. If something had been wrong with Carmen’s baby, it would not have been detected until delivery, and then, it might have been too late. So many factors, and thank God, fate was in Carmen’s favor that day.
I also hoped I wasn’t a lonely bat with poor dental hygiene at her age. I wanted a husband, not seventeen cats.
“Tell me, what has you so happy about the weekend?” Marlene asked and waggled her brows. “Hot sex?”
A shocked laugh escaped my lungs. “Uh…no.”
“Hot date that could possibly lead to hot sex, then?”
“No, you horny woman,” I said on another laugh, and Marlene grinned wide and unashamed. “No hot date. No hot sex.”
But you could have a hot date…
And hot sex. Hot, hot, hot sex with Will and his penis.
I could’ve gone on the date with Will. I wanted to. He’d asked me, and at first, I’d felt my stomach climb up and into my throat, but the bottom had dropped out just as quickly. It all seemed like it was in jest. Like he would’ve been dating me just to help his reputation.
Can I date you because I want to?
His words repeated inside my brain.
Did he want to date me?
I didn’t know. He seemed earnest in those words, but his earlier words… Dating you. Maybe that would solve some of my problems?
Yeah, not so much.
But you really like him.
I did. I really liked Will in all of his handsome, brilliant, funny, and sometimes hilariously awkward glory. He made me laugh. God, he made me laugh. And smile. My days had become better just because he was in them.
“All set, ladies?” Will poked his head into the nursing office with his briefcase in his hand and his suit jacket slung over his arm.
“Quitting time?” Marlene asked, and Will nodded with a smile.
Marlene didn’t waste another moment. She was logged out of her computer and grabbing her purse before anyone could say otherwise. For a woman who didn’t like Fridays, she sure looked happy to be strolling out of the office.
“Have a good weekend, Mel,” Will said with a smile. “See you Monday?”
My chest panged at the idea of having a whole weekend without his stupid smile and any hope of having it just for myself being missing when I did see it again. “See you Monday,” I said, but the words felt all wrong. And the situation felt all wrong as I watched him turn out of the doorway and head down the hall.
My body jumped into action before I could process what I was doing.
My legs moved at a rapid pace down the hall. “Will!” I called toward his back. “Wait a minute.”
He stopped in his tracks and turned toward me. His head tilted to the side in question. “Everything okay?”
“Yeah.” I nodded and took a deep inhale to catch my breath. “Yeah, everything’s great.”
“Okay,” he responded with a confused smile.
I stared into his deep blue eyes as I tried to find the right words, but I didn’t know what to say. I figured shouting the words Date me! would be a little weird. But it was those two words that just kept sitting behind my tongue, ready to shoot out of my mouth like a rocket.
“Is there anything else or…?” he asked when the silence had reached an awkward amount of time.
Now or never, Mel. Just say it. Say. It.
“Date me!” The words burst past my lips before I could stop them. Oh. Jesus. My eyes went wide in embarrassment. “I mean,” I started and nervously cleared my throat. “Is the offer still on the table?”
Will’s eyes creased at the corners once his smile consumed his face. “The dating offer?”
I nodded.
“When it comes to you, I’m not sure that offer would ever be off the table, Mel,” he said, and the tone of his words matched the earnest expression on his face.
Good God, that was one of the sweetest things anyone had ever said to me.
“How about tonight?”
Will smiled. “Tonight is… Shit. Tonight is bad.”
My smile fell. He reached out and grabbed my hand, a tingle shooting up my arm at first contact.
“No. I mean, I really wish I could. But I promised my sister I’d babysit my niece tonight through Sunday morning. She’s pregnant with their second and wants to take a little couple’s trip before the new baby comes.”
My smile came back at the thought of him and his niece.
Jesus. Why don’t you just swaddle my heart, God?
“Monday?” he offered, and I winced. I’d promised Janet I’d go shopping in New Jersey for a new set of weights on Monday night. She’d understand, but something inside me was too nervous to deal with switching plans with my mother.
“I can’t.”
“Tuesday,” we both said at the same time.
But it was his next words that would stay in my head for a good long while. “Tuesday is perfect.”
Tuesday is perfect, he’d said. And in that moment, I’d thought, Yeah, Tuesday is perfect. But as I stood in the guest bathroom applying a fresh coat of lipstick, a flock of nervous butterflies took up residence in my stomach. Tuesday may have been perfect in the sense that it was our first free day, but it was completely fucked in the sense that I’d had three and a half days to run every stupid dimension of this scenario through my mind.
Was this really a good idea? Dating Will?
It hadn’t been that long ago that I was living in Portland and in a long-term relationship with Eli. And Will wasn’t some random guy I’d met on a night out. He wasn’t just some random guy at all. He was my boss. Yesterday and today at work had given me plenty of goddamn time to reinforce that one. Sure, he was carefree and respectful and totally trusting of my skill and capability, but he was still the guy in charge of my checks.
Does that make me a hooker?
“What time is he picking you up, honey?” my mother shouted from the hallway. “Do you think he’ll want something to drink? Oh! Maybe I should make a quick batch of muffins!”
I sighed. “Will doesn’t want muffins, Mom.” Muffins. Fucking muffins. Will was a thirty-four-year-old man. Not a fifteen-year-old boy in the middle of a growth spurt.
“I’d love some muffins, Jan!” my father called out.
A part of me wondered if my biggest issue with going on a date with Will right now was that he’d have to pick me up at my parents’ house. Maybe that was really why I’d turned him down in the first place.
I wasn’t a fan of introducing potential lovers to Bill and Janet before I’d had the chance to actually go on a date with them…or see them naked. Meeting the parents was something reserved for date five, not before date one even got started.
The intercom buzzed, and my mother’s giddy voice filled my ears. “Oh! I think he’s here, Mel!” I could practically hear her skipping toward the front door from the bathroom. “Sit up, Bill, and look presentable.”
My father groaned. “Christ, Jan, he’s not the king of England.”
“Come on up!” my mother singsonged into the intercom, and then moments later, chastised my dad. “Stop being so cross, Bill.” Her voice went from angelic to possessed in an instant. “It’s like you’ve completely forgotten that he’s Dick and Savannah’s son. Sheesh.”
“Forgetting and caring are two different things,” my father muttered to himself.
“What was that, Bill?”
“I said, I can’t wait to meet Dick’s son.”
Oh boy, this was going to be interesting.
Instead of moping, I put on my big girl panties and finished applying an extra coat of mascara before grabbing my purse off the bathroom sink. I took one last look at my appearance in the mirror, taking in my long, wavy locks resting on my shoulders and my soft but classic makeup.
I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t put a lot of effort into my appearance. Hell, it’d taken me a good thirty minutes to decide on my outfit—black thigh-high boots, black skirt, and a fitted, rose gold blouse. I’d put far too much thought into what was the perfect yet appropriate amount of cleavage. Going by the finished product, apparently, there was nothing wrong with a healthy amount of boob.
It’s not like he hasn’t seen them before.
“Ready or not, Mel, there’s no going back now,” I whispered to my reflection and took a deep breath before walking out into the hallway and toward the living room.
Will stood in the doorway, smiling down at my mother as she prattled on about something that was the opposite of important. The instant my heels hit the hardwood floor of the entry, his eyes met mine and a soft, handsome, erotic smile crested his lips. Good God, just his face held the power to make your panties disappear. Maybe he is Dr. Obscene.
“You look beautiful, Melody.”
So do you, I thought, my nipples perking up noticeably.
He did. Will Cummings cleaned up nicely outside of the office. Like, real nice. Put him in a dish, and I’d eat him with a spoon kind of nice. Between his gorgeous blue eyes, his sexy hair, and the button-up lilac shirt that fit in all the right places, I didn’t know which I liked best.
“You’re not looking too bad, either,” I teased with a wink, and Will grinned. “I see you’ve already met my wonderful mother, Janet.”
“I did.” His grin grew wider. “For a second there, I thought she was your sister.”
“Oh, Will!” Janet giggled and gently tapped his shoulder. “I don’t like fishing. Thank you so much for inviting me. Maybe we can do something else.”
Fishing? He asked my mother to go fishing? Confused, I looked at Will and noted the puzzled expression on his face. Yeah, he didn’t ask her to go fishing. It was just Janet’s hearing issues acting up again.
Will’s eyes shot to me in question, and I tapped my ear as discreetly as possible. The last thing I needed was my mom catching me in the act.
Two minutes into their meet-and-greet and she was already in love. If I didn’t move quickly, she might try to go on the date without me. “All right, let’s get a move on it,” I insisted, raising my voice to avoid further confusion, and moved toward Will’s side. I half hoped we’d be able to slide out the front door without my father leaving his perch on the couch.
“But wait,” my mother urged and glanced back toward the living room. “Bill!” she whisper-yelled through gritted teeth. “Get off the couch and meet Melody’s date.”
My father groaned and moaned and finally gave in to her demands, getting up off the couch and shuffling toward the three of us.
“Dad,” I started before my mother could take the reins on introductions. “This is Will Cummings. Will, this is my dad, Bill.”
“It’s a pleasure, Mr. Marco,” Will greeted and shook my dad’s hand.
“You like KISS?”
Will’s brows scrunched together. “Kiss?”
“The band?”
“Oh!” he responded in relief. “Yeah, I like KISS. No one can pull off stage makeup and spitting fire while simultaneously belting out some of the best lyrics in rock history like Gene Simmons.”
The hint of a smile crested my dad’s lips. “What about Black Sabbath?”
“Ozzy Osbourne. Enough said,” Will responded. “There’s never been anyone like him.”
“Never will be either.”
“Probably not. He’s rock royalty. One of a kind.”
“Oh, yeah,” I chimed in. “One of a kind for sure. Pretty sure there’s never been another human being that could consume as many drugs as Ozzy did and still live to talk about it.”
Bill flashed an annoyed look in my direction, but he quickly returned his focus to Will. He slapped him on the back and grinned proudly. “I like this one, Mel. I think you should keep him around.”
Will winked at me, and I wanted to roll my eyes. If I weren’t careful, Will would end up spending more time with my parents than me. Fishing dates with Janet and concert tours with my dad. Yippee.
“All right,” I said and wrapped my hand around Will’s arm. “Consider the rock history lesson done for the evening. We’re going to head out before we miss our reservation.”
Will glanced down at me in confusion, and I whispered, “Just go with it.”
There was no reservation—at least, I didn’t think. But I sure as fuck didn’t want to stand around chatting about drug-addicted heavy metal bands with my father. Someone had to put the brakes on it before he got out the vinyl records and started playing air guitar in his underwear.
“Take good care of my Melly,” my father said as he opened the door for us.
Will smiled and nodded. “Don’t worry, I will.”
“Have a nice evening, you two,” my mother added with a smile as she wrapped her arms around my dad’s waist.
Go. Go. Go! My brain shouted. Go before someone says something inappropriate.
My parents were notorious for saying the most off-the-wall shit. Honestly, I think they were avid acid users back in the day. I mean, how else could anyone stand listening to Black Sabbath in concert that many times?
“It was really nice meeting both of you,” Will said, and I was half tempted to strangle him. He needed to move his ass and not leave any more time for my parents to show their true, weirdo colors.
“Melody, please send me a text message if you decide to stay at Will’s tonight,” my mother said and then lowered her voice, “you know, for the sex.”
There it was. And here I’d naïvely thought we had a chance to get out unscathed.
“Wow,” I muttered. “Yeah. We’re leaving now.”
“If you two end up doing the sex, be safe,” my father added, and I wanted to melt into the hardwood floor. “Do you have condoms, Will?”
Scratch that, I wanted to teleport my body to somewhere else. Hell, I wanted to time travel to a different time period and switch families entirely.
Will, though, looked like this might be the best time he’d ever had in his life. “I strive hard to make sure all of my patients are well-educated on safe sex, Mr. Marco. It is priority one for me.”
My dad stood proud and tall like a peacock at his response. “Good man,” he stated with a grin.
“Bye!” I all but shouted as I shuffled Will out of the door before my parents could add anything else to the conversation.
The instant the elevator doors closed in front of us, I sagged against the wall. “I’m so sorry about that,” I apologized. “My parents are kind of weird. Some days I think they’re still on an acid trip from the seventies.”
“Believe me, you have nothing to apologize for. Just wait until you meet my mom and dad. Dick and Savannah take the cake on crazy,” he said. “I must say, it’s way more fun from the outside.”
Just wait until you meet my mom and dad.
Oh boy. Was Will really picturing me meeting his parents some day?
Maybe this date really wasn’t about fixing his reputation.