Chapter 9

I don’t need fun to have alcohol.

-Fact of life

Naomi

It was bad to be me.

Very, very bad.

Especially right then.

“Hi,” I said, embarrassment flooding my cheeks as I walked down the steps of Sean’s camper.

Big Papa looked up at me, took one look at my attire, and grinned.

“Morning, girl,” he rumbled, clearly amused by my embarrassment.

I waved, then hurried to my car that a prospect had so nicely brought over for me, which happened to be directly next to the motorcycle that Big Papa was mounting.

He was dressed in his police uniform, and he had a revolver at his hip that was about half as long as his leg. His hair was unkempt, and he had a helmet in his hand that he was lifting to fit onto his head.

“Have a safe day,” I called, opening my car door.

Big Papa’s lips twitched. “You too, girl.”

I shivered, knowing that I would never hear the end of this, and dropped down into my car seat, wondering if it was too early to call my best friend.

I checked my watch, bit my lip, and then shrugged.

I didn’t really care if it was too early. Four forty-five wasn’t that early, and I needed to talk to Aspen about as bad as I needed to get to work.

Looking at my watch as I started my car, I came to a decision.

Pulling out my phone, I dialed the number that I had been calling since I was in high school when we both got our new phones, and placed it to my ear.

Aspen answered on the first ring.

“Where have you been?” she hissed, sounding angry.

I grinned.

“Good morning to you, too,” I said cheerfully. “How are you and the fam?”

Aspen didn’t waste time. She only demanded answers.

“I’ve dealt with my brother going to the ER because they think he has appendicitis, and I’ve been trying to get a hold of you for going on six hours now.”

It was going on nine hours, but I wasn’t going to correct her. She sounded like shit.

“Is your brother okay?” I asked, worry filling my tone.

“Yes,” she sighed. “It was only gas.”

I covered my mouth, trying really hard not to laugh.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t successful.

The motorcycle at my side roared to life, and I looked just as Big Papa started to walk his way backward down his driveway. Once he reached the end, he pushed something with his foot, and then the big man shot forward down the road, not caring if he woke the entire neighborhood up with the loud beast.

“What was that?”

I sighed, put my car into reverse, and then backed down the driveway, too.

“That,” I said as I watched my rearview mirror as I went, “was the father of Sean.”

“You’re sleeping with an old man?” Aspen gasped. “Please, tell me you at least used a condom. Gross. There’s no telling where his old cock has been.”

I put the car into drive, and just barely missed another motorcycle that was sitting on the side of the road two houses down from Sean’s.

“Shit,” I cursed, swerving slightly.

I hadn’t seen the thing at all. Jesus, that was close.

And there was a man on it! Fuck!

I waved at the man, who did happen to be sitting on a black motorcycle in the dark night, while also wearing black himself. Jesus, was he asking to be ran over?

“Seriously,” Aspen continued to rant. “You’re a pretty woman. There’s no reason in the world that you should be fucking old men.”

“Aspen, I have to be up in less than an hour. For the love of God, shut the hell up.”

I heard what sounded like covers rustling, and then the sound of her getting up and walking away from where I assumed she’d been in bed.

I smiled, thinking about her husband, Drew.

I’d been at the fire department with him for my entire paramedic career, and I actually missed him, even though he was older himself.

“You’re one to talk,” I said. “Your husband is old.”

“He is not,” she snapped.

It was an old argument, but one that I loved to rile her up about.

“And anyway, I’m not sleeping with an old man. I’m sleeping with a man older than me, but not by a whole lot. About a few years at most.”

I didn’t actually know his age, but I assumed he was about thirty-four to thirty-six years old. He didn’t look much older than that.

“Hmm,” Aspen hummed. “Is there a reason you couldn’t tell me this last night when I called?”

“Because I was too busy having my vagina stuffed with a magnificent cock,” I drawled.

Aspen gagged.

“Oh, you’re one to talk. You never cease in telling me about Drew’s magnificent cock. What’s so different if I relay the same thing about the man that I’m sleeping with?” I asked, my eyes going to my rearview when I saw a single headlight pop up in it.

“Because I’m the one that is doing the telling…duh.”

I turned onto the road that would lead me to my work, and wondered if I had time to stop and get coffee.

After a quick glance at the clock, I realized that I barely even had time to get to work, let alone stop for coffee.

“How’s everyone doing?” I asked conversationally.

“Fine,” she grumbled. “Drew picked up two forty-eight hour shifts this week, and will be gone Monday, Tuesday, Friday, Saturday.”

That sucked.

“That sucks,” I echoed my thoughts. “Why is he having to work two doubles?”

“Because PD’s out with the flu,” she answered hesitantly.

At one time, that would’ve worried me.

Now, not so much.

Not when I’d just left a hunky piece of man meat, happy and sated in his bed.

“That sucks,” I repeated. “Glad I’m not there to catch that.”

I was, too. I hated being sick. I was the type of woman that couldn’t handle being sick. When I was sick with a cold, I couldn’t function. There was something about being sick that really seemed to hit me hard and force me to slow down. It was almost as if my body knew I wouldn’t take the time and rest, so it made me do it whether I wanted to do it or not.

Fuck responsibilities.

“Wow.”

I started to brake as I pulled into the station, waving at the paramedic I would be working with today.

I hadn’t worked with him before, but he was handsome. Though, Sean had already warned me that he was an ass.

I would save my judgement until I knew better, though. I really didn’t like to judge before I knew for a fact.

“Wow what?” I asked, reaching into the floorboard for my duffel of clothes that Sean had stopped at my house and allowed me to collect last night.

“I’m just surprised that you’re not freakin’ out, that’s all,” she amended. “It’s nice to see that you’re moving on. I was worried.”

I was, too. Not that I would tell my friend that I had been.

There were certain things that she didn’t need to know, and I wanted to keep it that way.

“Have you heard anything on my brother?” I asked, changing the subject.

My inadequacies were never a favorite topic of conversation for me.

The other end of the line was silent, and I started to get a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach.

“Aspen.”

She inhaled swiftly, then blew out the breath.

“He was arrested a few nights ago over a domestic disturbance with his former girlfriend.”

My eyes closed.

A long time ago, I harbored hopes that my brother and Aspen would get married. Then he had to go and ruin it by cheating on her with his partner, a bitch of a cop that I despised.

Not because she was a bad cop, but because she was a nasty person. One that made my brother a bad person, too.

Danny, although a little selfish at times, wasn’t a bad person before he got together with her. I didn’t know this man that he’d turned into over the last year, and I hated that that woman had changed him for the worse.

“Why was he arrested?” I asked. “What happened?”

I heard what sounded like Aspen moving even further away from where she’d been previously standing. I then heard a door, likely the back door that led out onto her newly renovated deck, and then she began to speak, this time in a louder voice that I could actually hear.

“Apparently, there had been a big fight going on between the two for half the night before cops were actually called out,” she started. “After the cops showed, Officer Slutface McWhorebag – who, I might add, has gotten pretty darn fat – accused Danny of hurting her. She showed the cops bruises and everything.”

I closed my eyes.

“Jesus.”

“Yeah,” Aspen agreed quietly. “From what I’ve heard from my brother, Danny wasn’t there the last two days, and the bruises are at least two days old if you go by the yellow coloring.” She hesitated. “But his alibi is someone that he won’t give up to Downy, so it’s his word against hers at this point. Which, unfortunately, she’s got a leg up on him in terms of reliability since he’s still dealing with the backlash over running his own sister down with his police cruiser while he was drunk.”

I winced.

“I’m okay,” I said to her, reading the worry in her tone.

“I know you are, but I’m still freaked out,” she said. “When I got that call, I was in the middle of watching a YouTube video on how to start an IV,” she sniffled. “I was so scared for you.”

My heart melted. “Ass, I have to start work. But I want you to know that I love you.”

Aspen snicker-sniffled. “Don’t call me ass. I love you, best friend.”

My heart warmed even more. “I love you, too.”

I got out of the car after she hung up, shouldering my duffel bag, and went inside.

The moment I crossed over the threshold, I had a broom thrust into my hand.

“Let’s get this shit over with, so we can get on with the rest of our day,” my partner said before turning on his heel and taking a seat at the bar where he pulled out one of those healthy meals that was separated into three small sections.

Every single shift, the station was to be mopped and swept, but not in that order. And if it got dirty throughout the day, we were also expected to give it a second cleaning if that was what we had to do.

However, normally that was the lower rank’s, which would be an EMT, job. Since both Sean and I were the same rank of paramedic, it was assumed that we would just share the duty.

Apparently, my partner for the day didn’t think that.

“I’ll get right on that,” I lied, pushing the broom’s handle until it rested against the wall. “After I catch up on some sleep.”

With that, I walked into the bedroom—the one that Sean slept in since my usual one with my locker was occupied by the douche, and fell right to sleep. The nice thing was, Sean’s sheets smelled like him, and it was the best sleep I’d ever gotten while at the station.

***

By the time the shift was nearly over, I was about ready to kill Larry, my asshole partner, who thought we still lived in the sixteenth century.

Women couldn’t do man’s work. Such as lifting a patient.

Just one example of what an ass he’d been this day.

Sean (3:24 PM): How goes it?

I wanted to pull my hair out.

Naomi (3:24 PM): If I never see this man again, it’ll be too soon.

Sean (3:25 PM): What’d he do? Want me to kick his ass?

My mouth twitched.

Naomi (3:26 PM): We were at a patient’s house, and he asked the patient’s son to help lift him onto the gurney because I was ‘just a girl’ with puny muscles.

Sean’s typing showed on the screen, and it took him over two minutes to reply.

Sean (3:28 PM): When I worked with him, he assumed that I couldn’t do my job. Tried to drive. Then told our boss once we were done on shift that he recommended I take a few hours of CE to re-examine what it was like to be ‘nice to patients.’

I winced.

Naomi (3:30 PM): Did you kill him after that? Because that’s seriously what I want to do.

Sean (3:34 PM): No. But I did write him up for leaving the ambulance unattended with the keys in it because he was a douche.

That was a big no-no.

The ambulance was a million-dollar machine when you added in all the equipment and drugs that were on board along with the cost of the ambulance itself. We were instructed from day one of orientation never to leave the rigs unattended, and if we witnessed it being done, then to report it.

Naomi (3:34 PM): I didn’t know you were so petty.

I laughed as I said this, knowing that he wouldn’t apologize at all.

“Do you think you’ll get to the sweeping and mopping some time today?” That was Larry, the loser.

I didn’t bother looking up from my phone, instead focusing on deep breathing in order not to tell the man currently sitting next to me to fuck off and eat shit.

Luckily, my telephone rang, emitting a loud peel that made Larry the lazy jump.

Grinning inwardly, I put the phone to my ear.

“Hello?”

“Hi, Naomi. This is Dr. Corvey’s office.”

I blinked.

“Hello!” I said chipperly. “Is my appointment canceled?”

“No,” the woman said. “We were just hoping you’d be willing to move it to this afternoon instead of tomorrow. Dr. Corvey has a conflict, and would like us to move all of tomorrow's appointments to today, if possible.”

The door opened and I grinned, waving at my replacement.

“I can come right now,” I informed her. “It’ll take me fifteen minutes, max, to get there.”

“That’s wonderful. Be sure to have your insurance card with you,” she ordered.

Promising I would, I waved at Melly, my replacement, and rushed out the door.

I arrived at my appointment an hour late, and left an hour and a half later with a surgery date for two days from then.

What did I do once I was done? Not call the man I should’ve called.

Instead, I went home, took a shower and started getting ready for surgery. Sean worked the next day and I didn’t know if I should tell him I was having my colostomy reversal or if he would even be interested. I was busy with pre-surgery bowel preps and laxatives, but I got my duffel bag repacked with comfortable clothes and called my boss to arrange a few weeks off. However, I still put off actually calling Sean. He texted me often, but I never answered.

The next morning, I went into surgery, with no one in the waiting room waiting for me.