Total pages in book: 56
Estimated words: 52072 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 260(@200wpm)___ 208(@250wpm)___ 174(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 52072 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 260(@200wpm)___ 208(@250wpm)___ 174(@300wpm)
A few minutes later, I’m walking through the hall and swiping my badge to open the door to the hospital. I nod here and there to a few of the nurses as I move toward the OB/GYN ward. The name of the game is getting in and out of here; the fewer people who notice me, the better. A relatively hard thing to do when you grew up in Whispering Oaks and work in Oak View, the bigger city, where everyone knows fucking everyone.
“Hi, Doctor Camden,” a nurse greets when I make it through the entrance to the wing. Luckily, keeping your head down, pretending you’re on the phone, and walking with a swift pace keeps the wolves at bay, so to speak.
“Hey, Ivy, anything I need to know about?” I set the laptop on the counter near where her station is, quickly pulling up the chart Gallo sent me. “Shaelynn Parker.”
“Her pain level is a three, preferred to go down to over-the-counter medicine, complaining a little bit about nausea, but is finally sleeping after her family left. She’s in Room Three-Zero-Five.” I listen to what she’s saying while reviewing her chart, noting that when Doctor Gallo performed the laparoscopic myomectomy, not only did he find more fibroids than he initially thought, but there was also a cyst on her ovary. He removed it and sent it off for testing. Fuck, this patient is in her mid-thirties, no children, and this could potentially cause more trouble down the road depending on what the biopsy shows.
“Bleeding or swelling I should be concerned about?” I ask.
“All normal on those fronts,” Ivy states.
“Alright, I’m going to take a look in her room. Can you join me?”
“Yes, let me grab the phone in case any patients call. I’m not going to say what I want to, jinxing myself and all that.” Everyone knows the instant you say it’s a slow night, all hell seems to break lose.
“I won’t say a word, either.” I close the laptop, leaving it on the counter, and walk with her.
“You better not, or you won’t be my favorite anymore,” Ivy teases. She loves everyone equally. She’s also the same age as my mother, has no problem bossing me around, and I have no problem letting her.
“Everyone’s your favorite person,” I tease her.
“You’re right.” Ivy looks away from me, lightly knocks on the door, and opens it slightly. The light is dim, the television is playing softly in the background, and the patient is asleep. Fuck, the last thing I ever want to do is wake up a patient; it doesn’t matter the reason they’re here at the hospital.
I move further into the room when realization hits me right in the gut. I’ve seen her before. Long dark hair, midnight black, plush pink lips, and skin that looks delicate and flawless. I could go on and fucking on, except she’s now my patient, which makes her off-limits.
“Ivy.” I nod back at the door. Ivy agrees, stopping to take a look at Shaelynn’s vitals. Meanwhile, I’m waging a war within myself, thinking about how tomorrow morning, I’ll have to see her, awake this time, go down the checklists before discharging her while trying my hardest not to let my cock get the best of me. A damn struggle, to say the very fucking least.
3
SHAE
“Are you ready to bust out of this popsicle stand, or what?” I woke up this morning to a nurse taking my vitals, asking about my pain and menstrual flow. It seemed like after that, my room became Grand Central Station. Everyone was piling in, and nobody was getting off. First, it was my parents, then my sister, and now Lyric and Lennie are making an appearance. It’s almost too much, and not in the fact that I’m surrounded by people; it’s that they’ve taken time out of their busy lives to check on me.
“What are you two doing here?” I lift up to a sitting position, wincing slightly at the lingering soreness in my lower abdomen. When Doctor Gallo came in after my surgery, telling me he found more than he expected, the cyst on my ovary being part of the equation, I felt like I’d been hit in the solar plexus. Now I’m in another waiting game to hear the results of the biopsy. Doctor Gallo also mentioned I’d more than likely have more pain and tenderness than he’d initially prepared me for. Yay on both fronts. At least maybe I’d see some results in the form of relief; then there’s my mind going into overdrive, like always. Except the questions I should have asked didn’t come when my doctor was here. They came after, once all the grogginess wore off as well as the heavy dose of pain medicine.
“Well, we had to come see our favorite girl. Plus, this one couldn’t sit still, so she decided to tag along.” Lennie is about ready to pop, so maybe visiting me at the hospital isn’t such a bad idea after all.