“Am I all done here?” the young mother asks. “I left my son with my mom, and she doesn’t like watching him too long.”
Guilt and embarrassment heat my cheeks. I finish the job as quickly and efficiently as possible before paging the counselor responsible for conducting domestic violence interviews to come in and do her thing.
I know the patient wants to get on her way, and I sense her story is exactly as she described it—I mean, I didn’t see visible bruises or anything, and she didn’t bring up a sperm donor who might be throwing her through shower doors. But I’ve been wrong before, and I guess I’m like Waylon. I don’t trust easily.
Except when I did trust—way too easily. Like, last night….
Come for your teacher.
I glance over my shoulder toward the hallway that leads to the pharmacy with the condoms for sale. And fret my bottom lip.
But then, the sound of Sierra’s cackling laugh makes me remember the consult she asked for—and saves me from doing something I really shouldn’t. Instead of shopping for condoms, I go looking for my best work friend.
I find her in the breakroom. She’s whispering something with a few of the other nurses over a box of donuts one of the doctors brought in for us this morning.
“Hey, Sierra, still need that consult?” I ask from the doorway.
“Perfect timing,” she answers, glancing at the other nurses. “Yes, I’ve got an extremely important question. Who laid the pipe on you so well, he’s got you glowing this morning?”
Ugh! Sure, I might have walked in with a little extra pep in my step this morning. And now that I think about it, Sierra and the other department nurses are probably more bored than usual because I’ve been jumping up and volunteering to take all incoming patients. But I’d been doing that all week to avoid talking to Sierra about the criminal handcuffed to my bed.
I should’ve realized that she would suspect something, though. She’s worse than a best friend in a Hallmark Christmas movie at sussing out potential boyfriend shenanigans.
Not that Waylon’s my boyfriend. We just did some stuff. Stuff that apparently has me glowing.
Still, I try to throw her off the scent. “What? No, I’m just happy that I’ve got tomorrow and the next day off. I’m not….”
“Girl, stop,” Sierra says before I can finish my excuse. “We’ve already got a pool going. So you might as well tell us who gave you the sex glow-up.”
Waylon and I didn’t have what a Catholic school girl would call official sex. So it’s not exactly a lie to answer, “I didn’t have sex with any—”
I’m once again interrupted before I can finish talking.
“Did you get back together with Dr. America?” one of the nurses asks, her voice hopeful. “You two were such a cute couple.”
“I don’t think so. Kershaw never made her glow like this!” Lilith, the head nurse, says with the authority of…well, a head nurse while using Jonathan’s real last name. “I think it’s that new Liberian orderly from obstetrics. He asked me if Mimi was seeing anyone a couple of months back. Of course, I told him she was with Dr. Kershaw. But maybe he figured out they broke up.”
“Now you know my girl only dates doctors,” Sierra answers before I can. “She’s not trying to do this for life like the rest of us.”
“I’m not trying to do this for life,” I tell Sierra defensively. “I like this job.”
“Oooh, is it Teller from Cardiology?” the nurse who wanted Jonathan and me to get back together asks. She widens her eyes. “Oh my God, are you the reason he and his wife separated?”
Listen, I like gossip as much as the next person. And if we were gossiping about anybody else, I’d be placing my bets right along with them. But this is getting out of hand.
“No, of course not,” I answer. And just to make sure they don’t start spreading rumors about me being a home wrecker anyway, I add, “It’s nobody you know.”
The nurses gathered in the break room consider my answer with furrowed, solemn brows. Then they turn to each other and shout, “One night stand!”
And the questions really start flying after that.
“Where did you meet him?”
“Are you going to see him again?”
“What does he do for a living?”
“I’m not sure,” I answer quietly. I’m telling the truth and nothing but the truth when I admit, “I’m not sure about anything when it comes to this.”
Sierra’s shoulders sag with disappointment. But then she quickly recovers to call out, “Okay, Beth wins with a guess of Random Stranger.”
The rest of the nurses groan while Beth, one of the Radiology nurses—so she’s not even supposed to be here in the ER break room jumps up and down.
So no, I’m not going to get the condoms.