Like most of us shift workers who lived in town, I shared a two-bedroom apartment with another nurse. It was cramped and old, but it was home. A place to rest my head at the end of a shift.
It had nothing on this place.
“Oh, yeah, thanks. The boys built the whole house together. I’ve just added a few touches to make it more homey. I want to get a huge sofa so we can all sit together, but that hasn’t happened yet.”
She indicated to her arm, as though that was the reason she hadn’t been shopping.
But my head was stuck on her phrasing. The boys?
“Um… what do you mean by that, exactly? I thought you moved out here to live with your boyfriend? Does he have housemates, or something?”
I looked around as though the house would give me a clue as to what she meant, but there were no signs of anyone. And no photos, either.
“Ah, yeah sort of.”
Claire’s face was doing something I hadn’t seen before. It was turning red and if I used my nursing intuition, she looked like she was lying or hiding something. A look I’d seen on many patients’ faces, but had never seen on this doctor’s face before.
“Claire. What’s going on?”
Claire clapped her good hand to her face and laughed softly. “I’ve gotta get better at lying.”
Now she had my interest.
“What are you lying about? Why you’re here? Or about your guy?”
Claire’s gaze slid sideways and she bit her lip. “Kind of both.”
My stomach tightened with foreboding. An instinct I didn’t ignore. Did it have something to do with the guys next door? I hoped not… but I couldn’t discount anything at the moment.
“What’s happened, Claire? What is this place? Are you in danger?”
I had a nose for bad guys now. Maybe this had something to do with the men I’d seen outside. Especially the really big one. They were always cruel.
Claire’s laugh shattered my tight stomach. “Oh, God, no. These men would die to protect me. It’s not that… it’s just… I’m not dating one of them… Seriously, I can’t believe I’m saying this aloud finally.” She paused and a small, strange giggle emerged before she said, “I’m dating all three of the men who live here.”
Shock rippled through me slowly. First in my face, which I know must have looked horrified, then through the rest of me. Like a cold lake, freezing each one of my muscles, one at a time.
I slumped against the back of my chair and let my gaze drop to the ground. How was that even possible?
This woman was my idol. Now she was some sort of… what? I was afraid to even think the critical word.
“Nevaeh, look at me.”
I pulled my gaze up, where Claire was sitting forward on her chair, her tone beseeching.
“Don’t look at me like that, please. You have to understand, it just kind of happened.”
Seriously? That echoed in my head like the excuse every pregnant teenage girl ever said.
“How does something like that just happen, Claire?”
I could hear my tone and it was angry, and I couldn’t work out why it was.
And there was a tingle of something akin to adrenaline in my veins, so I stood up and began to pace the room so that I didn’t start to twitch.
“It… that doesn’t make any sense, Claire.”
Claire’s eyebrows snapped up. “Hey! It’s not you that has to sleep with three men at once. I do, and I love it, not that you asked how I feel it about it. So, what’s gotten into you? I thought you’d be happy for me!”