Not that I’m looking for perfection in someone, but when it’s staring a man in the face, he’d be a fool not to grab it with both hands. And it’s both my hands I feel pumping open and closed as I get closer to the coffee shop.
A quick glance at my wrist lets me know I’m right on time for the end of her shift.
Standing and reading a noticeboard, I’m fast feeling like I stand out more than anything. Doctors are always on their way someplace else in a hospital, not reading community access updates.
I check my watch about fifteen times before I’ve had enough.
I figure I’ll just go in after all, but I don’t even get to the doorway before I see old Rose Peters looking frantic as she talks on the phone. The coffee shop’s long empty, even though it stays open late. But more than anything, I notice at once that Mandy’s not there.
My clinical instincts and experience can read the old woman as she hangs up the phone.
Adding to the fact that Mandy’s not here either, a jolt of adrenaline ripples across my abs, and I’m at the counter in three long strides. The most crisis ready I’ve ever been at a coffee counter where nobody was having a heart attack, ever.
“…Oh, Doctor, thank heavens it’s you! It’s Mandy…she went after you hours ago,” Mrs. Peters exclaims.
“Where is she?” I growl, leaning my weight on both hands. Knuckles white on the counter.
If anything’s happened to her because I walked away…
I can see she’s upset, but I don’t have time to play games right now with Rose. Her standing there, wringing her hands, isn’t helping either.
“Gimme that phone,” I snap, giving Rose the extension to dial the ER directly.
I feel the plastic creak in my hand as my grip tightens, but my voice is even.
I’m patched through to the ER, and I ask if anyone’s been brought in fitting Mandy’s name and description. I feel stupid because I don’t even know her last name.
Once they realize it’s me, I get some answers.
None of which I like.
“Uh… Yeah, Hi, Doctor De Silva!” one of the ER interns chimes.
“Funny thing, you asking, because we do have a patient right now, Mandy. Coffee shop girl. One of the nurses recognized –.”
I drop the phone.
Amazed, I don’t tear it out of the wall as I spin on my heel and bolt for the ER.
Rose Peters is calling after me. Double-upset it sounds like because she has to stay back and close up.
But I’m not listening to that. I’m racing back to the ER. To Mandy.
And for the first time in my life, I actually pray.
I pray to whatever the hell it is that makes us live or die, whatever’s in charge of this world, to make sure Mandy’s okay.
Otherwise, it’s gonna have me to deal with.
CHAPTER FIVE
Mandy
Feeling like I’ve been hit by a bus is an understatement.
But before I even open my eyes, from what I’m overhearing, it feels close enough.
“…She’s lucky. A very lucky girl. Another few feet forward….”
My throat hurts when I try to swallow, and once I do open my eyes, I can see the rim of the big plastic neck brace I’m in long before it clicks what happened to put it there.
I was running…The street…The tires screeching…
Holy cheese and crackers, I’ve been hit by a car.
Right when I feel my anxiety rising to the point of needing to scream, a familiar voice fills my ears.
Behind the blue curtains of the emergency room, I hear the deep but urgent tones of my favorite doctor’s voice, which makes me feel better already.
Foxx!
The memory of him ditching my coffee is nothing now. I’ve just cheated death, been hit by a car. Why? I’ve –.
“It’s just a sprained ankle, Dr. De Silva,” a higher, nasally voice echoes through the curtain, cutting through my dramatic inner dialogue.
It feels a whole lot worse than a sprained ankle. But then again, I’ve never sprained my ankle before, so how would I know.
“We’re just waiting on the scan before we release the neck brace, but her neck feels and looks fine.”
The sound of the curtain screeching back on its tracks startles me, but I melt when I see it’s Foxx. I literally just melt. I’ve never been happier to see anyone in my whole life.
Foxx De Silva has been my whole life since I started working at the hospital. I can’t go a minute without thinking about him.
The other doctor’s talking away about stuff that’s way over my head, but Foxx ignores him, and in a single step, he’s by my bed.
His knitted, worried brow eases. His face softens, and his eyes are clear and focused on mine. Crimping his mouth, I see his jaw flex as he takes my hand in his, making me mew.