I blinked. “I have no idea what that means.”
She started to giggle.
“Have you ever heard of Grey’s Anatomy?” she questioned, leaning back in her chair and once again resuming her normal tone.
I shook my head.
“I don’t think I have,” I admitted. “Is it a movie?”
“No,” she said. “Grey’s Anatomy is a television show about a resident like me. She comes to Seattle and begins her internship. The very first episode is her waking up next to a man and her telling him he has to go. She has to be at work. Fast forward an hour later, she’s getting to work only to find that the man she kicked out is a doctor at the hospital that she’ll be interning at. A very married doctor.”
I shook my head.
“Isn’t that exhausting?” I asked. “Jesus, I just don’t understand the point of cheating. It seems like it’s more trouble than it’s worth. All the lies. All the sneaking around. All the constant fear that you’ll be caught.”
She laughed. “That’s why some people do it, I suppose. But shit, I love Grey’s Anatomy. At least until they killed Dr. McDreamy. I haven’t been able to watch it since then. They broke my heart, ripped it into a million tiny pieces, then ran it through a juicer just to make sure that they tore it up the entire way.” She sobered. “I could deal with Dr. McSteamy dying. And Lexie. And Denny. And…you should really watch this show. It’s good.”
I had a feeling it would suck if all those people died.
But, I’d be willing to give it a go if it came with her watching it with me.
“I’ll watch it with you sometime,” I offered.
That way, if I was stuck watching that show, at least she would be in the same room with me.
“Deal.” She smiled then. “I…”
“Time to get back to work, Miss Solomon.”
I looked up to find the devil himself standing in the doorway of the break room.
I’d heard the door open, of course, but Frankie had been way too animated about her show for me to interrupt her by looking away.
Frankie stood and started to gather her trash.
“Oh, has it been an hour already?” she asked, looking worried. “I’m sorry, Dr. Cromwell.”
“It hasn’t been an hour,” I said as I looked at my watch. “It’s been twenty minutes.”
Dr. Cromwell narrowed his eyes at me.
“We’ve had a bad car wreck come in,” he said. “I’d like Francesca to help with it.”
Frankie winked at me and started to put the pizza away, but I waved her off.
“If you don’t mind, I’ll finish this before I go,” I said.
Because I was still hungry, and I still had forty minutes left of my own lunch break. One that didn’t get interrupted by dick hole doctors who said Frankie’s name in a way that I didn’t like.
“That’s fine,” she said as she pushed the box toward me. “Just put away what you don’t eat.”
“Actually, only staff members are allowed to be back here,” Dr. Cromwell interrupted. “Unfortunately, you’ll have to leave.”
I would’ve rolled my eyes had I not cared about Frankie.
Instead, I held in the eye roll and gathered the pizza.
“It’s okay,” I said as I looked at Frankie who looked like she’d like to argue but knew she shouldn’t. “I’ll just eat this outside. I need a drink anyway.”
She followed me out with the pizza box in hand, both of us skirting past Cromwell who hadn’t bothered to get out of the doorway as we passed.
When I passed him, he fell into step behind me, and I knew he was trying for intimidation.
It wouldn’t work.
I’d dealt with worse than him before. Cromwell was a sweet little kitten in comparison to the shit I’d had to put up with.
“Stop by the first responder area on your way out,” she instructed as she pointed to a door at the far end of the hallway. “They have drinks and snacks in there for all police officers, paramedics, and firefighters.”
“I’m fairly sure that’s just for the paramedics and firefighters.” Cromwell tried to be a dick and dissuade me from stopping.
“Actually,” I said as I stopped next to Frankie and tossed her a wink that only she could see. “I’ve stopped in there before. I have the code. The director of the hospital gave it to me when I was in a couple of days ago. She even asked me what kinds of drinks were my favorite so she could be sure to stock them.”
Frankie smiled, and it nearly filled my heart up to see such joy on her usually stoic face.
“Have a good day, Riel,” she said softly, backing away.
“This way, Miss Solomon. They’ve already been waiting for over five minutes,” Cromwell growled.
I watched her leave, my eyes taking in the people that were in the accident.
It was a family of four.