Unexpected Love Story (Love 2)

“Fuck,” I say when I see Gabe walking in, surprised to see me.

“What are you doing here?” he asks.

“Charts,” I tell him, looking down at the last chart. “I should be done in about five. Do you want me to leave these charts in your office for you to look over?” I don’t look up at him, and he tells me yes.

Walking into his office five minutes later, I see he has taken off his white lab coat and sits behind his desk looking through charts. “Here you go.” I hand him the pile. “If that’s it, I’m gone.”

“I get it,” he finally says right before I’m about to walk out the door. “Why Dr. Mawlings didn’t want to let you go.”

I cross my arms over my chest. “Are you giving me a compliment?” I ask, my eyebrow shooting up.

“Take it as you want to.” He looks down. “See you tomorrow.” I turn to walk out the door, something lingering, but I chalk it up to being tired.

Chapter Fourteen

Gabe

It served me right for waking up in the middle of the night on Walker’s couch after storming out of the house because of how Crystal wanted to put the bed. I walked out and was surprised to see that Darla had come to get her car and dropped off mine. I tossed and turned the rest of the night and knew I would end up with a throbbing headache as soon as I started my day, and boy, I wasn’t wrong.

“Good morning, Debra,” I tell her, walking back to my office. I noticed that Crystal was already there, stepping into the nurses’ station, and calling her back to my office, I didn’t know what the fuck would happen. The last time I saw this woman I wanted to throttle her. But seeing her in her blue scrubs and black Crocs with her hair piled on her head, the last thing I wanted to do was throttle her. Then my day got a shit load worse. “Um, Dr. Walker, Bethany is on the phone.” My stomach sinks, and I nod at Crystal to leave.

Picking up the phone, I grip it like my life depends on it. “Hello,” I say gruffly.

“Gabe,” she whispers, “um, I didn’t think you would take my call.”

“Well, I guess we are all surprised. What do you want, Bethany?”

“Well.” She clears her throat, and her voice returns to normal. “First, I was wondering how you were doing?”

I laugh out bitterly. “You mean from when you left me at the altar with five hundred of our closest friends and family? I’m doing fucking fantastic.”

“Gabe,” she says, “I’m sorry.”

“What do you want, Bethany?” I’m tired of the bullshit right about now.

“Well, they gave me your account, so I just wanted to let you know that I’ll be your representative from now on.” We learned the day after she left that Bethany took a job from one of the pharmaceutical companies as their representative.

“Great, fantastic, I’ll spread the word. Oh, and you’ll deal with my father from now on.”

“Gabe, we can still work together,” she says softly.

“Oh, we can, I just can’t stomach looking at you or hearing your voice for that matter. I’ll let my father know. Take care.” I hang up the phone without even giving her a chance to answer. I don’t want her answers; I want nothing from her. I get up and walk out, looking at Ava. “Where is Crystal?”

“She is already in with Mrs. Brewster.” She smiles at me as I turn to walk in the exam room. I look at her notes in the chart, perfect and precise. We work side by side perfectly for the rest of the morning, and I know now why she was so highly regarded. She is the best you can get. And when Mila comes in with an emergency, I get to see her spring into action. I don’t know if the other nurses would have cut it. She was two steps ahead of me by the time I finally walked in to see Hailey.

“There she is, wonder woman.” I smile as Crystal glares at me. “Hey”—I raise my arms in surrender—“I’m not the bad guy.”

“Whatever,” she says as she gathers the supplies to start the stitches.

“How is Mila?” Hailey asks me as Crystal prepares to give her a shot to numb it. “Motherfucker, that hurts.”

I watch her with perfect hands. “She’s fine. Listen, about my cousin,” I start to say, but Hailey raises her hand to stop me.

“Don’t even bother.” That’s all she says because then she starts to hiss under her breath while Crystal works on her foot. I walk out of the room and see Ava.

“Can you finish the stitches on Hailey? I need Crystal to do Mila’s X-rays.” Nodding her head, she walks into the room, and I see Crystal walk in the exam room and lead Mila down the hall to perform the X-rays.