I is for Ian

As if the universe needed something else to hit me with today, as the doors opened, Dr. Sutton was standing and waiting for me, his critical eye going right to the paint stain on my arm.

“Great,” I muttered under my breath.

4

IAN

Why do all the cute ones have to be so damn difficult?

I shook my head as the elevator door closed and headed back to the area where I had been working. Picking up my drink, I tried thinking back to the details I had noticed about her. Did she have a wedding ring? I didn’t think so. I was pretty sure her hands were ringless, though that didn’t necessarily mean anything. She could just not want to wear them at work.

Then again, she was strikingly beautiful and a fiery little thing. Maybe she was single. Wouldn’t that be something. Not like anything could ever happen since she was seemingly pissed at my very existence, but it could be fun to hit on her and see if I could soothe the anger out of her.

“Hey, what was that all about?” Bryant asked as he came over to where I was standing. He was jerking his thumb toward the elevator.

“Oh, you saw that?”

“Saw it? Man, I heard it. Everybody did. That lady’s got some pipes on her,” he laughed.

“Yeah, I don’t even think she realized she was yelling either,” I said.

“What was she up here for?”

“Diapers. Looked like overstock stuff. I ended up taking it all down to the first floor and putting it in a general back stockroom right away so none of it got damaged.”

“And no one told her?” Bryant asked.

“I guess not,” I said. “I told the receptionist down at the main entrance, but I don’t think she relayed the information to anyone. Probably figured no one would notice or care.”

“Apparently, someone cares.”

“Apparently,” I agreed. “Anyway, she’s also upset that we’re making noise.”

Bryant laughed and shook his head as he stared down into his coffee.

“What does she think? Construction work is supposed to be quiet?”

“I don’t know,” I said. “All I know is she was pissed off, and when she pushed by me, she got paint all down her sleeve.”

“Of her white coat?”

“Yup.”

“That’s going to suck. That stuff is not going to come off easily.”

“Nope,” I agreed.

Bryant wandered back to his jobsite on the floor, and I went back to mine. I didn’t figure I would see that woman again, whoever she was. Not only did she not really have a reason to come up here anymore, but I was going to be blocking off the elevator access starting in the morning. It was only going to be for emergencies and only between the first and third floors. She, along with everyone else in the hospital, was going to have to get to using the stairs for a bit.

I went back to work and threw myself into the job. My mind was often able to kind of blank out a bit as I worked, just relying on my skills while I listened to music coming from one of the small Bluetooth speakers set around the place. The one near me was one of my own, blasting out old heavy-metal music while I worked. I had made it a good portion of the way through Ronnie James Dio’s discography when I stepped back to take a look at what I had done.

It was pretty simple really. Mostly just frames and drywall, but the office structure, the bones of it at least, were all laid out. You could see, with just a bit of imagination, how it would look when it was finished. I took the liberty of putting up some paint swatches so each area could be seen with the colors the designer had picked out weeks ago and gotten approved by the board.

Not that the board was really in charge. Everyone knew who was really in charge here. It was Dr. Sutton. If he wanted the whole thing torn down and redone, I would put money on the board approving it. They were willing to do whatever they needed to keep him on board and happy.

The paint swatches got me thinking about the woman that came up again, though. She wasn’t as tall as I was but was taller than most of the other girls there, which was super appealing.

She also had dark hair, which did it for me as well. That had been a thing of mine for a long time. Plus, she had an absolutely banging body, from what I could tell under that coat. Slim, but shapely. She probably could get any man she wanted if she tried. I just got the impression that she didn’t try very often. She seemed more job focused.

I tried to shake it off.

She was everything I liked in a woman physically. Everything the opposite of my first love. My only love. The one that broke my heart and soured me on relationships.