Authors: Maris Black
“Oh lord have mercy,” one of the nurses says in an excited voice. “Look coming here. That’s the new guy I was telling you about, Fran. The one who was at the Christmas party.”
I don’t usually listen to their annoying chatter, but that comment catches my attention. I don’t even have to look up to know who they’re talking about. Corey seems to have turned our small town hospital on its head.
“Jesus, Tabitha. I believe that is the best looking thing I’ve ever seen in my life. I think I just had a—” Fran shuts up when she realizes I’m still here.
For some reason, it really irritates the shit out of me that they’re talking about him that way. I hate jealousy, but I can’t deny I’m feeling it right now. I guess it’s a natural reaction, since I’ve always been the top dog around here, and now I’m being nosed out by the new guy. But it’s even more than that, because he’s my friend, and I have the unsettling impression that he’s being exploited.
Why should that even bother me?
Corey saunters up to the door of the nurses’ station, grabbing the top of the doorway easily with both hands and leaning in like he owns the place. Everything he does is so effortless, so laid back, those sharp blue eyes the only indication of the intensity beneath the cool facade.
“Hi, ladies.” From his mouth, the simple greeting sounds like flirting. In fact, most everything that Corey does or says is like flirting. He’s a walking flirt factory.
“Hey.” The skinny brunette nurse holds a hand for him to shake. “I’m Fran, and this is Tabitha.”
Tabitha, a buxom redhead with freckles, takes her turn to shake his hand.
“Nice meeting both of you,” Corey says. “Have either of you seen Dr. Hardy around? He was supposed to meet me in the ambulance shack or the doctor’s lounge, and I can’t seem to find him.”
Tabitha hooks a thumb in my direction. “He’s charting around the corner there. Come in and make yourself at home.”
“Anytime,” Fran adds suggestively, and Tabitha jams an elbow into her side.
Corey spots me and smiles. “There you are. I’ve been looking all over for you.” He comes to sit beside me, and I find myself feeling a little agitated that he didn’t wait in the doctor’s lounge like I asked.
“I’ll be ready in about two seconds. This is my last patient.”
“No problem, Doc.” He kicks back on his stool, hanging onto the edge of the desk for balance. “I was beginning to think you’d forgotten about me.”
I fix him with a stern look. “How could I forget about you with all these goddamn nurses drooling over you like dogs in heat? Any minute, I’m expecting them to start backing their asses up on you and whining.”
Corey bursts out laughing. “I think somebody’s jealous…” He lets front legs of his stool back down and grabs that absurdly ticklish spot just above my knee, clamping down hard with his fingertips in a move my mom always called a
nervous breakdown
. I drop my pen and instinctively struggle against him, trying in vain to push his hand away, but he’s too damn strong. It takes a total of about ten seconds for both of our stools to topple, spilling us onto the floor. Corey narrowly manages to keep his footing, but I end up flat on my ass with a hard thud, and I can attest to the fact that the commercial grade carpet in this place does nothing to cushion a fall.
Corey quickly pulls me to my feet, and I clutch desperately at his scrub top, trying to regain my balance. For the second time since we met, we’re both laughing so hard we can’t even stand up straight.
“What the fuck just happened?” I howl through peals of laughter.
Then it occurs to me that we’re not alone. Fran and Tabitha are standing on the other side of the charting table staring at us with their mouths hanging open. When we make eye contact with the two of them, we stifle our laughter and attempt to look respectable again. It’s difficult to straighten up with the belly cramp I’ve got from laughing so hard.
“Sorry, girls,” I say. “I lost my balance.”
Corey snorts and nearly loses it again. “Ben and I have been bad boys, acting up at your nurses’ station. I think I got a scratch on my hand. Can one of you nurses look at it? Maybe put a band-aid on it?”
He leans his big body across the desk and holds his hand out toward them, looking adorable and contrite. They both scramble to have a look. Fran takes his hand in both of hers. “Where is it, hon?”
“Right… there.” He points to a barely visible spot on the top of his hand.
“Get a band-aid, Tab,” she tells her friend, who hustles to the closet and returns promptly with a box of band-aids with pictures of dinosaurs on them.
“Really?” I roll my eyes, and Corey looks over his shoulder and winks at me.
Tabitha shoots me a withering look as she unwraps the bandage and smooths it onto his hand. “Don’t be insensitive, Dr. Hardy. Do you have a boo-boo? I can bandage yours, too.”
“I may have one on my ass. I don’t suppose you’d like to put a band-aid there.”
She gasps, and for a moment I think she’s considering it until Corey bursts out laughing again. “He’s only teasing you, Tabitha. Dr. Hardy’s not about to let you anywhere near his ass.”
The day shift nurses file in, and all four of them crowd around Fran and Tabitha, blatantly admiring Corey. I guess I shouldn’t feel so competitive with him. He’s fresh meat, and I’ve been around for years. It makes sense for them to be fascinated.
“Thanks, ladies, but we have to go.” He stands and turns toward me. “Are you done charting, Ben?”
“Yeah, I finished just before you threw me down in the floor.” I shove my pen into my shirt pocket, and lead the way from the nurses’ station before he can make any more scenes. The laugh fest was fun while it lasted, but now I’m irritable again, and I don’t know why. I keep feeling threatened when he’s around, and I realize I’m lashing out blindly, but I can’t seem to stop myself.
“Corey,” I say under my breath as we make our way down the hall, “don’t take this personally, but you’re acting a bit childish, and you’re pulling me down with you. I’m Chief of Staff at this hospital, and I have a reputation to worry about. I can’t afford to be seen as unprofessional. The minute I show any weakness, one of these other prick doctors will jump up and challenge me for my job. They’re already yapping at my heels, just looking for any little thing.”
He looks humbled. “I didn’t mean to upset you. I was just having a little fun, that’s all. I would never do anything to jeopardize your job. I guess I’m not really used to working in a professional place like this.” He shrugs. “I doubt the nurses will complain, though. They seemed to like it.”
“I don’t give a damn what they like,” I snap. He doesn’t deserve this kind of treatment, and yet the compulsion to be mean to him is very strong in me.
We’re in the parking lot now, approaching the reserved space that used to mean so much to me. It’s got my name on it, but I don’t care. It’s just another thing, and as my mama always said, things don’t make you happy. Corey starts to hang back, as if he’s changed his mind about coming with me. Or maybe he wants to fight me in the parking lot. I couldn’t blame him either way.
“Dr. Hardy, are you having second thoughts about me staying with you? If that’s what this is, you can be honest with me. I’m man enough to take it.” He’s come to a complete stop now, waiting for my answer. “Maybe I should have taken the hint when you stood me up this morning, and I had to go looking for you.”
I run my hand through my hair and let off a huge sigh. “No, that’s not it. Not at all.” I bend over and brace my hand on my knees, feeling like I might be sick if it weren’t so damn cold. “It’s just… I’m confused after yesterday afternoon. After what we did. It’s… changed things. Changed
me
.”
Corey is motionless, his expression wary. “In what way, Ben?” He looks like he’s not sure if he wants to hear my answer.
“It’s hard to explain. Nothing feels the same. I guess I just don’t want to be in a relationship anymore.”
He looks relieved. “I thought you were going to say you hated me now, or I grossed you out or something.” He pauses, comes closer. “Do you not want to be in a relationship at all, or just not with her?”
“Just her, I think. Now let’s get in the car. I’m freezing.”
We both laugh, though the situation hardly warrants it. Once we get on the road, we’re solemn again.
“Isn’t there supposed to be some sort of sanctity in a real relationship?” I ask suddenly, squeezing the steering wheel so hard it hurts. “I mean, Christina was hell bent on bringing someone else— no offense— into our bed, and I didn’t really want that. All that menage stuff is fine if you’re not looking for anything permanent, but I’ve reached a point in my life where I’m leaning toward forever. I don’t want to share my forever person with anyone else. Does that make sense?”
Corey takes his time answering. “It definitely makes sense, and I think a lot of people feel that way. When you have two people trying to make a go of it, and then one invites a stranger in, it’s bound to get confusing. But I think you’re forgetting something.”
I look at him and nod for him to continue.
He bites his bottom lip. “Please don’t get mad at me for saying this, but you’ve never even invited her to your house. You’re talking about forever, but I think it’s clear that she was never that person to start with. Even before I came along.”
I sigh loudly. “Jesus, I know that. Don’t you think I know that?”
“From the outside looking in, it doesn’t seem like either one of you were ever serious. She was pushing a threesome on you when it clearly made you uncomfortable, and you wouldn’t even let her into your house for fear she might want to stay.”
I bang my hands on the steering wheel. He’s right, and I know it. But now I’m in the awkward position of having to break up with her, and I wish I could just skip over it.
“Of course you’re preaching the gospel, man,” I tell him. “I’m not even sad. Just mad as fire. See, this is exactly why you don’t get some bitch’s clothes in your closet and things in your house. Imagine how much more complicated this would be if I had to return her stuff, or let her come get it.”
“You don’t have any of your stuff at her house?” he asks.
“Nope. Not a thing.”
“I’ll help you out however I can,” he says quietly. “I know we don’t know each other that well, but I feel like we can be friends, you know?”
“Yeah.” I think about the hazy old days when I used to have friends. Corey doesn’t have many, either. “What happened to your friends in Atlanta? I know you had some, as charismatic as you are.”
“Oh, now I’m charismatic?” he asks with a wry smile. “A few minutes ago, I was
childish
.”
I notice he hasn’t answered my question about his friends, but I don’t press him.
“Don’t mind what I said before. If my position as Chief of Staff can be threatened by a little horsing around at the nurses’ station, then I’m not doing my job well enough. The truth is, I’m just irritable about this stuff with Christina, and I was taking it out on you. It’s not your fault. I had already decided to break up with her even before she brought you over to meet me at the Christmas party.” I pick up my cell phone from the center console and dial her number. “Speaking of Christina, I might as well get this over with.”
“Might as well get what over with?” Christina asks through the phone.
Shit
.
“Uh…” I can’t help but stammer. I wanted to tell her in person, not over the phone. “We need to meet somewhere, Chris.”
“You don’t want to see me anymore.” It’s a statement rather than a question, and she imbues it with all the emotion of a piece of plywood.
“Uh…” I stammer again. Why the hell couldn’t she just meet me? I had the whole damn speech planned out in my head, and now she’s stealing my thunder.
“It’s fine, Ben. I got that feeling already, even while we were doing it yesterday. And when you didn’t call me after, it was pretty obvious.”
Wow. It hadn’t even crossed my mind to call her. How fucked up is that?
“Chris, this is not going like I’d planned. I wanted to meet you somewhere in person. Over the phone is not the way—”
“Don’t sweat it, doctor. There are plenty of men out there who would kill to have me. Manly men, strong men who know what they want and aren’t afraid to go after it. I’m just too much woman for you, Ben. That’s the problem. You don’t deserve me.”
She hangs up, and I smirk at Corey, who is watching me closely.
“Good news,” I say. “We don’t have to meet Christina. But the bad news is, I’m single again. Or maybe that’s good news, too. I’m not sure yet.”
“I know how to make it good news.” Corey points to a road that shoots off of Main Street, on the other side of the tracks. “There’s a little club down there called T
he Bottom
. Ever been there?”
“No I haven’t, and it’s that whole area of town that’s called T
he Bottom
, not just the bar.”
“Oh.” He’s genuinely surprised. “Well, whatever it’s called, I say we go tonight.”
“There’s only two of us. Who’s gonna be the designated driver?”
“We’ll walk,” he says with a flourish. “It’s only a few blocks from your house. Come on. I’d like to buy you a drink. Or ten.”