Sweet Nothing (4 page)

Josh had all the traits of the modern, attractive male: the square chin, strong jaw, a celebrity smile, long lashes, and
I-could-fall-in-love-with-you
eyes. He always smelled like fabric softener and cheap but pleasant cologne, even nine hours into a shift—not that I’d made a point to notice.

Now he was sitting across from me, somehow still looking attractive in a worn T-shirt and mismatched athletic shorts. He watched me with a new spark in his eye, no doubt the infamous, undeniable charm I’d seen him exhibit a hundred times before. He nodded at Coco as she passed, and then turned his attention back to me, his eyes the most beautiful I’d ever seen. He was enjoying watching me squirm, shamelessly flirting with me when we both knew I looked like hell. I tried to retain my game face. It would be too embarrassing to admit to Deb that I’d giggled like one of a dozen new nurses we’d watched him win over.

“Don’t be late, Josh.”

“Are you working tonight? Maybe I’ll run into you.”

I shook my head. “Not tonight, but I’m sure we’ll cross paths again.”

The sack crackled in his hand as he scooped it up. He stood and smiled. “Cross paths? I was thinking more along the lines of dinner and movie. Maybe not a movie. You can’t talk during a movie.”

“I hate when people talk during movies.”

“Me too,” he said. “I bet we hate a lot of the same things.”

“Sounds like a good time.”

“Doesn’t it?” He flashed his dimple again and then walked past me. The door chimed, and he continued down to the stoplight, turning the corner. Even though my forehead was pressed against the glass, I lost sight of him.

“Chicken fried rice and low-sodium soy,” Coco said, setting down the white sack with a red circle.

I rolled down the top of the sack and held it close, unable to stop smiling.

“Guess your bad day isn’t so bad?” Coco chirped.

I bit my lip, annoyed at how happy the last five minutes had just made me.

“Josh Avery,” Coco cooed. “I’d let him take my temperature, if you know what I mean.” I arched a brow, but she continued. “He lives three blocks down. I’m surprised you haven’t run into him here before.”

“How do you know where he lives?” I asked, still staring out the window, ignoring her crass comment. I couldn’t blame her. I’d seen countless women reduced to a puddle of mush in his presence.

“We deliver, Avery. Remember?” She sighed. “He’s cute. With all of that dark hair and the light eyes, he reminds me of the prince from
The Little Mermaid
. But, you know, beefier. Ooh, if you married him, you’d be Avery Avery.” She giggled and pulled at one of her tightly curled spirals. It bounced back into place.

“Marry him,” I muttered. “How absurd.” I stood and clutched the bag to my middle. A wide grin spread across my face, and despite the aches and pains from being tossed inside the Prius like a penny in a vacuum, the feeling lasted the rest of the day.

I gripped the paper sack in my fist as I jogged across the street, puddled water splashing over the toes of my sneakers. I didn’t have much time before my shift started, but I hadn’t slept at all last night and was dying for a few minutes of shut-eye.

I rubbed my empty hand mindlessly over my stomach as it growled in protest from skipping breakfast. I’d opted to spend my morning in the gym down on twenty-seventh instead of letting my imagination run wild with thoughts of Avery in the wreckage.

I took the stairs up to the second floor of my building two at a time, relishing in the burn of my calf muscles.

The key had just turned and the door had barely cracked open before Dax, my scraggly, sad excuse for a puppy, was jumping on my leg, clawing for attention.

I’d saved him from becoming another spot on the highway two weeks before. We had become fast friends, if I ignored the fact that he liked to piss on the kitchen floor more than a drunk frat guy.

“You want some lo mein, little man?” I tossed the bag on the counter before rummaging through the cupboard and grabbing two paper plates.

The bag crackled as I dug my hand inside and pulled out the single container of food, dividing it evenly before setting the extra plate on the ground.

Dax wasted no time pushing his brown nose into the plate, shoving the food onto the dingy linoleum.

“You’re welcome.” I stepped into the living room and sunk down on the secondhand love seat with a groan.

Grabbing the remote, I clicked on the television to fill the room with a little background noise, in hopes to keep the worry that had plagued me at bay.

From day to day, I saw some horrible things: families ripped apart, lives cut short. If you didn’t learn how to cope with it, you wouldn’t last long in my line of work. My way of dealing with loss and suffering was to block it out and pretend it didn’t bother me. After a while, it didn’t. My heart had hardened enough that I could lie to myself and say I didn’t care—and it was almost believable. Almost.

I unrolled the sack and pulled out the JayWok box, letting my vision go unfocused. The people on the television blended into colored blobs as their voices began to fade into the background.

I swallowed a large bite of my food, thinking of Avery and her crooked smirk. She was the complete opposite of my type, meaning there wasn’t a hint of glitter on her face and her clothes wouldn’t need to be soaked in baby oil to be peeled off her body.

Dax pawed at my arm as I shoveled in another bite.

“You had yours,” I said, pushing from the couch and making my way to the kitchen.

Hard as it was to admit, I couldn’t take bumps and bruises like I could as a kid when I rode dirt bikes. I felt every scrape and muscle strain from the fender bender. Pulling open the fridge, I grabbed the half jug of milk and twisted off the top to chug the contents.

Mid-sip, I turned around to see the rest of my food being devoured by the dog.

“Damn it, Dax,” I barked, twisting the cap back on the jug and putting it back into the fridge.

The time on the stove clock made my jaw clench. “I don’t have time to pick anything else up, shithead.”

He whimpered with guilt as I approached him, but I wasn’t the type to raise my hand to an animal. I ran my palm over his wiry hair before pulling my T-shirt over my head and dropping it on the floor.

“You’re lucky you’re cute,” I called out over my shoulder. I stepped into the bathroom and turned on the cold water, hoping a shower would wake me up for another long shift.

I kicked off my sneakers before sliding my basketball shorts and boxer briefs down my legs. I could hear my cell phone going off from the kitchen counter, the faint sound of Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers crooning a private concert.

I slipped behind the glass door, cursing under my breath as the icy droplets of water hit my back. “Shit.” I spun the knob, groaning as warm wetness slid over my achy shoulders. I lathered up the weird poofy sponge thing Talia, a waitress from Buckin’ Bulls, had left for me.

That gesture alone was enough to keep me from calling her back. Regardless of how flexible she was, clingy was not my thing.

I dumped a blue glob of liquid soap onto the mesh mass and rubbed it over my tense stomach muscles while singing
It’s Good to Be King
. I hurried through my before-work routine and was out of my apartment only fifteen minutes later, hungry but reenergized.

The sun was blinding on my walk to work now that the sky had cleared, and the warmth was almost sickening. Pulling my cell from my pocket, I clicked on the voicemail icon and listened as Sloppy Joe yelled loudly into the receiver.

“You screenin’ your calls now, J? Look, man. I know you’re out there starting your new life in the big city and all, but you can’t just forget about everyone you left behind. Call me, man.” The line went dead and my finger hovered over the number nine before I clicked it, erasing the message.

I hurried my pace as I shoved the phone back into my pocket, promising myself I’d call Joe later, even though I knew it was a lie.

The past needed to stay just that: the past. I wasn’t ready to deal with home. Not yet, anyway.

“Hey, man. You look like shit,” Quinn called out. He pulled open the ambulance door and tossed a small black bag inside.

“Your mom didn’t think so,” I shot back, rolling my head from shoulder to shoulder to ease the tension in my neck.

“That’s fucked up, man.”

“What’s fucked up is that thing she did with a beer bottle.”

Quinn shook his head. “I’m telling her not to cook for you anymore. You’re a twisted asshole.” He held out a can of soda for me and I took it with a grateful nod.

“Twisted asshole. I think that’s what she called that other move.” He shot me a warning glare and I shrugged. “It’s part of my charm.”

By the time my shift had ended, my eyes felt burned open. The night had been relatively calm compared to most, but that didn’t mean it was easy. I’d dealt with a choking victim and a lost child before things kicked up a notch and we helped a man who had suffered a tragic table-saw incident. Usually, flirting with the nurses in the ER made the night bearable, but I was far too exhausted to mutter any one-liners as we flew in and out of the hospital.

I hurried home and took Dax out for a walk before crashing from exhaustion.

My self-induced coma only lasted a few hours before my phone began to ring. I answered it while rubbing the sleep from my eyes.

“This better be important,” I groaned, rolling onto my back.

“Twins.”

I sat up, blinking open my eyes. “What the fuck are you talking about, Quinn?”

“Fucking twins, Josh. Blondes with some tig ole bitties. Get down to Corner Hole, bro. They told me to call a friend.”

I glanced at the bright red numbers on the alarm clock beside my bed before stifling a yawn.

“You owe me a beer,” I grumbled.

“You help me seal the deal with these chicks, I’ll give you my firstborn.”

“I’ll just take the beer.” I clicked to end the call before tossing the phone next to me on the bed. “This better be worth the time,” I mumbled to myself. I slipped out of bed and padded my way down the narrow hall to the bathroom. Even splashing ice-cold water on my face did little to snap me from exhaustion.

I dressed quickly, not bothering to double-check how I looked before heading out into the cool night air.