Fragile (11 page)

“You have a jealous streak.” Rick sat behind the wheel of the car smiling like a dork.

“Shut up.”

An hour later the sales lady phoned Rick and told him that the furniture was on its way. “She gave me her number,” he said as he placed his phone back on the countertop.

“Ah ha,” I said not bothering to look up from my phone.

“You jealous?”

“Nope.”

“Why not? You were in the store.”

“Yes, but I’m the one you took out of the store and home with you.” I grinned over at him.

“Only you, Lu.” He swung an arm around my shoulders and I lifted my head to kiss him. The kiss was sweet and gentle, everything Rick was. “Who you texting?” He looked down at the phone sitting in my hand.

“I’m not texting. I’m sending an email.”

“To?”

“Dr. Douche bag,” I said quietly. I knew that Rick wouldn’t be happy that I was communicating with him, but we’re colleagues and it was going to happen now and then.

“He’s asking you out over email now?” I don’t think he meant for it to sound the way it did but his voice was different, angry.

I placed the phone down in my lap and looked up at him. He was looking at my phone sitting in my lap. “Jealous?” I mocked, trying to lighten his mood.

“Yeah, I am,” he admitted and my heart sunk at his admission. He looked vulnerable and scared.

“There’s nothing to be jealous of. We’re colleagues. That’s it.”

He grabbed me and held my hand, tracing little circles around it with the tip of his finger. “I know, but he gets to spend a lot of time with you. You guys have work to talk about. You know what you’re both talking about whereas you have to dumb it down for me or we don’t talk about it at all.”

“I spend so much time at work, I like to come here and relax, not talk and worry about it.”

“You don’t mind that I’m not as smart as you?” He sounded really insecure. I let the phone drop to the floor as I straddled his lap and Rick’s hands wrapped around my waist.

“You’re not dumber than me. If you talked about your work, I wouldn’t know what you were talking about. We just...we specialised in different areas. That’s all.”

“You’re really special to me Lu.” He ran his hands up and down the side of my body, bringing them to rest on my hips again and kissed me.

“You’re special to me too.” If I was being really honest with him, I would tell him that I was falling for him, but I couldn’t say that. The fewer emotions involved the better in the end.

“I’m going to shower,” I told him as I scooted off his lap. I needed some breathing room suddenly. I was standing under the spray, trying to stop the thoughts on things that might not even happen, when Rick barged into the bathroom.

“He did ask you out.” The shower door opened and Rick stood there with my phone in his hand. “I asked you if he was asking you out by email now, and he is.” He started to pace the length of the bathroom as I watched him from the shower. I turned the water off and stepped out of the shower, wrapping a towel around myself.

“It’s not like that.” He stopped and spun around, facing me. Lifting the phone in his hand, he started to read the email that was up on the screen.

“Lucy, as you are aware there is a hospital function approaching. We had spoken about it once, but got rushed away on an emergency. I would really like to go with you. We’re compatible and enjoy each other’s company.” I squished my nose up, “Oh wait, there’s more.” Rick continued reading from the phone, “We have a lot in common,” I bit my lower lip embarrassed at what William had said. “You’re beautiful.” Rick put the phone down momentarily, “Which you are, so we know he’s not blind.” He brought the phone back up into view. “I feel that we would have a great time together. I await your answer, Will.”

I looked down at my feet, unable to look at Rick anymore, guilt getting to me. “Are you going to go with him?” I could tell that he was clearly unhappy with the situation.

“I wasn’t going to.” I admitted. “I was in the middle of turning him down. I was going to tell him that I have a surgery scheduled for that night.”

Rick handed the phone back over to me before he lifted me up, placing me on the vanity unit. My towel was ripped off and Rick unbuttoned his pants. I watched him as he pulled them down as far as his thighs and lined himself up with me. He spread my legs wide and wrapped them around his waist, plunging into me. Once he was inside me, he didn’t move, just stayed there. “Tell him you aren’t going.”

“I am,” I said as I lifted my hips up, rubbing against Rick wanting him to start moving.

“Now. Call him right now.”

“Rick?” I asked uncertain.

“Now, Lu.” He picked up the phone, “Here.”

“Lucy.” Dr. Hunter’s voice pulled me away from Rick’s piercing gaze.

“Hey, Will.” Rick started to move slowly. I was confused by what he was doing and stopped talking and when I did Rick stopped moving. “I got your email.” I started talking again, eyeing Rick as he started to move again.

“Good, what do you say?” He sounded hopeful and I closed my eyes and leant back against the mirror. My brain was beginning to lose track of what was what.

“I have a surgery that night.” Rick sped up his movements, and Rick crashed his lips into mine, swallowing my moan.

“I didn’t see anything for that night,” Dr. Hunter continued, oblivious to what was happening on my side of the conversation.

“Yeah,” I squeaked out. I cleared my throat, trying to regain control of my voice. “Dr. Brooks and I are talking to Mr. Roman. He doesn’t live locally and works full time. He needs to organise time off, and that’s the day that he’s recommending. We’re just waiting for confirmation from his end.”

Rick pulled me up so that I was sitting up straighter on the vanity and rubbed my clit with a free hand. My body slouched forward with my head rested on his shoulder. I was about to lose control. My body was shaking, I was close to the edge and Rick’s breathing was getting heavier.

“That’s a shame,” Dr. Hunter said.

“Yeah...” I replied dumbly, unable to come up with anything else to say.

“I’ll see you tomorrow then. We have that surgery with Miss. Lopez. It’s a big one, so get some rest.” He sounded disappointed and that made me feel guilty.

“You too, bye.” He hung up the phone and mine fell on the floor as Rick slammed into me, moaning. That’s all I needed to fall apart, trembling, and apparently it was all Rick needed too. After Rick’s breathing evened out, he carried me to the shower.

Rick seemed satisfied about the Dr. Hunter situation, he didn’t bring it up again and I was happy to not have it mentioned either. All that was left to do was to get to Dr. Brooks before Will did.

“Has Dr. Hunter spoken to you yet?” I asked Brooks as soon as I spotted her coming into the hospital. I arrived at the hospital earlier than unusual and had been waiting outside the front for Brooks to show up.

She stopped stunned, just short of me. “No, should he have?” She reached into her pocket and pulled her phone out. “I didn’t miss any calls.”

“No, it’s nothing like that. If he asks, we have a very possible surgery on the fifteenth of October. Don’t forget. Sound convincing and you get next pick of surgery.” Her eyes widened. Dangle surgery in front of an intern’s face, and they’ll do whatever you want them to do. “Understand,” I stated more than ask.

“Yes, Dr. Jackson. Surgery, 15th October. Who shall I say...?”

I cut her off before she could finish her sentence, “Mr. Roman.”

“Mr Roman,” Brooks repeated as we stepped into the hospital to start our shift. It was lucky I got to Brooks first, because Dr. Hunter brought it up during the surgery we had together, and Brooks played it like a champ. I was very proud. I think that if she wasn’t such a good Neurosurgeon, she’d make a great con artist.

Coming home to Rick’s cooking that night was amazing. He was being amazing and I felt loved, welcomed and cherished.

Things were going really well, so well that I would forget most days that it all had to come to an end soon. The contractors were close to having my new bathroom completed. I had been over there a few times and was very happy and excited about it. I couldn’t wait.

Rick was back to his, “You don’t have to leave, Lu. Just stay. We’ll rent your apartment out.” I explained to him that he was going to get sick of me being around all the time. My argument wasn’t going anywhere with him and for the moment I didn’t mind to much.

“We should start to move the furniture across.” I stood in the garage looking at all of the furniture sitting there, either wrapped up in plastic or in boxes.

“Not yet. The contractors aren’t finished.”

“They will be soon. I just think that on the days I have off, we could move some things across.”

He snaked his arms around me and pulled me close, “Why the rush, Lu?”

I rested my head on his chest as my hands rested on his hips. “I don’t get much time off, and when the contractors are done, there’s nothing saying that I’m going to have the time to move the furniture there. I don’t want to have to stay in an empty place.”

“You can stay here until we get it across.”

“If I was to say that someone was moving into the place tomorrow, we would have the stuff over there by now.”

“If that certain someone wasn’t you then I’d say hell yeah.” I pushed back from Rick, getting out of his embrace and taking a step away.

“Why are you against this?”

He exhaled and ran his hands over his face, “Because I like having you here, Lu. I don’t want you to go.”

“You’ll still see me.” I put my hands on my hips.

“Yes.” He took a step closer to me, weaving his hands around my waist once more and pulling me to him. “But Aiden will miss you and he cries. Do you really want to be responsible for a crying dog?”

“I could take him with me,” I half joked, but I would take him if I could.

“Or you can stay here,” Rick concluded.

“You’re like a brick wall.” I stepped away from him and pointed to the pile of furniture. “It’s happening,” I said before I walked back into the apartment.

Rick continued to argue about the furniture more into the afternoon until I had to leave for work.

“Will you stop sulking?” I pinched Rick’s cheeks between my fingers.

“No,” he mumbled through fish lips.

I dropped my hands and put them on his shoulders. “It’s going to be ok.” I gave him a shake but he didn’t move.

“You’re leaving.”

“I have work. I’ll be back tomorrow.” I stepped away and grabbed my bag from the chair and gave Aiden a rub on the way down the hallway.

“I’ll start to move some of your furniture across tomorrow.” Rick stood at the end of the hallway. Turning around, I went to give him a kiss, but he put his hand up stopping me. “It just killed me to say that.”

I dropped my bag on the floor as I ran up and jumped on Rick. He caught me, and I wrapped my legs around him, kissing him hard.

“Thank you.” Rick placed my feet on the floor and spun me around.

“Go save lives, Lu.”

The night shift was uneventful until I had to rush a patient into surgery.

“Dr. Brooks, do you want to do the honours?” I stepped away from the table and held out the drill.

“Ye...yes.” She stepped closer and held out her shaking hand.

“Relax.” She nodded and took a deep breath before she stretched her hand back out and calmly accepted the drill. I stepped to the side, and she stepped in front of the table.

“You’ll feel a slight snap, when you feel that stop.” She held the drill over Miss. Dai’s shaved head.

“Yes, doctor.” The drill started up and she began, “I felt the snap.” She turned the drill off and placed it on the tray the surgical nurse held.

“Lift the cap,” I instructed her. Brooks tentatively put her hands on Miss. Dai’s head and removed the skull fragment that she just cut off, placing it on a tray.

She moved to the side, but stayed in the vicinity of the bed. “Do you see it?” I asked Brooks as I prodded around the tumour sitting on top of the brain.

“Yeah...” We proceed to remove it, working around the area. If we weren’t careful, Miss. Dai could lose some if not most of her memory.

“Her BP is dropping,” Dr. Brooks announced as the monitor started to beep.

“She’s bleeding,” I announced, looking around the exposed brain to see if I could see where the blood was coming from. The monitor was beeping and blood kept rushing out from somewhere before she flat lined.

“Crash unit!” I rapidly called out. I stepped back from the head of the table and went around to the side where the unit had been wheeled, “Charge 250.” The machine made a noise as it charged up. “Clear.” Everyone took a step away from the body. Miss. Dai’s body jumped off the table from the voltage shock. Nothing. The machine was still flat lining. “Charge to 300. Brooks keep searching.”

“Yes, Dr. Jackson.”

The machine charged. “Clear,” I announced again. Everybody moved back, the body jumped, and nothing. “Dr. Brooks?” I looked up at her. “Charge again,” I instructed.