“Yeah. This is early for me, but I know you get in bed early, so I tried catching you at a good time.”
I smiled. “What? I’m always in bed by ten o’clock. That’s not early. That’s late for me.”
“That’s early for me. But for you, I guess I’ll lie in bed too.”
I rolled my eyes as if he could see me. “You didn’t even have to do that. What does my being in bed have to do with you?”
“I want you to picture something for me. Although we’re on the phone, let’s block that out. You’re on your pillow, I’m on mine, and we’re talking in bed. I just want to feel close to you.”
I closed my eyes and visualized everything he had said to me. My heart warmed at the thought of Nash being close to me. We’ve only been talking for a short amount of time, but I felt connected to him in a way. I loved his loyalty to me. He showed that when he was ready to go to war against one of my coworkers.
“When you put it that way, thanks for getting into bed with me.”
He chuckled. Even his laughter was deep and sexy. “Now you get it. This might even put me to sleep. If it doesn’t, I’ll turn on a Harry Potter movie.”
My eyes snapped open and widened. “What do you know about Harry Potter?”
“What do you mean, what do I know about Harry Potter? Since I was first introduced to the movies and books, I was hooked.”
A man after my own heart. He loved something else I loved. “Same here. I still have to get the books, but I have all the movies.”
“I see I gotta put you up on game.”
I smiled and snuggled deeper into my covers. I’d be going to sleep soon, but I wanted to hold off for as long as I could.
“Yeah, you do that,” I said, laughing.
“Your laugh is pretty,” Nash stated.
“I’ve never heard that before. Thanks.”
“No need to thank me, beautiful.”
We continued talking throughout the night. Whenever I tried going to sleep on Nash, he’d change the subject to something else. By the time we hung up the phone, it was after two in the morning.
I yawnedinto my hand as tears filled my eyes. It made no sense how tired I was. I couldn’t believe Nash had kept me on the phone until after two in the morning. I smiled as I thought about what we had talked about. To know he was a Harry Potter fan like me, we had to make a date out of it. I hadn’t voiced that to him, so maybe I could surprise him and plan the date myself. He couldn’t be the only one planning things. After work, I’d see if I could put something together for us.
With a smile, I moved to the computer to see how many animals I’d be seeing for the day. Hopefully, I didn’t have a lot to do today. Since the altercation that happened between Patrick and me, we stayed clear of each other, which was for the best.
“Kenzlee, in my office, please,” I heard from behind me.
From the sound of Rebecca’s voice, I tensed up. This wasn’t good if I was called to my boss’s office.
Patrick walked in, heading to her office as well. By Rebecca calling both of us into her office, I knew she had heard about what had happened yesterday. With my heart throbbing furiously in my chest, I made the short walk to her office. Since I was the last one to enter, I closed the door behind me and stayed by it. I folded my arms across my chest and stared at my boss while she removed her glasses. Rebecca shot daggers first at Patrick and then at me. I swallowed hard and unfolded my arms.
“Do one of y’all want to tell me what happened yesterday? From what I gathered, both of you were loud, shouting at each other. How did this come about in my place of business? And let’s not forget we had patients to see. You could have caused a lot of commotion with your loudness. Did you think of any of that at all? What do you have to say for yourselves?”
I had a lot to say for myself. “Patrick started all of this by the way he came at me. He falsely accused me of something I didn’t do. I’ve never touched anything that had nothing to do with me. Then he yelled in my face as if he were right. If Kaye hadn’t pulled me back, I was about to slap him.” I decided to come clean about that too.
Rebecca’s eyes widened before she turned her attention to Patrick for him to explain. He stared dumbfounded at her and shifted from one foot to the other.
“I found the files I couldn’t find after what happened between Kenzlee and me,” he admitted.
I shook my head. He did all of that for nothing, and now, both of us were in the hot seat. He should’ve asked questions first. Instead, he flew off at the mouth.
“It doesn’t matter if you found them or not. Both of you are on suspension for what you did.”
I gasped as my mouth dropped. “What? I did nothing but defend myself. If I hadn’t, what would have happened?” I scowled as I folded my arms across my chest. Patrick should be the one getting in trouble, not me since all of this was his fault.
