Chapter Fourteen
Jeff
Lesson 15: Murphy’s law is strongest when you are at your weakest.
I have forty-five minutes to get out of the hospital and across center city to Del Frisco’s. During rush hour. There are still two patients I need to follow up with, a bundle of paperwork to be filled out, and I need to touch base with Dustin who is taking my on-call shift tonight so I can be at this dinner. I should’ve just declined the invitation. But when her name showed up on my phone for the first time, my thumbs took on a mind of their own. All of the cold hard logic I forced down my own throat last weekend didn’t stop me from reacting like Charlie with the golden ticket when her text danced across my screen.
I’m rushing to get changed, pulling on a suit jacket I haven’t worn since graduation, hoping that I’m not the tool who shows up overdressed, when Jonathan, a new nurse on the ICU floorbursts into the on-call room. His face is red and his dark hair is sticking out all over the place like he’s been grabbing at it.
“Dr. Harrison, I’m sorry. I know you need to go?—”
“Take a breath, Jonathan. What’s going on?” I ask. Poor guy just started last week and already looks like he’s going to have a coronary.
“It’s Mr. Peterson. Something’s not right. No movement from waist down.”
Shit. Dustin performed a discectomy on Peterson this morning. The hardware must have slipped.
“Jonathan, get the OR prepped and page Dustin?—”
“OR three is ready. And that’s the thing. Dustin’s not here. I paged him and then Cherisse told me he left over an hour ago. Dr. Greer left at noon, as well.”
Fuck. My attending is out of town and Dustin left me hanging. Alright, maybe he forgot. I reach for my phone to let Devon know what’s going on and the screen won’t light up. It’s dead. I rustle through my gym bag searching for a charger, shrugging out of the suit jacket as I dig. Then the memory hits and I look up at the bright hospital lights overhead.
I left my charger by the treadmill at the gym.
“I’m scrubbing in. Get Peterson into the room and on the board. Have someone contact his family,” I say, reaching for my scrubs.
I need to get in touch with Kev or Mer. I slide my phone back into my pocket and hurry out toward the nurse’s bay.
“Cherisse, love of my life,” I start.
“Mmmhmmmm? Now what do you want?” she says barely looking up from her computer screen. I know better than to pull the emergency card right now. Cherisse and the nurses deal with a hundred emergencies a day and barely bat a lash.
“Could you charge my phone for me and help me get in touch with someone?” I give her my most irresistible half smile.
“You look like you had a stroke. Don’t smile like that. Does this look like the geek squad back here? I don’t have time for your tech issues, Dr. Harrison?—”
“I’ll bring breakfast trays from Talula’s every weekend in September,” I say.
She puts her hand out for my phone.
“Please call Dr. Kevin Johnson in trauma and let him know I got held up with a patient. Thank you, Cherisse. You are a lifesaver.”
“Extra cheese danishes on those trays, Doctor,” she murmurs, spinning away from me in her chair.
“Of course,” I tell her over my shoulder as I rush toward the elevator. Every footstep against the tile echoes my internal cursing and worries. Where the fuck is Dustin? And I hope to hell we aren’t too late for Mr. Peterson.
The elevator doors open in front of me and I step inside. The sharp smell of bleach does nothing to hide what this elevator has seen.
I hold my breath and focus on the long night ahead.
Chapter Fifteen
Devon
Lesson 16: Pack a Snickers.
I’m getting hangry. Like turn-green, flip the table kind of hangry. We are waiting on Jeff’s arrival to order entrees and I’ve polished off a bread basket filled with dainty biscuits to no avail. Luckily, the soft lighting of the restaurant and the flow of chatter and laughter has me distracted from the enormous pit in my gut that I can’t blame entirely on my hanger as I steal a glance at Jeff’s empty seat. Unluckily, my sister and my soon-to-be-ex-friends won’t stop recounting my top ten greatest hits.
