“That is true. But today felt different.”
“The difference is that you have been a brooding bastard all day. Bloody call the girl and get it over with,” he gives me the look.
The ‘stop fucking around’ look.
Just as I'm about to reply with my comeback, pretending I'm not completely obsessed with the girl and that it isn’t why I’ve hated today, a group of snickering nurses catches my attention. All of their eyes are trained directly on me. Dom’s head moves like a yo-yo, bouncing back and forth between the group and me.
“Now, I know you're used to getting the attention of the staff members here, but that’s a bit more than normal, isn’t it?” He asks with his brow raised.
Squinting, I look over at the group to see if I recognise any of them, only to find the nurse from earlier, who walked in on me half-clothed.
“Urg, I know why,” I groan again. “You know that new young nurse who’s usually on paediatrics? Penny? Well, she walked into thestaff room when I was getting changed earlier.”
Dom looks at me, seriously for a moment, then bursts out laughing.
“You’re shitting me? That is hilarious. No wonder they're all gossiping about the tatted-up doc,” he wipes under his eyes to bat away the escapee tears. “You’ve hidden those tattoos for longer than I thought you could. Why the hell would you get changed there of all places?”
“Because of the dick head,” I fume. When I see the confusion on his face, I explain further. “Lowe.”
“Ah, that makes more sense. What was he nagging about this time?”
“He made out that I am only here for the money, which I technically am, but it’s my fucking job. So, I rushed to prove him wrong and meet him at the incoming trauma before my shift started,” I ended, saying with a smug smile. Because I did in fact beat the moody old bastard to the patient.
“When is he going to give it up and retire already?” Dom adds. “There would be more doctors here if it weren’t for him scaring them off.”
“To be fair, if they're scared of him, they wouldn’t cope with half the people that come in here.”
“That’s true. Did you see the number of people waiting when we left? There were over one hundred and fifty just in the waiting area,” he whispers.
“And I bet half of them didn’t need to be there,” I add.
“If the system weren’t so broken and they had other options, it would be a lot easier.”
“That won’t be changing any time soon. Can you imagine spending a day in that waiting room, with all the germs spreading around from all the vomiting and viruses? I don’t know how people don’t leave more ill than when they come in.”
“Anyway, enough about work. Tell me about Fallon. Where is she?” He asks.
“Some part of Spain,” I grunt.
“And… how long is she leaving you here all alone for?” He chuckles.
“Too fucking long. She doesn’t even know when she will be back,” my shoulders drop. “I was finally getting through to her, and she had to go and leave.”
“From what you said, she didn’t have much of a choice.”
“Yeah, but she has a choice on whether to pick up her damn phone and message me,” I retort.
But one thing I know about her is that she will never message me first.
