8
JOSH
As an ER resident, I saw some crazy shit, and the last week was no exception.
A man whose car collided with a fence and arrived at the hospital with the fence post stuck through him? Check. (He was currently in the ICU, but chances were, he’ll survive).
A patient who stripped off all their clothes and ran around the ER naked before two nurses finally caught them? Check.
Someone with a broken-off cucumber stuck in their rectum? Check.
Total insanity, but that was why I’d chosen emergency medicine over surgery, which my father had pushed for. He wanted to brag about having a heart surgeon for a son, but I thrived on chaos. On the thrill of coming into work every day and not knowing what challenges lay ahead. It kept me on my toes, though I could do without removing vegetables from other people’s orifices for a long, long while.
“Get some rest,” Clara said as I clocked out after another grueling night shift. “You look like a zombie.”
“False. I always look perfect. Right, Luce?” I winked at Lucy, another nurse. She giggled in agreement while Clara rolled her eyes.
“See you tomorrow. Try not to miss me too much.” I rapped my knuckles against the counter on my way out the door.
“We won’t,” Clara said.
At the same time Lucy chirped, “We’ll try!”
A chuckle rose in my throat, but by the time I stepped outside, it’d already faded, crushed by bone-deep exhaustion. However, instead of heading home for some much-needed shuteye, I made a left toward the north side of the hospital campus, where the Legal Health Alliance Clinic was located.
I’d somehow misplaced my charger before my shift and my phone was at eight percent, so the backup charger I kept at LHAC was my only hope of keeping my all-important cell alive.
When I arrived at the clinic, Barbs’s car was the only one in the tiny parking lot squished next to the building. Most of the staff didn’t trickle in until half past eight, but she opened and closed the office every day, so she kept longer hours.
“Hey, beautiful,” I quipped when I entered the reception area.
“Hey, handsome,” she said with a wink.
When I’d volunteered at LHAC as a med student, Barbs kept me supplied with home-cooked pastries and sage advice like when life gives you lemons, make lemonade and hang out with someone whose life gave them vodka. She was one of the reasons I’d continued volunteering despite my crazy residency schedule. The clinic staff had become my surrogate family over the years, and even though I only had time to drop by once or twice a week in between shifts, they kept me grounded.
“Wasn’t expecting to see you today.” Barbs tucked her pen behind her ear. “A little birdie told me you just came off a night shift.”
I didn’t ask how she knew. Barbs was the most plugged-in person in the Thayer Hospital system. She knew things about people before they did.
“Trust me, I’m going home and crashing soon.” I scrubbed a hand over my face, trying to keep my eyes open. “I just need to grab my charger.”
I’d volunteered at LHAC so long I had my own desk. The bulk of my work involved staffing its free health clinic for uninsured health patients, but I also consulted on various legal cases that required a medical opinion.
“Before you do, you should say hi to our new research associate.” Barbs nodded at the kitchen door down the hall. “You’ll like her. She’s feisty.”
I raised my eyebrows. “New associate already?”
LHAC had been inundated with new cases recently. Lisa, the legal director, had been talking about hiring a short-term associate to help out until the rush was over, but I hadn’t expected it to happen so soon.
“Yep. Third year at Thayer Law.” Barbs’s eyes gleamed in a way that sent my guard shooting straight up. “Smart girl. Pretty too, if a bit eager. She started on Monday, and I found her waiting outside fifteen minutes before the clinic opened.”
“Congrats, you just described half the girls at Thayer.” A majority of the university’s students were Type A to a fault. “Don’t think about it,” I added when Barbs opened her mouth. “I don’t do office romances.”
I had a reputation as a player, but I would never hook up with someone I worked with, not even in a volunteer setting.
Barbs didn’t bat an eye at my foul language—she’d said and heard much worse at the clinic—though her face did pucker in disappointment. She fancied herself the hospital matchmaker, and she’d been trying to matchmake me for years.
“Besides, if I did date anyone from the clinic, it’d be you,” I added teasingly.
She maintained her frown for ten seconds before it melted into a smile. “You’re a terrible liar.”
“Me, lie?” I placed a hand over my chest. “Never.”
She shook her head. “Go. Take that charm elsewhere. You’re too young for me. And come back to me after you’ve seen her,” she called after me, laughing when I tossed her an exasperated look over my shoulder.
I grabbed my charger from my desk and pocketed it. Then, curious despite myself, I headed to the kitchen to meet the new associate. I might as well see what all the fuss was about.
I pushed open the kitchen door, my mouth curving into a welcoming—What. The. Fuck.
My smile disappeared faster than candy at a kid’s birthday party.
Because sitting in the middle of the room, drinking coffee out of my favorite mug and examining a stack of papers, was none other than Jules Ambrose.
My blood pressure spiked.
No. Fuck no. I must’ve fallen asleep after my shift and entered a vivid nightmare because there was no way Jules was the new research associate. The universe wouldn’t be so cruel.
She glanced up at the sound of the door opening, and I would’ve taken great pleasure in the way her face paled had I not been equally thunderstruck.
“What the hell are you doing here?” Our voices mingled in a discordant melody—her words pitched high with stress, mine low with horror.
A muscle jumped in my jaw. “I work here.” I released the doorknob and crossed my arms over my chest. “What’s your excuse?”
“I work here. You work in the ER.” Jules arched an eyebrow. “I see you’re going senile already. That’s what happens when your brain uses all its limited faculties on basic upkeep.”
Goddammit. I didn’t have time for this. I came here to pick up my charger, and now I was stuck arguing with the she-devil when all I wanted was sleep.
But it was too late. There was no backing down unless I wanted her to rub getting the last word in my face until the end of time.
“Don’t project, it’s unbecoming. Just because you have lower than average mental capacity doesn’t mean everyone else does.” A smirk touched my mouth when her eye twitched. “As for the clinic, I’ve been volunteering here since I was in med school.”
Translation: it was my space. I’d claimed it first.
Was that a juvenile way to look at things? Perhaps. But there were so few places I felt truly at home. The clinic was one of them, and Jules’s presence would smash that peace to smithereens.