Page 46 of Careless Whisper

“We’re already short-staffed,” I pressed, a hint of desperation coloring my words. I wanted Reggie here so I could check on her and make sure she was okay because she hadn’t been just a day ago.

“We are,” Cindy acknowledged, each syllable deliberate, heavy with the unspoken truth:“And we would be even more understaffed if Reggie quit.”

“Then—"

“But she’s also dealing with a lot of bullshit. And I don’t blame her for needing space,” Cindy continued accusatorily.

“Look, an attending is allowed to file a complaint when they see an egregious?—”

She raised a hand to silence me. “I don’t understand why, then, other nurses aren’t getting complaints. Delaney actually left a central line port uncapped lastweek. That’s an infection risk—and no one said a word.”

She stepped closer, anger in her eyes. “Jasmine miscalculated a heparin drip. Almost doubled the dose. Pharmacy caught it, but still—not even a write-up. And Lowe called a wrong time-out on a cholecystectomy two weeks ago. They caught it right before the first incision. They got grace. Reggie got humiliatedandofficially written up.”

“You don’t agree with Dr. Loring?” I suppressed the need to sigh. Maren was still an attending. I still had to be professional.

“I believe,” she said caustically, her gaze unwavering, “thatyourdepartment is fractured. And I’m tired of playing mediator between two attendings with personal history and a nurse who’s always expected to just roll with it.”

I had no retort, no words to counter her truth because she was right.

“Oh, and by the way—speaking of official complaints, expect one about how Dr. Loring handled yesterday’s post-op bleed.” Cindy was almost toe-to-toe with me. Her attitude and tone were belligerent. “She ignored nursing escalation for over an hour. The patient tanked in recovery before anyone acted. That’s not just bad medicine—it’s negligence, and I’m not letting it slide.”

“I’ll talk to Dr. Loring,” I assured her.

“You do that, Dr. Graham, and if I lose the bestsurgical nurse I have…” She shook her head as if disgusted with me. “Dr. Loring bringing up what happened in Boston and talking about it to everyone here hurts not only Reggie but all of us. How would Dr. Loring like it if everyone in the cafeteria discussed why her name disappeared from the Armitage grant after the abstract was accepted?”

“Cindy—”

“Keep your personal businesspersonal,” Cindy talked over me. “You let it into the wards, patients suffer. The fact that Dr. Loring is your fiancée should have no bearing on how she’s treated and allowed to treat others.”

I frowned. “She’snotmy fiancée.”

“Well, you better tell Dr. Loring that because that’s what she’s telling everyone.” On that parting shot, Cindy spun on her heel and walked away.

Since Maren was on rounds, I went to my office and tried to get myself sorted.

I sat at my desk, not paying attention to my inbox, which was blinking with unread messages, rounds that were pending, and unsigned charts.

“Well, you better tell Dr. Loring that because that’s what she’s telling everyone.”

Cindy’s words echoed in my head. I hadn’t even processed half of what she’d thrown at me before that last line detonated like a mine in my heart.

Why the hell was Maren telling people we wereengaged?Jesus!Like we didn’t have enough drama without that.

I rubbed both hands over my face, trying to drag some clarity out of the fog.

Cindy had hit every target she intended with me.

I had known that Maren would go after Reggie, even though I’d told her not to. I had known, and yet I’d done nothing, letting Reggie handle it. She had fallen apart. This was a taxing workplace to start with because we dealt with life and death—adding a difficult collegial situation only exacerbated the stress.

“How would Dr. Loring like it if everyone in the cafeteria discussed why her name disappeared from the Armitage grant after the abstract was accepted?”

That was the second time someone had mentioned that grant. First Reggie and now Cindy.

I remembered Maren brushing it off at the time.“Politics! Too many hands in the pot here with the trial and the data. You know how grants are.”

She’d been irritated but not worried. I hadn’t pressed. This kind of stuff happens all the time in our line of work.

But Cindy hadn’t mentioned that grant to make conversation. She’d dropped it like a warning. A breadcrumb? One I hadn’t been smart enough to follow five years ago. This time, I picked it up.

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