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Jason: Come by the club and I’ll buy ya a beer.
Me: Sounds good, man. See ya soon.
A beer with a friend did sound great and I could use a little time to wind down anyway. I headed over and found parking a block down. Even at seven thirty at night, it was still bright and hot out. The breeze up the sidewalk from passing cars did nothing but move the heat around.
Finally making it to the door, I breathed a sigh of relief and stepped inside, my face to the ceiling to take a moment to enjoy the cool air and darkness.
“Hey, man!” Jason called as he waved me to the bar.
“Hey. You still always here?” I asked as I sat down on an empty stool.
“I plan to work a few nights for now. New girl’s still learning the ropes since Jaz abandoned us. Matt can handle it alone, but I need to train her on the slow nights.”
“Did she work every night?” I asked as I sipped the beer he pushed across to me.
“Jaz? Mostly yeah. If she took a night off, it was always a slow night.”
“She always was a hard worker.”
Jason nodded; his lips thinned.
“You really miss her around, huh?”
He shrugged. “She’s been my buddy and most trusted employee for years, man. Change is hard.”
“That it is. That it is.”
“Speaking of, how was your first day?”
After finishing a long draw on the beer, I answered, “Long and boring. Orientation on a computer all day. But I met a couple of people. Hopefully tomorrow will be a bit more exciting, but I have to shadow someone a few weeks before they release me to work independently.”
“At least you’re getting in there. Just like my new girl, you gotta learn the ropes before you can sail.”
“Yeah, this hospital is mostly like the last one, but some things are different. We don’t have a break room with coffee. We gotta buy coffee and either sit in the cafe or go outside.”
Jason grimaced. “Working long shifts without coffee sounds shitty.”
A cheerful voice came over my shoulder. “Mike! Hey!” I turned to see Lucy scooting up onto a stool.
“Hey, Lucy. Good to see you.”
Jason passed her a Blue Moon and she blew an air kiss at him. “You started work today, right? How was it?”
“Not bad. I was telling Jason it was kinda boring. Orientation.”
She nodded and rolled her eyes. “Yeah, the station does that to newbies. It’s such a pain but once you’re done, you’re done! So did you see Jaz there?”
“Where?” Jaz asked as she walked up next to Lucy.
I nearly choked on my beer but tried my best to tamper down the cough. Jason raised a brow and wiped the bar in front of me.
Shit.
Chapter 9
Jaz
My first day was long and it wasn’t terrible, but we didn’t do many clinical things. We mostly followed the resident around and learned where things were, met some nurses, a few other doctors, and were shown the on-call rooms. They were not co-ed nor was the locker room. Since we didn’t do any treatment today, I didn’t change before I left and headed for the club. It had only been a few days, but I was already missing the familiarity of my old routine and friends.
