Page 2 of Rounds
Just as I got comfortable and was drifting off to sleep, I got a phone call from the hospital. I knew it was the hospital because the ring tone was different from my answering service. For them to be calling this late, it had to be an emergency. Suddenly, that fuck appointment wasn’t so necessary compared to my rest.
“Doctor Israel,” I answered.
“Hello, Doctor Israel. You have a patient that was brought into the emergency room with chest pains and signs of a possible heart attack. The E.R. doctors are running the necessary tests and administering proper meds.”
“Okay. Go ahead and admit. What’s the patient’s name?”
“Francis Miller.”
“Okay. I’ll be up there in a few hours. I had a long day, and I won’t be any good to her unrested.”
“Yes, sir. Thanks.”
I huffed and did my best to get some sleep, but my mind was racing about Ms. Miller. She was one of my favorite patients. I threw the covers off me and packed an overnight bag to sleep at the hospital.
The minute I walked inside the hospital through the E.R., I knew it would be a busy day. I wanted to turn around and walk back out. Sleep had been a distant relative last night, thanks to my argument with Jaunté. He didn’t get home until two o’clock this morning. I had stayed up until one, wondering where the fuck he was and why he wasn’t answering his phone. He was supposed to get off at ten. At first, I was worried that something had happened to him. After it had gotten to be midnight, I knew he was probably up to no good.
His excuse was that he ended up working late. That was the textbook excuse for a cheating ass man. It was always they had to work late. I assumed he thought I was born yesterday. I was born at night but not last night. He could play me for a fool if he wanted to, but I already had one foot out of the fucking door. He’d never pulled no shit like he did last night, but I’d been feeling the distance. We weren’t as affectionate toward oneanother as we used to be. When he stopped initiating physical interaction, my petty kicked in, and I stopped initiating as well.
My womanly intuition was on point, and I knew he was fucking around. When I woke up this morning, I started mentally preparing to leave his ass. Moving in with him was a poor decision on my part. When my lease was up, I gave in to his constant offers to live with him. Silverrun, Colorado wouldn’t be big enough if I ever got proof of what he was up to. I didn’t mind leaving his ass based on my assumptions though. I felt his betrayal in my soul. Unless he could provide proof of his whereabouts, I would be out of his house as soon as I could find an apartment.
He worked at a hospital in a neighboring town as head of security. I was going to see if I could somehow find out if he was at work last night. I was friendly with a couple of his coworkers. I could have the gift of gab when I wanted to find out some shit. As I walked down the hallway to the lab, I nearly walked into someone. My attention was focused on keeping my purse from falling to the floor as strong hands gripped me at the waist.
When I looked up and saw Dr. Israel, I rolled my eyes.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t see you,” he said.
He licked his lips as I slowly shook my head. It was always the same shit with him. He was always flirting, and I just wasn’t in the mood to deal with his ass this morning. He was fine as hell, but I knew he was a ho. His reputation had proceeded him. Whenever he came into the lab for whatever reason, the women would gawk at him, then talk about his sexual prowess when he left.
I quickly gathered my composure, and said, “It’s okay. Have a great day.”
He glanced down at my badge and said, “Delaney?”
“Yes.”
“I like that name. See you around.”
My mind was screaming.Is that all you like?I nodded and quickly walked away. When I got to the lab, I dropped my purse on my desk and practically slammed the picture of Jaunté and me facedown next to it.
“Uh oh.”
I looked up to see my work bestie standing next to me with donuts. “Uh oh is right. Bitch ass nigga,” I said under my breath.
“You haven’t been happy for a while, Laney, and people are starting to notice.”
“I know. I’ll be looking for an apartment when I have time. It doesn’t look like that will be today though.”
“Girl, it’s busy as hell. They’ve already been asking people to stay late.”
I huffed then clocked in. I grabbed a donut from her and went to grab orders from the tray. I was one of the best to do my job. Phlebotomy was my thing. I could find a vein when no one else could. Sometimes, I even assisted with PICC lines. It didn’t take a whole lot of skill for those since there was a machine to highlight where the blood flow was the strongest and amplify the vein. It was impossible to miss it.
When I looked over the orders from the paperwork and saw Dr. Israel’s stamp at the bottom, I rolled my eyes. He made it a practice to communicate unnecessarily and harass people about his patients like he was the only one to take the oath. Had no one been watching me, I would have put that shit back. I flopped in my chair to see what floors I would be going to. He had three on one floor and four on another. I scarfed down my donut and poured myself a cup of coffee then made my way to the prospective floors.
When I got to the heart floor, I knew it was going to be a long day. He was up there, coming out of a patient room. Hopefully he was in a hurry, because he normally wasn’t here this early. As I got my cart prepared and grabbed some gloves to head to thepatient room, he saw me.Great.I took a deep breath and made my way to the same room he had come out of.
As he approached, I could see the bags under his eyes. He gave me a slight smile as he got closer. “Had a long night?” I asked.
While I was being sarcastic, he pretended not to notice. He was very attentive, so I knew that he knew I was fucking with him. Instead, he answered me seriously. “Yeah. I’ve been up here since one o’clock this morning. I didn’t leave until six yesterday evening, then I had to see about my father. So I didn’t get any sleep last night.”
