Page 23 of After Everything
He looked terrible. Unshaven, hair uncombed, wearing jeans and a wrinkled button-down like he'd thrown on the first things he'd found. Dark circles under his eyes. He'd lost weight.
He saw me and his face… God, the relief on his face, like he'd been searching for me and finally, finally found what he'd been looking for.
"Emma." He kept walking toward me even as a security guard hurried after him. "Emma, please, I just need to talk to you?—"
"Sir." The security guard caught up, putting a hand on David's arm. "You can't be back here. This is a restricted area."
"I'm her husband," David said, not taking his eyes off me. "Emma, please?—"
"Ma'am." The security guard looked at me. Young guy, maybe mid-twenties, clearly uncomfortable with the whole situation. "Do you know this man?"
Every nurse at the station had stopped what they were doing. Watching. Waiting.
I looked at David. At the desperation in his eyes. At the way he was standing there like he had any right to be in my space, in my workplace, demanding my time and attention after everything he'd done.
"Not anymore," I said.
David's face crumbled. "Emma?—"
"Escort him out." I turned back to my computer, my hands surprisingly steady as I clicked through screens I wasn't actually seeing. "And if he comes back, call the police."
"Emma, please, just five minutes?—"
"Sir, you need to leave now." The security guard's voice was firmer now, his hand tightening on David's arm. "Let's go."
"Emma!" David's voice was getting louder, more desperate. Other nurses werestanding now, a few of them moving toward us. "I know I fucked up, I know, but we were together for eight years… that… that has to mean something?—"
"It did," I said, not looking at him. "It doesn't anymore."
"Ma'am, should I call for backup?" The security guard was steering David back toward the elevators now, but David was resisting, trying to turn back to me.
"That won't be necessary." My charge nurse—Karen, a woman in her fifties who'd been an ICU nurse longer than I'd been alive—appeared at my elbow. "But I want him logged and flagged in the system. He's not to be allowed back in this unit. Or the building, if we can manage it."
"Yes, ma'am." The security guard nodded and finally managed to get David moving toward the elevator.
David called back one more time, his voice breaking. "I love you!"
I didn't respond. Didn't turn around. Just kept staring at the computer screen until I heard the elevator doors close.
Then my hands started shaking.
"You okay?" Karen was still standing next to me, her expression concerned but not pitying. She'd been through enough divorces herself to know better than to offer platitudes.
I took a breath. Let it out. Waited for my hands to steady.
"Yeah," I said. And meant it. "I'm good."
"That took guts," she said quietly. "A lot of people would have at least heard him out."
I finally looked up from the computer screen. Met her eyes. "He had eight years to talk to me. He spent five months of them lying."
Karen nodded slowly. "Fair enough." She squeezed my shoulder. "You've got two hours left on your shift. Think you can make it, or do you need to take the rest of the day?"
"I'll make it." I pulled up Mrs. Ellis’ chart. Her vitals were stable. Everything was under control. "I've got work to do."
Karen studied me for a moment, then smiled. "Yeah. You do."
She walked away, and I went back to mycharts. Around me, the other nurses gradually returned to their own work, the drama already fading into just another Tuesday in the ICU.
