Total pages in book: 70
Estimated words: 68937 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 345(@200wpm)___ 276(@250wpm)___ 230(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 68937 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 345(@200wpm)___ 276(@250wpm)___ 230(@300wpm)
My new coworker, Melody, made a particularly disgusting comment about how hot the doctor was, and I inwardly groaned.
Would it be that hard to take the talk into the damn break room, at least?
Rolling my eyes, I got up and headed to the break room myself for a small break.
I made it to the kitchen and was just reaching for the cupboard above the sink to pull the coffee can down when I felt two hands go to my hips.
I twisted, raised an elbow, and reared it backward so hard that I heard and felt the air leaving a man’s lungs.
When that man stepped back and gave me space, mostly because he was hunched over and trying to breathe, I whirled around and palmed the closest thing I could use as a weapon. A can of baked beans.
“What are you doing?” I barked.
The patient, Cornelius Stone, said, “Sorry for startling you.”
I narrowed my eyes. “Startling me would be clearing your throat from the other side of the room. What you did was assault.”
His brows rose. “That’s a bit excessive, isn’t it?”
“No,” I snarled. “What’s excessive is thinking you can go up to a woman and put your hands on her hips while she’s pressed against a counter and think it’s all right.”
He grinned at me, and I wanted to smash the can of beans into his face.
“What’s going on here?” Dr. Adams asked as he came into the room.
“Just a misunderstanding,” the patient lied.
“Why are you out of the bed?” Dr. Adams asked.
“Because I was thirsty,” Stone lied.
“You went through the water we provided you already?” he asked.
“Yes?” Stone lied yet again.
“I’ll bring you more,” Dr. Adams said. “Please return to your room, and the next time you wish to leave, you need to use the intercom system and inform us. Also, the staff break room is off limits.”
I clenched my hand on the can of beans while I watched them walk away.
When I was finally able to control my heart, I placed the beans on the counter, then leaned my butt against it as I tried to breathe through my anger.
The text that came through moments after that didn’t surprise me at all.
Unknown:
I trusted you when you said you’d be safe.
Me:
I am. Now.
I resaved the number into my phone, then memorized it for good measure.
Me:
I was about to bash him upside the head with some baked beans.
Me:
I wish I would have.
Me:
I was only going to make coffee. Also, this guy creeped me out all night. Cornelius Stone. That’s his name. Luckily, he’s not my patient.
I knew damn well and good what Dima was going to do with the man’s information.
I also knew that I didn’t really care what happened to him.
What I did care about was that he understood what respect was, and that actions had consequences.
Dima never replied, which completely bummed me out.
I was about ten hours into my shift when I felt the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end.
I turned, fully expecting to see one of my coworkers when I realized that it’d been rather quiet for the last fifteen minutes.
They’d both disappeared and left me in the observation room all by myself.
I was sipping on my cup of black coffee—which I hated but someone drank all my damn creamer I’d left in the fridge—when I heard it.
The creek of a patient room door being opened.
The way the sleep center was set up was kind of like a star. The patient rooms were all set up in the points of the star, and the observation room was in between all of the rooms, able to keep an eye on everything that was happening in all of the rooms.
I turned and fully checked every room that was being used today and saw all the figures where they were supposed to be.
And because I was crazy, I pulled out the can of baked beans that’d followed me the rest of the night and started into the hall.
I was fully unsurprised when I made it into the hallway to hear a rhythmic banging coming from the break room.
The least they could’ve done was taken it outside.
Now I had to go in there and get my belongings later, and I wasn’t sure that they hadn’t infected it with their sex cooties.
Gross.
The hall was mostly silent besides the sex happening, and all the rooms were closed—except for the last door on the right. The room that wasn’t ever occupied because there were issues with equipment in that particular room.
But still, it was open and…
A black figure poked his head out of the space between the door and the doorjamb, and I couldn’t help the smile that stretched over my face.
“Dima.” I smiled. “What are you doing here?”
He jerked his head toward himself, and I hurried toward him.
He closed the door once I was through and then kissed me.