Total pages in book: 80
Estimated words: 79360 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 397(@200wpm)___ 317(@250wpm)___ 265(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 79360 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 397(@200wpm)___ 317(@250wpm)___ 265(@300wpm)
“Have you heard anything on my brother?” I asked, changing the subject.
My inadequacies were never a favorite topic of conversation for me.
The other end of the line was silent, and I started to get a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach.
“Aspen.”
She inhaled swiftly, then blew out the breath.
“He was arrested a few nights ago over a domestic disturbance with his former girlfriend.”
My eyes closed.
A long time ago, I harbored hopes that my brother and Aspen would get married. Then he had to go and ruin it by cheating on her with his partner, a bitch of a cop that I despised.
Not because she was a bad cop, but because she was a nasty person. One that made my brother a bad person, too.
Danny, although a little selfish at times, wasn’t a bad person before he got together with her. I didn’t know this man that he’d turned into over the last year, and I hated that that woman had changed him for the worse.
“Why was he arrested?” I asked. “What happened?”
I heard what sounded like Aspen moving even further away from where she’d been previously standing. I then heard a door, likely the back door that led out onto her newly renovated deck, and then she began to speak, this time in a louder voice that I could actually hear.
“Apparently, there had been a big fight going on between the two for half the night before cops were actually called out,” she started. “After the cops showed, Officer Slutface McWhorebag – who, I might add, has gotten pretty darn fat – accused Danny of hurting her. She showed the cops bruises and everything.”
I closed my eyes.
“Jesus.”
“Yeah,” Aspen agreed quietly. “From what I’ve heard from my brother, Danny wasn’t there the last two days, and the bruises are at least two days old if you go by the yellow coloring.” She hesitated. “But his alibi is someone that he won’t give up to Downy, so it’s his word against hers at this point. Which, unfortunately, she’s got a leg up on him in terms of reliability since he’s still dealing with the backlash over running his own sister down with his police cruiser while he was drunk.”
I winced.
“I’m okay,” I said to her, reading the worry in her tone.
“I know you are, but I’m still freaked out,” she said. “When I got that call, I was in the middle of watching a YouTube video on how to start an IV,” she sniffled. “I was so scared for you.”
My heart melted. “Ass, I have to start work. But I want you to know that I love you.”
Aspen snicker-sniffled. “Don’t call me ass. I love you, best friend.”
My heart warmed even more. “I love you, too.”
I got out of the car after she hung up, shouldering my duffel bag, and went inside.
The moment I crossed over the threshold, I had a broom thrust into my hand.
“Let’s get this shit over with, so we can get on with the rest of our day,” my partner said before turning on his heel and taking a seat at the bar where he pulled out one of those healthy meals that was separated into three small sections.
Every single shift, the station was to be mopped and swept, but not in that order. And if it got dirty throughout the day, we were also expected to give it a second cleaning if that was what we had to do.
However, normally that was the lower rank’s, which would be an EMT, job. Since both Sean and I were the same rank of paramedic, it was assumed that we would just share the duty.
Apparently, my partner for the day didn’t think that.
“I’ll get right on that,” I lied, pushing the broom’s handle until it rested against the wall. “After I catch up on some sleep.”
With that, I walked into the bedroom—the one that Sean slept in since my usual one with my locker was occupied by the douche, and fell right to sleep. The nice thing was, Sean’s sheets smelled like him, and it was the best sleep I’d ever gotten while at the station.
***
By the time the shift was nearly over, I was about ready to kill Larry, my asshole partner, who thought we still lived in the sixteenth century.
Women couldn’t do man’s work. Such as lifting a patient.
Just one example of what an ass he’d been this day.
Sean (3:24 PM): How goes it?
I wanted to pull my hair out.
Naomi (3:24 PM): If I never see this man again, it’ll be too soon.
Sean (3:25 PM): What’d he do? Want me to kick his ass?
My mouth twitched.
Naomi (3:26 PM): We were at a patient’s house, and he asked the patient’s son to help lift him onto the gurney because I was ‘just a girl’ with puny muscles.
Sean’s typing showed on the screen, and it took him over two minutes to reply.