Total pages in book: 79
Estimated words: 74123 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 371(@200wpm)___ 296(@250wpm)___ 247(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 74123 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 371(@200wpm)___ 296(@250wpm)___ 247(@300wpm)
He wanted that smile to be just for him. Ethan found himself debating whether he should break protocol and ask her out, causally at first to feel his way around.
Frank picked up on this and would constantly tease him about his crush. But by the time Ethan made up his mind, to find out if Amina was open to dating him, he learned she had a boyfriend.
He took that as a sign from the universe that it wasn’t meant to be. But as time progressed, he noticed a change in Amina. She stopped smiling as much and started dressing differently. She even wore her hair in a more conservative style.
When she passed out invitations to her wedding, Ethan wanted to decline but some part of him had to see her get married so that he could close the book on that chapter of his life. However, on the day of the event, he couldn’t bring himself to do it. He didn’t want to see her smiling at and dedicating the rest of her life to another man. Instead he made an excuse not to attend and sent an elaborate gift.
At the end of the day, it was just a crush, and he didn’t have the courage to make a move when he had the chance.
When she returned to work, after her honeymoon, he noticed Amina had become even more withdrawn. She seemed constantly on edge, jumping at the slightest sound. She started to wear heavy makeup and he swore he’d seen bruises on her wrists once.
During his internship when he had a stint working in the ER, he’d learned the signs of domestic abuse and Amina seemed to be displaying a bunch of them. He noticed she was taking personal calls more often on her cell phone to the point where he had to bring it up to her.
The calls stopped, but then the husband began to randomly visit the office as if to check up on Amina to make sure she was where she said she was.
Ethan wanted to punch that asshole in the face but he was helpless to do anything about it. The last time the husband showed up, Ethan had made the fatal mistake of confronting him.
Ethan stood by the checkout desk to confirm his afternoon schedule with the new receptionist who for some reason couldn’t figure out the system even though she had been there for a month. Things had been chaotic around the office since Paisley resigned.
“Susan, could you please verify that that you have Mrs. Peterson scheduled four weeks for her follow up appointment? I don’t want any mix ups with this patient.”
Susan turned bright red. “I’m so sorry, Dr. Han. I don’t understand why Mr. Meeks wasn’t in the system but I will make sure that doesn’t happen again.”
“We were fortunate that I was able to squeeze him in because I happened to be in the office, but it’s imperative that you double check before you sign out of the patient’s chart.”
Susan’s eyes welled with tears and she sniffed. “I’m so sorry Dr. Han.”
Ethan took a slow breath. He didn’t think he was being too harsh with her but whenever he, Frank or Amina pointed out an error, the waterworks started with Susan. He was beginning to think she wasn’t a good fit for the office.
“This isn’t worth getting upset over. If you need more help with familiarizing yourself with the system, please see Amina.”
“Can’t one of the nurses show me, she always seems distracted and I feel like I’m bothering her.”
Ethan couldn’t dispute that Amina had indeed seemed distracted lately but he wouldn’t admit that out loud to anyone else. “There’s no one who knows the system better than Amina. Ask her when she has some free time and I’m sure she’ll be happy to help you.”
“Seems to me like you’re giving Amina extra work. No wonder she comes home so tired all the time,” a man’s voice said from behind him.
That asshole.
Amina’s husband seemed to pop up at the office more often than Ethan cared to count. Ethan was only in the office a few times a week because he was at the hospital otherwise, but it seemed like whenever he was here, so was this guy.
He took a deep measured breath before turning to face the other man who’s slipped into the office without anyone noticing.
“Good afternoon, I take it you’re here to see Amina.” Ethan didn’t bother to conceal the contempt in his voice because he knew this man was harming Amina in some way. Whenever Ethan saw them together, Amina would looked extremely uneasy to the point of flinching when Mark would make the slightest movement.
He wanted to punch this motherfucker in the face so bad but Ethan realized it would only make the situation worse for Amina.