Page 19 of I Can't Even

Out of the corner of my eye I saw a woman with brown hair making a mad dash out of the building.

The fast movement caught my eye, and I turned to watch the streak of blue scrubs with beautiful brown hair make her way to her car that was parked—illegally might I add—in the tow-away zone right outside of the hospital.

More power to her.

I wish I had the ability to totally disregard the law like her.

Maybe if I did, I wouldn’t be waiting for a shuttle for fifteen minutes after I got off work, only to have to take another fifteen-minute shuttle ride to where the hospital felt like we should park our cars.

Then again, maybe I was a rebel after all.

I did steal some gang banger’s drugs and money today…

“The blatant disregard for rules and regulations,” Dr. Brewn grumbled as he came up to stand beside me.

I smiled at him. “I don’t know. She may have the right of it. You probably don’t know it but sitting here waiting for the shuttle to come around sucks. I have to get here forty-five minutes early every day to make sure that I get to work on time. Just sayin’, but if a doctor is on board the shuttle, the bus driver’s been informed to always drop y’all off first. And the doctors’ lot is well out of the way from the nurses’ lot.”

Dr. Brewn frowned. “Is it? I didn’t know they did that.”

“They gave you that covered parking on Airline,” I said. “Our parking lot is off of West Street near the interstate.”

He opened his mouth, and then closed it.

“That’s…” he hesitated. “I’m sorry.”

That was just how this backward hospital worked.

Funny enough, it was also what motivated me to become a nurse anesthetist.

The whole anesthesia team had a covered parking area next to the hospital. I’d seen them there chatting outside of their cars about a minute and a half after the end of their shifts. They had a full-blown conversation, shared a dessert from the place next door, and had left before the shuttle had even arrived.

Honestly, I’d known that I was going to further my career in some way, but I hadn’t known the exact path I was going to take.

But after seeing them that day, I’d decided that I wanted to have a cushy parking spot like them. And they were the only team besides the trauma surgeons that had close parking spots.

Though, I certainly wasn’t going to go the medical doctor route. I’d already gone through four years of nursing school. Not to mention, I didn’t want that much debt to my name.

“It is what it is,” I said when I finally spotted the shuttle.

We stepped toward the line, and the nurses who were waiting visibly groaned when they saw Dr. Brewn beside me.

Internally, I did, too.

It would be adding another twelve and a half minutes to our route, at best.

Dr. Brewn paused, hesitated, and then stepped back.

I looked at him with raised eyebrows.

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

“I forgot my phone.” He smiled. “I’ll catch the next one.”

Everyone visibly sighed with relief upon his words.

But I had a feeling the sweet man only stayed behind because he felt bad for us.

He was just the sweetest.

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