Page 22 of Sebastian

Shy?

Any one of those would be fine with me. I didn’t have many preferences in bed, but I was eager to find out if we were compatible.

I realized I’d been sitting behind the desk daydreaming for a while. The papers in front of me were the same ones I’d looked at ten minutes ago. At this rate, I wasn’t going to get any work done.

Sick leave was a thing. Every employee got a certain number of days they could call off for the sake of their health.

Was it possible to also get off work for being too horny?

“Sorry, boss, I can’t cover my shift today. I’m too busy fantasizing about the hot guy I’m dating.”

“What was that?”

I jumped, not realizing anyone was behind me. One of the regular nurses stood there, clipboard braced on her hip in a way that made her look busy. I knew that stance. I used it all the time when I had nothing to do but didn’t want to get pulled into anyone else’s work.

“Oh, uh, nothing. Just talking to myself. Do you need anything?”

“Nope. Slow night, so far. Though, I think we have a car crash victim coming in.”

I reshuffled my paperwork to give my hands something to do and hide how unproductive I’d been.

“Hopefully, it’s nothing too serious.”

She shrugged and moved the clipboard to her other hip so she could check something on the computer. “The message we received says that they drove off a bridge. Probably drunk. The ambulance should be here in about two minutes.”

“Okay, I’ll prepare for a new arrival.” I scanned the waiting room for any patients that might cause problems. There was an older woman with an ingrown toenail, and a man with a minor burn on his arm. Nothing that couldn’t wait until after we’d dealt with the car crash victim.

Just as I stood from the desk with a stack of papers in hand, the paramedics arrived with our new patent. Since I also worked as a paramedic, I recognized several of the people pushing their way through the door. That was nothing new, and I didn’t even blink at the sight of familiar faces.

Then I looked at the patient on the gurney and found a familiar face there as well. The papers fell from my hand, scattering all over the floor.

“Bastian.”

In a daze, I watched the gurney pass by and disappear through another door.

No, it couldn’t be.

My eyes must be wrong.

My feet carried me after the gurney, kicking aside papers with each step. Someone called my name—the other nurse, maybe—but I paid them no mind.

Following the gurney brought me to a room with an open door where a doctor and several nurses were already working. I wanted to help, or at least move close enough to get a better look at the figure lying on the bed, but my feet were rooted to the floor.

“Nurse Clary. What are you doing? That paperwork needed to be filed an hour ago. Get back to work. This isn’t your patient.”

Still lost in a stunned fog, I looked over at Administrator Constella who stood next to me tapping her foot.

“I know him. At least, I think I do.”

Administrator Constella demanded further clarification, but a hole had appeared in the bustle of activity inside the room. I took the opportunity to stumble over to the patient’s bedside, praying that my initial observation had been wrong.

It was the only time I could remember hating being right.

Bastian lay on the bed, bare from the chest up and covered in cuts and bruises. The worst were the cut on his forehead that matted his hair with blood and the dark bruising along his ribs that indicated they were probably broken.

“Bastian.” The name felt wrong on my lips. As if, by naming him, I’d made Bastian’s tragedy real.

I trailed my hand lightly over his chest and down his stomach to stop at the top of the sheet covering him. Something didn’t look right. The outline of his legs under the sheet was the wrong shape.

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