Page 15 of Byte

“Did you change clothes?”Byte asked when he picked me up from the doctor’s office the following evening.

“Yes, I did. Twice, actually,” I huffed.

“Do I want to know why?”

“Probably not, but I’ll tell you. The first time was because a patient vomited all over me. An adult patient who couldn’t be bothered to turn her head away from me or attempt to cover her mouth. And she didn’t apologize. Seriously, if you spray your stomach juice all over someone else, the least you can do is say you’re sorry.”

Byte tried to stifle his laughter, but he failed miserably. “I’m sorry. It’s not funny, but the way you told it is.” He cleared his throat and tried to regain some composure. “So, what caused the second change of clothes?”

“After lunch, we were seeing a patient who had her infant with her. She’d been holding the baby and put her in her carrier for the exam. Little Miss did not want to be put down and started screaming her head off. The patient was having sutures removed from her chest, so she couldn’t hold her. I’m telling you, this baby was crying so hard her entire head was damn near purple. I was genuinely concerned for the child, so I offered to hold her while the doctor removed the stitches. The kid calmed down as soon as I picked her up. And two minutes later, she turned into a geyser of shit. Literally. It sprayed out of the leg holes of her diaper while simultaneously shooting up her back and out the neck of her onesie. I’m not sure how, but I managed to not drop the baby and keep a straight face while baby shit seeped into my clothing. The mother was apologetic, but I didn’t care. I handed that kid off and bolted for the bathroom as soon as I could.”

“Sounds like you had a pretty shitty day,” Byte laughed.

“Ha. Ha. Ha,” I sniped.

“I’m sure you’ll be able to laugh about it later.”

“Maybe, but right now, I feel disgusting, and I’m starving. And let me tell you why I’m starving. Because my lunch ‘mysteriously’ disappeared.”

“What do you mean by ‘mysteriously’?”

“I mean someone other than me ate it,” I griped.

“Are you serious?”

“Yep. And it’s not the first time it’s happened.”

“Someone’s stealing your lunch?” he asked in disbelief. “Do you know who it is?”

“I have no idea, and I don’t know how to catch them without hanging around the break room all morning, which I can’t do.”

“Oh, that’s easy. Add some really hot peppers to something in your lunch. If your food doesn’t get stolen that day, don’t eat whatever has the peppers in it. If it does get stolen, you’ll know without a doubt who took it,” he said.

“That’s brilliant!” I said excitedly.

“Do you want to stop by the grocery store on the way home?” he asked.

“Normally, I’d say yes, but I really, really want to take a shower. I rinsed off in the staff shower at the office, but I still don’t feel clean. Can we go to the store after? And pick up something for dinner while we’re out?”

“Sure, if that’s what it takes to get you out of your crappy mood,” he teased.

6

BYTE

After I dropped Gabby off at the doctor’s office Wednesday morning, I spent the rest of the day searching for information about the man posing as Chad Higgins. To say I was frustrated would be an understatement. Every path I went down led me to a dead end. He only had two social media accounts associated with his alias, and neither of those had a clear picture of his face. The phone he was using to communicate with Gabby was a pay-as-you-go phone and appeared to be no longer active. Usually, I could find anything I set my mind to, but I needed a starting point. This time, I had nothing to go on, and I was at a loss on how to proceed.

I don’t know how long I’d been staring at the computer screen when the sound of a text message caught my attention.

Gabby:Can you pick me up at 5:15 today?

Byte:I’ll be there.

I glanced at the time and realized it was much later in the day than I thought. I only had an hour and a half before I needed tobe at the doctor’s office. Since I had made no progress, I decided to get out of the house for a bit and clear my head.

When I walked into the diner, Irene spotted me immediately and made a beeline for me with a huge smile on her face. “I didn’t expect to see you again so soon.”

“I had some time to kill, and I couldn’t think of a better way to spend it than having a cup of coffee with one of my favorite people.”

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