Page 57 of What If I Knew You

Fuck you twice.

“Her name is Corrigan Hicks, ma’am and she is me,” I tell her with a confident lift of my chin. “I am the one in charge so if you’d like to tell me again how stupid I am or how badly I do my job, I’d be more than happy to listen to what you have to say but I will not, under any circumstances, be giving your daughter meds that her little body cannot handle.”

With her finger in my face and her brows drawn together she seethes, “Then you can be prepared to hear from my lawyer because I will fucking sue you for murder since you refuse to give my kid the Tylenol she desperately needs.”

I can’t even remember the last time we lost a patient because of an ear infection.

Gun shot wounds, yeah.

Sepsis after a blown appendix? Sadly yes.

Car crash with no seatbelt? Way too many.

Cancer? Every single fucking day and it never gets easier.

Drowned in their own swimming pool? We see a lot of those too.

But dying from an ear infection?

Nope.

Can’t remember even one.

A quick glance at little Makenna lying in her bed, her eyes bulging at her mother’s words of anger, has me swallowing back the bile in my throat.

“I look forward to chatting with your lawyer, ma’am, because one thing I am very proud of in this hospital is how accurate our charting is. That means every tiny step we take with each of our patients is documented. Every I is dotted and every T is crossed so when the time comes, I’ll be happy to share Makenna’s charts with the appropriate people. Also,” I mention, gesturing to the ceiling where we’re standing, “you’ve been on camera for this entire conversation. Is there anything else you would like to say?”

Translation: Fuck you, you fucking fuck of a mother.

When she curls her lower lip over her teeth and bites down, for once choosing not to respond to me, I continue. “That’s what I thought. Perhaps if you spent the time and energy you have for spewing anger and hatred at me to, instead, comfort your little girl, she wouldn’t look so scared right now. She’ll be feeling much better in a couple of hours. If she were to close her eyes and simply take a nap, she’d feel better when she wakes up. I am going to walk away now as I have a few other patients who need me. The doctor will be here to see you momentarily.”

Quietly, and with as much calmness as I can muster, I turn and head the opposite direction from sweet little Makenna’s bitch of a mother. As soon as I turn the corner Layken is standing at the nurse’s station silently applauding me. I love that she’s worked her schedule out to be relatively on par with mine. She’s almost always standing here when my shift is about to end. She’s like my happy face at the end of a shit day.

“Woof! That woman was a piece of work.”

“Tell me about it,” I say with an exaggerated roll of my eyes. “What a way to end a shift, huh?”

Layken smiles at me. “Yeah but now, you can fix your face and slap your smile on because…” She waits for me to finish her sentence.

“It’s hot hockey hunk night!”

“That’s right!” She claps her hands excitedly. “Just two girls settling in to feast our eyes on a bunch of hot men as they battle it out on the ice for a few hours.”

“Do you even know the rules of the game?” I ask her, chuckling.

She shakes her head. “Hell no. Why do I need to worry about rules? Just bring on the hot men and a couple glasses of beer.”

She curls her arm to her hip and I lace my arm through hers. “Sounds like Heaven to me. Let’s get out of here.”

“Did you tell Bodhi…oops!”She covers her mouth and then grins. “I mean Alan that you were coming to the game.”

I shake my head. “How could I tell him when he doesn’t know that I know who he is?”

She shrugs. “Well, you could’ve just mentioned that you were going to a hockey game tonight with your best friend. Maybe he would’ve told you the truth then.”

“Doubt it. It’s too soon. At some point I’ll have to tell him because I can’t stay away from my dad every time I’m in the arena. I mean, we meet for lunch once a week. Bodhi is bound to see me around here at some point.”

I grab a tray of nachos and my beer, thanking the concession stand associate, and then follow Layken to our seats. I told my dad we were coming to tonight’s game and he offered to put us right behind the bench so I can really feel the action. I politely declined because I didn’t want to risk Bodhi spotting me in the crowd. Not knowing for sure how seeing me would affect his game, I asked Layken if she would mind if we sat farther back. We’re still close enough to get a good show and I made sure to dress like every other Stars fan. I chose a comfy pair of jeans and a team hoodie and even grabbed my Stars hat. Looking around at the fans seated within close proximity to us, I think I blend in pretty darn well.