Page 24 of Rogue

And then she’s gone.

Following the sound of a wailing ambulance, which just rolled up.

And despite the head-splitting noise of the siren it all kinda feels like a dream. One I don’t want to forget. But all dreams get forgotten. That’s just the nature of dreams.

10

Melody

My shift doesn’t actually start until eleven AM, but everything about last night was just too perfect. The kiss it ended with was just perfect too. So spontaneous, with the sun rising in the color of new gold in front of us and the sea whooshing under us like from some movie. We were already all alone on the pier, but the kiss made me feel like we were the only two people on earth. I haven’t felt that way in years and years. Not since I was very young and still believed my very own prince charming would sweep me off my feet.

But I’ve fallen in love with too many bikers since then. And been let down by all of them. Slammed down into the ground with the harsh reality that club girls just aren’t forever-type lays. I can’t go through that again. I won’t. Especially since I just know that letting myself get lost in all that soft, bubbling charisma Rogue brings will lead to the greatest fall yet. If that kiss was anything to go by. If his caring eyes and kind heartedness are anything to go by. If the desire in his eyes, which feels like hot flames licking my skin when he looks at me are anything to go by.

I won’t get sucked in.

It’s too painful when I get spit out on the other side.

My new life has started.

One where the past is just memory and nothing more.

I didn’t think much as I rushed after the ambulance that pulled into the bay after he dropped me off by the curb. I didn’t even think about how I need a shower and at least a couple of hours of sleep. Or, failing that, a triple espresso, no milk or sugar.

I just let the paramedics give me the info I need about the patient they brought in, the words washing over me like the most soothingly cold rain.

“Mrs. Diaz, eighty-nine years old, hot water burns to her left hand and thigh, pulse 150, BP 190/88, slightly tachycardic, not altered but distressed. She did this last night. The daughter came in this morning, found her like this. She hardly let us check the wound, but it looked infected.”

“I bet,” I say and smile at the patient as the clerk directs us into trauma room one. “We’re going to take really good care of you Mrs. Diaz. Can you tell me what happened?”

Her hand is wrapped in thick yellowing wrappings and she’s holding it to her chest, tears rolling down her cheeks, her eyes the size of coffee cup saucers.

“I was making chamomile tea for my husband. He can’t get to sleep without it,” she says in heavily accented English. “And I slipped on the carpet. Who is with Diego? Someone has to stay with my husband?”

She’s getting more and more agitated.

“Is someone with the husband?” I ask the paramedics.

One of them nods. “The daughter stayed.”

I tell that to Mrs. Diaz, and also inform her that I’ll be checking her wound now, but I’m not sure she understood mewell enough. She keeps asking about her husband, looking more and more agitated.

As soon as we’re in the trauma room, I ask the nurse to hook her up to the monitor, start an IV line and rattle off an order for all the tests I think she might need.

“All this for a hot water burn?” the nurse asks. I hadn’t met him yesterday, but his nametag reads Jamal. “What if she doesn’t have insurance?”

“The thing is, Jamal,” I say in a much kinder voice than I feel like using. “I don’t know when Mrs. Diaz saw a doctor last, so I’d like to give her a thorough check-up while she’s here.”

“Whatever you say, doc,” Jamal says and gets started on the orders.

I tell Mrs. Diaz I’ll be right with her, and walk over to a side table to store away my purse and put on gloves and a disposable gown. When I turn, Rogue is standing next to Mrs. Diaz, a fire burning in his eyes and a big grin on his face.

“Just so you know, we will be seeing each other again,” he says.

I can’t help but smile too. “You mean like right now?”

I walk past him and take Mrs. Diaz’s hand to start the examination.

He chuckles. “Yeah, only better.”

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