Page 50 of Always Salty

He tucked a curl behind my ear, and it immediately sprang back into place.

“We’ll see.” He chuckled.

“Will you…” I hesitated, unsure how to ask if he’d be there when I got done with work.

“Be here to walk you back to your car when you’re done with work?” he asked. “Yes.”

I flashed him a relieved smile. “Good.”

He touched the tip of my nose with one finger, then opened the door to the sleep center for me.

No kisses or overt displays of affection, but enough to let me know that I was going to be on his mind.

“Oh, excuse me. Thank you.”

I jumped, but Dima didn’t seem surprised to find a man walking up to us.

“You’re welcome,” came Dima’s smooth, dangerously soft voice.

I looked from the man to Dima and said quietly, “Do you have my number?”

His eyes flicked down to me, then right back up to the man that’d gone to the desk to check in with the receptionist. “Yeah.”

“Text me tonight,” I said. “I don’t have anything but your email.”

“Will do,” he said. “Watch out for that one.”

I frowned. “Do you know him?”

“Not yet,” he said, like he was about to do a deep dive into the man’s personal life.

I winked at him. “There are several other people here besides me. I’ll be okay.”

“Hmm,” he said. “Call me if you need me.”

IE, call him before I go calling 911.

The scary part was, I was fairly sure he’d get here before the authorities ever could, and I’d be way safer because of it.

I went up onto my tippy toes, and still, he was too tall.

Staring up at him expectantly, his eyes warmed and he met me more than halfway.

Jeez, the man was tall.

“Be safe tonight, whatever you’re doing,” I urged.

His eyes gleamed at that. “Yeah, I’ll do that.”

I didn’t like my new coworker, and I especially didn’t like the patient that’d come in for his sleep study tonight.

The good thing was, I was very much never going to see this man again.

The second good thing was, despite my coworker being useless, the doctor that was helping today wasn’t completely useless.

Luckily, he was one of the ones that didn’t go to the back break room and go to sleep during the shifts. Unluckily, my new coworker, Melody Edams, had a crush on him and flirted with him to the point where I knew that if they were alone, they’d totally be doing it in the break room.

It was like I wasn’t even there.

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