Page 21 of Fever: Love In Scrubs
She scoffed. “They are not that bad!”
“You’re a social butterfly. You’re friends with any and everybody.”
“I’mveryselective of who I share my time with, thank you. Any of my guy friends would be good for you. Just say you’re interested in this doctor boo,” she sang.
I rolled my eyes just as Jaxson pulled into a parking lot. I swung in behind him and found a space.
“We’re here. I gotta go, Tink.”
“Make sure you tell me how this goes later.”
“There’s not gonna be anything to tell. Love you, cousin.”
“I love you too, girl. Oh, and I will be telling Mama how you broke your ass and didn’t call either of us. I’m sure we’ll see you in the morning.”
I rolled my eyes. “Y’all don’t have to come, Tinka. I’m okay.”
“She’s gonna want to lay eyes on you, so prepare to see her. Bye, boo!”
We disconnected the call as Jaxson climbed out of his car and came over to open my door. He reached for my hand to help meout, then offered his arm for stability. I accepted and we headed into the chicken spot.
“I know it’s a bit stereotypical, but I figured you couldn’t go wrong with chicken,” he said, once we placed our drink orders.
I chuckled. “It’s fine. I love wings and honey hot is my favorite flavor.”
“Well, that’s a win for me.”
We sat in silence for a few minutes as we looked over the full menu. I was starving, and this food was going to hit the spot.
“So tell me a little about you, Ms. Driscoll,” Jaxson said, peering over at me.
“Well, I’m really not that interesting. I’m thirty, as you know. Only child. My mom died in childbirth. I lived here with my dad until I was fifteen before moving in with my aunt, my mother’s sister, in Colorado Springs. There I work as an Independent Living Coordinator at The Connection Compass, a youth center where I basically teach life skills to kids.”
“Is that something you’ve always wanted to do?”
“I think I decided on it a year after moving in with my aunt. She taught me so much about taking care of myself the right way. Most of what I learned about being a woman up until that point were things I read in books or magazines.”
“Can I ask you something?”
I bit my lip, not sure of what he was fishing for, but nodded my head. “Sure.”
“Did any of your other family know how you were living?”
I shrugged. “If they did, they didn’t do anything about it. For the first part of my life, it was really just the two of us. I mean, I spent summers with my aunt. Dad would usually put me on a bus, and she’d pick me up from the bus station. The only time we really traveled together to see her was Thanksgiving or Christmas. I remembered always hating to come back homeafter being at her house because it was so clean, and I felt the most normal. It was like my little slice of paradise.”
I briefly recalled the time I spent at my aunt’s during those earlier years. Summers were the one time I got to just be a kid. I’d run around with Tinka or the neighborhood kids. They didn’t know me, where I came from, how I lived, or who I was so there was no judgement. I was free until it was time to come home again.
“What about you?” I asked, trying to change the subject. “Tell me something about you.”
“Well, I’m thirty-five. Divorced. My twelve-year-old is my broke best friend on a good day,” he added with a chuckle. “My parents have been married for forty years, and I’m their oldest child. My sister is five years younger than me and she has a six-year-old little girl named Kacie who loves to run my pockets and I let her.”
I smiled. “So you love kids?”
“I do. If I wasn’t in pathology, I would have gone into pediatrics.”
“You see yourself having more kids?”
“I’d like at least one more, even if it means starting over. What about you?”
