Page 11 of Remembering You
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“You’re lucky it wasn’t worse,” The doctor handed me a pair of crutches. “The sprain should heal in a couple of weeks as long as you stay off of it and take it easy.”
I groaned. Taking it easy was never my strong suit. Reluctantly, I took the crutches, tucking them beneath my armpits. “How am I going to start my internship here while on crutches?”
Dr. Lowenstein sent me an apologetic look. “I think you’re going to have to delay beginning. You can always work on your thesis research in the meantime.”
I sighed. Sure. There were things I could do to keep busy—but not pay the bills. That internship was paid and the only source of income I’d been planning on. “What about admin jobs at the hospital? Do you need any help filing? Answering phones?”
Dr. Lowenstein pressed his lips together as Sheila entered the exam room. “None that I know of. But I’m sure Sheila can help arrange it if there’s any potential jobs here.”
She smiled sweetly at the doctor, then nodded at me. “Maybe. I’ll have to check around and see if there’s any availability, but I haven’t heard of anything.”
Tears welled in my eyes and I looked to the fluorescent lights above me to try to stop them from falling. “Well, I look forward to getting to learning a lot from you when I’m eventually here working.” I managed to smile at the doctor as he tore a piece of paper from his prescription pad and handed it to me.
He smiled back warmly, brown eyes bright. “You’re going to be great here, I’m sure. Unfortunately, I’m moving to Boston at the end of the month.” His eyes shifted briefly to Sheila. “There’s a nurse practitioners position open down there, too you know.”
My eyes widened and I jerked my gaze to Sheila, whose lips were now pressed into a thin, white line, glaring at Dr. Lowenstein. She cleared her throat, and sent me a quick, fleeting smile. “I’m so busy here, I can’t even think about that.”
The two locked into a stare that had me shifting uncomfortably on the paper lined bed. Finally, Dr. Lowenstein cleared his throat, giving me one final handshake. “We’re going to want to see you back here in two weeks for another x-ray.”
With that, he left the room and Sheila grabbed an ace bandage. Beginning at my toes, she wound the bandage tightly up toward my ankle. “So…” I said carefully. “Boston, huh?”
Sheila sighed, but it sounded tight. “No, probably not.”
“But… maybe?”
She glanced up, her jet-black lashes starkly contrasting against her pale skin. “Maybe.” She finished wrapping my ankle and clipped the ace bandage shut. “Look, I haven’t talked to Jim yet about it. Could we keep this between us for now?”
I nodded. Truthfully, that wouldn’t be hard. After he showed me my new room at the residency center, what were the chances I would see him regularly? Pretty dang slim. As far as I was concerned, I need to stay far away from him.
“Okay,” Sheila stood up. “You’re good to go. Unfortunately, I’m not off my shift for another two hours,” she added. “There’s a bus stop a block away, or you can wait for me in the nurse’s lounge until my shift is over if you want.”
“I hate to be a bother—”
Sheila waved her hand. “It’s not a bother. I head down toward the artist residency to get home anyway. I pass right by it.”
I smiled. Sheila wasn’t so bad. Sure… she was a little tense. And not as warm and inviting as most other people I’d met here. But that didn’t make her a bad person. Just not what I was used to. “Thank you. I really appreciate it.”
Sheila gave another tight nod and grabbed her clipboard. “Okay. The nurse’s lounge is the fourth door down this hall on your right. I’ll come get you after my shift.”
* * *
I was only waitingthirty minutes before there was a light knock on the ajar break room door. I was laying on the couch, my ankle elevated, watching Three’s Company. But the knock made me freeze. Was I supposed to invite someone in? Into a break room where I didn’t really belong in the first place?
“Knock, knock,” Jim Tripp poked his head into the room and I heaved a relieved sigh.
“Oh, it’s just you. Thank God.”
Jim’s brows tightened and his mouth twisted into a mocking offended grin. “That’s quite a greeting.”
He held up a key dangling off of a plastic keychain between his pinched fingers. “I got you a different room at the residency center. It’s on the first floor and the best cabin they have.”
I tilted my head. “It is? How do you know?”
His grin widened and he dropped the key into my outstretched palm. “Because I built the place.”
“You… you built the cabin?”
