Page 35 of Remembering You
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Marty sat in the waiting room of her hospital, staring at the closed double doors. It was a cruel twist of fate to be on this side of the doors. And these chairs? God, they were uncomfortable. Marty was going to talk to her supervisor first thing on Monday about them. If your loved one is having emergency surgery, the least they should be able to do at Maple Grove General is offer the families comfortable seating.
Lex paced the waiting room and if Marty didn’t know any better, she would have thought she could see the worn away linoleum from his foot path for the last hour. “What’s taking so long?” he muttered, his hands clamping white knuckled onto his hips.
It wasn’t until then that Marty realized that even though she was seated, her knee was bouncing like a kid on a trampoline. She took a deep breath. Oils. They needed to diffuse some calming oils in the waiting room, too. Another thing to talk with her boss about on Monday. “It’s a long surgery, Lex,” Marty said quietly, glancing at the clock. It was one-forty in the morning, a little over four hours since Ronnie went into surgery. “Do you want any tea?” Marty stood under the guise of getting Lex something to drink, but in actuality, she couldn’t stomach the thought of sitting there doing nothing for another moment.
“You sit, Mom. I’ll get some…” Yvonne stood, placing a gentle hand on Marty’s shoulder.
“Thank you, but no,” Lex said, waving a hand. “I couldn’t possibly have any tea right now.”
Yvonne gave Marty a shrug and a weak smile, sitting back down beside Steve just as Cam came back in the waiting room, tucking his phone into his back pocket. “Just talked with Lydia—Maddie and Olivia are both good. Sound asleep. So nothing to worry about over there.” He placed a hand on Lex’s shoulder and gave it a squeeze.
“Good,” Lex nodded. “Good. Thanks for checking on them.”
“Of course.”
The silence resumed as Cam took his seat next to his brother, Steve once more.
The quiet was getting to everyone. Even as stoic as Marty was, she didn’t think she could stomach any more quiet waiting. Instead, she stood. “I’m going to go get myself some tea. Anyone else want one?”
Everyone politely shook their heads no and with a sigh relief, Marty exited the waiting room toward the nurse’s station. It wasn’t the best tea, but it was closer than the cafeteria, and well… it wasfree.
Marty smiled at Jill and Kim, two nurses that were a little younger than herself.
“Hey Marty,” Kim gave her a smile that suggested they knew exactly why she was here. “Any word about the surgery yet?”
Marty shook her head. “Not yet. But torsed ovarian cysts can be … complicated. Marty had assisted on that surgery a couple times in her career. Once it had taken three hours and another time, it had taken over five. And since Ronnie was carrying twins, it could be even longer.
“Dr. Fitzgerald and Dr. Foster are the best. She’s in good hands.” Jill said and reached over to squeeze her hand.
“I know,” Marty said in response. Mostly because what else could she say to that?
“Speaking of Dr. Foster… I think he was on a date when he got called in,” Kim added, wiggling her eyebrows.
“I wonder who the woman is?” Jill asked
Marty glanced down at her dress and the gray heels Yvonne had convinced her to put on and tugged at the hem of the sweatshirt she had grabbed from her locker. Should she say something? Say that she was on a date with him? Oh boy, this was getting complicated fast.
She drummed her fingernails against the counter, waiting for the electric kettle to finish heating the water.Heat faster, dammit…
“Derek overheard him talking with Dr. Fitzgerald about wanting to ask out one of the nurses here…” Kim whispered, as though there were anyone else in the vicinity who could possibly hear them.
“I heard he resigned from his last attending position because he was dating some surgical intern…” Jill said.
Marty spun around to face them. “He what?”
Jill nodded, seeming a little startled at Marty’s response. “I mean, I don’t know. That’s just what I heard. It was one of thoseIf you don’t resign, you’ll be fired for dating someone you’re a supervisor forthings.”
Kim gave a little half-snort, half-grown noise at that. “Figures. Men are such dogs. Foroncethere’s a decent man in our age range and of course he’s chasing the youngest girls. Allison said he asked her out tonight, but she said no.”
“Allison?” Marty asked, unable to help herself from interrupting.
“Yeah,” Kim said. “You know, that new nurse that just graduated last year? She said he was fishing around, seeing if she had plans tonight. And that he brings her a tea after they finish surgeries together.”
“Is she even old enough to have a legal drink on a date?” Jill asked.
The girls snickered, but Marty felt frozen in place. “I mean… are you sure he asked her out tonight?”
