Page 24 of Ghost
It’s on the tip of my tongue to defend him, but I don’t. Why should I? “Anyway, you were saying?”
“TellGhostthat you can’t do it,” she finishes her earlier thought. “Recommend another nurse for him and bail.”
I’d be lying if I said the thought hadn’t crossed my mind. It definitely has… dozens of times.
“I can’t.”
“Why not?”
“Because. I just… can’t.”
“More like you won’t.”
“That too.”
“But why? I don’t understand why you’re punishing yourself like this.”
“I’m not punishing myself.”
“Yeah, you are,” she snaps. “Just like you did after he moved to Oregon.”
“This has nothing to do with that.”
“Doesn’t it?” she counters. “Admit it, if this were any other patient, you’d have been out the door by now.”
She’s wrong about that, but it’s not surprising. Lori never did understand how I could work with people whose disease causes them to treat me like shit half the time.
“I’ve never walked out on a job, and I’m not gonna start now.”
There’s a long pause as if she’s biting back some retort that will piss me off. “Okay,” she finally says. “What can I do to make this better? How can I help?”
“I don’t know,” I answer honestly. “I just have to treat this like any other job, right?”
“Right,” she agrees, her tone too bright, too agreeable. “What if we have a girl’s night soon? When will you get time off?”
“I’ve got one day a week off,” I tell her. “And before you tell me that’s insane, it was my idea.”
“Wasn’t gonna say any such thing,” she quips.
I laugh. “Uh huh.”
“Okay, fine, I was. But I won’t now.”
“Thanks, Lor.”
“You’re welcome. So, when is your day off?”
“Um, I don’t know. I didn’t get a chance to talk to Ghost about it before he had to go this morning. He said he’d be back, but…” I pull the phone away from my ear and glance at the time, and annoyance flares when I see that it’s after ten. “Well, it’s late, so I guess it’ll have to wait until tomorrow.”
Or whenever he decides to show his face again.
“As soon as you do know, call me. We’ll figure something out.”
“I will,” I promise her.
“Okay. Try to have a good night.”
“You, too. Love ya.”
