Page 53 of Camera Chemistry
I groan and bury my face in my pillow. “You fucking menace. Stop before I pay for an Uber so you get your ass over here tonight.”
“You could come over here.” It’s a timid suggestion, one I know she’s nervous to ask. She bites her lip and her eyes dart away.
“Look at me, sweetheart.” Her gaze moves back up to the screen. “Trust me. If my daughter wasn’t down the hall, I’d be at your front door already.”
“In that case… Do you want to get dinner sometime this week? I’m sure you’re busy and so am I, but—”
“Say the day, Maggie, and I’ll be there, even if it means rearranging my whole schedule.”
“Thursday night? That’s only three days away.”
I smile at her, exhaustion and glee hitting me like a tidal wave. “I’m going to have to buy you a coffee after, to honor my promise to my meddling daughter, but yeah. Thursday. It’s a date, sweetheart.”
THIRTY-ONE
AIDEN
I am exhausted.
Maggie and I stayed up and talked for three hours, filling each other in on everything in our lives from the past few weeks we’ve been apart. When we finally said goodbye after she fell asleep mid-sentence, it was nearing four a.m. My alarm went off just past six, and I’ve never hated a sound so much in my life.
I yawn and rub my temples to rid the headache forming. A quick check of my schedule tells me I’m free for the next hour, and I’m in desperate need of some caffeine to keep me awake. Instead of heading for the break room pot of coffee that’s been sitting out for god knows how long, I decide to go to the cafeteria downstairs, needing a change of scenery and to stretch my legs.
This is why I go to bed early. I’m a zombie incapable of functioning correctly the next day after a night stretching past ten p.m.
Through another yawn, I step into the elevator, finding a spot tucked away in the corner. Two doctors file in behind me and nod hello. After the greeting, they lean into each other to whisper conspiratorially. There’s been an uptick in attention on me since the photo shoot. I knew that would happen. It was inevitable when the photos went viral, but it’s awkward to know you’re being talked about by your peers, and not some stranger on the internet.
Ignoring the conversation unfolding beside me, I tap my foot to the beat of the jazz music crooning softly over the speakers. It’s a soothing compilation, one that quiets my brain for the first time in days.
The doors open and I let the other occupants exit before I make my way down the hall. My phone buzzes in my pocket as I push inside the crowded cafeteria. Nurses and patients’ families mill about, in search of sustenance.
When I pull out the device, I see Maven’s name on the screen. I’m about to answer her message when a shoulder bumps into mine. I’m knocked to the side and my phone tumbles to the ground.
“Shit,” a voice says. “I’m so sorry.”
I know that voice.
That voice whispered in my ear about howgoodI made her feel. Howcloseshe was to finishing. Howbadlyshe needed me. That voice said goodnight to me over FaceTime last night, an exhausted smile on her lips and my name a breathy song. I close my eyes and take a deep breath.
I must be imagining it. Manifesting what Iwantto see or hear. I’ll wait five seconds, then I’ll look.
I count slowly, staving off the inevitable disappointment that’s going to come when I find out who just ran into me. It’s probably someone doing their residency, a frazzled kid who hasn’t slept in days. Itcan’tbe who I want it to be.
One. Two. Three. Four. Five.
My eyes blink open, and I raise my chin. There, standing three feet away, coffee down the front of her blue scrubs and her hair in a ponytail, is Maggie.
She’s staring at me, jaw slack and eyes wide. Her limbs seem to have become frozen because she’s unmoving, a statue amid people meandering around us.
“Aiden?” she whispers.
“Maggie? What… what are you doing here?”
“I work here.”
“You workhere?”I ask. “At Uptown Medical?”
“Yes.”
