Page 1 of Guilty For You

Chapter 1 – Delilah

Present

Iclosedthelinencloset door with more force than necessary, but it was better than screaming at the infuriatingly needy woman in bed eight. In the six hours that she’d been in the ER, she had requested three different meals because the options given by the hospital cafeteria were not up to her standards, an almond milk mocha latte with cold foam, a private room because the little boy on the other side of the curtain cried too much, and every pain killer known to man.

For her broken toe.

Had to love rural ERs on Saturdays.

To get my silent revenge on the patient from hell, I moved the sick little boy who cried too much for her liking to a private room down the hall so he wouldn’t have to deal with anyone else like her while we treated him for his food poisoning. It was the least I could do to make up for her bad behavior toward the sweet little baby.

I enjoyed the outraged look on her face when she realized he was getting the private room, not her.

“Delilah.” Dr. Franklin called from the nurse’s desk, “Can I see for you a minute?” He nodded towards the on-call room behind the glass wall and walked in giving me no choice but to follow him.

“Shit,” I murmured under my breath and looked at Winnie, my best friend, as she wagged her eyebrows at me suggestively and snickered. “Shut up.” I flicked her ear as I walked past her. I felt like a kid again on my way to the principal’s office.

“What’s up, Doc?” I asked lightly, betraying the anxiety pulsing through my body.

He leaned against the counter with his long legs stretched out in front of him, and crossed at the ankle as he stirred a cup of coffee with a straw. He was in his mid-thirties and attractive in a golden boy next-door kind of way with perfectly combed blonde hair and bright blue eyes.

The exact opposite of my type.

“I want to check in with you. Make sure you’re all right because you seem a bit frazzled today.” I worked in the Belden Community Hospital ER for few years, and Dr. Oliver Franklin was one of the on-call physicians that I worked with the most. While we were friendly, we weren’t friends.

I was too jaded and cynical; I didn’t make friends easily anymore.

Nonetheless, he never stopped trying. While that was commendable given that I wasn’t ever a ray of sunshine, it was a lost cause.

“I’m good. Bed eight is just testing my patience today.” I said, swiping my bangs back from my face to look at the clock over his shoulder. “I should get back to her actually, it’s been ten minutes since the last time she rang her call bell. She’s probably going through withdraws of my lovely disposition.”

He smirked and sipped his coffee, “Yeah, she’s been a real pain in the ass today.” He sighed, “And I only do a third of what you do.”

“The sooner ortho gets down here to give her the second opinion she’s requesting, the better for everyone involved.” I smiled and took a step backward towards the door.

He leaned up off the counter, “Before you go,” he cleared his throat and set his coffee down. “there’s something else I wanted to ask you.”

Fuck.

Don’t do it, Oliver.

Please don’t do it.

I was already cringing internally as he smiled his pretty boy smile at me that no doubt made these small-town girls melt for him. Because any girl would be lucky to have Oliver Franklin smile at them like he was me, but I wasn’t interested in his smiles. I wasn’t the type of girl that could let pretty boy smiles like his affect me anymore.

He went on, bold and brave, and I had to give him some credit for that, knowing I was less than approachable on a good day, and today wasn’t even a good day. “Do you want to grab a bite to eat some night? Maybe grab a beer or something over at Cherry’s.”

“Uh-” I bit my lip and tried to get my words right to let him down gently seeing as how he was my boss after all. “I appreciate-”.

He cut me off holding his hand up, “Don’t say no.” He smiled again and took a couple of steps forward, “You never go out, you never meet up with the group or anything. You just work.” He laughed when I rolled my eyes good heartedly, “You deserve to take a break from life and have some fun.”

“I can’t.” I cut him off, “I appreciate the offer, I do, I’m just not at a spot to go out and have fun right now." I took a step back towards the door and smiled to lessen the refusal, “I do appreciate it though.”

He nodded with his little smirk still in place. “I hear you. I’ll let you off the hook this time, but I’m going to try again someday. Because this sleepy little town doesn’t get new faces very often, and weneverget pretty ones like yours.” He winked. “But we can table it for now.”

“Okay, Casanova.” I smirked back and then walked out before he could say anything else embarrassing.

Winnie looked over the top of her computer screen with mischief in her eyes as I walked back to my desk. “Not a word.” I hissed at her.

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