Page 55 of Life To My Flight

She blinked. “He stuffed me in here. I thought it was prudent to stay.”

She crawled out slowly and came to her full height, all 4’11 of her, and glared at the patient on the floor.

My height of 5’8 looked mammoth standing next to her small frame.

“Uhh,” Mona said smartly. “How about we get you both checked out just in case.”

“I’m fine,” we both said at the same time.

We shared a giggle, which was quickly cut short with Mona’s next statement.

“Actually, you’re bleeding, Rue. And Audrey, you have a pretty nifty bruise on your cheek. Let’s go,” Mona declared.

I looked down at my hand to see blood running down it in rivulets.

Huh, look at that. I thought.

We both went reluctantly, and I avoided Cleo’s eyes as I walked out of room 13 and into room 14 where I repeated the story of what had happened no less than fifteen times.

“Your man...he’s scary...and hot,” Audrey said.

Audrey was twenty and in school to be a nurse.

She was a cute, spunky little thing that was really fun to be around.

She made me want to be young again.

Not that twenty-eight wasn’t young, but it wasn’t twenty, either.

“Yeah, he’s pretty darn hot. But he’s not mine,” I tried.

She gave me a look that told me I was dumb if I believed what I’d just said.

Honestly, I didn’t know what Cleo and I were.

He’d dropped me off at home three days ago, and today was the first time I’d seen or heard from him. Granted, I hadn’t given him my number, but it hadn’t changed from a year ago, either. He also knew where I lived, and where I worked.

“Whatever you say,” she agreed, albeit reluctantly.

The cut on my arm only turned out to be a minor scrape. My best guess was that I’d hit it on the hardware that held the cabinet doors on, but that was the least of my worries.

The main one was now glaring at me from the doorway.

“What?” I asked.

His eyes flicked from me to Audrey, and then back to me.

“I have to go back to work. I’m flying today,” he said.

“What?” I asked in surprise.

I hadn’t known he was able to do that.

He nodded.

“Mack’s out with strep throat,” he looked at me pointedly.

I looked up at the ceiling. “Shit.”

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