He Wasn't Ready to Share a Space, So I Gave Him the Whole City novel · Chapter 3 of 24

Chapter 3: Six Sick Days

On her last week at the city ER, Bethany refuses to cover for Sierra in front of the whole huddle, and the charge nurse reads out Sierra's six sick days, all on Dane's days off. That night Dr. Roark calls and calls her Bethany Jean, a name she has never told anyone.

I gave my two weeks' notice at seven on Monday morning, and by seven fifteen the whole department knew why.

Dane's sister had posted the video of the dinner.

She had cut it down to the good part, my hand setting the key on the cake plate.

Someone had tagged the hospital.

Dane had texted at three in the morning: "You won't see a dime. Delete whatever you recorded."

I had saved the recording in three places before I slept, and I hadn't answered him.

The eighteen thousand dollars was still his house, and I carried that around all shift like a stone in my shoe.

Our charge nurse had twenty years on the floor and had never said a kind word at shift change.

She put a coffee in my hand.

"Black," she said. "Don't thank me. Drink it."

The rest of the day team stood around the whiteboard for huddle, and nobody looked at me.

That was a kindness too.

My manager came out of her office with the printed schedule in one hand and a pen in the other.

"Before we start, I need to fix the Thursday and Friday coverage," she said.

"Bethany's leaving, so I'll be asking more of all of you."

Sierra came in at five past, with her hair wet and her eyes swollen.

She stopped at the edge of the group.

"I need to ask a favor," she said, and she was looking at me.

"Thursday. I'm moving, and I can't get the truck any other day. Just one shift."

Nobody in the huddle made a sound.

I thought about saying yes.

That is the truth.

For a moment I thought about it, because yes was the word I had been saying to Sierra since April.

"No," I said.

Sierra blinked.

"I'm not covering for you," I said. "Not Thursday, not any day. I don't work for you."

"It's one shift, Bethany."

"It was five."

"I never asked you for five."

"You asked me for every one of them."

Our charge nurse cleared her throat.

"If we're doing this out loud," she said, "I've been matching the sick calls to the schedule since the summer."

She turned over a page on her clipboard.

"Sierra called out six times this year. Every one fell on a day Dane Corbin had off."

She looked at me.

"I know because I asked Bethany once who her boyfriend was."

My manager said nothing, and I realized she wasn't surprised.

"My office, Sierra," she said. "Now."

Sierra didn't move.

Her face had gone red.

She looked around the circle for one person who would take her side.

The tech by the supply cart looked at the floor. The respiratory therapist looked at the ceiling.

"Oh, so now everyone's perfect?" Sierra said, and her voice cracked.

"You've got a shiny new hospital to run off to, Bethany. Some of us live here."

"You live in Dane's house," I said. "I paid for part of it."

Somebody in the back said, "Oh my God," under their breath.

"That's enough," my manager said, and it wasn't loud, but it ended the conversation.

Sierra followed her into the office and the door closed.

Everyone went to work.

Nobody talked about it again.

I went to my assigned beds, and a tech wheeled a man with a kidney stone into bay three.

The tech squeezed my shoulder as she went by.

By two in the afternoon someone had taped a card to my locker.

It had signatures down both sides and a drawing of a tiny truck with a fox driving it.

I had to stand there for a minute.

I had known those people for four years, and I hadn't known they were paying attention.

At the end of the shift my phone rang from a number I didn't know.

"Ms. Holzer? Wyatt Roark. I run the emergency department at Harlow Creek."

His voice was low and slow, with a rasp in it.

"Dr. Roark," I said.

"Wyatt is fine. Your manager says you can start in two weeks."

"I can."

"We'll make it worth the drive." He paused.

"We're short. I'd like to show you the department before you commit to anything. Come out Saturday, if you can."

"I committed last night."

"I know." Something in his voice moved, close to a smile. "I'd like to show you anyway."

I told him I would be there at ten.

"Good." He didn't hang up.

I heard a door close on his end and the line went quiet.

"Get some rest tonight, Bethany Jean."

I stood in the locker room with the phone against my ear.

I had never told anyone at that hospital my middle name.

It wasn't on any form they could have sent him.

Nobody called me that except my grandmother, and she had been dead for six years.

"Dr. Roark?" I said.

But he had already hung up.

← Chapter 2 · All chapters · Chapter 4 →

Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend