Chapter 7
danielle
Raine was rushing around getting her stuff together for class as I was rushing around getting my stuff together for my audition. “Break a leg!” she called after me as I hurried out the door and down the steps to my car.
Looking up at the sky, I wanted to cry. It was flat and gray, and the icy wind threatened snow. That storm yesterday had ushered in a cold front.
Days like this, I wondered, if there was indeed a Higher Power, why said Higher Power hated me so much. It had to be some sort of divine conspiracy against me, right? First the throat issue and now possible snow? For someone from the Midwest, you’d think I’d take it in stride, but driving in bad weather freaked me out.
With white knuckles clenching the steering wheel, I drove carefully to the audition. The whole way, I pleaded with the aforementioned Higher Power to do me a huge favor and let my audition go off without any hitches. I just needed a win right now. My anxiety was shooting through the roof at the moment. I just wanted this part so badly—my thesis would be so much better if I got a big part, and Marian was the female lead.
I fiddled with my phone as I waited for my turn. Then, I barely heard my name being called, my heart was pounding so loudly in my ears. I stood up on wobbly legs and made my way to the stage. Flashing a smile at the directors sitting at the table in front of me, I prepared myself to knock ‘em dead. Not literally, of course. It was just another theatrical expression, like break a leg.
My accompanist smiled from the piano, and I nodded. The intro played, and I filled my lungs with air. And then…
Then, like some miracle unfolding its butterfly wings, my voice soared.
“I hope you didn’t have to wait too long,” I apologized to my patient as I breezed into the room, her chart clutched in my hand.
“I was a little late, actually,” Danielle admitted, her cheeks turning a rosy pink. “I had an audition today, and my voice cooperated. Maybe those antibiotics are taking care of my issue?”
“Well,” I hoped that was the case, but I wasn’t going to jump the gun when we hadn’t run any tests yet, “we’re going to see what we find in your sinuses and throat today with this endoscopy, and then you just need to complete the CT scan.”
“Yes, I’m planning to do that after lunch. Hoping the snow doesn’t get any worse though. They’re calling for ice now, I think.” She rolled her dark eyes in an adorable way.
Still, I shuddered. Driving in inclement weather was more nerve-racking to me than performing surgery. I’d rather do the latter any day, even blindfolded with one arm tied behind my back, than drive on ice, especially black ice. It was February. Surely winter was nearly over. Indiana winters were not for the faint of heart. Wasn’t it almost sixty degrees just a few days ago?
My nurse, Lucy, arrived, and we set up for the endoscopy. Out of the corner of my eye, I watched Danielle as we prepared. She was a voluptuous woman with long brown hair worn straight with a part in the middle. She had fair skin, lovely wide brown eyes and high cheekbones. She had a natural look and didn’t need much in the way of makeup. I could easily see why Aris was attracted to her. She was a beautiful lady.
Erasing my thoughts about her and Aris, I performed the procedure and scoped out her sinuses and throat. Afterwards, I scribbled a few notes as Lucy cleaned up the equipment.
“Well? What’s the verdict?” She looked at me with her big brown eyes, blinking slowly in anticipation.
“I wish I had better news for you… Your septum is deviated,” I explained. “I believe that is why all the drainage is going down your throat, and you’re experiencing post-nasal drip. The deviated septum is blocking the mucus and causing it to drip down your throat. You said you suffer from frequent sinus infections.”
She nodded. “I always have. Since I was a teen.”
“We’ll do the CT scan, and I can take a look on the inside to get a better idea, but the best way to correct a deviated septum is with surgery,” I shared.
“Oh.” She frowned. “There’s nothing I can take, like another drug or something? Now’s not a good time for me to have surgery.” She cocked her head. “Not sure it’s ever going to be a good time, in fact.”
I shook my head, but I felt a pang of empathy tugging at my heart. Why? I lived for surgery. It was my favorite part of the job. “No, it’s the actual anatomy that’s causing your issue. At least that’s my initial diagnosis. I want to get the CT scan results before I say with a hundred percent certainty.”
“I appreciate you being thorough.” She clasped her hands together, and all I could see was pain and fear in her eyes. “So, I guess there’s nothing else I can do right now?”
I didn’t like to see my patients uncomfortable, naturally, but her discomfort was affecting me more than I would have expected. Probably because I knew how much Aris liked her. There was a degree of pressure on me to fix her issues. “Let me walk you to the desk, and we’ll get you set up for a follow-up appointment after your CT scan.”
She huffed out a sigh. “Okay, thanks.” She gathered up her things, and I opened the door, allowing her to walk out in the hallway first. Lucy flashed me a surprised look, probably because I never walked patients to the counter after an exam.
Aris was into her, and that was pushing me to take good care of her. She wasn’t just an ordinary patient because of her connection to the man I loved. I supposed that made sense, then.
“Hey, Karla, can you schedule Danielle for a week out?” I asked at the counter.
The overhead light created a halo around Karla’s shiny black locks, but she frowned as she studied the schedule. “You’re completely booked next week.”
I gritted my teeth but forced a smile so my next words wouldn’t sound harsh. “Find fifteen minutes for her, please. I’m sure you can—pull it from my lunch if you need to.”
Karla looked up with a warm smile, eyes on me first and then Danielle. She scribbled something on a card. “Next Tuesday at noon, okay?”
Danielle nodded. “Thanks, I really appreciate it.”
“Here,” I gestured toward the exit to the waiting room, “let me walk you out. I need a breath of fresh air.” I wanted to say a word or two about Aris while I had her attention, and I couldn’t do that in the office when I was still acting in a professional capacity.
Her brows quirked in surprise as a smile spread across her face. But she was quiet as I pushed open the door and allowed her to exit ahead of me. Then I followed her through the waiting room and opened the door to the main hallway. We rode the elevator down to the lobby.
“Sorry, I don’t mean to make you uncomfortable,” I said once we were alone in the elevator.
“You’re not,” she assured me.
I smiled, choosing my words carefully. “I just…I wanted to tell you that I’m glad you’re seeing Aris.”
This time her brows drew together. “What?”
She clearly wasn’t expecting me to talk about him. “Sorry, I am probably making a mess of this. I just… I’m really busy right now, and it’s nice that he has something to keep him busy?—”
“Are you for real right now?” Daggers formed in her dark eyes, and she looked ready to launch them at me. “Are you saying you’re glad I’m able to distract your boyfriend while you have other stuff to do?”
There was venom in her words, but the elevator jerked to a stop, and the door slid open. She stormed out, and I followed her briskly, wanting to smack myself for being such a dolt.
“Wait, Danielle, that’s not what I meant!” I insisted as she paced toward the front doors. The glass slid open, creating an opening to the vestibule, and as soon as she stepped in, the glass door to the outside opened as well.
A huge gust of wind smacked me in the face as I continued to pursue her, tossing out apologies. “Wait, can we talk about this for a second?”
Then I saw Aris, on his bike—what the hell is he thinking riding his bike in this weather?—approaching us. He wore a knitted ski hat with his fleece hood over it, tied tightly under his chin. Thick gloves covered his hands as they wrapped around the handlebars.
It all happened so fast, it was like a blur.
Danielle stepped off the sidewalk, right into Aris’s path.
He couldn’t stop the bike as the wet, icy snow was already falling.
Next thing I knew, he went flying into the air. He and the bike came to rest right on Danielle’s leg.
I rushed to them, the snow pelting me like tiny grenades.
“Oh my god, are you guys okay?” I pulled Aris to standing, grabbed his bike, and then went to offer my hand to Danielle.
She only glared up at me with a look that could kill.
What the hell was he saying? That he was glad I could distract his boyfriend while he was busy being a surgeon? Were all doctors this fucking full of themselves? What the actual fuck?
He was shouting his apologies and explanations, but all I wanted to do was escape. My luck with doctors had always been absolute shit, and this one just told me I needed surgery. Not what I wanted to hear when I was this close to finishing my master’s degree and heading to New York to make my dreams come true.
I knew I shouldn’t have trusted him.
The cold air blew in like something out of the movie Frozen, but I didn’t care. It felt good on my burning cheeks. I needed to get the hell to my car and get home before the storm got worse. I was not about to “Let It Go” at the moment.
Shit, I still needed to go get the CT scan at the hospital.
FUCK!
I marched down the sidewalk when Aris, all bundled up in a fleece jacket, hat, and gloves, came barreling across the parking lot toward the front of the building on his bike. Is he going to stop?
Before I had a clue what was happening, I was stepping down onto the pavement just as Aris’s bike careened into me. He went flying, and so did the bike.
But I didn’t have a chance to see where he would land because I lost my balance and crashed to the ground, the icy pavement scratching up my legs and hands.
Then the wind was knocked out of me, and a crushing blow sent pain rocketing up and down my leg.
So that’s where Aris and the bike landed, I thought without even looking.
Right on top of my leg.