16. One Employee
16
ONE EMPLOYEE
T wo weeks later, Coy was in his office grabbing a granola bar. He turned when he heard a throat clear behind him.
“What are you sneaking in here?” Angel asked. “Do you have chocolate?”
He laughed. “Just a granola bar from your stash. I’m hungry for some reason.”
“You didn’t ask,” she said.
“I didn’t think you’d mind,” he’d said.
Things were going much better than he could have expected.
He’d cooked dinner for them on what he considered their first official date. They talked and cleared the air about the important things and then relaxed and played pool and darts again. It was too cold and windy to go down by the beach and start a fire, so he’d had one going in the family room while they watched TV and made out like teens for thirty minutes.
He’d had a hard time keeping his body under control, but somehow he managed it.
The next day, she’d asked him to her place and she cooked dinner. Burgers that were a bit crispy and she’d gotten embarrassed, but he found it sweet that she’d tried.
Last weekend, they’d spent Friday night and Saturday at his place. They cooked together. Maybe he was teaching her there too. She’d accused him of being romantic and he was.
Or always tried to be. He found women liked it and there was part of him that wanted to impress Angel and let her see a side of him she’d never known he’d had.
If he was struggling to keep their dates PG, that was his problem since she’d shown no sign of wanting to go much further and he didn’t want to press.
He still struggled to get it out of his head that it was Spencer’s baby sister and when he talked to his best friend last Saturday and Angel was in his house crossing her eyes at him, it’d been hard to keep the laughter out of his voice and be asked what was so funny.
It’s not as if he could have said it.
“I don’t mind if you eat my snacks,” she said, moving into the office and almost brushing against him before she said quietly, “As long as you feed me when I’m hungry.”
“I don’t mind doing that,” he said.
Angel moved past him and opened her drawer and pulled out a stick of gum.
“Dr. Bond,” Mandy said. “Your next patient is in the room.”
“Thanks, Mandy,” he said, shoving the last bite in his mouth. “Just needed a snack.”
Angel walked out with Mandy and didn’t say a word to him. They’d been good, in his eyes, keeping this separate.
She turned when she was alone in the hall and then winked at him. “You’re lucky you didn’t take the last one out of my desk,” she said.
“Is Coy stealing your food?” Abby said from the room she was in with a patient. “He likes to steal people’s food.”
“So I’m learning,” Angel said. “I might have to put a lock on that drawer.”
He laughed and turned into his room next to where Angel had gone in. He knew she had several patients today. She was getting busier and thriving just as he’d hoped.
He could have given her this patient, but since his sister-in-law had called him personally about her employee’s accident and broken teeth, he was going to take care of it.
“Hi, Andi,” he said when he walked into the room and saw her sitting there. “Ready for this?”
“As ready as I’m going to be,” Andi said.
Mandy was already in there getting everything ready. “Mandy is going to numb you with some gel before the shots. You shouldn’t feel much pain at all. If any. But you’ll feel some vibrations as I try to smooth your teeth down so that the resin will adhere better. Then we’ll get you all set and out of here in less than forty minutes or so.”
“That’s not bad,” Andi said. “I thought it’d be longer.”
“I’m fast,” he said, winking. “And good.”
“I’m banking on both of them,” Andi said.
Mandy stuck some numbing gel on her gums while he said, “I’ll be back in about five minutes. Going to check on a few more patients.”
He moved into Abby’s room and checked on her patient whom he’d noticed she was finishing up with.
“How are you doing, Brice?” he asked the teen in the chair.
“I’ll be better when I’m out of here, Dr. Bond. I hate the way my teeth hurt after,” Brice said.
He frowned and looked at Abby. It’s not the first time he’d heard that from Abby’s patients. He knew she was thorough and he appreciated it, but there was a line to not cause pain either.
“Brice doesn’t like to floss,” Abby said. “I told him if he did it wouldn’t hurt as much. I used the water pick this time to make it easier.”
He couldn’t fault her for that, even if he could fault her for not getting the hint he wasn’t interested. “Let’s take a look,” he said. “Open wide.”
He finished up and then told the teen to floss as Abby had instructed.
He was leaving the room when Mandy waved him back into Andi’s room.
Coy used to be running back and forth between patients like this all the time, but now he didn’t feel as if he had to.
He swapped out his gloves, gave Andi two shots of Novocain, then left to check on another patient.
When he was done with that patient, he returned after popping his head in to let Angel know to get the next few while he was busy.
“Let’s see how you’re doing,” he said. He put another pair of gloves on and pulled his mask up to cover his mouth and nose. Andi opened her mouth again and he was poking around. “Do you feel anything?”
“Nope,” she said.
“Good,” he said. “We can get started. You’re going to hear noise. It’s just the sander. Don’t worry. I’ll make sure my hand doesn’t slip and hit another tooth.”
“Dentist humor?” Andi asked.
He was grinning and then put a shield over his face.
“I can tell by the look on your face I just made you nervous. I don’t like goggles, as they tend to steam up with the mask. I can’t get my eyes scratched if something did come out and it has happened.”
“Good idea,” Andi said. “I’d rather you focus on the right teeth too.”
She lay back in the chair while he got to work. He knew she’d had a head injury recently and tried to be as fast and gentle as he could to not cause her any pain or discomfort.
She was as relaxed as much as people get in the chair. At least she wasn’t white knuckle gripping the arms of the chair like others had done. You could only try to comfort people as much as possible.
“I think you’re done,” he said. “Bite down on this one more time and rub your teeth back and forth.”
She did as she was instructed for the third time.
“Thanks,” she said.
“The Novocain should wear off in an hour or so. Maybe longer for some people, but you’re good to go and eat like you normally would. If you have any problems or pain or something feels off or not even, give us a call.”
“It already feels weird. What I can feel.”
“Which is normal. It’s not the same as having your original teeth touching there and that will take a bit to get used to. I’d say if in a few days that doesn’t go away, let me know. I might have to sand it down some more.”
He could tell by the lopsided smirk she was giving him that she’d suck up anything to not come back. Again, something he was used to.
He helped her out of the chair and watched her leave and Mandy would clean the room up and get it ready for the next patient.
At the end of the day, he was in the break room filling his cup up with water. He needed to stop at the store and get more of his sparkling water and some snacks to replace what he’d been stealing from people.
Not that he did it often, but as Abby had pointed out, he’d done it enough.
“Today seemed to fly by,” Abby said when she came in.
He turned from where he was bending over to get his water and hated that he was alone with her, but he was at the other end of the room.
“It did,” he said.
“One more day and it’s the weekend,” Abby said. “I can’t wait. Not that I’ve got much going on. It’d be nice to find someone to do things with. Even if it’s dinner.”
He was sipping his water.
“That would be nice,” Angel said, coming in. “I’m sure you’ve got lots of friends that like to go out to eat.”
His shoulders relaxed some, but he could see Angel wasn’t thrilled over Abby’s flirting.
“I do,” Abby said. “It’s not the same as going on a date with a sexy guy. You know, where they look into your eyes and make you feel like no one is as important as you are in that moment.”
“That is a great feeling,” she said. “Every woman likes to feel that.”
“Do men like that?” Abby asked him.
“Like what?” he asked. He was looking back and forth between the two of them.
“When a woman looks at you as if you’re the most important thing in their world when you are together.”
“I think every person likes that,” he said. “If you’ll excuse me I need to get to my notes and try to get out of here at a reasonable time.”
He moved past Abby and then Angel to his office.
Five minutes later, Angel came in and sat down. “Everyone is gone. How long do you think it will be before Abby realizes you’re not interested in her?”
“You’re sure everyone is gone?” he asked.
“Yep,” she said. “I locked the door, why?”
“Because I wanted to make sure no one else was around before I answered your question.”
“What question is that?”
“About how long it will take Abby to realize I’m not interested in her.”
“Oh,” she said. “What’s your answer?”
“That some women never give up.”
He was staring at her and winked.