Chapter 58
CHAPTER FIFTY-EIGHT
Julian
After the door closes, the room remains silent for a moment. Until Charlie angrily repeats her earlier exclamation, this time with a sharp accusation ringing through the words.
“What the fuck? When you said you got caught up last night, I thought you meant with work.”
I turn away from the door Leena just disappeared through to a glaring Charlie. “What?”
“What ‘held’ you up last night?” She finger quotes for emphasis.
Sean is standing at the head of the bed, watching us intently, instead of relaxing in his chair as usual. I also notice the radiology tech and Sarina listening for my response.
Shaking my head in confusion, I say, “I helped the recruiter who onboarded me jump her car. I ran into her as I was leaving the building, and she was going back in to ask security for help.”
“Is ‘jump her car’ code for something?” comes from the head of the bed.
I snap my head to Sean, glowering at his intrusion ,but decide to ignore him. Looking back at Charlie, I ask, “What is this about?”
“That was . . . a very misleading text. It gave the impression something more happened.”
Looking over at Sarina as she picks up the fallen drill and moves it to the case cart, I think back to what she read out. With everyone in the room watching me, my mind starts racing.
I mean . . . I guess it could have been misleading.
Leena doesn’t think that though, does she?
Why would she think that? That woman is all I want.
She is my life. Does she actually think I would give another person the time of day?
Jeopardize everything we’re building? There’s no way, right? We’re solid.
Sarina’s reaction to reading the message freaked me out.
My thoughts immediately went to my family.
Did something happen and she wasn’t able to process it?
Or tell me? When she refused to tell me what the message said, my worry amped up even more.
Then she read it out loud, and I was so relieved it wasn’t something serious that I didn’t pay much attention after I realized it was just Alisha thanking me again for helping her.
The door from the inner core swings open and everyone in the room turns. It's not Leena who enters, though—it’s someone else pushing a ring stand holding a new drill set and wrapped battery into the room.
“Where’s Leena?” Charlie and I demand.
“She was coming down the hall and asked me to bring this in. Said she needed to take care of something.”
Sarina takes the ring stand and moves toward Charlie. My eyes bounce between them and the door. She unwraps the battery and holds it in Charlie’s direction. Charlie is staring at me, my worry reflected back.
“Charlie, you wanna grab this?”
“Huh? Oh, yeah.” Charlie takes the battery and checks the indicator, doing the same for the drill.
I’m baffled. Leena and I are solid, secure in our relationship. Or so I thought. Could she really have taken a meaningless text message out of context and assume I’d been unfaithful? This cannot be happening. We just managed our first hurdle, and now this?
“Julian.” Charlie draws my attention. “Finish the case and worry about everything else after, okay?”
Right. My patient is the only priority right now.
Ignoring the curious stares from around the room, I nod. “X-ray,” I call for imaging. “Let's check the guide wire placement.”
For the remainder of the case, I focus only on my next step.
Ream.
Image.
Reduce fracture.
Image.
Advance guidewire.
Image.
Measure.
Ream.
Nail.
Image.
Proximal Locking Screw.
Image.
Distal Locking Screw.
Image.
Close.
Dressings.
Numb. It was easy not thinking about Leena while we finished—my patient deserved my undivided focus. Now I have to force myself to update the family before I can decide what to do about Leena. My feelings are a whirlwind, mainly confusion and hurt, making it hard to organize my thoughts.