CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
Jelly
The next day I arrived at work, clocked in and went in search of coffee in the cafeteria.
“Jelly!” It was Otto, the massive, tatted hospital cook and cafeteria line worker with a heart of gold.
He’d clearly seen me enter the cafeteria and called out to me.
We’d bonded over my love for his salads over the past year or so.
I stuck my head in the door to the buffet line where he worked.
He knew I didn’t do the breakfast line so him calling me back here could only mean one thing…
“Scones?” I asked.
“Four kinds,” he said proudly. I tried to do a dance of happiness, but realized I was going to knock into people who were trying to load their trays up with food.
“I want some of all four,” I said.
“Already got yours packed and waiting at the register.”
“You’re a god among men, Otto,” I said, stood on my tiptoes, and kissed his cheek. “Thank you.”
He grinned at me. “Don’t let her charge you for more than one of each kind,” he whispered.
I nodded.
“I’m serious, Jelly,” he hollered after me, and I gave him a thumbs up.
When I got to the woman at the cash register, I asked for the clamshell full of scones.
I kept a smile on my face and tried not to move my lips while I asked her how much it would really cost. I knew Otto was watching.
She was used to this. She gave me an answering smile with closed teeth as she told me, and I told her to charge me the full amount.
She gave me a genuine grin, and we settled up. I waved at a very suspicious looking Otto, ducked out of the buffet line, and headed for the coffee bar. As a perk, we got free coffee on the weekends. I loaded mine down with all kinds of flavorings and creamers, and then finally left the cafeteria.
On the way to my office, I said hello to several people, all of whom seemed to be looking at me a little strangely, and I started to wonder if I’d spilled something on myself.
Or, more likely, they were just checking out the ridiculous number of scones Otto had packed into the extra-large clamshell.
I would definitely be sharing scones with my department today.
I opened the door to the administrative wing for orthopedics with my butt, then laid the clamshell on the front counter. “Scones!” I yelled.
That’s all it took. People appeared from the woodwork. I grabbed myself one of each, then headed to my office.
“Thanks, Jelly,” several people said, mouths full of scone, as they walked past me.
“No prob, Bob,” I said grinning and teasing around with people until I finally came in sight of my office towards the back of the hall.
I stopped in my tracks, mouth open. “What the…”
I turned to see about twenty-five people behind me with their cell phones held up to record. “What the hell are y’all doing?”
“Open your office,” they urged.
I could tell from ten feet away that it was packed full of balloons.
I cautiously approached and pulled the door open slowly.
Balloons still spilled out into the hallway.
There were Mylar balloons of hearts, flowers, bears, dogs, cats, and, weirdly, SpongeBob.
Then there were plain balloons of every possible color, all filled with helium.
There had to have been five hundred balloons pushed in my office.
And it wasn’t even that big. I grabbed a couple as they floated past.
I looked at the notes and couldn’t hide a grin. Each note that I turned over from the balloons read, “Please go out with me. I love you. Paolo.”
“Okay, y’all. I need your help,” I said. Everybody get as many as you can, remove the notes, and then we take them to the children’s wing.”
“Aw! You don’t want to keep any?”
“I’d like to keep one of each of the Mylar,” I admitted. “Unless there aren’t enough to go around in the kids’ rooms.”
We spent around thirty minutes getting that done, and I was thankful everyone had been willing to help me. It would have taken me at least four times as long to do it by myself. Probably longer.
I worked hard all morning, then swung by the cafeteria for lunch. Otto was off, having worked the early shift, so I had a salad of normal size this time. He normally loaded the equivalent of four normal sized salads into an extra-large clamshell container for me.
I still hadn’t decided for sure what I was going to say to Paolo, so rather than risk seeing him in the cafeteria, I decided to go back to my office.
I stopped about ten feet away again. Through the glass door, I could see flower arrangements everywhere. Literally everywhere. They were covering every surface. There were even some on the floor. My mouth gaped open.
“Hey guys,” I yelled and turned around only to see everyone in my department right behind me. “I think I need y’all’s help again.”
They all laughed and we did an assembly line where I took flowers and removed the cards, all from Paolo, all telling me he loved me and asking me out, and passed them down the line.
I kept five of the prettiest arrangements.
The rest we took up to the geriatric unit.
Again, it took about thirty minutes, but the smiles and happiness of all the patients was so very worth it.
I wolfed lunch down, then went back out on my rounds.
I came back to my office just to grab the flowers and balloons I’d kept, only to find a ridiculous number of boxes of really fancy, really expensive Swiss chocolate all over my office.
Again, all the notes were from Paolo. They all said the same thing, and by this point I realized I didn’t stand a chance against this onslaught.
Especially when I actually wanted to go out with him and see if there could be anything between us again.
“Okay, everyone. Come get a box of chocolates to take home. Just leave me like four or five, please. And the notes.”
“Thanks, Jelly,” they said as they hurried by with their fancy chocolate.
When they had all left, I looked around and wondered how I was going to get everything out to my car.
“Need help?”
I turned to see Paolo leaning against the wall, arms crossed over his chest. I walked over to him, stood on my toes, grabbed his face, and kissed the hell out of him. He followed suit and was soon lifting me up by my ass. I wrapped my legs around his waist, and we were really going at it.
“Um, Jelly? Dr. Lanetti?”
It was Cleo. I hopped down immediately and tried to look chill, like I hadn’t just been mauling the head of surgery for the hospital in a hallway.
“I was just going to say that the children and the elderly folks made you cards for the balloons and flowers.” She had a huge smile on her face as she handed the cards over.
“Oh, thanks, Cleo,” I smiled at her.
“What did you say?” Cleo asked.
“I said, ‘Oh, thanks, Cleo.’”
“No, no. I mean, to Dr. Lanetti. Did you say yes or no to going out with him?”
“Oh.” I laughed, feeling stupid. Then I straightened up when I saw how serious Paolo was looking at me. “I said yes.”
“You said yes,” Cleo clapped her hands. “That’s great news. Well, I’ll see y’all tomorrow.”
Paolo smiled down at me until she left. Then he walked over and pulled me into his strong arms. “You said yes?”
“Yes.”
“Thank goodness.” He buried his face against my neck and sniffed me. “My God, I’ve missed you so much.”
“Mmm,” I sniffed him right back. “I’ve missed you, too.”
He helped me pack up my balloons, flowers, and chocolates. “When can I expect this date?” I asked, as he walked me out to the parking lot and helped me in my car.
“I might have noticed that you have tomorrow off.”
“That’s true.”
“I might have scheduled myself to be off as well.”
I put a hand to my chest, mock scandalized. “Doctor. Isn’t that an abuse of your power?”
“Sure as hell is.” He leaned in and kissed me until I could barely remember my name. “Can I come pick you up tomorrow at seven?”
I nodded. “Where are we going? What should I wear?”
“It’s a surprise, and your outfit should have arrived today.”
“Ooh. Exciting. I can’t wait to see.”
“See you tomorrow, baby.” He kissed me one last time.
“See you tomorrow.”