3. Milan Rivers #2
“I bet you did.” We walked beside each other toward the elevators. “How you feeling?”
I shrugged and told her, “I’ve been better.”
“I figured.” She took a sip of her coffee before glancing over at me. “You know, nobody would’ve judged you if you’d taken tonight off.”
“I didn’t want my first week to start with me calling in.”
“That’s understandable… I just wanted to make sure you weren’t trying to be superwoman.”
I laughed.
“I left my cape at home.”
“Good,” she said with a grin. “Because this place already got enough heroes running around.”
I couldn’t help but smile.
For the first time since we’d met, it didn’t feel like she was just being welcoming because I was the new nurse. It felt like she’d genuinely checked on me.
“I appreciate you,” I said.
“You don’t have to thank me.”
“Still...”
“I mean it.” She bumped my shoulder with hers as we stepped onto the elevator. “Now enough of all that serious stuff… I’ve been meaning to ask you something.”
“Oh Lord...”
Nia laughed. “Don’t ‘oh Lord’ me. I’m just trying to get to know you.” She then proceeded to ask her question. “So, what made you leave Florida and come back to Atlanta?”
We stepped off the elevator and started toward the nurses’ station.
“I moved back because my life in Florida blew up in my face,” I admitted. “Ten years disappeared overnight, and staying there felt like reopening the same wound every single day.”
She looked over at me without saying anything, giving me room to keep talking if I wanted to.
“My fiancé married somebody else.”
Nia stopped walking and went, “Oh, damn...”
“Yeah. Tell me about it.”
“Like... after ya’ll broke up?” I shook my head, no, and her eyebrows shot up. “Wait a minute.”
“I found out he was getting married two days before the wedding.”
“What? You’re joking, right?”
“I wish I was joking.”
She stared at me for a long while before finally speaking.
“So let me get this straight. This man was engaged to you...” I nodded. “And married another woman?”
“That’s the short version.”
“The long version better involve him hitting his damn head.”
I laughed.
“I’ve been trying to figure that part out myself.”
“Girl...” She rubbed her forehead. “Men really wake up every morning and ask themselves how they can stress us the hell out.”
“I don’t know if all men do.”
“The good ones don’t.” She smiled. “The rest? They deserve flat tires.”
I laughed again.
“You are something else.”
“I’ve been called worse.”
By the time we reached the nurses’ station, I’d almost forgotten how exhausted I was—almost.
Nia grabbed a tablet off the counter before looking back at me.
“Well, for what it’s worth, I’m glad you came back,” she said.
“You are?”
“Yeah. Atlanta got enough trash. We needed somebody decent to balance it out.”
I rolled my eyes and said, “You’ve known me for all of two days.”
“I know enough…”
“You don’t think you’re judging a little fast?”
“Nope…”
“I watched you yesterday. Even after everything that happened outside, you never made it about yourself. You stayed with that patient until we took over, and when we got him inside, you were still trying to help.”
My smile faded.
“I couldn’t just leave him.”
“I know…” She rested a hand on my shoulder for a second before letting it fall. “That’s exactly why you’re gonna be a damn good nurse.”
I looked away, swallowing the lump that suddenly formed in my throat.
“I just wish it had been enough.”
Nia was quiet for a while.
“You know...” she then said softly, “That man had somebody with him during the worst moments of his life. He wasn’t lying on that concrete by himself wondering if anybody cared.”
I hadn’t thought about it that way.
“I don’t know if that helps, but is the truth.”
Giving her a genuine smile, I nodded and told her, “It does.”
“Good… Now let’s get through this shift without you witnessing another damn crime. My nerves can’t take it.”
I laughed, shaking my head as we walked toward the assignment board.
“Trust me, mine can’t either.”
As I reached for my assignment sheet, one of the older nurses looked up from the desk with a grin.
“So this is our famous new girl.”
I frowned. “Famous?”
The woman chuckled and said, “Baby, you’ve been the only thing people been talking about since last night.”
My stomach tightened because I had a feeling this shift wasn’t going to be as normal as I’d hoped. I didn’t even want to think about what happened last night, but, of course, that was hard to do.
“You holding up okay?”
“I’m getting there.”
She gave me a sympathetic nod. “These shifts are hard enough without all... that.”
“No kidding.”
“I’m Denise, by the way.”
“Milan.”
“I know.” She smiled. “Nia hasn’t shut up about you since orientation.”
I looked over at Nia, who immediately threw both hands up.
“Don’t look at me like that. I said you seemed nice.” I opened my mouth to say something, but she cut me off by saying, “Yeah, yeah… I know I’ve only known you for two days but I’ve been right for those two days.”
Denise laughed. “You’re gonna fit in just fine around here.”
Before I could respond, the charge nurse walked up with a clipboard tucked beneath her arm.
“Alright, everybody. Let’s get started.”
The small group around the nurses’ station broke apart as assignments were handed out. I glanced down at mine, mentally preparing myself for the night ahead.
Four patients… Not bad.
“I gave you a lighter assignment tonight,” the charge nurse said as she stopped beside me. “After everything that happened yesterday, I figured you could ease into things.”
“I appreciate it.”
She studied my face for a second before nodding.
“If you need a minute at any point tonight, take it. Nobody’s expecting you to pretend you’re fine.”
“I will…”
She gave my shoulder a quick pat before walking off to help somebody else.
I looked down at the names on my assignment sheet and let out a quiet breath.
This was what I came back to Atlanta for. Taking care of people. Learning. Growing. Building a life that didn’t revolve around the past. Last night didn’t get to take that away from me.
“Room twelve is all yours,” Nia said, nudging me with her elbow as she walked past. I had already checked on my other three patients and was getting ready to check on the last one. “Sweetest little lady you’ll ever meet. She’ll probably try to feed you candy before the night’s over.”
I laughed.
“Patients do that?”
“Oh, honey.” Nia grinned. “You haven’t seen nothing yet.”
She wasn’t lying.
Mrs. Janice Carter was seventy-eight years old, recovering from pneumonia, and determined to convince everybody on the floor that she was well enough to go home.
“I keep telling these people I don’t belong in this bed,” she said the second I walked into the room. “You look smart. Go tell them.”
I smiled as I introduced myself.
“I don’t think they’ll listen to me on my second day.”
“They should… You got kind eyes.”
“That’s your way of trying to recruit me to your side, isn’t it?”
“It would’ve worked if you hadn’t figured me out so fast.” We both laughed.
For the next several minutes, I checked her vitals, made sure she was comfortable, and listened while she told me all about her grandchildren, her church choir, and how the hospital’s food should be considered a crime.
Before I could finish updating her chart, she’d already reached into the drawer of her bedside table and pulled out a handful of butterscotch candy.
“Go on and take one.”
I laughed. “Mrs. Carter, why do you have so much candy? They don’t feed y’all enough around here?”
“They feed us just fine.” She waved a hand. “This is my emergency stash.”
“Emergency?”
“What if I have a sweet tooth at two o’clock in the morning?”
“You might have a point.”
“I know I do.”
I took one of the candies just to make her happy, slipping it into the pocket of my scrub top.
“There. Happy?”