12. Milan Rivers
MILAN RIVERS
By the time I made it through the first half of my shift, I was already counting down the hours until I could go home.
My new apartment still didn’t completely feel like home, but I was getting there.
Most of my clothes were unpacked, my kitchen was finally starting to look like somebody actually lived here, and I only had a few boxes left sitting around.
After everything that had happened at my old place, I hadn’t expected to feel comfortable anywhere this quickly, but the new building helped.
Security really was better. There was always somebody downstairs, cameras covered every floor, and nobody could get on the elevator without access. Vice still had his doubts, but for the first time in weeks, I felt like I could breathe without looking over my shoulder every five seconds.
I was finishing up with one of my patients when Nia appeared in the doorway with a look on her face that immediately made me suspicious.
“What?”
“Nothing…”
I narrowed my eyes. “Then why are you standing there looking at me like that?”
“Like what?”
“Like you know something.”
Her smile got wider. “You got a delivery.”
“A delivery?” My face frowned in confusion.
“Mm-hmm,” she sang.
I pulled off my gloves and tossed them into the trash before following her into the hallway. “What kind of delivery?”
“You’ll see…”
The second we reached the nurses’ station, I stopped.
A huge arrangement of pink and white roses sat on the counter. There had to be at least three dozen of them, maybe more, surrounded by enough greenery to make the whole thing look like it belonged at a wedding instead of my job.
Nia looked at me. “Well?”
“Well, what?”
“Who sent them?”
“I don’t know.”
“Girl, please. Go read the card,” she urged me.
I already had an idea, and that was exactly why I wasn’t rushing to find out. There was only one man from my past who would think sending enough flowers to block half the nurses’ station was going to fix anything.
I walked over and pulled the small card from the arrangement.
I’m sorry. Can we talk? -Evan
I stared at the words for a few seconds before sliding the card back into the envelope.
Of course… His ass.
“What does it say?” Nia asked.
“Nothing important.”
“Who sent them?”
“Evan.” I rolled my damn eyes as his name rolled off my tongue as if it was the most disgusting thing I’d ever had to say.
Her whole face changed. “Oh.”
“Exactly…”
She looked at the flowers again. “They’re pretty, though.”
“They are.”
“That don’t mean you have to forgive him.”
“Oh, I know that, and it’s not happening.”
I wasn’t confused about what the flowers meant, and I definitely wasn’t about to let a few dozen roses make me forget ten years of lies. Evan could’ve bought every flower in Atlanta, and it still wouldn’t change the fact that I found out he was getting married two days before his wedding.
Still, I wasn’t going to stand at the nurses’ station and make a scene out of throwing them away. I had patients to take care of, and right now, they were just flowers sitting on a counter.
My phone vibrated in my scrub pocket.
I pulled it out, expecting another message from Evan, but Vice’s name was on the screen instead.
Vice: What time you get off?
I looked at the clock before answering.
Me: 7:30. Why?
His response came quick.
Vice: Be hungry... I’ll be there at 7:15.
I smiled before I could stop myself. I stared at the message, shaking my head before texting him back.
Me: I have my car.
Vice: I know…
That was all he said.
I waited for another message explaining what exactly he had planned, but nothing came. I should’ve known better. Vice only gave information when he felt like it, and apparently where we were going wasn’t something he thought I needed to know yet.
I put my phone away and caught Nia watching me.
“What?”
“Who was that?”
“Nobody.”
“That smile said otherwise.”
“I wasn’t smiling.”
“You definitely were.”
I walked away before she could ask anything else. “Don’t you have patients, Dr. Nia?” I called over my shoulder.
She just let out a loud laugh.
The rest of my shift stayed busy enough that I forgot about the flowers for a while. By the time I finished my last round and handled everything I needed to before leaving, it was a little after 7:30. My shift had changed and this week I was working from 7 am to 7:30 pm.
I had just grabbed my purse when one of the nurses looked past me and smiled. “Your ride is here.”
“I drove...”
She nodded toward the hallway. “Well, somebody’s here.”
I turned as Vice walking toward the nurses’ station where I was.
He wasn’t dressed business casual today.
No button-down or slacks. Just a black T-shirt that hugged his arms and chest, showing off the tattoos on his arms, dark jeans, and the chain he always wore around his neck with a cross pendant.
He looked good… the kind of good that had women staring every time he walked into a room, and he always smelled so damn good.
Vice’s eyes found mine before anything else, and something about that made me feel better than it should have.
“You late,” he said when he reached me.
“I was working…”
“I know.”
“Then how am I late?”
“Still late.”
I shook my head, but I couldn’t stop the small laugh that escaped. “You could’ve left.”
“Nah… I wouldn’t dare do that.”
His attention shifted toward the flowers.
I knew the exact second he noticed them because his expression changed. It wasn’t anything dramatic. He simply stared at the arrangement for a few seconds before looking back at me.
“Who sent you the flowers?”
I adjusted my purse higher on my shoulder. “Why?”
“Just asking.”
I bit the inside of my cheek before answering. “Evan.”
Vice’s eyes landed on the arrangement before he looked back at me. “Your ex?”
“Unfortunately…”
His gaze shifted to the flowers again. “Why they still here?”
“Because I’ve been working. I haven’t had time to worry about flowers.”
“You keeping ’em?”
“No.”
“When you throwing ’em away?”
“Eventually, when I get time.”
He didn’t say another word. Instead, he walked around the desk, picked up the arrangement, and headed down the hallway.
My eyes widened.
“Vice… what are you doing?”
“Helping…”
I hurried after him, trying not to smile even though I was supposed to be irritated.
“Those are my flowers.”
“You don’t want ’em.”
“That ain’t the point.”
He stopped beside a trash can and looked at me.
“Then what’s the point?”
I opened my mouth, but nothing came out.
He wasn’t wrong at all. I didn’t want the flowers. I wasn’t taking them home, and I definitely wasn’t calling Evan to thank him for them. Still… That didn’t mean Vice got to decide when they were thrown away.
Before I could argue another point, he dropped the entire arrangement into the trash.
I stared at him with my mouth wide opened. Then in disbelief, I asked, “You really threw them away.”
“You said you was gonna do it.”
“Yeah, eventually.”
“I saved you the trouble.”
“They were my flowers, though.”
“You want me to get ’em back?”
My eyes drifted to the trash can. I felt he was only calling my bluff and wasn’t really going to get them back out.
“No… Just forget about it.”
“That’s what I thought…”
The smug look on his face got under my skin. Then Simone suddenly popped into my head.
“So let me ask you something.” Vice sighed, like he knew what I was about to ask, but I didn’t give a damn and asked my question anyway. “Simone can walk up and kiss you on the cheek in the middle of lunch, but Evan can’t send me flowers?”
He frowned.
“What Simone got to do with them flowers?”
I sucked my teeth and rolled my eyes. “Nothing… Just forget it.” I started to walk off but his next few words stopped me.
He said, “Sound like something to me.”
I hated how fast he flipped it on me.
“All I’m saying is… you didn’t throw Simone away.”
For a second, he just looked at me. Then he laughed. Not one of those little smirks he always gave me, but an actual laugh. It caught me so off guard that I almost smiled too, but I didn’t.
“You think that’s funny?”
“Yeah, I really do. As a matter of fact, it’s funny as hell, but cute too.” His grin lingered as he tilted his head to the side. “You jealous?”
“No.” The look on his face had me rolling my eyes up in my head, because it showed how much he didn’t believe me. “Anyway… were you?”
“Was I what?”
“Jealous.”
He held my gaze for a second before nodding toward the trash can. “Well, the flowers gone now.”
I rolled my eyes.
“Oh… now you don’t know how to answer questions.”
He started toward the exit, still not bothering to answer me. “You coming?”
“You’re annoying.”
“You keep saying that.”
“Because you keep proving it.”
By the time we stepped outside, I wasn’t even mad about the flowers anymore. If anything, I was amused that Evan sending me flowers had bothered Vice enough to throw them away himself.
I wasn’t sure what that said about him. Hell, I was even less sure what it said about me that I liked it.
“Where you parked?”
I pointed toward the employee lot.
“Over there…”
“Come on… I’ll drive you over there and you can follow me.”
“Where we going?” I asked, getting in his truck.
“To eat…”
“Well… can I at least stop by my apartment and change? I don’t want to go out looking like this.”
To my surprise, Vice agreed without putting up a fight. He waited downstairs while I ran up to shower, throw on something comfortable, and make myself look a little more presentable.
About twenty minutes later, I locked my apartment, left my SUV there, and climbed into Vice’s truck.
A few minutes later, we pulled into the parking lot of a small restaurant I’d driven past more times than I could count but had never actually stopped at.
I was glad it wasn’t one of those fancy places.
After spending twelve hours in scrubs, the last thing I wanted was to feel underdressed
“You ever been here?” I shook my head. “The food good as fuck.”
“It better be.”
A smug smile crossed his face as he held the door open for me. “You complain a lot.”
“I do not.”