Chapter 19
I’m in Exam Room Four when my phone starts buzzing like I accidentally tucked my vibrator in there accidentally.
Not the polite buzz-buzz of a single notification. No. This is a relentless, angry hum against my thigh, trying to tunnel through my scrub pocket. I keep my expression neutral because the patient on the exam bed is seven years old, clutching his left arm, and in a lot of pain.
“Does it hurt more when I press here, or here?” I ask gently, fingers light along his forearm as the translator repeats my words.
“Here,” he says, brave but wavering.
I nod. “Okay. You’re doing great, bud.”
My phone buzzes again. And again.
I ignore it. Kids first. Always.
By the time I finish checking his fingers for blood flow, put in an order for some pain meds stat, and finish my exam—definitely a fracture—my thigh feels like it’s been through a massage gun session.
I smile at him and his mom. “Looks like he might have broken his arm,” I inform her.
“We’re going to get some X-rays to be sure, okay? ”
She nods solemnly.
“I’ll have a nurse walk you down,” I add, then step back as I open the door and flag down Maria. After she takes over with a warm smile and a sticker, I lean against the gurney and pull my phone from my pocket.
UNKNOWN NUMBER
I’ve been useless all day.
Pretty sure I’m obsessed with this girl I met
I can’t stop thinking about her
Or her pouty little lips
Both sets of them
I stare at the screen, a blush creeping up my neck and burning hot over my cheeks until my ears are on fire
Who is this?
The typing dots appear immediately.
Fuck… Am I that forgettable, or am I just another name on the roster?
I really need to up my game.
I snort, despite myself.
Actually, what IS your name?
Jagger
Is that how we’re playing this? Because there’s casual and then there’s casual.
I mean the whole thing.
Considering you spent the night inside me, I feel like it’s something I should know
I bite my lip after I hit send, pulse spiking. Professional, Blake. Very professional.
Bryce Alexander Theodore Jagger
I blink at the name. It looks more like the name of a diplomat than a man who crawls through the desert taking bullets for fun.
I see why you go by Jagger.
Hey, now. I’m named after a bunch of really honorable men
My father (Bryce) and my grandfathers (Alex and Theo).
My thumbs pad across the screen to apologize when a code call comes over the crackly intercom system. I close out my unsent text, shove the phone into my pocket, and race down the hall.
By early evening, I’ve treated a sinus infection, a suspicious mole, a gunshot wound, and an elderly man who insists his wife is trying to poison him. Based on my brief interaction with him, I wouldn’t blame her.
BUZZ.
I grin at my reflection in the mirror, fully expecting it to be another text from him. After drying my hands, I pull my phone from my pocket, and my smile broadens.
JAGGER
Tell me something about you that would surprise me.
In college I won a hot dog eating contest at a fraternity.
I hit send and immediately freeze. Oh no… Fuck, Blake, that sounds like you’re Queen of the Xi Chi Pi Psi annual gangbang.
I stare at the screen, watching as his dots repeatedly appear and disappear like he’s typing a dissertation about all the reasons he isn’t going to be able to make our dinner tomorrow night.
I groan.
ACTUAL hot dogs.
You are barely five feet and a hundred pounds… and you want me to believe you out-ate a bunch of full-grown men
I was hungry. Your turn…
I slip my phone into my pocket as I head down the hall, heart thumping a little harder than necessary.
BUZZ.
I duck into an empty charting room and pull it back out.
My mom used to let me skip school and sneak me into baseball games when I was a kid. She loved the Cubs, but we couldn’t always afford it. She’d bring homemade sandwiches and swear me to secrecy. She died when I was nineteen, but I still can’t go to a stadium without thinking of her.
My chest tightens. That was not the response I expected. Not that I really know what I was expecting. I sink into the chair, suddenly very aware that I’m smiling softly at my phone like an idiot. That huge wall of a man is a giant softy.
She sounds like she was fun.
She was. Best rule-breaker I ever knew.
I swallow, thumb hovering.
Thank you for telling me that.
The reply comes slower this time.
Your turn again, Doc.
The shift keeps moving, text messages flying between us as patients blur together. In a brief moment of quiet, I lean against the wall and pull out my phone again.
What do you do when you’re not John McClane’ing around the world?
JAGGER
First of all, excellent reference.
I work in private security. Risk assessment, protection details. Boring when it’s boring, chaos when it’s not.
So… constant explosions and crawling through air vents.
Only on Tuesdays.
I laugh quietly.
Where are you based?
Chicago.
I pause.
I’m kind of nomadic.
That so?
Residency here. Fellowship there. Short contracts. I don’t stay anywhere long.
Doesn’t that get lonely?
It does.
I think about empty apartments, boxed dishes, and the way I stop unpacking fully because what’s the point.
Sometimes.
Three dots appear. Disappear. Appear again.
I think loneliness is worse when you’re surrounded by people who don’t really know you.
You’re surprisingly thoughtful for a man who texted me about my lips.
Both sets of them.
I’m old and wise.
You aren’t THAT much older than me. Are you?
38
See? Six years.
Dinner comes and goes in stolen bites. I eat a granola bar over a keyboard while answering a nurse’s questions about a medication order.
BUZZ.
JAGGER
Family?
My mom passed a while ago. My dad lives in Baltimore. He’s loving, suffocating, and still thinks I’m twelve.
Relatable
You?
Four brothers. One sister.
My eyebrows shoot up. That’s a huge family.
Your poor parents.
Biologically, I’m an only child.
***
Hawk, Damon, Gunnar, Mattis, and Abby…
They’re my family.
Something warm settles in my chest.
The midnight hours drag on. By the time I finish my last patient, my feet ache, and my brain feels like mush. I slump at my desk and scribble notes into the last of my charts when my phone buzzes again.
JAGGER
Doc…
Yes, Jagger?
See you tomorrow night
I stare at the screen, a slow smile spreading across my face.