Chapter 24
Jalen keyed in the vitals for the room she’d exited a few moments ago.
Her sisters had gone back to school that morning, and it had been a little hectic since she hadn’t had to get them up for the past two weeks.
On the plus side, she was on days for the next month, which meant they would all be on the same schedule for a while.
It was almost time for her lunch break, and she was meeting Rohan at his house.
There was a food truck set up a couple of blocks away, and he’d texted her twenty minutes ago, asking her if she wanted to get something from there; he would pick it up and take it to his place.
He was only working a half-day and would be off by the time she went to lunch.
She had never tried that truck before, and left it up to Rohan to choose something for her.
When she finished keying in the vitals, Jalen went to another room to check on Emily. The little girl who had come in the day before with appendicitis. Her appendix was removed, and they were keeping her for a few days for observation.
Jalen knocked lightly on the door. “Peeka.” She waited for the corresponding Boo. When it didn’t come, she opened the door, sticking her head in to find Emily asleep. Working quietly so she wouldn’t disturb her, Jalen checked her vitals.
Once she was finished, she had enough time to key the vitals in before lunch. She then clocked out, grabbed her purse from her locker, and went to her car.
Rohan only lived five minutes from the hospital, and she was pulling in behind his car in no time. Getting out, she went to the front door and knocked. It opened a few seconds later.
“Hey, baby,” Rohan greeted, leaning down to peck her on the lips before pulling away and stepping aside.
“Hey, babe,” Jalen replied as she stepped in.
“How’s work so far?” he questioned as he took her hand and led the way towards the kitchen.
“It’s been a pretty calm day. I only have a few kids,” she told him as she sat in the chair he’d just pulled out for her.
Jalen took in the open takeout containers on the table. Everything looked delicious, and the smell permeated the air. He placed a plate and silverware in front of her before taking his seat, and the two made their plates.
The first few bites had her moaning her appreciation, and her boyfriend chuckled. She glared at him playfully before going back to eating her food. They ate in silence for a few minutes until he spoke.
“Mikal still doesn’t know what she wants to do for her birthday?”
Jalen had a conversation with him a few days ago about Mikal’s upcoming birthday and how she wasn’t sure what to do for it. She’d asked Mikal, and at first, her sister said it didn’t matter.
“She told me yesterday that she wanted to have a comic book-themed party at the park. She wants to get some blow-up slides and a bounce house and invite some kids from her class.”
“It sounds like she knows what she wants,” he responded.
“She does finally, and she’s given me plenty of notice, but a party at the park in February?”
Rohan shrugged as he swallowed the bite he’d just taken. “It shouldn’t be a big deal. February is usually about seventy degrees. The temperature only drops when the sun goes down. So, if you have it at the peak of the afternoon, it should be fine.”
Jalen nodded. “Yeah, you’re right. Though she’s going to have to give out invitations after school. If she isn’t inviting the entire class, they won’t allow her to hand them out during class.”
“What are you and the girls doing next weekend? I know you have to work this coming one. Do you work then too?”
“I’m off next week, and so far we don’t have any plans,” Jalen responded before taking another bite of her food.
“We could all go look for birthday decorations. Maybe some costumes for the party if Mikal wants everyone to dress up.”
“That sounds like fun.”
They finished eating, and Jalen helped him put the leftovers away and load the dishwasher.
She looked at her watch and saw that she had ten minutes before she needed to leave and head back to work.
She went into his bedroom and to his en suite, where she’d left her toothbrush when she stayed over.
She brushed her teeth before returning to the kitchen, where he was wiping off the table.
“I’m going to head back to work,” she stated, approaching him. “Thank you for lunch.” She rose on her toes and kissed him.
“Anytime, baby,” he responded. He took her hand, walked her to the door, and opened it for her. “I’ll talk to you tonight.”
Jalen nodded before exiting the house and going to her vehicle. She slid behind the wheel and headed back to the hospital. She was only working a standard eight-hour shift, so she would be off in time to pick her sisters up from school.
Once back at the hospital, she clocked back in and went to check on Emily again to see if she was awake.
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Rohan browsed through a Halloween website, looking at the different costumes.
Even though they were going next weekend to look around, he wanted to have a few backup places for them to look in the event they didn’t find anything.
The site he was looking at had a location about two hours away.
So, if all else failed, they could take a trip there to look at some things.
He scrolled through for half an hour before closing his laptop and placing it aside. He picked up the remote to the television and the projector he’d gotten for Christmas, deciding to watch a movie. Rohan hadn’t just been saying it for Jalen’s benefit when he told her he would use it often.
He was about halfway through the movie when his phone rang. Grabbing it off the table, he checked the screen before answering it after pausing the movie.
“Hey, Trent.”
“Hey, are you busy this afternoon?”
“No, I’m not. What’s up?” Rohan asked.
“There’s an issue at the office, and I’m not sure how long it’ll take to get it ironed out. Is there any way you could pick up Alynn from school?”
“Of course,” he responded. “I’ll pick her up and watch her until you get it handled. If it’s late, just let her stay, and I’ll take her to school in the morning.”
“Thanks, Roh. I owe you.”
He rolled his eyes because his brother in no way owed him for helping with his niece. “Yeah, yeah. I’ll talk to you later.” With that, the two of them hung up.
Checking the time, he found he had thirty minutes before Alynn got out of school. Getting up, he went to his bedroom, grabbed a pair of sneakers, slipped them on, put his jacket on, and then left the house.
He pulled up to the school fifteen minutes later, and the pickup line was long. Rohan typically tried to get there a bit earlier, so he didn’t have to wait long. Instead, he parked and waited for the bell to ring.
He scrolled through social media as he waited, and it was only then that he realized he didn’t have any pictures of him and Jalen posted to his page. The realization came with another one. He hadn’t taken any pictures with Jalen. He made a mental note to remedy that soon.
When the bell rang, he got out of his car and headed towards the pickup area. He stood there for only a few minutes before he saw Alynn exit the building. She looked around, he assumed, for his brother’s car. Rohan waved, and when she saw him, she smiled and jogged over.
“Hey, Uncle Rohan.”
“Hey, kiddo. How was school?” he asked, waving to a monitor as they headed towards his car.
“It was okay. We’re learning some new math equations, and it is not fun.”
Rohan chuckled as he opened the back door for her. Once they were both in, he ensured her seatbelt was on before backing out of his parking spot and heading to his house.
“It can’t be that bad,” he responded to her math statement.
“It is,” Alynn insisted. “But maybe it’s because my brain hasn’t turned back on from Christmas break.”
“I’m sure that’s it,” he responded because he knew Alynn was good at math.
When they arrived at his house, he unlocked the door and allowed his niece to walk in first. She skipped down the hall to the room she slept in when she stayed over.
“Bring your homework to the kitchen,” he called after her as he entered the mentioned room.
Going to the refrigerator, he pulled out the ingredients to make a sandwich and some fruit. He was making the sandwich when Alynn walked into the kitchen holding a notebook, a workbook, and a textbook in her hand.
“No mayo, please,” she requested, and Rohan was well aware. He cut the sandwich in half before washing off some grapes and blackberries.
He placed half of the sandwich and the fruit on a plate before going to the refrigerator and pulling out the chocolate milk. He poured some into a cup before taking it along with the plate and setting it beside Alynn as she worked some math problems in her workbook.
He put everything away, grabbed the other half of the sandwich, and took a bite. He knew that Alynn could have eaten it all along with the fruit, but if she did, they wouldn’t eat dinner until late.
Rohan went into the living room, turned off the movie he’d been watching along with the projector. He would let Alynn choose something to watch when she finished her homework.
“Uncle Rohan, I need help with this problem,” Alynn called from the kitchen.
He returned to the kitchen and went over to the table to look at the problem Alynn was working on. Sitting beside her, he walked her through it, letting her do the next one like it on her own. Rohan finished his sandwich while Alynn worked on her problems and ate her snack.
When she finished her math problems. He checked them for her, and then they moved on to her spelling words. He called them out to her, and she spelled them and used them in a sentence.
Once they’d gone over the spelling words, she had a short story she was supposed to read to him and discuss the emotion of the narrator.
He listened to her read, and she told him why she thought the narrator was sad.
He was impressed she’d deduced that, because as she’d read it, it sounded as if the narrator was happy.
The subtle word usage was easy enough for him to pick up on the fact that happiness was not what the narrator felt.
Though he knew it would be harder for children.
When they were finished with all of her homework, Alynn put everything away, and Rohan went into the living room. It was a few minutes after five. So, he figured they’d have time to watch a movie before he started on dinner.
Alynn bounded back down the hallway and flopped down on the couch beside him. He gave her the remote as he turned the projector on.
“This thing is so cool,” Alynn said. “I’m going to see if Daddy will get me one for my birthday.”
Alynn chose Jumanji for them to watch, but Rohan wasn’t surprised. They watched it at least once whenever she came over. He propped his feet up on the coffee table while she sat on her legs as the movie started.