Chapter 10
Amelia groaned when her alarm went off. She reached out to hit the snooze, but realized it was her last day of having to put up with two assholes, so she turned it off, flopped the blankets back, and hurried into her attached bath.
Fifteen minutes later, she walked back into her bedroom, and swore she could smell coffee.
Must be her imagination. She dressed quickly, did her minimal makeup, ran a brush through her wet hair, and wound it into a rope to put up with a clip.
Since she wasn’t supposed to see any patients that day, she could get away with wearing jeans, a good blouse, and her favorite sneakers.
She had those in her hand when she came out of her bedroom to head to the kitchen.
She let out a blood curdling scream when she entered the room and saw a man, without a shirt on, and wearing a pair of board shorts, with bare feet look up at her entrance.
“Amelia,” the man yelled at her, and she stared at him in horror. “It’s Raymond.”
Amelia deflated in a heartbeat. “Shit, I forgot you were here. I’m sorry.”
“No, I’m sorry if I scared you. Coffee?” he asked, and laughed heartily at her look.
He immediately got her a cup, filled it, and handed it to her.
He liked that she didn’t fuss with sugar or cream.
They settled back at the island, and he passed her a plate that had a breakfast sandwich on it.
“I slept hard when I first went to bed, but I’ve been up for over an hour.
I made this for you.” He shook his head and held up his hand.
“I’ve already had one. Eat, I have questions for you.
” He reached for a pad of paper and whipped his head around when she giggled. “What?”
“You’re one of those people?”
“Those?”
“List makers? Not that it’s bad. I do the same thing.”
“Oh, yeah,” he said with a smirk as he looked between his list and her.
“Actually, Ciara started me doing this back when we were dating. We’d be at the study group, and I would be all over the place.
She told me to make a list to prioritize what I wanted to study first. Once that list was done, then I could look at the first order of business, and buckle down.
I don’t know if it was the list or just me, but I was a solid B-minus student until I organized my thinking, and then I became a solid A- one.
This started in the middle of that first semester, I’ve been making lists ever since. ”
“I’m not knocking it, I make lists too, but not as organized as that.” She pointed to the pages as she bit into her sandwich, moaned, closed her eyes, and chewed slowly. “This is good.”
“Thank you. Anyway, I wanted to go over a couple of things before you left for work. First and foremost, if, and this is a gigantic if, but if you decided to unpack Perkins’ boxes, and if you see something, I want you to do a couple of things.”
“What’s that?”
“One, don’t get caught. Two, snap a photo of it, send that to your personal e-mail, hopefully it’s not connected to the clinic, then I want you to send it to me. Once you do all that, then delete it from your phone.”
“Oh, wow, I never thought of going through all those steps. I figured I could download them once I got home.”
“You could, but what if someone saw you, questioned you, and Perkins overheard? What if he demanded to see your phone, or even ripped it out of your hands?”
“Yeah, I can see him doing that. Okay, I’ll do what you said, send it to my personal e-mail, and you. What else?”
“This next thing I don’t know if it can be done.”
“Why not? Or rather, what is it?”
“I want copies of those x-rays he’s going to use. You can’t physically take them, or he will know something is up, so I don’t know how we can get them.”
“I think I know.”
“What’s that?”
“Whatever x-rays I find, I can put up on the light box we doctors use to show the patients. I have one in my office. I can put them up there, snap the picture, and send them to the places you just mentioned. When I send them to you, if you can’t read them, then message me.
If you can see them, and read the name on the x-ray, then don’t contact me. ”
“Got it, be careful.”
“I will. I’m going to be leaving here in the next five minutes, it’s a twenty-minute drive, and I’ll immediately go to those x-rays in the boxes.
There are about fifteen sets. Should take an hour.
Then I’ll finish packing my things, take them to my vehicle, call you to see if you got everything, then go back inside and start putting his things on the shelves and desks.
It’s Friday, in the last six weeks, he doesn’t roll in until after ten thirty, but before noon.
It’s hit and miss, he’s never there at the same time every day.
He’s even sent out a clinic wide memo not to schedule any of his patients before noon. ”
“Damn. What about Ervin?”
“Friday he’s at a nine o’clock meeting with the hospital, since we’re associated with them.
That lasts about two hours, so he’ll be there between eleven and twelve.
That is his administration day, so when he comes in, if he doesn’t go to lunch first, he’ll be in his office all day doing paperwork.
” She shook her head as she giggled. “That’s why he demands his office be cleaned of the coffee cups on Thursday.
He’ll just fill it up on Friday when he does his paperwork all day. ”
“What time are you off?”
“Noon. I should be here by twelve thirty, no later than one. Do you want me to call you before I leave?”
“Please, but only after you’re in your car and ready to leave. Now, since you’re practically out the door, walk me through the piles in the living room.”
“You don’t have to.” She started to say, but shut up when he gave her a look.
She sighed, tossed the paper plate, refilled her travel mug, and went into that room.
It took seven minutes for her to explain what she wanted done with the piles, and at one point, she looked up and grinned when he was writing furiously.
She shook her head, pulled her phone, verified she had his number, and she didn’t know why, but she stood on her tiptoes and kissed his cheek.
“Thanks for doing all this. I’ll call you when I’m heading home. I’ll also be sending you messages along the way.”
“Sounds perfect, be careful.”
“I will.” She did it again with the kiss on the cheek, it felt so natural, and quickly left him.
Raymond stood in the middle of the chaotic living room with his fingertips on his cheek, and a shit-eating grin on his face.
It took a good two to three minutes before he gave himself a good shake and went to the room he used the night before to change into jeans, a shirt, and shoes.
In ten minutes, with a fresh pot of coffee brewing, he got to work.
Amelia walked into the clinic building, reset the alarm, and made her way to the break room.
After starting a pot of coffee, she went to her office.
With the lights on, she surveyed the mess, and it took her less than five minutes to realize that it wasn’t all hers.
Her mess was regulated to the top of her desk, and that was it.
All her belongings were off the three sets of shelves, and there were fifteen boxes for her to go through that Perkins had someone set in there the week before.
The first thing she did was pack up her belongings, and set them off to the side.
With that done, she found the box with x-rays sticking out, and stacked them on the cleared off desk.
She snapped photos of the outside of the envelope, and put them up on the light box.
For the next hour and a half, she snapped pictures, forwarded them to where they needed to be, and sent copies to Raymond.
After putting the last of them back in their respective envelopes, she laid them on the shelves, and went for a cup of coffee.
She returned to her office, and realized she still had almost an hour before the first person arrived for their shift.
She fired up her laptop, and grabbed the boxes where she’d seen a stack of DVD’s, she slipped the first one in her computer, dug in her purse, and found a fresh flash drive.
The DVD contained notes, and she downloaded the contents to the drive.
She had just put the last disc back in its case when there was a knock at the door.
She quickly put the box on the shelf, closed the laptop, pocketed the drive, and called for them to come in.
She sighed in relief when she saw Betty poke her head in.
“You okay?” Betty asked.
“Yeah, why?”
“Because you look flushed.”
“Come in and close the door.” She nodded and grinned when Betty locked it behind her.
“What’s all this junk?” Betty asked as she sipped from her own travel mug, and waved her hand at all the boxes littering Amelia’s office.
“Perkins’ shit, he informed me every time he saw me this week, that I had to unpack his boxes for him.”
“Like that’s going to happen.”
“I did unpack the x-rays,” she said as she pointed to the stack on one of the bookshelves.
Betty grinned as she put her mug down and gave her a silent clap. “Where are your things?”
“That box next to the door. Everything else I’ve already removed. That’s the last-minute things I forgot.”
The two of them sat there in silence for a good three minutes before Amelia spoke, “Are you going to be okay here without me?”
“Yes, I’ll make sure of it. As I told Raymond and Yvonne last night, I have three suitcases packed in the back of my trunk.
I have the key to your place, and directions to Broken Two.
The only thing I need to grab if I have to, would be my laptop.
My place was furnished when I moved in, so I don’t have any furniture.
The bed isn’t all that great, I got it at a discount mattress place decades ago.
I’m good. And, I don’t know if I’ll be too far behind.
I’m not going to wait around to get hit again, nor am I going to wait for them to fuck up. ”