Chapter Twenty-Seven
The emergency room is chaotic today. A family of four comes in with third-degree burns. Then a man in his early thirties comes in after suffering cardiac arrest playing basketball at a local gym. Once we get him stabilized, I’m assigned to a college woman who has a foreign object stuck up her vagina after a night of partying.
The emergency room is both a devastating place and somewhere that reminds me I wouldn’t do college again. I am happy to be in the early years of my late twenties, where I’m on the other side of some of the things I regularly see here.
Myles stands next to me at the nursing station, looking at a chart. “Today has been nuts.”
He looks at me and shakes his head. “Yeah, you know the college girl you’re treating? I’m dealing with the boyfriend who also has a foreign object up him.”
“What is wrong with people?” I turn and lean against the counter. “Apparently, I was at the wrong parties when I was in college.”
“Are you kidding?” Myles finishes his chart and hands it to me. “I never went to college parties. I was that guy.”
“Trust me.” I place the chart on the counter. “I wasn’t at many either.”
“Hey.” Myles turns to face me. “Just a reminder that Jules will be here around eight. And you’re sure you don’t mind her staying with us for an entire week?”
“Myles,” I say. “It’s all good. I’m excited to see her. And it’s not like I’m home much anyway.”
“Great.” He looks back at a new chart he grabbed. “We only have to make it to May and then we’ll have our wedding back in Texas, and she’ll move here for good.”
My pager starts going off. “See you later.”
I walk down the corridor to my college patient’s room, but then Raven reaches me and loops her arm in mine.
“Hey, Luna. What are you doing tonight?”
I glance at her, and a mischievous grin is all over her face.
“Why?” I raise an eyebrow.
“Forest and I were talking—”
“You and Forest?” I cut her off mid-sentence. “You’re a we now, aren’t you? Oh my gawd. My new best friend and my brother are a we.”
“Anyway.” Raven puts her hand up to stop me. “We’re going to George’s for a drink. You should come. I miss that face of yours.”
“I won’t be off until seven at the earliest.”
Raven smiles. “I know. Plus, this will give Myles and Jules time to be in the apartment alone for a while.”
Her final statement is what pushes me over the edge. Myles hasn’t seen Jules since she was here for the Fourth of July weekend, which was only two and a half weeks ago, yet somehow feels like a lifetime ago. I’m going to guess they wouldn’t mind having the place to themselves to catch up.
“I’ll meet you guys there,” I say as my pager goes off again, and I head down the hallway.
The rest of my day goes by fast. I’m able to scrub into the surgery of my female college patient, who after Xray, is found to have a travel-sized electric toothbrush in her vagina that requires surgical extraction. It’s an interesting procedure, but also enough to confirm that I have no interest in going into gynecology.
After my shift, I change into my clothes and head across the street to George’s bar. I walk through the door, and before I have a chance to spot Forest and Raven, Forest puts his hand up so I see him, and he walks in my direction.
“Hey, Luna. A booth just opened up in the back corner.” He squeezes my shoulder. “We were waiting for you.”
I lean in so Forest can hear me. “Is the entire hospital here tonight? It’s packed.”
“Raven and I were just saying the same thing.” He grabs my arm and leads me to the back of the bar. “It’s good to finally see the white of your eyes. Where have you been lately?”
It’s a question I can’t easily answer, and thankfully, Forest doesn’t wait for me to respond before leading me to a booth in the back of George’s. I spot Raven, and next to her is Matt from Eighty’s Night.
“Luna. You remember Matt,” Forest says. “He decided to join us for a drink and bite.”
He sticks his hand out to me. “It’s great to see you again, Luna.”
“Yes, you as well,” I say. “I’m glad you recognized me outside of eighties clothes.”
He laughs. “Well, I have seen you around the hospital, so I had a good point of reference.”
“I’m so happy you could join us, man.” Forest points to the booth, and Raven slides in, and Forest sits next to her. Matt motions for me to sit first, and then he takes a seat.
“There you are.” Forest raises his hand to wave, and I look behind me where Keegan is walking towards us. He pauses when he reaches our booth, but then Forest moves out of the way and Keegan slides next to him. “Is it just you tonight?”
“Who else would I be with?” Keegan responds.
“I don’t know. Your mystery date,” Forest says. “You mentioned going on the best date of your life and I—”
“I’m alone tonight,” Keegan says, cutting Forest off.
Forest raises an eyebrow in Keegan’s direction, and I stare straight ahead.
“Great to see you, Matt.” Keegan sticks out his hand to shake Matt’s.
“You as well,” Matt says. “Forest gave me a call, and I thought coming out instead of going back to my apartment seemed like a good thing to do.”
“Well.” Keegan drops his hand, and then his eyes flick to me, before quickly looking away. “Thanks for thinking of me too, Forest. I need to unwind after the day I had.”
It’s my first time seeing Keegan since he left my apartment in the morning, and my body blushes as I replay last night in my head. I put my fingers on my lips, still tingling from how he kissed me. I had to put lip gloss on for work today to hide the ecchymosis on my bottom lip, the only outward evidence of our night tangled up with each other.
Matt turns to me, giving me all of his attention. “How are you liking Presby?”
“It’s great.” I pivot my body toward Matt and cross a leg over the other. “My Chief Resident is amazing, and I was lucky enough to find good roommates. Present company included.” I gesture toward Raven.
“Is New York overwhelming after spending your entire life in Minnesota?” He studies me as he pushes back his longish, blond hair. “Because I spent most of my life on a farm in Iowa, and this city seems otherworldly to me.”
Somehow, I can sense Keegan’s gaze burning into my skin, and it sends a shiver down my spine. I can’t meet his piercing gaze because it would reveal all the things that I’m not ready for anyone to know. My heart races and my palms grow sweaty as I attempt to remain composed and focus on whatever words are coming out of Matt.
With Keegan so close, it’s hard to think about anything but him. My mind cuts to the way he touched me, and the words he whispered into my ear. I glance at his hands, and heat floods my body once again as I remember all the things that transpired in the past twenty-four hours. I blush thinking of his cherry tattoo, adjacent to his magic penis.
Before I can answer, Forest puts two glasses down on the table. “Luna, Matt and I were talking about how we Midwesterners need to stay together in the big city.”
I put my glass down. “Yes. I just learned Matt was from Iowa.”
“Yeah.” Matt smiles and puts his arm on the seat behind me. “It’s always so nice to meet fellow Midwesterners here. I feel like we’re the same speed.”
“I think I mentioned this to you, but Keegan is from our same hometown back in Minnesota,” I say, attempting to shift some attention his way.
“Why’d you want to practice out East?” Keegan asks him, and we all turn. Keegan then pushes his hair out of his face, and it’s hard to look away from his bright, blue eyes. “I know you did your fellowship at Mayo, and not many people choose to leave such a great institution.”
“I prefer big cities, and like I said the other night, my brother lives around here.” Matt picks up his napkin. “After my internal medicine fellowship at Mayo, I realized that Rochester wasn’t a place I wanted to stay and raise a family. It started feeling too small.”
He shifts his body and ends up a little closer to me, once again giving me his undivided attention. “How about you? Was Presby your first choice for residency?”
“It was.” I rest my elbow on the table. “Besides the obvious reason for Forest being here, their gen surg residency program is one of the best in the country.”
“And,” I continue, “I love the culture of the city. It’s so diverse, and there’s so much to do.”
Raven leans forward. “You know what you need to do? Get to a Broadway Show. We could go together. You mentioned you’ve always wanted to go to one.”
My eyes dart in her direction, and I have to hold myself back from sharing that I happened to see one the night before. I can see Keegan out of the corner of my eye, and his hands are folded on the table and he moves from studying them to his eyes burning holes into me. I’m a prisoner on the inside of this booth, and I want to get out of it and be alone so I can process the past day.
“Yeah,” I continue. “Someday for sure.”
“It must be nice having your brother here.” Matt looks at Forest, and then Keegan. “And a friend from back home.”
Forest laughs. “I’m sure Luna loves having her big brothers hovering all the time.” Forest puts his hand on Keegan’s shoulder and starts to push him out of the booth. “But why don’t the three of us go check on the pizza order? It should have been here by now.”
Keegan raises an eyebrow and pushes his shoulder into Forest’s. “I’m sure it will be up shortly. We don’t need to check on it.”
“Okay.” Forest clears his throat and looks at Keegan with curiosity. “Raven, will you check with me?”
They slip out of the booth, and it’s just Keegan, Matt, and I. Raven glances back at me and shrugs before Forest takes her hand.
“We’ll be back shortly.” Forest taps the table, and he and Raven walk away.
“Do you guys get to work together much?” I ask, trying to divert Matt’s attention off of me.
Matt’s eyes glance away from me and look toward Keegan. “I’ve referred patients who have needed surgery to Keegan, yes. I just recently read your paper on the aortic arch dissection. Stellar work.”
Matt once again looks at me before Keegan can respond. “It’s always nice to meet people new to the city. This place can be overwhelming.”
“Yeah,” I say. “It’s definitely not the easiest city to make friends.”
“Luna.” Matt looks at his half-full beer on the table, and then back at me. “If you’re up for it, maybe we could explore this new city together. I’d love to take you to my favorite coffee shop. Show you around to the few places I’ve discovered.”
I glance across the booth, wanting to look at Keegan, to reassure him, but he’s looking away as he slides out of the booth without saying anything.
Matt once again turns to me. “No pressure if you’re not interested. You’re new here. I’m new here.”
“Oh,” I say, as thoughts flood my mind. “It’s just that—”
“I’m probably coming on too strong.” Matt cuts me off. “As friends, of course.”
“Yeah, maybe.” I press my lips into a line and rub them together. “It’s just that I started seeing someone, which is why I hesitated.”
He holds his drink to his lips and takes a long sip of it. He then looks at me and smiles. “I completely understand. I did not mean to be too forward.”
“Don’t be sorry.” I shake my head. “I appreciate the offer, and I’m always up for exploring the city as friends.”
“Yes. Of course.” Matt says. “As friends.”
I see movement out of the corner of my eye and turn as Keegan walks out of George’s.
“Matt, can I squeeze past you?” He slides out of the booth so I can get by.
“I need to get out of here, but it was really nice meeting you.” I stick my hand out and shake his.
“Yes, it was great seeing you.”
I have to find Keegan.