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That was good to hear because I felt useless as she seemed to need some sort of life cleansing yesterday. All I’d done was drag bags to the garbage chute or load some up in my SUV to donate. Or fetch what she needed.

I hadn’t felt like that was much help.

I leaned in and gave her a soft kiss. “Get new bedding. I always feel like that’s the start of a reset. I did every time I moved onto a new stage or switched hospitals. The next chapter of me because our tastes change.”

Her eyes sparkled. “I love it. Yes, that’s—thank you.” She gave me a much deeper kiss. “Thanks for supporting this. I don’t feel so silly or all over hearing that this is okay—healthy even.”

“I envy you because I have boxes that I don’t have the energy to sort through or handle. I think if anyone says it’s a waste of your time or silly, they’re just jealous you have the energy for this that most of us lack.”

She beamed at me and everything was right in the world when those bright golden eyes shined at me. “You’ll come over after work?”

“I’ve got a light day, so I’m going to hit the gym if you want to join me?” I hedged.

She seemed to consider that and nodded. “I could use a swim. I need to get back to that and stop running myself into the ground.”

Perfect.

What wasn’t perfect?

The rumors all over the hospital. By lunch, I’d heard everything from Ellie being out because the owner was embarrassed byanotherblowup with her to her being in prison for breaking a mating contract.

“People really are fucking stupid and I’m getting tired of it,” Dr. Joyce Tai grumbled.

“I’m handling as much of the guys as I can if you could smack around the women,” I offered.

“As much as I wouldlovethat, I’m not sure if it would help or make things worse,” she admitted.

Fair enough.

It got better when Ellie video conferenced into an afternoon meeting and that flew around the hospital. Also, the email from Dr. James saying that he was over the gossip and for people to grow up. That Ellie wasn’t out, and people had family issues because we were people.

As the head of the hospital, Ellie was doing the wise thing to take a step back and some time for herself. That he could easily name a dozen of our department who had done the same. And for people in such a compassionate field, he was disappointed at thelackof compassion for one of our own who went through something upsetting.

Also, that it wouldn’t be forgotten because he was tired of feeling like a vice principal handling little kids instead of a department head managing adults.

Damn. Like...Wow!

But good. Seriously, it was perfect.

He also wasn’t the only one. I had a feeling that the department heads got together or at least talked about how to handle things because I heard every department received a similar email. I hoped they’d let it go on that long because they were taking names and paying attention to the problems, not just because things fell through the cracks or they didn’t care about Ellie.

And I came home to an excited Ellie. Technically, it was her condo to pick her up to go to the gym… But yeah, it was coming home to her.

“Do you have any idea how awesome Amazon is?” she asked me with a bright smile, waving something in front of her. “I gotto the deep cleaning part and—it’s like the best forty bucks I’ve ever spent.”

“What is it?” I chuckled, taking it from her. “A mini vacuum?”

“Yes, but super powerful,” she said dragging me along to the kitchen. She pulled a bunch of everything out of the drawer and then used it to easily vacuum out the drawer. “I tried to clean out the drawers in my closet with my Dyson and hated life. Do you know there are whole social media pages for cleaning? Organizing? It wasso helpfulwhen I got overwhelmed.

“I mean some of them were overwhelming and obviously just trying to sell product, but a lot were helpful. I used the affiliate links so they got credit and Amazon had it delivered a few hours after lunch. I have more coming later and…” She let out a heavy breath. “I really needed this.”

“Not the vacuum?” I checked.

“No, decluttering and seriously just handling my home,” she answered, gesturing around. “I think a few days getting my room and office together was smart. Everything is out of the master bathroom now—I had creams that expired ten years ago. That’s how long it’s been since I’ve gone through the shit in my bathroom. Even I feel like a monster.”

“I have no idea what my stuff all is,” I admitted, taking the little vacuum back and checking it out. “Oh, this does air blowing too. Yeah, I want this. Just to clean my electronics in my study. The compressed air cans—I feel like a duffer using them.”

“Yeah, that—I’ll have to read the instructions for that part when I get there.” She stood on her toes for a kiss, smiling when I gave it to her. “Do you mind taking some boxes of files to Alan tomorrow? He knows how to properly dispose of them. I have patient files and insurance claims that we had to go to court over from—it’s ridiculous.”