Page 10 of Fever: Love In Scrubs

TWO WEEKS LATER

I was back in Colorado Springs for my in-office work day. Thankfully, it was Friday, so I had nothing but free time when I left here. I got in yesterday and spent the night at Tinka’s. She was all too happy to have me and tried to get me drunk like I didn’t have to be to work at eight.

My arm was feeling much better, my ankle still hurt, and the boot remained in place.

While my first experience in the house resulted in injury, I was getting used to being there.

It didn’t feel like home just yet, but I would give it time.

I mean, I’d been away for fifteen years, and the place held a lot of unpleasant memories for me.

Sometimes I swore I could see the stacks of newspapers and boxes of junk.

I’d smell the stench of the piles of trash or food that dropped somewhere and went forgotten.

Then I’d blink and it was all gone. I think part of my problem was the fact that I still had both of my parents’ ashes in the house.

At some point, I had to set them free and in doing so, free my damn self.

Maybe Jaxson knew a private area where I could follow through with it.

Thinking of him made me smile. These past two weeks, he made time to check on me if he was at work, and when he wasn’t at work, we’d grabbed lunch or something.

I had to admit that he was quite likable.

He was funny and charming, and for some reason, I felt comfortable around him.

We’d really been getting to know each other and I could say with confidence that there was a little spark there.

He sent me a good morning message this morning as I was getting ready for work which turned into a FaceTime call on my drive over.

It was a little weird watching him in the morgue as we talked.

He was moving around like this was a normal phone call.

I guess to him, it was since he did this every day.

I walked into The Compass Connection with a smile on my face and headed to my office.

Since I’d been working remotely, there wasn’t much for me to catch up on, so I prepared for my first client of the day.

In addition to working with kids currently in foster care, I also worked with a few who’d recently aged out.

Those were my favorite clients.

I loved when they came back to me with progress.

So many of these kids were thrown to the wolves and had to figure life out for themselves.

I took pride in preparing them for their future.

I especially loved that The Compass Connection was available to these kids up until they were twenty-five.

They understood that their background and where they came from may require a little more time for them to get it together.

My first appointment today was with my favorite twenty-one year old, Chrissy. When she first came to me, she was an angry sixteen year old. She was defiant, disrespectful, and hardheaded. It took a good year for her to trust me and once I gained that, she finally opened up about her past.

Chrissy had been raped by her mother’s boyfriend from the age of twelve until fourteen.

She endured further abuse at the hands of her foster father when she was fifteen.

The girl carried around so much anger and pain and my heart went out to her.

I worked countless hours with her, some of those being after hours.

Once she finally trusted me, she took to me like an auntie.

I helped her get emancipated at seventeen, find a job, and housing. Since then, she’d been doing great. She walked into my office at eleven with a smile on her face and a little extra bounce in her step.

“Where you been, auntie?” she asked, coming around to hug me.

“Remember I told you I was moving.”

She frowned. “When did you tell me that and why didn’t you give me an address so I could visit.”

“You know I can’t give you my address, girl.”

“And here I thought you loved me.” She looked down at the boot on my foot. “What happened to you!”

“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you. I fell down a flight of stairs.”

She stifled a laugh. “Aren’t you a little too old to be falling?”

“I said the same thing. Anyway! How are you?”

“I’m good. Guess what?”

“What?”

“I got a promotion at work! I’m officially a stylist!”

I smiled. “I’m so proud of you, Chrissy. See, I told you all your hard work would pay off.”

“I have some other good news,” she said, reaching into her purse.

She pulled out a piece of paper and handed it to me. As I read over it, my eyes widened and so did my smile.

“You got accepted to design school!”

“Yes! Your girl is in there!”

She started dancing in her seat and I couldn’t help but laugh.

Chrissy had been working at a clothing boutique since her emancipation.

I was beyond proud that she’d been holding down the job for this long.

She told me she loved clothes and fashion, so I found her something where she could feel at home.

The girl had talent. During our time together, she’d shown me many of her sketches and there was so much promise there.

When she told me she wanted to apply to design school, she’d talked down on herself, saying she knew she wasn’t going to get in, but I wasn’t having that.

I gave her praise and encouragement. We sat together to do the application and pick her best sketches to send in.

Now look at her. All that hard work paid off.

“I’m so happy for you, Chrissy,” I said, genuinely. “You deserve this.”

“I do. Thank you for believing in me. I know I was a total bitch when we first met, but you never gave up on me.”

“And I never will.”

A knock at my door interrupted our conversation. I stood and walked over to see who it was. Much to my surprise, when I opened the door, there stood a man with a big bouquet of white, red, and pink roses.

“Delivery for Wynter Driscoll.”

“Um… that’s me,” I said, slowly.

“Sign here.”

He held out a clipboard and I signed my name before taking the arrangement of flowers. After thanking him, I closed the door and reclaimed my seat.

“Oooo!” Chrissy said, peering over the mass of flowers. “Who are those from?”

“I don’t know.”

I plucked the card from the stem and opened it.

Thinking of you. I hope these make you smile. Have a beautiful day— Jaxson.

I blushed as I read the note. I’d almost forgotten I told him where I worked during our conversations.

“Auntie! You got a boyfriend?” Chrissy asked.

“What? Girl, no. This is from a friend.”

“Well, none of my friends ever sent me expensive bouquets of flowers like this. He must like you.”

“What makes you think it’s a he?”

“I could see the card. Jaxson. Hmmm… he sounds cute. Is he cute?”

I giggled. “You’re in my business.”

“So. You’ve been in mine for five years.”

“Because that’s what I get paid to do.” I placed the flowers on the table behind me and turned back to her. “Now. Back to our meeting.”

Chrissy playfully rolled her eyes but refocused her attention on the reason why she was here.

Well, as much as she could. She kept getting sidetracked, asking me about Jaxson and where I met him.

I smoothly redirected the questions because if I thought about him too long, I was going to get distracted myself.

I thought I would have a minute to sit with my thoughts when Chrissy left, but as soon as I sat down, another knock came at my door. I sighed.

“Come in!”

The door opened and there stood Aunt Kira with a smile.

“Hey, baby.”

“Hey, auntie.”

“I know we talked this morning, but how are you feeling being back?”

“I feel good. Ready to get this boot off. I still can’t believe I fell down those stairs.”

“I can’t believe you didn’t call me or let me come take care of you.”

“I told you I was fine.”

“Mmm hmm.” She sat down as her gaze drifted to the bouquet of flowers behind me. “Those are beautiful.”

“Thank you.”

“Who sent them?”

“A friend.”

She smirked. “When did you make a friend and what’s his name? Tinka told me about that doctor back in Silver Run.”

“Your daughter has a big mouth.” I sighed. “Yes, it’s from him.”

She squealed with excitement. “I’m happy to see you getting out there.”

“Getting out where? He’s just a friend, auntie.”

“It’s a start and I’ll take that. Are you gonna see him when you go back?”

I shrugged. “Maybe. It depends on if he asks me.”

“I’m sure he will. You are beautiful, Wynter. Beautiful and deserving of someone to spend your time with. We aren’t meant to live life by ourselves.”

“We also aren’t supposed to love someone so much that it consumes us.

Look at my father. He spent thirty years alone.

As far as I know, that man never touched another woman.

He never loved another woman. Never looked at another woman.

I don’t want anybody to love me like that and I don’t want to love anybody like that. ”

She sighed. “I get that, sweetheart. I do. But you still deserve someone to love you. I don’t want you to grow into the old cat lady yelling at the kids to stay off your lawn.”

“Well, that won’t happen because I don’t even like cats. All that shedding would drive me insane.”

I shivered at the thought. Kids, I could clean up after.

Pets… I’d never be able to get every piece of hair up and I’d worry myself to death trying to.

I supposed I could get a furless animal, but then I’d have to worry about what other messes they would make.

It was best if I avoided a pet altogether.

Aunt Kira rolled her eyes. “Okay, Wynter.” She stood from her chair and rounded the desk to cup my face. “I’m glad you’re home. Come over for dinner tonight. I’ll make your favorites.”

“Yes ma’am.”

She kissed both of my cheeks then walked toward the door. Looking back, she smiled.

“I’m gonna say a special prayer for you to open your heart. Your husband is out there, and between me and the good Lord, you’re gonna find him. I know it’s coming.”

She blew me a kiss and closed the door.

I relaxed into my chair and grabbed my phone.

Me: Thank you for the flowers. They’re beautiful.

Jaxson: You’re welcome, love. You busy?

Me: Not at the moment.

A FaceTime call came through. Propping the phone up on the stand, I answered the call. Jaxson’s handsome face appeared, causing me to suck in a deep breath. He was just so damn fine.

“Hi,” I said, my voice coming out in a high pitched tone. I cleared my throat. “I mean, hi.”

He chuckled as he propped the phone up. I could tell he was in his car.

“Hey, Wynter. How’s your first day back?”

“Technically, I was working remotely while I was away, but so far so good. How’s your day?”

“A little slow today. I took an extended break to have lunch with my kid.”

“Awww! That’s so sweet. You do that often?”

“As often as I can. She uses it to her advantage because she always requests the most expensive thing she can think for me to bring. Baby girl has steakhouse taste on a ramen noodle budget.”

I giggled. “Somehow, I bet that’s your fault.”

“I didn’t do this alone. Her grandparents, aunt, and uncle helped me create this monster, now I’m responsible for her.”

“I’m sure any man she marries will have a lot to live up to.”

“Oh, God. Please don’t bring that up. She’s about to hit those teenage years and I’m not ready for the boy crazy phase. I’m gonna have to yoke her little ass up.”

“I’m sure you were the same way in your teenage years.”

He grinned. “We ain’t talking about me. As far as you know, I was a good, Christian boy.”

I laughed. “That remains to be seen, sir.”

“I’m just gonna take that as you allowing me to show you the kind of man I am.”

I blushed. “We’ll see.”

“You said you’re due to come back Tuesday, right?”

“I did. Yes. I only needed to be in the office one day this week, but I wanted to spend a little time with my aunt and cousin. I didn’t think I would miss them this much.”

“How about you let me take you out. Don’t get me wrong. I enjoyed our lunch dates that weren’t really dates, but I wanna take you out for real.”

I swallowed hard. “Um… okay.”

“What was that?”

“I said okay.”

“One more time, cause I know the woman who said she doesn’t really date didn’t just agree to go on a date with me.”

I hide my smile. “Why are you so silly?”

“Because I like to see you smile. Sometimes you look so down when I see you. I just wanna lift your spirits a little bit.”

“Thank you, Jaxson.”

“No problem. I hate to cut this short, but I have to get back to work. Can I call you later?”

“Sure. That’s fine.”

“Bet. Have a good day, love.”

“You too.”

We disconnected the call, and I sat there grinning like a schoolgirl. This wasn’t me at all. I didn’t date. I barely entertained men unless it was for pleasure, and even those instances were few and far between.

So why did this man make me so damn giddy?

Now we had a date.

What the hell was I going to wear?

Looking down at my phone, I went to Tinka’s contact to send her a message.

Me: Cousin… don’t freak out. I need your help.

Tinka: ***eyes emoji** with?

Me: He asked me on a date when I’m back in town next week.

Tinka: ***voice note*** Bitch, I’m on it as soon as I get off!

I had to laugh. If there was one person who could get my head together for this impending date, it was her.