Page 2 of Rounds (Love In Scrubs)

T he minute I walked inside the hospital through the E.R.

, I knew it would be a busy day. I wanted to turn around and walk back out.

Sleep had been a distant relative last night, thanks to my argument with Jaunté.

He didn’t get home until two o’clock this morning.

I had stayed up until one, wondering where the fuck he was and why he wasn’t answering his phone.

He was supposed to get off at ten. At first, I was worried that something had happened to him.

After it had gotten to be midnight, I knew he was probably up to no good.

His excuse was that he ended up working late.

That was the textbook excuse for a cheating ass man.

It was always they had to work late. I assumed he thought I was born yesterday.

I was born at night but not last night. He could play me for a fool if he wanted to, but I already had one foot out of the fucking door.

He’d never pulled no shit like he did last night, but I’d been feeling the distance.

We weren’t as affectionate toward one another as we used to be.

When he stopped initiating physical interaction, my petty kicked in, and I stopped initiating as well.

My womanly intuition was on point, and I knew he was fucking around.

When I woke up this morning, I started mentally preparing to leave his ass.

Moving in with him was a poor decision on my part.

When my lease was up, I gave in to his constant offers to live with him.

Silverrun, Colorado wouldn’t be big enough if I ever got proof of what he was up to.

I didn’t mind leaving his ass based on my assumptions though.

I felt his betrayal in my soul. Unless he could provide proof of his whereabouts, I would be out of his house as soon as I could find an apartment.

He worked at a hospital in a neighboring town as head of security.

I was going to see if I could somehow find out if he was at work last night.

I was friendly with a couple of his coworkers.

I could have the gift of gab when I wanted to find out some shit.

As I walked down the hallway to the lab, I nearly walked into someone.

My attention was focused on keeping my purse from falling to the floor as strong hands gripped me at the waist.

When I looked up and saw Dr. Israel, I rolled my eyes.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t see you,” he said.

He licked his lips as I slowly shook my head.

It was always the same shit with him. He was always flirting, and I just wasn’t in the mood to deal with his ass this morning.

He was fine as hell, but I knew he was a ho.

His reputation had proceeded him. Whenever he came into the lab for whatever reason, the women would gawk at him, then talk about his sexual prowess when he left.

I quickly gathered my composure, and said, “It’s okay. Have a great day.”

He glanced down at my badge and said, “Delaney?”

“Yes.”

“I like that name. See you around.”

My mind was screaming. Is that all you like? I nodded and quickly walked away. When I got to the lab, I dropped my purse on my desk and practically slammed the picture of Jaunté and me facedown next to it.

“Uh oh.”

I looked up to see my work bestie standing next to me with donuts. “Uh oh is right. Bitch ass nigga,” I said under my breath.

“You haven’t been happy for a while, Laney, and people are starting to notice.”

“I know. I’ll be looking for an apartment when I have time. It doesn’t look like that will be today though.”

“Girl, it’s busy as hell. They’ve already been asking people to stay late.”

I huffed then clocked in. I grabbed a donut from her and went to grab orders from the tray.

I was one of the best to do my job. Phlebotomy was my thing.

I could find a vein when no one else could.

Sometimes, I even assisted with PICC lines.

It didn’t take a whole lot of skill for those since there was a machine to highlight where the blood flow was the strongest and amplify the vein. It was impossible to miss it.

When I looked over the orders from the paperwork and saw Dr. Israel’s stamp at the bottom, I rolled my eyes.

He made it a practice to communicate unnecessarily and harass people about his patients like he was the only one to take the oath.

Had no one been watching me, I would have put that shit back.

I flopped in my chair to see what floors I would be going to.

He had three on one floor and four on another.

I scarfed down my donut and poured myself a cup of coffee then made my way to the prospective floors.

When I got to the heart floor, I knew it was going to be a long day.

He was up there, coming out of a patient room.

Hopefully he was in a hurry, because he normally wasn’t here this early.

As I got my cart prepared and grabbed some gloves to head to the patient room, he saw me.

Great. I took a deep breath and made my way to the same room he had come out of.

As he approached, I could see the bags under his eyes. He gave me a slight smile as he got closer. “Had a long night?” I asked.

While I was being sarcastic, he pretended not to notice.

He was very attentive, so I knew that he knew I was fucking with him.

Instead, he answered me seriously. “Yeah. I’ve been up here since one o’clock this morning.

I didn’t leave until six yesterday evening, then I had to see about my father. So I didn’t get any sleep last night.”

I felt like shit for trying to fuck with him now. “That has to be tough.”

“Yep. I’m used to it though. Take care of my patient. She’s scared.”

I nodded and gave him a tight smile. He walked away to go to another patient room. I could hear him say, “Mister Jenkins, you trying to get away from your wife again?”

I heard loud laughter as the door shut. He had a great bedside manner. His patients loved him. As I entered Ms. Miller’s room, I could see she was just staring into space. “Hello. My name is Delaney, and I’m here to get some blood from you.”

“Hi. Yes, ma’am.”

Her shoulders were extremely tense looking. They were practically hiked to her jawline. Going to her bedside, I grabbed her hand and rubbed it between mine. “You okay?”

“I’m just a little nervous. I had a mild heart attack last night. This is how my mom started to decline. I don’t want to die.”

She was pulling at my heartstrings as the tears fell down her cheeks.

I hated that no one was here with her. “Well, you have one of the best doctors. I’m more than sure he will get you on the right path to healthier living.

He gives us all a hard time to make sure we offer the best care to his patients.

He’s one of the most caring doctors we have here. You’re in great hands.”

She smiled at me then her gaze shifted. I glanced to my side and could see Dr. Israel in my peripheral.

I wanted to huff, but I continued doing what I was in her room to do.

As I cleaned her arm with an alcohol wipe, I made small talk with her like he wasn’t standing there, asking about her family.

Her husband divorced her a couple of years ago, and she had three grown kids who rarely checked on her. Her story was sad to say the least.

“Well, I’m all done, Miss Miller.”

“Really? I barely felt a thing.”

“That’s because she’s one of the best,” Dr. Israel said before I could respond.

I gave him a tight smile and bid her farewell, then left the room. Before I could get too far, he came out of the room as well and called out my name. I stopped my forward progress and turned to look at him.

“Thank you for making her feel comfortable and at ease and for treating my patients with care. I’d gotten an update on one of her tests and wanted to tell her about it instead of making her wait until tomorrow. I wasn’t trying to micromanage.”

I smiled slightly. “You don’t have to thank me. I take showing care and concern an important part of my job. I love what I do, and I love providing care to the patients. Some of them don’t ever get that. Thank you for acknowledging what I do though. You do an amazing job for them as well.”

I nodded and turned to walk away, but he grabbed my hand.

When I turned to him, he released it and just stared at me.

My entire body heated up, and my heart felt like it was about to beat out of my chest. When he tucked his bottom lip into his mouth, I could have melted to the floor.

Instead, I nodded and walked away. I couldn’t have him forgetting about professionalism in front of all these people.

I could see some of the nurses at the nurses’ station watching us, when they needed to be concerned with making their rounds.

My face had to be red because it was hot as hell.

I swore I was sweating under my titties.

His eyes had dipped there a couple of times.

They were definitely an attention getter.

I wore a damn H-sized bra. Getting a reduction was next on my to-do list. Since my insurance didn’t see it as a medical necessity, I would have to pay out of pocket for it.

My back hurt all the damn time. That had to be from the pounds my chest weighed.

I swore that shit felt like fifty pounds.

I continued making my rounds, but I had to admit, Dr. Israel had been on my mind the entire time.

I could now see how women dropped their panties for him.

The man was sexy as hell, and I now realized he was charming as well.

Most people looked over what we did as phlebotomists.

It was like they treated us as if we were insignificant.

Him acknowledging me made me feel soft and appreciated, something I rarely felt these days.

I was vulnerable, and I needed to get it together.

I knew Dr. Israel could feel my attraction to him.

It was why he approached me after I left Ms. Miller’s room.

With the way Jaunté was acting, it wouldn’t take much for me to feel appreciated by a man.

A simple ‘hey beautiful’ could have me contemplating sliding down his dick.

I hated feeling this way. It caused me to lose restraint and good sense.

When I got back to my desk, there was a note on it with my name on the outside. I frowned slightly. Everyone in the department had my phone number, and we had walkie talkies. It had to be from someone who wasn’t privy to those details. I picked it up and opened it.

Delaney,

It was a pleasure making your acquaintance, today, for a second time. If you’re free for lunch, I would love to get to know you more, even if it’s in the downstairs cafeteria. It’s been a long time since a woman’s heart intrigued me. Let me know what you decide.

Glover Israel

His phone number was listed as well. I could not go to lunch with that man, especially not downstairs.

Everybody would be in our business. Plus, I had a man, no matter how unhappy I was.

Until I had officially ended things with him, there was no way I could be seen in public with another man.

As hard as it was to do so, I balled up his note and threw it in the trash.

Despite the horrible things I’d heard about him, he seemed sweet.

The last person I needed to be near right now was a sexy ass man who took the time to appreciate me.

I went to the basket and went through the orders to see which ones I could do where the patient didn’t need to be fasting.

They were separated by floors already, so we wouldn’t be all over the place.

That only slowed the process down. There weren’t many orders left, but I could imagine more were coming if they were asking us to work late.

Glancing at the clock, I could see I had an hour before my lunch break, so I took off to the gynecology floor with orders from Dr. Wilder.

He was nice and always a pleasure to work with.

On my way to the elevators, I caught a glimpse of Dr. Israel.

He was talking to a lady that he seemed to know.

He wore a huge smile as she spoke, and he was holding her hand.

What if he is nothing like people describe him to be?

I’d seen a different side of him today. Maybe he was delirious from his lack of sleep.

Before I could look away, his eyes met mine.

His smile faded somewhat, but what I saw in his eyes screamed desire.

I refused to be his next conquest unless I considered him to be the same.

Casual sex wasn’t really my thing, although I’d engaged in it in the past.

I took a deep breath as I pushed the up button on the wall.

My eyes drifted back to where he was to find him still staring at me.

The woman he was talking to was gone and so was his bright smile.

God. The man had my insides quivering, but I couldn’t look away until the elevator dinged, alerting me of its arrival.

When the doors opened, I disappeared inside, away from his penetrating gaze.

I didn’t know how I would avoid him at work, since he was always here.

The man was a workaholic. Somehow, I would have to figure it out, or I would be losing my reputation to the flames Glover Israel sported proudly.