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“But,” my best friend tells me, “I’ve covered your ass. No need to panic. I’ve spoken to him already.”
“Wait, you have?” I ask.
“I said your train broke down,” Diana replies. “You don’t need to thank me; you just owe me now. And I don’t ever forget who owes me.”
I laugh. “Actually, I think when it comes towho-owes-who,then you’re still in massive debt to me, Diana. Let’s not forget all the times I’ve covered your ass when you’ve been late, and what about lunch the other day?”
“What’s ten dollars between friends, hey?”
I smile at Diana and clock into work on the keypad. She follows me around the hospital staff locker room as I collect my security badge and put my bag away. Diana and I have been best friends for years - ever since our first day on the job here at the hospital. We actually even started on the same day, and we’ve been inseparable ever since. It helps to have a really good friend when you’re forced to scrub floors together.
Diana is such a beautiful woman, and I remind her of that fact practically every day. She’s too good for this hospital cleaning job, and I desperately want her to know that. The first thing you notice about her are her expressive eyes, framed by lovely long lashes. She’s got curly, black hair. Her face holds strength in it, with her defined jaw and nose. She’s a determined, confident, fun-loving woman, with a deep-seated pride in her Latino heritage. She carries herself with an attractive, poised demeanor, and shenevertakes shit from anyone. I wish I had some of that abrasive spark sometimes. But despite her gorgeous looks, she’s always been unlucky in love. And yet it does provide the greatest entertainment – hearing all the crazy dates she’s been on with crazy men is the best way to get through a long cleaning shift. It seems like Diana somehow attracts the most unhinged males in our city, and it makes for some entertaining tales, especially with her hilarious knack for storytelling.
“You want to say something to me,” I remark to her as I attach the hospital security badge to my uniform. “Don’t you, Diana? That’s why you’re following me around this staff room like a puppy, right?”
“Okay, so Imighthave a favor to ask you,” she tells me as she trails behind me.
“So that’s why you covered my ass?” I ask her.
“Maybe...”
I stop and turn to her, my hands on my hips. “Alright, then. Spit it out. Don’t keep me hanging.”
“It’s nothing bad,” she says.
“I’m not reassured by that in the slightest, Diana.”
“Can you pretty please babysit Faith this evening?” she asks.
Faith is Diana’s daughter - the sweetest girl in the whole world who I love so dearly like she’s my own child. I’ve babysat her countless times since she was born, with Diana being a single parent and all. I witnessed first-hand how hard it was for my own single mother to raise me, so to help Diana in any way over the years with Faith has been some kind of remittance for the difficulties of my own childhood.
“You want me to babysit tonight?” I ask.
“Yep, tonight.”
“And what’s happening tonight, Diana? Why the last minute babysitting request?”
She exhales nervously.
“Okay, so Imighthave a date.”
I squeal in happiness. “A date, Diana? Arealdate?”
She nods enthusiastically. “And he doesn’t seem like a psychopath. We started chatting on a dating app, and he seems totally normal, Emma - an actual normal man on a dating app. Howrare.”
“You’re very lucky,” I reply, knowing all too well how ridiculous dating is in this city and how difficult Diana’s found it as a single mother. All those men you have to scour through to find someone not terrifyingly insane. “And yes, I am always happy to look after Faith. Always. I love spending time with her.”
“Perfect. Thank you, Emma.”
“You better be ready for your date,” I tell her.
“And why, may I ask, wereyoulate for work today?” Diana asks me as we step out of the staff room and into the main hospital. “Was a boy sleeping over? Please tell me it was something like that. I’m always telling you my stories, so it’s about time you had one to tell me, Miss Sensible.”
I let out a snort. “Nope. Not a boy. Not in a million years, you know me. I am truly Miss Sensible.”
“Don’t tell me you got lost in thought standing outside that damn theatre again looking at the birds, Emma.”
“They’reswans, Diana. It’scalledSwan Lake.”
