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I let his shadow slide past the door and wait a few scary moments before I open the door again and make my way down the hallway.
What am I still doing working here?
And why haven’t I made my escape from the man who broke my heart?
35
AUGUST
I don’t even bother knocking on the door to the hospital cleaner staff room - I just barge straight on in like the arrogant doctor I am.
Here goes.
I saw her enter here a moment ago, so here’s my chance. Perhaps my only chance to really nail this.
I need to talk to her - this constant bumping-into-each-other-in-the-hospital-hallways routine we’ve got playing out is now just getting ridiculous; we need to work things out, otherwise we’ll both go crazy.
Because I know I, for one, am truly starting to lose my mind...
“Emma.”
She whirls around to face me as I announce my presence in the staff room with her name. A mixture of shock and anger etched across her face greets me as she recognizes who exactly is standing at the doorway.
I must say, I have gotten very accustomed to that deadly expression over the past few days.
I know that it’s highly unusual and unconventional for a doctor to speak to a member of the cleaning facility, let alone walk into their staff room, but I don’t give a fuck - I really need to end this awkward dance around each other.
Behind Emma, I spot another member of the cleaning staff look at me, then at Emma, and then back at me, before scurrying off to the restroom to give us some privacy. Curly black hair and big eyes. Judging from the look she gives Emma before she disappears, I’m guessing she must be a friend, and by her final dirty expression thrown in my direction, I’m also taking a guess that Emma must’ve let her in on at least a fraction of our past shared history.
“What are you doing here?” Emma asks me once her friend has gone, her tone sharp and blunt and really trying to signify that she reallydoesn’t give a shit.
Despite her own hardness, I can’t help but soften when I see her. Victor was right when he recalled me telling our brothers that she is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen, and it’s still so true all these years later, even in this antagonistic setting in this staff room where I am very much not welcomed. I still can’t look at her spellbinding, easy brown eyes and her radiant, pretty face and not just...thaw.
But it seems like Emma is far from feeling anything like that toward me.
“We both can’t keep avoiding each other like this,” I say to her, slowly shutting the staff room door behind me.
She crosses her arms andglares.
“Yep. We can’t.”
“We need to talk, Emma.”
“Really?”
Still as sharp and blunt as ever.
She hasn’t forgotten. She hasn’t forgiven.
“We both work in the same building,” I say calmly, “so how about we take the time to sit down and work things out between us? I believe that’s the only way forward, especially if we’re going to be working under the same roof. It’s inevitable that we’re going to have to talk at some point.”
“There’s nothing to work out between us,” Emma replies. “There’s nothing to talk about. You’re a doctor, and I’m a cleaner. That’s it. There’s nothing else to the relationship between us.”
“I don’t know how we’ve ended up here together...”
She cuts me off immediately.
“I don’t care, Doctor August. I’m just here to do a job.”
