“That.” I waved my hand in the general direction of the triage desk.
Kareem kissed his teeth. “Man, that lil nigga wasn’t tryna get you for me.”
I stared at him, waiting for more of an explanation, but it quickly became clear that there wasn’t more to the story.
I sighed and plopped down in the chair closest to me. Now that the adrenaline died down, the exhaustion came back. “Baby, this is my job. You can’t show up and bully people here. I could get fired.”
Apparently, it was his turn to stare at me. It took him several seconds to respond.
“Fuck this job.”
My jaw dropped, and I immediately shook my head. “Uh-uh. No. You can go now.” I stood up and tried to usher him toward the exit, but he stayed planted in place.
“You’re upset.” It wasn’t a question, so I didn’t answer. I simply looked up at him through slitted eyes. He sighed. “I’m sorry, mama.”
I blinked, and my eyes softened. “Sorry?” It wasn’t a word I expected from him. I could tell he didn’t say it much by the way his jaw clenched like it pained him.
He nodded. “I told you I don’t do well without access to you.”
I let out a slow breath. He had told me that, but I knew I needed to set some healthy boundaries here. “Kareem, when I’m at work, you might not have access to me. My job requires long hours and all my attention. People’s lives are in my hands. You caught me on a break today, but those don’t really come often. Are you going to be able to handle that?”
“No.”
I giggled at his automatic response. “Kareem!”
His jaw twitched before his strong hand reached out for my waist. Once I was snuggled into his chest, he kissed my head. “Aight, man. I’ll deal with it. You out here bein’ superwoman and shit. I guess I can be patient with that.”
I melted into him, like I always seemed to. “That’s my man.”
He pulled back and looked down at me. I giggled. I knew what he was about to say.
“I’m ya man now? You been givin’ me a hard time.”
I poked his chest and pulled away. “You’re my man. All mine.”
He leaned down and kissed me. If I didn’t have another six hours to work on this shift, I would have taken him to one of the on-call rooms and took advantage of him, but his ass would put me straight to sleep.
“I love the sound of that.”
We embraced for a moment before I asked, “What are you doing here anyway?”
He walked over to the chair where he discarded his items and grabbed the flowers and the bag. “For you.”
“Aw, thanks, baby.” I smelled the flowers and then opened the bag to find a box with my favorite Greek restaurant’s logo. “This is just what I needed, bae. I’m so hungry, but I have to be in surgery in fifteen minutes,” I whined.
“Go ’head and eat, Mermaid. Will you come over when you get off?” A new wave of exhaustion hit me. He must have sensed it, because he quickly added, “Don’t worry about goin’ home and grabbin’ clothes or none of that. I just want you in my space, since you ain’t seen it yet, and help you relax.”
My pussy clenched at his words. “Just send me the address. I’ll be there.”
“That’s my girl.” He kissed my head again, and I walked him to the exit.
My coworkers looked at me like I was crazy as I kissed my man goodbye. I knew Flanagan wanted to have a word with me, but that would have to wait. I needed to scarf this food down and get to the operating room. The sooner I could get through this shift, the sooner I could go see Kareem. My heart smiled at thatlast thought, and I had a pep in my step as I walked back toward the break room.
It surprised me that I was able to make it to Kareem’s house in one piece. My eyelids drooped, and my brain felt like mush, but I made it. I was so sleepy I wasn’t really even able to appreciate the beauty of his home.
Before I could even ring the doorbell, the door flung open. Kareem took one look at me and said, “Aw, my baby,” before he pulled me into him.
I must have looked like shit. Truthfully, I wasn’t really feeling all that well either. The only word I could conjure up for how I felt wasdrained.
