I continued to eat while he stood up and started to leave, taking his plate with him.
“Day off?” a local asked from my side.
I nodded.
“Gotta love it.” She smiled. “Hey, I heard that you were married.”
I shoved another fry in my mouth instead of answering, giving a grunt of ‘maybe so’ in answer.
She smiled at my grunt. “I heard she’s a good one. Though I’ve also heard that the hospital makes it hard to work there. You should try to get her into Doc’s.”
I took another bite, hoping that she would take the hint.
But, obviously, she didn’t.
“I mean, it’s not like the hospital is horrible. They’re good pay, and the money makes up for the company. But sometimes, it’s miserable enough there that not even a good paycheck will be enough to make you want to stay.”
I’d heard that the hospital wasn’t all that great.
They had a high turnover rate, and I swear I never saw the same set of nurses twice.
And when I did see someone new, I never saw them again.
Maybe it was just because I was mainly interacting with the emergency room department, and oftentimes they had a higher fluctuation of staff.
“And the food there is terrible,” the woman kept going. “Plus, when I was there for a few weeks before finding a different job, I found myself going home and being so dang angry. It was like the people there got something out of sucking all the life out of you.”
She eventually tapered off, but for the rest of lunch, I thought about nothing but the environment at Sage’s work, and whether she could use a decent sandwich.
Thirteen
I’m going to hell on a full scholarship.
—Sage’s secret thoughts
Sage
Luckily, I was in the triage area of the emergency room today instead of the actual ER.
Being in the triage area meant that I saw any patients before they went back to be seen. I took their vitals, decided if they were emergent enough to be sent straight back, and sat the ones that weren’t.
Even better, today had been a fairly slow day.
Not that I would be admitting any of that aloud.
It was always best to pretend like you didn’t notice than acknowledging it.
Because if you acknowledged it, shit tended to go downhill.
I was balls deep into my investigation of Sarah and Ismael Pollard when I heard a throat clear.
I looked up, expecting to see a patient, and found Gentry standing there instead.
I would not admit how freakin’ excited it made me to see him.
Then the panic set in.
“Is Neo okay?”
