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Still, I didn’t want to complain. The schedule wouldn’t last forever, as I knew already quite well. And the job was everything I had been hoping for. It was fast-paced and challenging, not a description that was easy to find in a job in Ashford, and I enjoyed helping people. Knowing that I was able to make terrible days better for them or that I played a role in them recovering from a health situation was extremely gratifying.
In spite of all the petty envy that I beat myself up over about my sister and her life working out so well, I was excited for her wedding. It was coming up soon, and this was my last shift before I took off to get ready. As I clocked in, I said hello to the older women who worked overnight and went to my locker, going through the routine that I was becoming so familiar with I could probably catch a few extra winks of sleep while my body went through the motions and just wake up when I got back out of the nurses’ break room.
I didn’t have a date for the wedding, which was a sore spot for my sister, but it didn’t really matter to me. Who was I supposed to bring anyway? Most of the eligible men in town were either uninteresting or bad news, and at any rate, I didn’t have time to date someone long enough to ask them to accompany me to a wedding. Guys got funny about that. It was like they assumed they were being tricked into getting married themselves if they went.
I had gone on a date or two with the guys that worked with me, so that ruled them out too. The only people who understood a nurse’s lifestyle and schedule were other people in a hospital, and the guys at mine were not my type. It was a losing prospect, and I told Malia that. I was happy that she was so concerned with me having a good time, but I told her she didn’t need to worry. I was going to have fun.
Wendy was going to help at any rate. The two of us had the wedding on lock, and Wendy had taken the lead on running the event. As usual, if one of us was doing something, the other was assisting, and in my case, I was going to be running the coordination of people while Wendy made sure back of house went well. We worked splendidly as a team, as he had all our lives, but the pressure of making sure Malia’s wedding went well was a bit more stress than normal. Still, I trusted her, and she trusted me, and we were both determined to give Malia a wonderful day and have fun doing it.
I was looking forward to having a few days off to help plan and hang out with Wendy and Malia too. Being able to sit in my house in my pajamas drinking wine and helping Malia pick out the last-minute adjustments she wanted to make sounded awesome.
A lot of the legwork was already done. Malia had some pretty specific ideas of what she wanted for her wedding, meaning that Wendy and I were mostly just following her plan. She was thankfully not the bridezilla she could have been and instead was pretty malleable when things didn’t work out the way she had hoped.
Wendy was awesome too, taking up the mantle and doing what she could when she knew I wasn’t going to be able to do it. I didn’t even have to ask, if something was needed on a day that I usually worked, and during the time I was usually there, she would figure out how to do it either herself or she would get Finn to do it.
Finn and Gerry were hilarious together too. The two of them were up for any errands us girls needed them to do and were happy to do it. Gerry was adamant that he just wanted to marry Malia and make sure she had the kind of day she wanted. It was very sweet, and I was so happy that my sister had chosen such a great guy.
Gerry’s parents were coming into town later in the day, flying into Knoxville and renting a car for the rest of the trip. I was supposed to meet them at Dina’s Diner and go over the itinerary for the week and make sure they got checked into the hotel. They had been in town once before, but Gerry wanted to make sure they were taken care of. I was happy to do it and was looking forward to meeting them after I clocked out. On time.
The shift had really just begun, and I was getting into the swing of things when I heard my name called over an intercom. Curious, I walked up to the nurses’ station and caught the attention of Mary, one of the senior nurses there.
