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Sloane
“I know you’re still upset about that whole thing with Max. Believe me, I’m furious too.” My best friend Shaye twists her ponytail around her finger. “But you can’t let that stop you from coming. Please? It’s been weeks since everything happened. Besides, I didn’t get to party with you on your twenty-first birthday because you’re two years older! This will be the first time we can really celebrate together!”
“You know I’ve been working doubles all week, right? Besides, I took you out for your birthday, and we had wine. That counts as a celebration.” I poke around at the wires in one of the curtained-off areas in the Emergency Room at Holy Name Hospital where I work as a trauma nurse. What started out as a place to get experience turned into my home away from home, and now I can’t even think about leaving to go to another hospital because I love it so much. “This party is for Nico’s crowd, and I don’t really feel comfortable around them. The guys are dirtbags with nice cars and clothes, and the girls are super slutty and bitchy.” I snicker. “Except you, of course.”
Shaye huffs and folds her arms over her chest as I reattach some of the wires to the respirator in the makeshift room and pick up the stack of patient charts I’d set on the foot of the bed.
“I know they’re not the easiest group to mingle with, but you’ll have me! I am asking you to come because I miss you! You’ve been working crazy hours, and you need a break. And maybe a shower too,” she says, pointing at the messy and greasy bun sitting on top of my head.
I roll my eyes and hug the charts to my chest before leaving the room and heading to the nurses’ station down the hall. It’s unusually quiet for a Sunday morning. Last night must have been pretty uneventful. The waiting room is usually filled with local, college-aged kids who enjoyed their Saturday nights a little too much, but save for the couple of co-eds who needed their stomachs pumped because they downed a few too many Alabama Slammers, it’s been an easy shift for me. I slide the charts into their respective slots and pick up a couple of new cases to be triaged with Shaye still hot on my heels. I glance at my watch. I also have a meeting with one of the hospital administrators to discuss some plans for the charity I run, The Buddy System. The program pairs up kids suffering from cancer with ‘buddies’ who come visit them and basically hold their hands through the treatment and recovery process. It gives the kids hope, peace, and something to look forward to during a really dark time for them. It’s been a massive success since we implemented it, and I hope I’ll get some money from the hospital to grow the program even more this year.
“You’re not listening to me,” she whines.
“You’re right.” I wink at her. “And thank you very much for noticing my hair. Now if you’ll excuse me…”
“Sloane,” she grabs my wrist. “Please come with us. I promise I’m not trying to set you up with anyone. I just want to spend time with you.”
I cock an eyebrow. “Really.”
Shaye lets out a deep sigh, averting her eyes. “I don’t know what’s wrong with my brother. Nico laid into him pretty hard that night, and—”
“What does Nico care?” I furrow my brow. “Max stood me up.”
“Oh, well, yeah, but it was still wrong…” She nibbles one of her fingernails.
“I didn’t realize Nico was such a big fan of mine.”
Shaye shrugs, still staring at her nail polish. “I think everyone wants to see Max settle down.”
A tiny pang jolts my heart. A couple of months ago, I thought maybe there was a shot, maybe his feelings about me had changed…
My spine stiffens and I let out a deep breath. “We were just friends. It was never going to happen for us. Max is a great guy. He just doesn’t seem to have room in his life for anyone but himself.” There. That was diplomatic, right?
Although, if I really wanted to be honest, I’d have chosen one of the other comments flying through my mind at this moment. Because even though we were friends, I’d wanted more…so much more that he clearly was incapable of giving.
Max is a complete, self-centered prick, and I hope his dick shrivels up and falls off when he’s trying to ram some whorey girl who is too stupid to realize he doesn’t even know her name because he was too busy on his phone to listen when she said it the first fifty times he asked!
Hmm, bitter much, Sloane?
I decide against shouting my real feelings about Max to Shaye since it’s not her fault he’s such a douchebag. I’m a big girl, and I’m done with giving said douchebag any more opportunities to blow me off.
I flash a sweet smile at my best friend, lowering my voice. “I love you and Nico. But Max can go and fuck himself.”
Shaye snickers. “How about if I tell him not to come? I’d rather hang out with you anyway. He’s been so edgy these days. Definitely not his usual ultra-charming self.”
If that isn’t the laugh of the century. Max is the polar opposite of what you’d consider a charmer, and yet, here I am, still weak in the knees recalling our last encounter…that body, those eyes…
I grit my teeth. What he said doesn’t matter. It’s what he did…with that trampy whore.
That’s why I refuse to get caught up in his sexy and smoldering trap ever again.
Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice…well, we know how that goes.
But what happens when it’s the third time? Whose fault is it then?
