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I sent her back a row of eye-rolling emojis.
After that, I shot a text off to Graham, and since neither of us have baked a cake from scratch before (I’m more of a box cake kind of gal), we decided to try that. I’m going over to his place later tonight after my shift at the hospital and his at the clinic.
Did it feel weird when he invited me over to his place to do the challenge? A little. He did say it was to make sure I didn’t cheat and go buy mine. Which I would never do. I may be competitive, but I don’t stoop to cheating. Ryan does that, not me.
It just feels strange to be going to his place. Almost like it’s too intimate. Even though it’s not. I have no reason to suspect that Graham wants anything more than friendship from me. There hasn’t been the tiniest speck of flirtation between us. Should I be offended by that? Am I not attractive enough to flirt with? Do I want Graham to flirt with me?
“Did those labs come back for room three?” Calista asks. She’s standing outside the nurses’ station, in front of the computer I’ve been working on. We’re near the end of our shift, and I’m ready to get out of here.
“Let me look,” I say, clicking on the file. “Yep, they’re back.”
“Great,” she says, through a yawn.
“Oh,” I say, looking at my screen, my lips turning upward.
“What is it?” Calista asks, peering over the counter as I angle my screen toward her.
“Oh,” she says, echoing me. She smiles. “That poor thing.”
The woman in room three hasn’t been able to keep any food down for days, and now we know why.
“Are you telling her now?” I ask.
“Yes,” she says.
“May I . . . join you?”
“Of course.”
I leave my station and follow her over to room three, where she knocks quietly on the door.
“May I enter?” she asks before going in.
Inside the patient room, a very peaked-looking woman with long brown hair is lying on a bed, an IV in her arm, a dark-green scarf lying next to her on the bed. I only noticed because it looks crocheted and beautifully done. I’m still annoyed I lost that challenge.
Sitting next to her, holding her hand, is a man with blue eyes and a concerned look on his face.
“How are you feeling, Mara?” Calista asks, and I close the door and walk over to the other side of the bed to check her vitals. Both her blood pressure and her heart rate have come down to the normal range.
“Better,” Mara says, and her husband—I believe his name is Noel—nods his head.
“That’s good to hear,” Calista says, going over to the room’s laptop and logging in. “Still nauseated?”
“A little, but not as bad,” she says. “Do you think we can go home tomorrow? We’ve been stuck here waiting out this virus because I’ve been too sick to travel. But I’m ready to get back home.”
“Where’s home?” I ask.
“A small town called Carole Cove,” she says. “If you like Hallmark Christmas movies, then you’d love the vibe.”
“What did the tests say?” asks Noel. It was clear when I checked them in that he was more worried of the two. Mara kept saying she was fine and that this was a waste of time, but according to her husband, she hadn’t been keeping anything down for a couple of days.
“That’s what I’m here to tell you,” Calista says, pulling up Mara’s records and looking over them quickly. “Everything came back negative. It’s not influenza, and your labs look good, except for electrolytes which were low due to dehydration.”
“So, what is it? Food poisoning?” Noel asks.
Mara lets out an exasperated breath. “I told you I didn’t need to come in. I’m totally fine.” She pulls on the collar of her mock-neck sweater. “My gosh, it’s hella hot in here.”
“No, it’s good you came in,” Calista says. “You definitely need the fluids right now because there is one test that came back positive.”
