Royal Pains

by Magnolia Robbins

  Sure enough, as soon as we enter, I spot her ringing up a customer at the far end of the store. Zoe nudges me playfully, and I wave her off as we wander inside. I help her gather up some produce and various items around the store. Every time we draw close to the registers, I catch a glance of Penelope, watching her as she works, completely focused.

  Finally, after we gather all of the things we need, we make our way to the registers. I can feel my heart beating in my chest furiously. Penelope’s eyes wander over in our direction. When our gaze meets, she looks mortified. I watch her turn away, staring down at the register and across the store towards the exit. Zoe purposefully picks her line, and the two of us wait to approach her.

  “Hi there, Penny!” Zoe says enthusiastically after we’ve placed our cart full of items on the conveyor belt.

  “Hi there,” she says, and the two of us meet eyes briefly. “Your mother is putting you to work.” Zoe smiles at the comment. I watch her as she swiftly moves through the items. She does it so gracefully and meticulously, it is entrancing. Finally, she looks back up to me.

  “You look cute in an apron,” I smile at her. As soon as I say it, I can’t believe I had. My face burns and I watch hers turn equally as red. I feel my nose start to itch and I let out a row of quick sneezes.

  “Thanks,” she finally manages to say, when I’d finished.

  “Do you have clinic tomorrow?” I ask her, trying quickly to change the subject.

  She nods as she places more items into a bag and hands it to Zoe. “I’m dreading it. I have to do case history again, and I’m terrified I’m going to mess it up.”

  Before I can stop myself, I ask. “Would you want to practice? I’m really good at it. I could give you some ideas.” I watch her ponder over the invitation for a moment and then she finally nods.

  “I get off at eight,” Penelope says as she finishes bagging the last of our groceries. As she hands them to me, our hands gently touch again. It lasts just for a moment, and I find myself wishing it had been longer. “There’s a coffee shop down the street. Do you want to meet there?”

  I smile at her as I help Zoe load the last bit of bags into our cart. “That sounds perfect.”

  We pay for our groceries and head out. As we walk back to our building, I look to my cousin, who is smiling brightly.

  “What?” I ask curiously, brushing a strand of hair out of my face.

  “She totally just asked you out on a date!”

  Chapter 5

  Penelope

  Crap, what did I just do? Had I asked her on a date? As Astrid and Zoe leave, I can feel myself melting into the floor. I have to brace myself against the counter the register sits on to keep myself steady. By the time a customer comes up again, I’ve managed to recover, but the whole time all I can think about is a few hours from now.

  You look cute in an apron.

  She’d look cute in anything, I thought to myself. God, Penny, get a grip.

  By the time eight o’clock rolls around I’d managed to not be absolutely terrified of going down to the coffee shop. Stephanie, the manager, catches me on my way out and asks me to help stock an aisle before I leave. I’m nearly twenty minutes late by the time we finish, and I fly down the street, hoping that Astrid hadn’t left yet.

  Instead, I am pleasantly surprised to see that she is still waiting for me, sipping tea in a window seat. She waves and smiles that amazing smile when she sees me walk past. After I grab myself a coffee, I sit down across from her. I regret not arriving sooner so we could sit in a less open spot, like in my corner seat I knew and loved.

  “Sorry I’m late,” I apologize, trying my best to not seem overly flustered. Interestingly enough, she’d changed into a pretty off-white floral print dress and a pink cardigan. It even looked like she’d fixed her hair a bit, braiding her bangs around the side of her head. Had she done it for me? I couldn’t be sure. Either way, she looked incredibly cute.

  “Don’t worry,” she smiles, reaching out to gently touch my hand. When she does, it sends a shiver through me. I don’t pull away. “I was just sitting here people watching. New York is great for that.”

  I nod in agreement as she moves her hand away and back into her lap. We both take sips of our drinks, looking at each other intermittently as we sit in somewhat awkward silence.

  “So, I thought we could take turns practicing on each other,” Astrid says after a minute or so. Practicing on each other. Case History. Right. “Then maybe I can offer some tips for you? Would that help?”

  I nod graciously, and Astrid situates herself in her seat. “Alright, I’ll go first.” She runs through questions with me, and I do my best to make an interesting patient for her. Late fifties, history of chronic heart disease, deaf in one ear. And my favorite part – a circus performer for a living. It makes Astrid laugh, which gives me butterflies. She makes the whole thing seem like a breeze. Talking with her made me feel so comfortable and at ease. I could only imagine how she made a patient feel.

  “You’re great at that,” I reply once she’s finished. She blushes a little at the compliment. I watch her fiddle with the edge of her cardigan for a moment before she responds.

  “You want to give it a try?”

  Astrid is gentle with me when we start. I take my time, thinking through the best way to ask follow up questions that are pertinent to the answers she gives me. When she finishes, she gives me a giant smile. “You did a good job.”

  “Really?” I ask, surprised. My gut had told me otherwise, but it was nice to hear it coming from her.

  “Really,” she replies. “You’re not as bad as you think you are. The only thing I’d recommend is more eye contact.”

  If only she realized how difficult maintaining eye contact with her is. It is enough of a challenge with other people, but with her. God, it makes every inch of me uncomfortable staring at her for too long. There are feelings that well up to the surface that I can’t control. Feelings that freak me out.

  “I’ll keep that in mind,” I reply, skipping over my whole internal dialogue.

  The two of us practice for a while, taking turns. I try to make mental notes of things I like about the way Astrid approaches her questions and her body language towards me. She lets me know things I do well and gently makes suggestions of things I could improve on. Eventually, we stop practicing and our conversations lead elsewhere, talking mostly about our undergraduate studies and school related things.

  When I look up at the clock, it is nearing eleven. I can hardly believe it. The shop owner is wiping down counters and preparing to close. Astrid joins me in checking the time, and she laughs a little when she notices it.

  “That certainly went fast,” she notes, and I agree. “Are you ready to go?”

  I nod, taking our cups and setting them on the counter for the barista. She waves thanks to Astrid and me and I head out onto the Manhattan streets. We stand outside for a minute quietly before I break the silence.

  “So where do you live exactly?” It is an odd question, but my curiosity gets the best of me. Plus, it was an excuse to know whether or not we can continue our conversation.

  She doesn’t miss a beat. “Just a few blocks down that way.” The direction she points is the same way I’m headed. Without asking, I take off down the street, nodding towards her. The two of us walk side by side, enjoying the crisp fall air. Even at the late hour, it is still rather busy on the streets. There were many places I wouldn’t want to walk alone in New York, but this area was certainly not one of them.

  Our conversation takes off again, and we chat for a few blocks until my building comes into view. “This is me,” I say, nodding towards it.

  As we stand outside, now facing one another, I can’t help but notice what relatively close proximity we have gotten. Even then, I watch as she moves slightly closer to me. Our eyes meet, and I suddenly find it a little more difficult to breathe.

  “Thanks for helping me tonight,” I manage to say, brushing my bangs out of my face
. Her eyes don’t waver from mine, and it sends a little shiver down me.

  “Of course,” she gives me that smile of hers. God, she’s so stinking pretty it’s ridiculous.

  Again, like several other times, I find myself drawing closer to her still. We watch each other for a long while, neither of us talking. It seems as if she’s drawing towards me too. The street is eerily quiet. So quiet, I can hear my racing heartbeat inside of my chest.

  “Goodnight, Astrid,” I say quietly, holding myself in place. It feels as if we are so close now that I can almost feel her breath on the skin of my face.

  “Goodnight, Penelope,” she replies, breathlessly. The way she emphasizes my name drives me wild. I can’t take it any longer. My body leans forward into her.

  Our mouths meet. Softly. Subtly. As if our lips were just meant to tickle one another’s. I feel myself smirking when they do, and when I look up she is staring at me curiously. She leans back into me, pushing her lips onto mine again. We take turns, sharing small kisses until finally I put my hands on either side of her face and pull her fully into me. Her hands reach up to grip the edges of my jacket, near the top of my chest. We stand there for what feels like hours, until we finally break apart to breathe. Both lightly panting.

  Neither of us speaks for a moment. Astrid releases her grip, and we step apart from each other. Finally, I run my fingers through my hair, feeling myself blushing when I look into her eyes.

  “See you tomorrow,” I smile at her, turning and running up the steps into the apartment building. Even though I didn’t look back, I knew somehow that she was watching me go.

  Kissing a girl like that will lead to a terrible night’s sleep, I will say that much. All night I stirred, replaying it in my mind over and over. It had felt like a dream. I still couldn’t believe I had done it. But I certainly didn’t regret it.

  The next morning when I wake up, I smell bacon cooking down the hall. I stumble a tired mess, down to the kitchen and find my father making breakfast.

  “Good morning, kiddo,” he gives me a smile as I manage to find the chair. Before I know it, there’s a plate of bacon and eggs sitting in front of me. The toaster clicks and a second later my father tosses on a piece of toast. Brutus sits at my feet, begging me for a scrap of food. I toss him a small bit of bacon from my plate, and he chews it up happily.

  “What are you doing home?” I ask curiously, as he places down a cup of coffee in front of me.

  “They want me to come in later today,” my father says as he fixes himself a plate. A moment later, he’s joined me at the table. “They had some big meeting today, so they don’t need us for a few hours. Thought I might make my girl something good to eat.”

  I chow down on the food graciously as the two of us make small talk. It had been a while since my father and I had shared a meal together. Working three jobs with a daughter who was in medical school would do that to you.

  I must have been giving off some sort of vibe, because my father suddenly stops mid-conversation, staring at me curiously.

  “Something happened,” he says, raising a brow at me. I finish off a final bite of the food on my plate and can feel myself getting hot in the face.

  “Maybe,” I reply before I take a sip of coffee.

  “Are you going to clue your old man in, or what?” He gives me a nudge under the table with his foot. Reluctantly, I decided to spill the beans.

  “There’s a girl in my cohort,” I reply, and I watch his face light up. The last time I had a girlfriend had been my freshman year of college. It lasted for a year before an incredibly painful breakup. Since then, I’d focused on my school work. That was until just recently when suddenly it had become increasingly more difficult to do so.

  The whole story comes flying out of me at a rapid pace, and my father listens curiously, sipping his coffee. When I finish, he looks pleased.

  “A foreign lady, huh?” He teases me, and I do my best to hide my embarrassment. I roll my eyes at him before I stand up and take our plates to the sink.

  Later that morning I pace outside of the lecture hall working up the courage to walk inside. When I make my way down to sit next to Astrid, I give her a nod, and she smiles at me. I just catch it for a second as I sit down, but it makes my heart thump hard in my chest. We don’t speak to one another the entire lecture. I wait till the class has mostly cleared out before I finally utter words to her, trying to sound as casual as possible.

  “Do you want to look over my notes?” I ask her, studying her carefully. So far so good.

  Astrid leans into me, glancing at my laptop. She reaches over, scrolling through what I'd written, comparing hers with mine. All the while, I can hardly breathe with her body in such close proximity to my own. All the feelings from yesterday come rushing back at me. When I look at her, she gives me a soft smile before she pulls away.

  “I think I actually got it all,” she says with a sigh. “For once.”

  She gets up from her seat, stretching a bit. I watch her lean down to pick up her bag off the floor, all the while entranced by her every motion. It isn’t until I hear Charlotte’s voice echoing in the distance that I finally break free of her.

  “Hey, ladies,” her southern drawl calling out as she rounded the corner into the room. “Would you like some lunch?”

  The four of us – Oliver, Charlotte, Astrid and I, sit together at a small café on one corner of the University’s campus. We share a booth, which makes it all the more difficult for me to focus or be coherent with Astrid sitting mere inches away from me.

  Every once in a while through lunch, I feel a brush of Astrid’s leg against mine. When the waiter brought our food, and she’d passed my plate to me, our fingers touched, and it drove me mad.

  “Biochemistry is going to be the death of me,” Charlotte moans as she takes a bite of her French fries. “Dr. Reid is so difficult.” The three of us nod in agreement.

  “Can you pass the salt?” Astrid whispers to me, and I can feel her breath tickle against my skin. It sends a shiver through me, top to bottom. I oblige, carefully passing it off to her. I don’t know if it’s just me or not, but her fingers linger for an awfully long time, and it makes my mind wander for a moment, imagining the idea of them lingering other places.

  “Earth to Penny,” Oliver says, snapping me back into reality. I feel my face go flush as I turn to look at him. When he realizes he has my attention, he repeats himself. “Do you want to go practice in the anatomy lab after lunch?” Astrid has already agreed, and I find myself deciding to tag along as well.

  It’s nice to have the place to ourselves. Oliver finds Dr. Ross who opens the lab for us and sets up some of the specimens to study. I find myself working alongside Astrid, but it doesn’t bother me any in the least. We go through all the bone structures again so she can practice.

  I carefully hand her the clavicle bone and stand beside her as she observes it. She thinks for a minute, rolling it over in her hands a few times. Finally, she speaks, noting the conoid tubercle and the impression for the costoclavicular ligament. When I ask her to identify the acromial end versus the sternal end, she gets confused again.

  “This is the acromial end?” She has it backward, and when she sees me smile at her, she knows she’s messed up. “Ugh, how do you get this right?” I find myself leaning into her and rotating her hands softly with mine, so the bone is facing right-side up. When I touch her, I purposefully linger there for a moment, holding her hands in my own. Enjoying the feeling of her soft skin beneath mine.

  When I finally move away, I turn to look at her. “It would help if you weren’t looking at it upside down,” I laugh. She nudges me playfully in the side.

  We move on to the humerus bone. I stand beside her, watching as she studies each piece, naming off the different landmarks. As she works, she stands close beside me, letting our bodies gently graze against one another. God, every part of me is dying inside. I can hardly control myself, never the less pay attention to what she’s doing. />
  The four of us spend at least a few good solid hours in the lab before we finish up and head our separate ways. As Astrid and I make our way down the hall, I feel her staring at me. When I turn to look at her, her eyes are focused intensely on me. “Would you like to study with me?”

  My mind is still so far in the gutter the only thing I can think is that I definitely wanted to do more than study, but I didn’t dare say that to her. Instead, I just manage to nod.

  “Would you want to come over to my apartment?"

  Did I ever. Again I manage to keep myself quiet, but it took everything in my power not to let it show on my face.

  We walk the handful of blocks it takes to get to the building that Astrid lives in. It is an incredibly tall building, one of the taller ones in Manhattan. I’d passed it before but never gave it much note till now. We enter the lobby, where there is wood and marble abound. There is a large waterfall against one wall.

  I can feel myself getting uncomfortable by the level of class the place oozes. It didn’t surprise me that Astrid had been wealthy. Yet I doubted she’d ever rub it in anyone’s face. “Fancy,” I note, as the two of us board the elevator. She smiles at me.

  The building is composed of fifty-six floors. As Astrid hits the top floor button and pushes a key into the reader, I suddenly realize I’m not going to just any apartment.

  “You live in the PENTHOUSE?” I manage to squeak out as we ride up.

  I can see by the look on her face she is embarrassed. “It's my aunt's place. She can be a little extravagant.”

  Astrid is understating it by a long run. When we reach the top floor and the doors open, I am greeted with the most amazing looking place I have ever seen. There are windows abound that show every view of Manhattan imaginable. Everything inside of the place is pristine and white and perfect in every way. It looks so clean that I hardly wanted to touch anything.

  We are greeted by a very eccentric looking woman who definitely looked related to Astrid. If she hadn’t called her Auntie, I would have guessed it was her mother.