Unexpected Love Story

by Natasha Madison

  “Are you saying that if I kissed you again right now, you wouldn’t want it?” I push my seat back with one hand, still holding her with the other. “Are you saying that if I kissed you right this minute, you wouldn’t kiss me back, you wouldn’t want it?” I pull her closer, thanking fuck I have a big ass truck with so much space. “Are you telling me that you didn’t want me as bad as I wanted you?” My hands go to her hips, pulling her over to straddle my lap, her knees bent beside my hips. “Are you telling me I’m the only one who stayed awake all night long, thinking about sneaking into your room just to get a taste?”

  “No,” she whispers. This time, she makes the move, bending down and stopping just before she kisses my lips. “I don’t know what it is.” I don’t let her finish. I slam my lips to hers, the kiss frantic. My lips on hers, her tongue with mine, our hands all over the place. My hands glide up her sides to cups her tits, squeezing them in my hands.

  Her mouth leaves mine, and when she throws her head back and moans, I attack her neck. I bite and suck and kiss all at the same time. Her hands go under my sweater and shirt, but stop when I push her back against the steering wheel. Her shirt has shifted and now dips in the front, baring her shoulders. Pulling down the front, I hiss when I see her in a totally see-through strapless lace bra. Her nipples pink and pebbled, I lean down and bite one hard enough to hear her moan out loud while her hip moves up and down on my straining cock. “Oh my god.” My eyes look up at her when I move to the other breast, doing the same thing with that nipple. “Why?” she asks the question, but I don’t bother to answer her. I snap her bra off to bare her tits to me. Her hips ride me, trying to get more.

  Feeling like a teenager making out in my fucking truck instead of grabbing her and bringing her to my bed, I suck a nipple into my mouth as her hands fly to my head. Her panting becomes louder and louder. I kiss my way over to the other one, sucking in her flesh before taking the nipple into my mouth. “Gabe,” she whispers, looking down at me and pulling me up to her lips. She sits up, pressing my back to the seat, and my hands going to her ass. Grabbing her and pushing her into me, I feel her heat through both our jeans. Her mouth on mine, her tongue in my mouth. She goes right to left, trying to kiss me deeper. My hands at the nape of her neck pull her head back so I can kiss her neck, the neck that called out for me all night. I’m about to bite it when I hear a phone ringing.

  “Shit,” she says, snapping out of it. “That’s mine.” She leans over to get her purse and pulls out her phone. “Hey,” she says into the phone. “Are you on your way?” She climbs off my lap, pushing her shirt up. “Yeah, I’m home. I’m going to bed, so I’ll talk to you tomorrow.” She tosses the phone down, looking at me. “Hailey is on her way home. How fast can you get me there?”

  “What?” I look at her in confusion while she situates her sweater.

  “If I’m not home when she gets there, and then I walk in after her, we are going to have to explain where the hell we were this whole time.”

  “So?”

  “So?” She looks at me, buckling in. “So we can’t tell anyone. How is it going to look if you’re banging your new nurse?” I put my seat back and start the truck. “I think this thing is …” And she stops.

  “What is this thing?” I ask her, driving faster than I normally do to get her home on time.

  “We have an itch, and we need to scratch it.” She smiles at me. “I mean, we are definitely attracted to each other, and the sex was decent the last time.”

  I glare over at her. “Decent, my ass. I rocked your world.”

  “Whatever.” She rolls her eyes when I turn on her street. I pull up to see that Hailey’s car isn’t there yet. “Perfect,” she says. Unbuckling and turning to look around, she leans over. “Okay, fine, it was a little better than decent.” She kisses me on my lips and then jumps out of the truck, running up the steps. I watch her make it inside, then turn and drive back home, replaying what the fuck just happened.

  “I almost had sex in my truck,” I tell no one. “I would have totally fucked her in my truck, and I’ve never fucked in my truck.”

  I pull up to my house again. This time, when I open the door, her white bra falls at my feet. I bend to pick it up. “Decent, my fucking ass.” I smile, walking up the step with her bra in hand. One day she is going to get this back, and I plan to make that day sooner than later.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Crystal

  I rush up the stairs, my tits bouncing away with no bra. My heart beating so fast I don’t think I can breathe. “What the fuck was all that?” I slam my bedroom door and lean against it as my chest rises and falls. My nipples sensitive from the friction of the knitted sweater. Pulling it over my head, I walk to my dresser to grab a tank top. Looking down, I see a hickey bright as day right next to my nipple. “Asshole.”

  I peel my jeans off my legs and toss them into the laundry basket. I put on a pair of shorts just as the front door opens and shuts. “Just in the nick of time,” I say when I hear Hailey moving around downstairs. I open my Facebook app, wondering what my friends are doing back home, when I see I have a couple of friend requests. Darla, Emma, and Ava. I accept their requests and then see that Ava posted some pictures of this weekend. I click on her pictures going left to right when I see a picture of Emma, Ava, Olivia, Mia, Corrine, and two other people I don’t know with the caption “work squad.” I click on the faces to see if they have been tagged. I notice one is Laura, the nurse I replaced, so I click on her face to take me to her Facebook page. She is private, but I see she has her work information entered, showing her new position at Chicago Memorial. I go back to Ava’s picture and click on the other face, who is Bethany.

  When I get to her Facebook page, her profile picture looks like it’s from a yearbook. I swipe right, and my heart stops; there is Gabe and this woman taking a selfie. He kisses her neck while she smiles at the camera, showing off her engagement ring. The title is “I’m getting married,” and I feel sick to my stomach. I sit up in bed going through the comments. They are all well wishes. Then I see a comment from Gabriel Walker.

  Thank you for the wishes, so glad she said yes. I click on his name, and it takes me to his profile page, which is set to private. His profile picture is of him, Walker, and Brody standing around with beers in their hands. It is the only picture I could see. I try to click to see his friends, but it only shows me how many we have in common, which is two—Emma and Ava.

  I taunt myself by going back and looking at the picture of him and the woman and then scrolling to find more pictures of them together. She is almost as tall as he is, and she is perfectly dressed every single time. Her hair and makeup done perfectly, she looks like she has a glam squad following her. On each picture, my eyes focus on Gabe’s eyes; I can’t point out anything, but he looks different. His eyes don’t crinkle when he laughs. His smile is almost like it’s for show. I go on Instagram and search to see if he has an account, and I can’t find one, but I do find Bethany’s and it’s set to private.

  I turn off my phone and shut down the lights, curling up in a ball to look at the blinking stars outside. I don’t know how long I watch them before my eyes become heavy, and I fall asleep. I dream of Gabe and that little girl again, her eyes turning to look at me, but this time, my eyes are looking back at me as she smiles at me and waves.

  My eyes flip open, the tears pouring out on the sides. I see it’s light outside, the tears nonstop as I curl into a ball gazing outside. The sob comes out, my hand going to my mouth to muffle any noise. I’ve made my peace with never having a child, or at least I thought I did. My chest hurts, my heart aches. It’s a physical pain I can’t explain. A burning sensation, traveling from my chest to my stomach. When my alarm rings, my hand shoots out to shut it off. I slowly get out of bed, then wash my face with cold water, my eyes still a little puffy.

  I go downstairs, doing my own routine, and leave without talking to Hailey. I walk in, keeping my head down, hoping like fuck my eyes look n
ormal. “Morning,” I tell Emma when I see her in the room, and she looks up at me and smiles.

  “How excited were you to sleep in your own bed last night?” she asks, and I laugh.

  “I about fucked my bed like a starfish.” I wink at her while she laughs out loud. “Do you think I could start working with Dr. Walker Sr.?” I ask her, slipping on my Crocs. “Just so I know how he works.”

  “That sounds like a great idea,” she says while we both walk to the nurses’ station where everyone is standing around. “Crystal will be working with Dr. Walker Sr. today so she can get a feel for how he works.”

  “That’s a negative.” I hear from behind me. Turning, I see Gabe. “He’s away till Wednesday, so I need to cover both patients for the day. It’s going to be a busy day, ladies.”

  We all look up at the board to see that patients are scheduled every fifteen minutes for both doctors. “We are going to be here all night,” Ava says.

  “What can make it go faster,” I start saying, “is for the nurses to go in first and assess the cases, so when Dr. Walker comes in, the nurses can give him the gist, more or less.”

  “That sounds like a good idea,” Mia says. “We can maybe knock out the patient in five minutes instead of seven.”

  Everyone agrees on the plan. “See? Team building.” I turn to smile at Gabe who glares at me. The buzzing tells us that a patient is in. “I’ll take the first one.”

  And one by one, we roll for the day, and by the time five o’clock rolls around, my feet ache from practically running all day. I’m thankful for the two days of rushing around to keep my mind off my dream and prevent me from actually sitting down and talking to Gabe.

  By the second day, I walk in, grabbing a piece of pie and going upstairs to collapse on my bed. I get up after a while and look outside to see Hailey sitting on the beach, but she isn’t alone. No, this time Walker is there with her. I turn to take a shower, and when I get out, they are still together.

  My stomach grumbles, so I go down to make something to eat. I listen to the back door open, going toward it.

  “Late night visitor?” I say from the doorway. Hailey’s back is to me, and she yelps.

  “You scared the shit out of me,” she tells me as I smirk at her.

  “So … your visitor?” I ask her.

  “You want to do this? What about the hickey on your left boob?” She points at me as my eyes go to slits.

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” I roll my eyes.

  “Really? So who is the guy?” she asks me, and I just shrug my shoulders.

  “Again, you’re changing the subject.” I point at her.

  “So are you,” she tells me when I turn to walk away, flipping her the bird. “Night, hooker.” I walk upstairs to her laughter. I tried hard to hide the fucking hickey that has yet to fade, but when she walked into the bathroom yesterday while I was getting out of the shower, it was hard. I pick up my phone when I see I have a friend request, this time from Corrine. I accept it, then browse her Facebook page to see what she has on there. Pictures from the camping trip this weekend are at the top of her page.

  I see she tagged me in one of the pictures, the one with me and Gabe tied together at the wrist. My eyes glare at him as he tried to get me to go his way instead of the right way. The caption was “When Crystal wanted to kill Dr. Walker,” and she tagged him.

  I laugh at the picture but don’t comment on it. When I walk in the next day, I see that Dr. Walker Sr. is back.

  “We should go bowling,” Olivia says. “Now, that is team bonding.”

  “I love bowling,” Emma says.

  “I want to go bowling,” Ava says next.

  “Oh, Dr. Walker, we are planning a bowling night,” Corrine tells him when he comes to the nurses’ station.

  “Bowling, I can do,” he says, and we all roll our eyes. “I can.”

  “Good morning, everyone.” Dr. Walker Sr. walks in. “I saw the pictures from the retreat, and it looked like a great time. We have some news. We will be adding a pediatrician to the roster. Dr. Alan Holmes will be joining us. He will be here on Thursday.”

  The buzzer tells us that our first patient arrived, so we all get up. “Crystal, you’re with me today.” He smiles at me. “Let’s see what all the fuss is about,” he jokes, and I nod, making sure I am on my game today.

  We work side by side the whole day with him asking my opinion and nodding when I’m right, which is ninety percent of the time. The other ten, when he explains why I was wrong, he does it with patience and kindness. When I finally leave that night, it’s with a big old smile.

  I get home, and Hailey is in the kitchen making pasta. “I had the best day at work,” I tell her, sitting down at the table.

  “Really?” she says, stirring the pasta. “I have to say I was nervous when you moved out here with me. I thought for sure you would hate it and leave me.”

  I smile. “Nah, but I am surprised I’m not bored.” I grab an apple from the fruit bowl. “Today, I worked with Dr. Walker Sr., and I actually learned stuff. It was a great day.”

  “That’s great.”

  “We are going bowling on Friday. I told them I was bringing my plus one.” I wiggle my eyebrows at her. “It’ll be fun.”

  “But I won’t know anyone, and it’s going to be weird. You guys will have your code words, and I’ll be sitting there like a loner.”

  “We don’t have code words, idiot.” I shake my head when she places a plate in front of me. “Besides, you need to go out and have fun.”

  “Okay, fine,” she says when she sits down, “but the minute I feel weird, I’m leaving.”

  “I promise you that I will make sure you don’t feel weird.” During the rest of the dinner, we discuss our plans this weekend about maybe going into town. When I get to work the next day, I see that I’m working with Dr. Walker Sr.

  “I get it now,” he says to me when I’m filling out a chart after the patient leaves. “Why everyone loves working with you.”

  I smile at him, turning my head back again. “Thank you. It means a lot coming from you,” I tell him, and we go back to work. The next day I come in and I’m excited to be working with Mrs. Dr. Walker.

  “I’m excited,” she says, walking into the examine room. “My husband has done nothing but brag about you this whole week.”

  I laugh because he has been openly telling all his patients about me.

  I work side by side with her all day. She very much has a soft approach to all her patients, who are mainly women. “You really have a touch with patients,” she says, washing her hands after her patient leaves. “Mrs. Naya hates every single one of the nurses here. Refuses to even talk to them, but you.” She shakes her hands, grabbing a paper towel. “You buttered her up and she told you her whole life story.”

  “It’s nothing,” I tell her.

  “It’s something.” She leans her hip to the counter. “When Laura and Bethany left, this place was meek and dire. It was like we lived under a dark cloud, ready to pour down on us. Lightning and thunder,” she says. “Now it’s like a ray of sunshine, people are smiling, well, not Gabe, he’s been touchy this week.”

  I try not to change my facial expression when she mentions Gabe. “None of the nurses will he fight for, but low and behold, he called his father last night demanding to work with you today.”

  I shake my head. “I don’t know.”

  She smiles. “He just knows good when he sees it.” She turns to walk out of the room, leaving that lingering in the air.

  The week flies by, and by the time I look around, we are getting in the Uber to go to the bowling alley. “You look awesome,” I tell Hailey.

  “It feels good to dress up,” she says, looking over at me.

  “Yeah, feels nice not to have my scrubs on,” I say, looking down at my skintight blue jeans with rips in the front and a long-sleeve black bodysuit with a round criss-cross neckline. My hair loose and wavy. “I’m planning to let loose ton
ight.” I wink at her as I put on my pink lip-gloss.

  “Here we are,” the driver says, and we get out of the car. We both plan on drinking tonight so we decided to Uber it. Walking in, I look around and see a couple of the people have arrived. I introduce Hailey to Emma and Mia, who quickly start talking. I look up to see Gabe staring at me or, better yet, glaring at me.

  I give him a chin up when he motions with his head for me to follow him. I walk away from the girls who are talking about some recipe and follow Gabe out the side entrance. “What’s the matter?” I ask, crossing my arms over my chest.

  He looks around and then grabs my hand, dragging me with him around a corner to an alley. It’s a dead-end alley with two dumpsters. “What the hell?” I ask him. I’m about to say more when I’m pushed to the wall next to the dumpster. “Gabe,” I whisper to him when he comes to stand in front of me, his eyes a dark blue.

  “You’ve been avoiding me.” My back is against a cold brick wall, my legs opened a bit where he’s stepped between them. “All week, I’ve tried to get some time with you, and you just avoided everything.” I finally take in his outfit; he looks like he can be on the cover of GQ. His light blue jeans ripped at the knee, a dark blue jean shirt buttoned up the front. The cuffs turned and rolled up, showing off his ink and I get the need to trace it with my fingers or better yet my tongue. White running shoes on his feet.

  “I have not been avoiding you.” I try to settle my erratic heartbeat.

  He looks in my eyes, and then down at my chest, his forefinger tracing the edges around my breast. “All week, I wanted to talk to you.”

  “Really?” I laugh. “About the fact you gave me a hickey?”

  His head flies up. “I did not.”

  “Oh”—my hand grasps my top, and I move it down an inch to show him the now fading hickey—“you most certainly did.”

  His finger reaches out to touch it, and he chuckles. “I guess I did.”