“That’s alright. We all get a little jacked-up once in a while. Don’t sweat it.” Henry smirked. “Anyway, that’s the pile of the ones waiting.” Steve pointed to the charts.
Henry grabbed the one on top, and headed out to the waiting room. He called out the first name on the chart and a middle-aged, well-dressed woman sauntered her way toward him. Shit, here we go again, he thought. For some reason, women always threw themselves at him. He never understood it.
“Well, hello, Mr. Phlebotomist,” she purred. “I think I’m going to come here more often,” she said, as she looked him up and down. Henry’s face was blank when he looked at her.
“Name and birth date.” He had no emotion in his voice. She looked at his left hand for any signs of a ring.
“Dina Emerson, and you know it’s not polite to ask a lady’s age.”
His first thought? Cougar.
“Ms. Emerson, I need your birth date to verify that I have the correct chart.” He was all business.
“Oh, fine. 7/12/60.”
“Thank you. Follow me.” He shuddered. He could feel her eyes working their way up and down his backside.
“You know…that lab coat does nothing for you.” And there it was.
“Exactly why I wear it, Ms. Emerson.” They walked into the draw room, and Henry pointed to the chair that was waiting for her. “Have a seat there, please, and remove your jacket.” He was annoyed. He didn’t want someone old enough to be his mom trying to flirt with him, especially when he only had eyes for Elaina.
He walked over to the supply cabinets and accidentally hit an open container of iodine. It fell over, spilling all over his coat. “Shit.” He was gripping on to the side of the sink, feeling like he was close to putting his fist through the wall.
“Whoa, there. Here.” Steve handed him a bunch of paper towels. “You alright, bossman?” He could see the steam rolling out of Henry’s ears. He took a few deep breaths.
“Yeah. Sorry. I’m just stressed beyond belief.” He peeled off the lab coat, realizing the iodine had drenched his shirt, too. He groaned.
“You have a change of clothes in your office? If not, I have an extra set of scrubs in mine.”
Henry let out a loud breath, and ran his hand through his hair. “Yeah, I think so. I think I have a t-shirt, at the very least. I’ll be right back.” He ran out of the draw room, back to his office.
He ran into his bathroom, and pulled the white t-shirt off the back of the door. He realized it was just a white fitted undershirt. “Christ,” he said in a whiny voice. There was nothing else he could do. His shirt was stained and stunk like iodine. After changing, he went back to the draw room, pulling out everything he needed to do a draw on the Cougar.
“Damn, bossman. I see you’re still spending all of your free time at the gym.”
“Yeah, and maybe more if Elaina doesn’t take me back.”
“Ohhhh, I see. That bad?”
“I don’t know. I sent her flowers. It’s going to eat me alive until I get a response from her. If I get a response from her,” he mumbled. His phone vibrated in his pocket. He looked at the number, hoping it was Elaina, but it was Roger. He felt like he was punched in the chest. He groaned again. He hit the IGNORE button, and went over to the Cougar. It was starting off to be a shitastic day.
“Wow.” She quirked a brow at him. “Looks like you took my advice.” Henry sighed while she tried to make herself look seductive.
“I spilled some iodine on my coat and shirt.”
“Flustered?” She adjusted her button-down top a little to show her cleavage.
“Nope,” he lied, but he felt he needed to shut her down.
“Oh.”
Henry put the supplies down on the table, and sat down on the swivel stool. He turned away from the Cougar to put on gloves, and opened the packages.
“Wow. That’s a nice tattoo.”
“Huh?”
“Your tattoo. It looks nice, from what I can see.” He looked down at his shirt and remembered what he had on.
“Right. Thanks.” He began hooking up the machine. “Ms. Emerson, are you ready?”
“Yes. This isn’t my first rodeo.” Henry hooked her up, and had the machine running in record time. His skin was crawling, knowing that the Cougar was eyeing him like a piece of meat.
He stepped around the curtain while peeling off his gloves. Elaina? He felt her. He looked up, and there she was, standing in the doorway, looking like a wreck. She looked just like he felt. He didn’t spare another second and ran to her.
-November 2014-
The door opened to the guest room. He looked up, hoping that it was Elaina. The sobs tore from his throat when he saw that it was Sophie.