I’d woken up with a hard-on and my hand around my cock. That shit could have been embarrassing. Checking the time on my phone, I still had a half-hour before my shift started, so I decided to take a shower—an ice cold one. When I was done, and no longer at risk for being arrested for public indecency due to the outline of my cock straining through my pants, I still had a few minutes to kill, so I decided to run out for coffee.
On my way back, a poster of a woman hanging in the window of the CVS caught my eye, and I wandered in. The next thing I knew, I had eight different shades of red lipstick tested on my hand.
“Is there a certain shade you’re looking for?” The clerk smiled warmly.
“Actually—I like the one in the window. The brunette with the bright red lips, but I can’t seem to find the right shade.”
She ran her finger across a plastic dispenser full of at least a hundred different shades and tapped her nail on one. “Here it is. It’s new. It’s called Drama. The sample isn’t out on display yet, that’s why you couldn’t find it, but I can open this one for you to try it out.”
“Thanks.”
She looked up at me. “It will really look bold with your fair skin and blue eyes.”
What? “Uhhh…it’s not for me.”
“Oh. Okay.” She gave me a look that said bullshit, and continued to open the packaging.
“No, really. It’s not.”
“It doesn’t matter if it is. We all need things in life to make us feel beautiful.”
What has my life turned into? This whole situation might have been comical had I not been totally freaked out that I didn’t give a shit if anyone thought I wore lipstick or not, so long as I found that color. Packaging open, the clerk twisted the bottom of the tube and the reddest of reds color rose from the canister. It had a shimmery wet gloss to it that was almost exactly from my dream. Unfortunately, my body recognized it, too. Shit. “I’ll take it. Thank you.” I snatched it from her hands and began to walk toward the register before this got even more embarrassing.
“Wait!” She yelled after me as a hurried down the aisle. “Don’t you want a sealed one?”
“Nope. This will do.”
The Emergency Room was busy for most of the morning. So, lucky for me, my little dream had been put on the back burner. Until Bridget arrived for her shift. We’d stolen glimpses of each other across the ER, but it wasn’t until I was finishing up suturing the knee of a woman who had taken a fall, that Bridget was on my side of the oversized room.
“Nurse Valentine?” I yelled as she was passing by.
“Yes?”
I cut the suture and tied the last stitch. “Would you mind bandaging up Ms. Axelrod? I need to go speak to Dr. Wong before he goes upstairs for rounds in a few minutes.”
“Sure. Of course.”
I looked at the patient. “You’re in good hands. I’d let Nurse Valentine take care of me anytime.”
Bridget tried to hide her smirk, but I caught it. On my way out of the treatment room, I turned back around. “When you’re done, we’re almost out of 3-0 and 4-0 sutures, as well as bandages and tape—if you wouldn’t mind restocking.”
Bridget’s brow furrowed. “Really? I just restocked everything two days ago in this room.”
I shrugged. “Must have been a run on cuts and bruises.”
“Okay. Sure.”
Leaving Bridget to finish with the patient, I quickly went to the supply room to empty my pockets of all the shit I’d swiped from the drawers. Then, I went to the nearest vacant treatment room where I could keep my eye on the supply closet and wait for Bridget to walk in.
“What are you doing, Simon?” Bridget was reaching up to the top shelf looking for supplies when I walked in and locked the supply closet door behind me. I walked to stand right behind her, effectively blocking her between the shelving and my body from behind. Then I caged her in by grabbing either side of the shelving around her.
“How was your night last night?” I asked to her back.
“Fine.”
“Did you sleep well?” I ran a finger up and down her exposed arm. Her breath hitched and goosebumps prickled.
“What are you doing, Simon? We’re at work.”
“Aren’t you going to ask me how I slept?”
“Will you back up and give me some space so I can turn around?”
I did, giving her maybe six inches. But my hands didn’t let go of the shelves, so when she turned around, she was confined by my body surrounding her on three sides. “I slept like shit. I’m glad you asked.” Of course, she hadn’t.