“I’m not a dentist, Niki. I’m a dental hygienist,” Ruby corrected her.
“Well, they’re all the same to me,” Niki muttered, pulling her protective glasses back on.
“No, they’re not.” At that point, Ruby aimed the light over Niki’s face. “Dentists focus on restoring teeth. I focus on preventing dental disease. That’s the difference. Now, I’m putting this suction in your mouth to remove the water while scaling.” She teasingly added, “So you won’t drown, okay?”
“Are you serious? People can drown?” Niki shrieked.
Ruby laughed. “Don’t be silly. I was just joking.”
Niki pulled a face. “Yeah, I knew that.” She sighed as though she were about to enter the dragon’s dungeon. Ruby noted it and shook her head.
“Ready?” she asked.
“Yeah. Ready. No, wait! Be gentle, okay?”
“You know I’m always very gentle on you,” Ruby responded.
“And could you use that rubber thing to make my teeth smooth?”
“Oh, you mean polishing after scaling?”
“Yes.”
“Sure.” With that, Ruby started scaling Niki’s teeth, while the thought of her upcoming trip to Europe returned.
“Grr!”
Her patient yanked at her wrist, drawing Ruby’s attention. She paused at her scaling, raising her brows at Niki.
“Where were you, Ruby? You wanna drill a hole in my tooth or something?”
Ruby chuckled behind her mask. She expected her patient to be a bit difficult today, and she was right.
“Don’t be such a baby, Nikita. Now stop groaning and let me clean your teeth properly. Did you really floss and brush like I told you to?”
“Heck yeah! What am I supposed to do? Ignore your insistent nagging?”
Ruby laughed. “Okay, I’m gonna polish your teeth now. Gee, girl, hold still and don’t move so much; otherwise, I am going to drill a hole in your tooth.”
Nikita muttered something in her own invented slang, which Ruby didn’t care to translate into English. Her friend groaned and opened her mouth wider as Ruby started polishing her teeth.
Ten minutes later, when Ruby was finished, Nikita said, “Who are those from?” She was pointing to the bouquet of perfect white roses and a box of Cadbury Rose chocolate.
Her station cleaned, sanitized, and packed up, Ruby turned to her friend. “What?”
“The roses and chocolate.”
Ruby chuckled as she picked up her bag and tossed it over her shoulder. “Another marriage proposal.”
“Really?” Nikita said. “I swear to you, Ruby, ever since you got your braces off, you’ve had more proposals than I can count.”
“I know. Wouldn’t it be nice if one came from a young, hunky man? Like the Australian dude?” Ruby looked at her friend, her eyes twinkling.
Niki chose to ignore her remark as well as the look Ruby was giving her.
Ruby continued, “But most of my admirers are retirees with bad teeth that need unending attention… and pronto.” She picked up the bunch of roses and chocolate. “Must admit these are nice though.”
“Did you say yes?” Nikita asked curiously as they headed out to the empty reception area. It was after six in the evening, and everyone had gone home for the day. Ruby purposely stayed late at the clinic, where she worked part-time for the past three years, to scale her friend’s teeth.
“I told him I’d think about it,” Ruby said.
“Good answer,” Niki commented. “Hey, thanks for staying late and doing my teeth.”
“No problem,” Ruby replied. “Let’s get some dinner.”
An hour later, Ruby gleamed a smile at Isabella as the young woman opened the door for them. Ruby thought it was darned good of Nikita to share her flashy, inner city apartment with Isabella without accepting any rent—since she couldn’t have afforded to pay it anyway.
“Bought dinner,” Nikita announced as she displayed the plastic bags in the air for Isabella to see.
“Is there Char Satay?” Isabella queried eagerly, spotting the familiar logo on the plastic bag that said SAN Restaurant.
“Yes, my dear. There’s Char Satay just for you,” Nikita replied. “I knew you’d hit the roof if we didn’t buy you any.”
“Thanks, Nik. Oh, Alex is on Skype.”
After kicking her shoes off, Ruby rushed into the open plan living area, threw herself on the comfy sofa, and pulled the laptop that was sitting on the coffee table onto her lap.
“Hey, how are you?” she said to the laptop.
Alexandra Stewart, who, at that precise moment, was in the lavish penthouse overlooking Central Park in New York City, grinned back at her best friend through the laptop screen.