I Swear It: Herophine

Chapter 12

I wake up naked, a little hungover, and very confused. I look around and begin to recognize that I'm in Hero's room, wrapped in his sheets but without the man himself. I gather my clothes and go to the bathroom attached to his room. I quickly dress and when I exit his room and still don't find him there I begin to make my way to the front door.

When I exit his room I see him shirtless, drinking a cup of coffee and standing in front of the stove with his back to me. He must sense my presence and he turns around, a lazy smile on his face that is quickly taken over by a look of confusion.

"Why are you dressed?" He asks and I feel a little silly for thinking he'd be immature enough to leave me in his apartment because he wants me to leave. Instead of saying this however I cover it up.

"I work tonight, I was gonna head home and get some stuff ready before I take a nap." Not a lie, I do need to meal prep, shower, and take a nap before I go in.

"At least stay for breakfast, I spent all morning slaving over these eggs" he gestures to the pan in front of him and sure enough, there is a pile of fluffy eggs there.

"Of course" I say, gaining a smile from Hero. I find plates and silverware while he brings the eggs over to his small kitchen table and we eat in comfortable silence, both starving I'm sure. Eventually, I absolutely have to leave and he kisses me sweetly on the mouth, telling me that he'll text me later and to send him my schedule for next week so we can plan something. He then calls me an Uber and I make my way out of his apartment, smiling and thinking about never letting each other go.

"Wait so you're telling me that you're dating hot uncle?! Like dating dating? This is the most incredible thing that's ever happened to me." Taylor gushes as we sit at the nurses station, charting on the patients we just got report on. She was there the night Mercy and Hero came in and I've been hesitant to tell her all the details because once she knows, the entire floor knows. Not that I mind, I love my coworkers, but I would rather they didn't all know everything. I laugh and we continue through the night. I help her with her delivery, weighing the baby, getting her measurements, getting her little footprints, and doing a set of vital signs on her. I then have a delivery myself and Taylor is my baby nurse as I was hers. I take my patient over around 2am and finally check my phone. There's a message from Katherine about dress fittings, one from my mother telling me her coworker has a very handsome son and two messages from Hero.

Hi beautiful, I hope you're having a great night, I'm out with the boys so I'll be awake if you're free to text.

It's not as much fun being out without you with me, hope you're having fun snuggling babies tonight baby

I smile to myself, wishing that I could spend my night snuggling babies and also that I was out with him as well.

I just brought my patient over to postpartum, sorry for the radio silence, it was hectic here for a bit. Are you still out?

I then open Instagram because we currently don't have any patients on the floor and our charge nurse doesn't mind us being on our phones when there are no patients. After liking a bunch of pictures of people out enjoying their Saturday night I open my explore page on Instagram. I know it's weird but I love watching cake decorating videos or the ones of people getting their nails done. I'm scrolling through when I see a video. I don't recognize the name of the girl but apparently she came up as someone I may know.

It's a video of a girl giving some guy a lap dance with the caption, gotta give baby what he wants. Just as I'm about to continue scrolling when the girl moves her head and I finally see the guy she's giving a lap dance to. I feel sick instantly. This can't be from recently, I look down and see that it was posted one hour ago. I decide to turn on the volume, making sure to turn it down some and listen closely to what the people are saying.

"Oi mate get it Hero!"

"Ellen oh my God you're ridiculous."

"Some things never change huh mate?"

I look at the video again, this time focusing on what Hero is doing in it. He's sitting there, hands resting on her hips, not moving and when she moves her head to the side his eyes are closed with a smirk on his lips. Before the video ends he lets out laugh and then it loops back to the beginning. I click on her profile and sure enough Hero and Mercy both follow her. I go through her profile and see that there are quite a few pictures of Hero and the girl from the past few years. Some of them in a large group of people, others just the two of them. She often refers to him as baby and it makes me sick thinking about how he used that with me last nigh when we were together in his bed. I put my phone down, locking it and pushing myself away from the desk.

"I'm gonna go down to the café and get a coffee does anyone want anything?"

Taylor must hear something in my voice because she offers to come with me. Not that that's strange but as soon as we're off the unit she asks me what happened. I tell her about the video, the profile, and the other pictures. She looks at me sympathetically but doesn't push, just offers to buy my coffee for me before heading back.

When we get back I see that I have a text from Hero.

Still out with the guys baby, is it still crazy busy there? I hope you're having a good night.

Ugh, baby, gross.

I think about ghosting him, never answering him again, blocking him on everything and disappearing. I wonder if he'd just let it go or if he'd try and find me, figure out what happened, what changed between eating breakfast together this morning to me disappearing.

I decide against it though. I'm an adult, a mature adult who takes care of people for a living and I'm not going to let some guy make me feel like shit. So with that I decide to text him back something simple, straight to the point, no bullshit.

Not as good as yours, enjoy the lap dance. Bye Hero.

I see that he's typing back and decide to power down my phone instead of waiting to see what the reply is. Okay, maybe I am a little immature but I still have 5 hours left of my shift and I don't want to spend it thinking about him. So instead I read some articles about new studies regarding the birth process, new tips and tricks to helping your patients get into different positions during labor, and completing some of my CEUs that are due every few years. Taylor doesn't push me to talk and eventually when it's time to go home we walk out together in silence.