norway | mark sloan

⇥ CHAPTER 32

"Okay!" Marcela beamed, waving her hand while her eyes followed him before facing her friends— the smile on her lips dropped as she saw Alex's eyes on her, "What?"

"Marcelita..." Alex glanced at her through squinted eyes as he took mental notes over the interaction, "don't tell me you're not celebrating your favorite holiday because of that guy."

"I'm being paged." Marcela excused, looking down at her silent beeper before walking away.

"Hey," Mark scoffed, grabbing her arm gently, "you're on my service— no one pages you unless I ask them to or both of our pagers are ringing. Spill."

Marcela's eyes bounced between the two before she exhaled with defeat, grabbing their arms to drag them towards a secluded area in the lobby prior to running a hand through her hair, "I found out he doesn't like Valentine's Day—" Mark interrupted her speech with a gasp, prompting Marcela to glare at him, "it's not a crime, okay? Just..." She exhaled, "He's basically the first and possibly only guy that has genuine feelings for me, and isn't dating me to get back at someone, or get over someone— h-he's perfect, so what he doesn't like Valentine's Day? I'm fine not celebrating it."

"It's killing you inside." Mark commented, noticing how stressed Marcela's voice was. 

"So much." Marcela admitted, lightly placing the back of her head against the wall as she looked up at the ceiling, "But Tim doesn't like today, a-and... I guess it means I don't either."

"Yeah..." Alex nodded, taking a bite of his granola bar before flicking her arm, "that's stupid."

"Ow!" Marcela scoffed before flicking his arm in retaliation, "Shut up, I don't judge you for your thing with Ava."

Alex frowned his brows, "Yes, you do."

"Well—"

"Okay, children." Mark cleared his throat, clasping his hands together as his pager rang, "We're being paged— let's go."

Marcela quirked a brow at his behavior as she followed him towards the E.R., "What's up with you?"

"Nothing is up." Mark assured, looking forward as he pressed the button for the elevator while Marcela stared at him— trying to break down the wall he had placed up, the wall that prevented him from rambling on how she shouldn't change for anyone, especially Tim. He turned his head to her as the elevator doors opened, "What?"

"Your eye twitched." Marcela remarked as she entered the elevator with him behind, "You're lying— what's wrong?"

"Nothing." Mark chuckled, looking away as he felt his eye twitch, "Let's just save some lives, alright?"

"...Okay." Marcela nodded, looking forward as she reached in the deepest end of her pocket before grabbing Mark's hand and placing the small Hershey's chocolate kiss on it, "Here."

"Thanks." Mark voiced, feeling the ends of his lips turn upwards as he plopped the chocolate into his mouth before looking at her as he teased, "You know, my joke was going to be—"

"Can I guess?" Marcela interrupted with a quirked brow, "Was it something like 'Can I have a kiss' and it would be a nice segway to me giving you the chocolate?"

Mark scoffed while the elevator doors opened, making him leave with a grumble, "I hate it when you guess."

✶

It's often said that time passes quickly when you're having fun— after spending the entire day with Mark, Marcela felt her day pass by fast. She had momentarily forgotten about her worries on facing Tim when it came to confronting him about her love for Valentine's when surgery after surgery walked through the doors of the E.R., and Marcela found plenty of teaching moments for her interns.