Chapter 13 - Let's Get To Work
DAVID MILES
Dave didn't know what to do. He felt jealous. He knew the burning sensation in his chest and the rage simmering through his veins was utter jealousy. But he couldn't do anything except hold his nose and sit there on the couch, the night before.
He paced around in his office.
But he didn't have much space to pace.
When Dave had thought of having his office, he always imagined it to be just enough to contain a desk with a chair behind him and nothing else. And he did just that. He had pushed a simple wooden desk with four drawers - two on each side with the middle space open for stretching his legs - in the small room and a leather chair that was so comfortable that he never thought of getting up from there after he sat on it.
He didn't keep much of his stuff there.
An old childhood photograph of all four of them - Logan, Sean, Daniel and him- huddled together, smudges of dirt on their cheek, foolishly grinning at the camera- framed and kept on his table. His name plate, a laptop, a telephone and that was it.
The paperwork that he was yet to fill out on his last patient still on his desk, under the paperweight on one side of the table. There wasn't much light in the room as he always kept the window closed. He wasn't much of a fan of the sunlight that most people loved. He liked to work in just enough light to see clearly.
Dan paced some more. He took four steps and turned. Another four steps. Turn.
Finally tired of pacing he walked over to his chair and dropped down and groaned.
Why couldn't he erase the image of Tessa and Dan together as they kissed. And kissing wasn't just the worst part. No. It was the intimacy that made him jealous.
He had been close to Tess. He had spent one whole month with her. But never ever was she close to Dave as much as she had been with Dan the night before.
The beeping of his pager pulled him out if his thoughts.
"Right" he muttered as he fished it out of his coat pockets and with a sigh hurried out of his office.
All he needed now was a distraction. And at the hospital, aside from his patient he knew how to keep himself busy.
God, he really hated clinical duty.
********
"Sir, there's a Miss Cole out here for you."
So much for a distraction.
"Will you please, go see if Dr. Hart is free to takeover the clinical duty?" He asked the nurse who was still peeking at him through the doorway.
"Sure." She said and closed the door behind her.
A ten year old coughed loudly behind him and he looked at the file in his hands.
Bronchitis. Lovely.
Writing down a prescription and warning the kid to steer away from eating cold stuff, he handed the prescription to his mother who stood beside the boy, her hand clutching the his.
"He'll be just fine in a few days."
"Thank you Doctor." She said with a teary smile and pulled her son out of the room.
A knock sounded and Dr. Karina Hart stepped in.
"Why take the duty from my hands if you just wanted to hand it over back to me?" She raised an eyebrow.
"I didn't know my lawyer would be here today." He replied.
"Well, good for you. I was almost happy to get away from this. You owe me lunch." She muttered as she pushed up her cat-eye shapped spectacles.
Karina Hart looked more like a teenager than a doctor.
Grey eyes that always sparked with mischief. Her straight dirty blonde hair pulled up in a messy ponytail. He remembered the day when he had interviewed her.
She had come in wearing a blue and white stripe T-shirt, jeans and white Chuck Taylors. She had plopped on the chair in front of him, looked at him through her blue coloured cat-eye shapped spectacles as she chewed on a bubblegum.
Dave was never one to judge a book by the cover.
Thank god for that because Dr Hart was the best Diagnostician in town.
"Fine." He muttered.
"Why are you even doing this today?" She pointed her chin at the long table in the middle of the room
"Didn't have anything to do." He shrugged.
"Never mind. Now get out."she muttered and Dave left and gestured at the nurse to send in the next patient.
He looked around and there she was. He didn't even have to search for her in a roomful of patients and nurses and doctors milling around. She stood in the lobby, clutching a briefcase in one hand a coffee cup in another.
People steered clear of her, intimidated by her.
She was the exact opposite of Karina.
Where Karina was all about words, Tess was all about appearance. And Sarcasm.
She sipped from the Styrofoam cup he guessed she might've grabbed from cafe down the road.
Wearing a business suit - no pencil skirts, strictly straight cut slacks for her - she looked around as if she had all the time in the world. Her strawberry blonde hair pulled in a neat, tight hun on top of her head. Her face devoid of any emotion.
"Tessa." He said as he approached her.
Her head snapped towards him and for once he wished she hadn't worn her reflectors just so he could read her eyes.
"David."
She didn't call him Dave anymore.
Calling him David felt like she was trying to keep this as formal as she would be able to.
David was sick and tired of it.
When he had seen Tess and Dan together the night before, he had barely managed to restrain himself to not start a fistfight with his cousin.
Looking at her, he was reminded of all the things they had done together and all the things they hadn't because he had broke it off before they could get serious. He wanted the same intimacy those two had shared.
Suddenly he realised that he wanted it with Tess herself and no other woman.
For a moment he almost thanked the God for the situation he had gotten into but then he remembered what it had cost. No matter what, he would always feel bad about the girl who had lost her life.
But he had come to another conclusion.
"Let's get to work, shall we?" She said and Dave nodded and guided her towards the elevator.
He needed to get to work.
He was going to have his girl back.
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- Nami