Since I was already at the hospital, I took the opportunity to check on the kids. I put my white smock on, above my comfy clothes, and began my tour. I took the first file at the entrance of Bethany's room, and realized that Carl already checked on the kids a few minutes ago. I sighed heavily, as it was crystal clear to me that, now the boss was back, I didn't have as much freedom as I had when he was on holidays.
I put the file back in its case, and turned around, looking down at my inanimate pager.
"Wow, easy there! You should ask me out first," Carl joked, as I bumped into him without paying attention.
"Sorry," I simply apologized, and kept on walking.
"Hayley, wait!" he, of course, called after me. "What's your problem?" he asked, when he was in front of me. "You've been acting all cold towards me since I came back."
"I'm not acting cold, I'm acting professional, Dr. Meyers," I corrected him, stuffing my hands in my smock's pockets.
"Ever since you've been working here, I've never had the chance to sympathize with you. Why can't you let people in?"
"You don't know me, don't say I don't let people in," I snapped, and his eyes widened a bit at my sudden harsh words. "I'm not here to sympathize, I'm here to do my job."
"I'd like to invite you into the OR with me tonight. I planned a craniotomy on the little one with a brain tumor, in room B141. We could talk about the procedure around a cup of coffee. Is that professional?"
Meyers knew I loved to observe his procedures from the gallery. I made the mistake, in the past, to tell him I admired his work, and that I aspired to know my job as well as he knows his. Ever since that moment, I became his number one prey, and his only objective was to take me on a kind of date.
"His name is Tom," I said in an annoyed tone, before looking down, thinking about the question for a few seconds. "Will you finally stop chasing me if I accept?"
"I can't promise you this, but I'll try my best," he smirked. "Is that a yes?"
"And I'm coming with you in the OR for Tom's procedure, right?"
"Yes. This evening, six thirty in OR 5. And you don't have work to do since I've done everything that needed to be done when you were home."
I rolled my eyes, and looked down at my watch. He had everything planned.
The surgery was in two hours, meaning we had free time before the procedure starts, there was no more valuable reason for me to say no. Plus, having the opportunity to go in the OR was not to be neglected, I loved my job too much to refuse.
"Let's go grab this coffee," I simply said, walking past him to the cafeteria. I turned around, only to see him with a grin on his face. I shook my head and rolled my eyes yet another time, before whispering to myself, "Asshole."
When I came in the room, a few co-workers were there. To avoid any questions from them, I decided to sit at an isolated table, where nobody could judge me for having a coffee with my boss. It wasn't about me wanting to be treated differently from the others. I just wanted to go to the OR because I was passionate about my job, and I was craving to learn more and more. It wasn't because I liked Carl.
Him and I sat at the table I spotted after we grabbed our cup of coffee at the entrance of the cafeteria. I turned my plastic spoon in my cup over and over, looking down at it without speaking a word.
"Look at us, we're finally on a date!"
"Who said it was a date?" I asked, frowning in his direction. "I said this was professional."
"I was joking, Hayley," he said, visibly annoyed with me at that point. "You know it's not forbidden for colleagues to get to know each other, right?"
"Why would you get to know me?"
"Because we work together. You're my right-hand woman, and still, I don't know anything about you while we've been working together for a year now."
"Even though you don't know anything about me, we still do a great job as co-workers. Why change that?"
"Because I like you," he said in that flirtatious voice of his I hated so much.
"The same way you like half of the nurses working here, I guess?" I practically snapped but kept a fake smile on.
"You're different," he shrugged with a half smile, before drinking a sip of his coffee. "You want to know why you're different?"
"Yeah, tell me," I nonchalantly said, putting my elbows on top of the table.
"You didn't freak out or tried to ask me who was that person coming to the service. You know how to keep your cool, you're mature and rational. That's how you're different."
"You have no idea how much different I am," I muttered to myself. "You're a very paradoxical guy. You say you like me and claim I am different, but still you don't know shit about me."
"I like the mystery that's surrounding you. I find this very...," he stopped, looking for the perfect word, and leaned closer towards me, "exciting."
I couldn't help but roll my eyes at this very sentence he just voiced. It was just like deja vu, for the exact same words came out of John's mouth at some point in our relationship. At the end, it was this, the mystery that was surrounding me, that caused him to leave.
"Hopefully, you'll get tired of me being mysterious," I, another time, faked a smile.
"There's something about you that's intriguing, and I can't put my finger on it. You're appealing and you're good at your job, all the patients and their parents praise you like you were a kind of goddess, but on the other hand, you can be so cold. Rough past?"
"Yeah, you could say that," I snorted, and drunk another sip of my coffee.
"I heard about the loss of your parents," he announced, and my eyes widened a bit. "I'm sorry."
"It's been a while now," I said, before clearing my throat. "So what's the plan for Tom's tumor?"
"Okay, I got the hint, you don't want to talk about it. I understand," he smiled, and sighed heavily. "Well, Tom's tumor is situated in Broca's area, meaning I have to be careful because if I damage his brain, the consequences could be very serious."
"He may never speak again if something bad happens," I declared. "What do the scan say? Is it easily removable?"
"It's never easy to remove a tumor placed in such a delicate area, but it's not as big as I thought. Hopefully, we won't get any surprise when we'll have his brain exposed under our nose."
"What if it got bigger during the night?" I wondered.
"A tumor can't get bigger by night. If everything's going well, the little guy will be tumor-free by tonight. He'll need another scan before the surgery."
"How long is the surgery?"
"Well, it depends, but a craniotomy is generally a long operation. Around five or six hours, generally. Why? You have a date or something?"
"I was just asking," I said, and rolled my eyes again. That was the effect this man had on me. He had the power to make me roll my eyes hundreds of times a day. "You can't stay professional more than ten minutes, uh?"
"Not when I'm talking with such a beautiful creature," he flirted, licking his bottom lip. "I can't help it."
"I'd be curious to know how many women in this service heard the exact same speech. Come on, tell me. Five? Ten?"
"I don't count, it's childish."
"Oh, and fucking around instead of settling down isn't, maybe?" I scoffed, amused with what he just said.
"I don't 'fuck around', I flirt a lot, that's all," he smirked, looking at my mouth. "Don't tell me you don't like this, Hayley."
"Uh, no I don't," I denied, laughing out loud. "You think you're so irresistible, but in reality, you're just a lover boy."
"I would change for you."
"How sweet of you," I ironically said, batting my eyelashes, "but don't."
"Why? I'm sure we would be great together. You're brilliant, you're beautiful and this attitude you have suits you."
"And the one you have doesn't suit you. Leave this facade behind, and then we'll talk."
"What facade?"
"The facade you hide yourself behind. You're not as confident as you seem. You act this way for a reason, because something happened to you. I'd put my money on a heartbreak," I declared, sinking deeper in my chair. "Right?"
"Now look who's interested in getting to know me," he half-smiled in my direction.
"I'm not, and you avoiding the question let me know I'm right. Poor little Carly had his heart broken, that's why he's an asshole with women now," I faked to be sad, pouting my bottom lip.
"I'm not— urgh. Why are you so bitter with me, Hayley? You don't even know me, but still, you judge me."
"Oh right, I don't know you. What I know is that Alice can lie to me as much as she wants, but I know she left this service because of your ass," I said in a harsh tone, and his whole demeanor changed. "Right. I know you used to sleep together, and when you got tired of her, you dumped her like she meant nothing. Now tell me again you're not an asshole, and maybe I'll start believing you."
After that, I stood up from my chair, and walked away without paying attention to my boss calling my name, "I'll see you in the OR," I just said, without turning around. "Dickhead," I breathed, throwing my empty cup in the bin. I went to the front desk, and asked for Tom's file, so that I could read it carefully and make sure I understood everything.
"No, he told me that earlier today," Lily, one of the nurses I worked with, told one of her co-workers, giggling, as they stopped a few feet away from where I was standing.
"Wait, you jumped his bones here? At the hospital?"
"In the on-call room, down the hall," she said in a low voice, but still, I heard her. "I just can't get enough of him. Like he has the sexiest body ever."
"Maybe, but he's an ass with women. Since he's been working here, at least ten nurses left the service because he dumped them like they were a piece of crap after he fucked them. If I were you, I'd be careful."
Seems like this is everybody's topic today, I thought to myself.
"I'm not romantically involved, I know Carl is a lover boy. But damn Chris, the sex is amazing, the fact that he told me who was coming in two days is just a bonus."
"Michael freaking Jackson," she whispered, thinking nobody could hear her. "I can't believe it. I mean, the man seems so out of reach. Why would he even come to the hospital? He has everything he needs in this Graceland of his."
"It's Neverland. Don't say that in front of him, or Peter Pan's gonna whoop your ass," Lily laughed this high pitched laugh of hers, which made me roll me eyes yet again. "The guy probably wants to polish this image of good, childish boy of his."
This was the daily atmosphere in the service. Gossiping and judging. I never got used to it, though. I found it pathetic, to be honest. They didn't even know the guy, but still they judged him by saying mean things, and calling him the same way the press did. Knowing Michael Jackson was coming didn't faze me that much, and it was probably just a rumor. From what I heard about him, he was probably as busy as the President himself.
"Come on, he's not a child," she said, and I smiled internally at the fact she didn't judge him just like her friend. "He's too weird and strange to be a child. Maybe he's retarded, but I'm sure he's a freak in bed. The way he dances... Damn girl, it would keep me up all night."
"Okay, now you're just being bitches," I turned around to look at the two nurses. I was tired of their judging asses. "What is wrong with you?"
"Dr. Thames," the nurse named Chris cleared her throat as I was approaching the both of them. "We were just joking."
"You are so childish. You're judging and gossiping all day long. How can you even judge when you're a nurse? You are taught in med school not to, whatever you see or whatever you hear, but still you do it. Your lives must be boring. If your life wasn't sad, you wouldn't talk trash about this guy who is nice enough to come over here to spend some time with sick children. You're pathetic."
"And who do you think you are?" Lily snapped with an attitude. "You're not our boss. Dr. Meyers is."
"Oh, so now it's Dr. Meyers? I would have sworn you called him Carl just a minute ago. You know, the one with the sexy body?" I said, air quoting 'sexy body'.
"You weren't supposed to—"
"Hayley!" Carl called, as he arrived to the spot where the three of us were. "What's going on here?"
"Ask your girlfriend, visibly she can't keep her mouth shut," I faked a smile, and walked away, picking Tom's file off of the front desk.
"Hayley, wait, please," Carl begged, but I didn't stop walking. "Thames!"
"I don't have time, Dr. Meyers, I need to study that file."
"Well you're going to give me time," he said, and took my arm to drag me in a supply room. He turned the light on, and I gave him an incredulous look.
"Are you fucking serious?"
"Lily and I, it's nothing. She's a bitch, I am aware of that."
"I don't give a flying shit about who you fuck, Carl. Now let me go," I asked, trying to open the door, but he put his body in front of it. "I'm serious."
"And about Alice," he sighed, brushing his hands on his face. "She got attached to me, and I wasn't ready to be in a relationship. I acted like a real asshole with her, I know it, but I was in a bad place at the time."
"I—," I started, but he cut me off.
"Let me finish, please," he almost begged. "You were right. I look confident, and I keep on fooling around, but I am tired of this. I want to settle down, and there's this thing about you that makes me crazy. Each day I become more and more obsessed with you, Hayley, and I'm sincere."
For the first time in a year, I knew Carl was telling the truth. I could see it on his face, and hear it in his voice. His voice was a bit shaking, and his eyes were desperate, like he wanted me to believe him, like he needed me to.
The thing is, I didn't care. Maybe he regretted the way he acted with Alice, but it was done: he broke her heart, and it caused her to leave the service, and leave me. Alice is my friend, and women have a code: they don't date their friends' exes. No matter what.
"And you were right," he sighed heavily again. "I was married, and my wife cheated on me and ran away with the guy. And I'm not telling you this so you can pity me or anything, but you found out, so I just wanted you to know that you were right. She broke my heart."
"I'm sorry."
"It's been two years now, it's alright," he smiled slightly. "Look Hayley, I don't want to come on strong or anything. I know I've been a pain in the ass, trying to flirt with you every chance I get. I just want to be you friend, okay?"
"Do you even know how to be friends with a woman?"
"Can you teach me how?" I asked in an almost shy way.
"I'll think about it. Can you let me go now? I have to study the Tom's file, so that I can show my boss how good at my job I am," I seriously said, which made him laugh a little.
"Sure," he smiled with his mouth closed. "Tom needs different blood tests and a pre-op scan."
"Uh, you're aware that this is my job and that I know what I'm doing?" I asked, raising my eyebrows.
"Right, sorry," he chuckled, before opening the door of the room. "I'll see you in the OR, Dr. Thames."
I simply nodded, and left the room behind Carl. It was crazy how this whole day changed my vision of things. When I arrived to UCLA, I knew for sure that I would hate Carl because he was everything I hated from a guy: a proud, arrogant, conceited man, and well, a ladies' man. At this instant, everything I thought I knew about him turned out to be wrong, and I had mixed feelings about this. I was happy he wasn't the man I believed he was, and that maybe we could become friends, but I was also angry because he did not show the real him before.
Maybe it was naive from me to believe him, but it was the first time in a year that I saw this side of him. The sincerity in his voice couldn't be ignored, and all he wanted was to be my friend. I remembered what Alice told me about having other people in my life, and I was ready to do it. Even though Carl wasn't certainly the person she was thinking about when she told me that, I was willing to try.
I had to try.