Chapter 4 Cocky Nerds

“Oh god, Sine, I am so sorry,” she apologized. She heard the other’s assurance as Irene stepped out and shut the door.

She sat down at the table they ate lunch to wait, but it didn’t take Sine long. Her eyes were still red and she avoided Irene’s gaze.

“You can go in now,” she said with her head lowered.

“Are you okay?” Irene couldn’t help but ask. She was the new girl and Sine didn’t know her, but it was rude to pretend like everything was fine when Sine was clearly upset to the point of tears.

“I’m fine,” she said as her eyes began watering once again. “I’m just sensitive… People say I need to learn how to take criticism,” she allowed a dark chuckle.

“Did someone criticize you?”

Sine looked at her pointedly. “It’s nothing.”

“Well, it has to be something because you look upset over it.”

Irene was persistent. It was a flaw.

She waited for Sine to tell her off, but instead, she sighed and tabbed at the corner of her eyes with a tissue. “Dr. Warren can be an asshole.”

The curse sounded odd coming from her. Sine was quiet and never spoke ill of others, so it was difficult to imagine just how upset she needed to be to cuss.

“What did he do?” she demanded.

She had been there for a few days and had already seen people cry over this jerk. She could never comprehend how people could treat others in this way—like they were the only ones who mattered.

Sine sniffed and shifted to her other foot. She looked like she wanted to sit but it was more probably that she wanted to run away and avoid the confrontation. Still, she remained standing.

“Well, the patient asked him about the side effects of the new medicine he started her on and when he finished, I asked him some additional questions. He didn’t like that… I swear the patient asked me those earlier, Irene. That’s why I brought it up with him.” She looked at Irene in desperation, hoping someone would believe her.

“He just turned around and in front of the patient and her family told me that it wasn’t time for her to learn. That the patient needed the time and I should go back to nursing school if I need the answers.”

The emphasis on ‘nursing’ made it sound like a bad thing, leading Irene to believe that was exactly how derogatory Dr. Warren was.

Sine’s face turned red as she relived the memory.

“You have to be kidding!” she cried out.

Sine looked shocked by her outburst. “No,” she whispered. “I was so embarrassed. The patient’s family came out to apologize after it was over. They said he was too hard on me… It was… God… humiliating.” She blew her nose into a tissue.

Thankfully, she had calmed down.

“Well, there are asshole doctors everywhere, Sine,” Irene said, hoping to placate her. “I once had a doctor scream at me in front of the patient.”

Sine was alarmed. “Why?”

“Because I forgot the size of his gloves and got him a bigger pair. He was a resident who arrived two weeks earlier.”

“Are you serious?”

Irene shrugged. “Yes. I kindly told me not to yell at me and left. I never worked with him again and asked the charge nurse to help him and never have our schedules coincide.”

“Luckily, Dr. Warren didn’t scream at me,” she said bitterly. “He just spoke to me like I was the stupidest person in the world.”

Irene smiled sympathetically. “Don’t let it bother you, Sine. People are assholes. It’s their problem… not yours.”

She wasn’t convinced.

“Wait for Karma, then,” Irene said vaguely.

Finally, she smiled, although it was forced. “Thanks, Irene. I hope you are right.” She checked her watch and glanced at the door. “I need to get back to work. Thank you for talking to me.”

“No worries,” Irene chirped as Sine offered a dry smile before leaving the break room.

.

Dr. Warren was caring for one of Irene’s patient’s that day. She tried not to think about him or his stupid green eyes, or the way Sine’s eyes reddened when she remembered how he had spoken it her. It was growing more difficult with the passing hours.

At one point, she had to enter an order into the system and the only person around was Kiki. She made it her mission to teach Irene. Finding herself trapped at her computer for thirty minutes while Kiki complained about the system and did a sloppy job of teaching her, Irene resigned to her fate.

She didn’t see Dr. Warren approach. Not until Kiki greeted him enthusiastically. “Hello, Dr. Warren. How are you doing today?”

She was swooning at the mere sight of his face. He was looking for a chart, but paused to look at her. Then, he turned, glancing in Irene’s direction.

“I’m fine, Kiki,” he said, looking away. She blinked and did the same.

“What chart are you looking for?” she leaned in eagerly. The computer lesson was abandoned as she jumped up to assist Dr. Warren. Irene struggled to control the roll of her eyes.

As fate would have it, it was Irene’s patient. The chart lay in front of her, beneath her arm as though she was keeping it from Dr. Warren. She didn’t realize until Kiki was prying it away from her.

“Looks like Irene was hiding it from you, Dr. Warren,” she exclaimed.

Irene considered murdering Kiki, debated where and how to dispose of the body. But there was no time and they lived in the land of law.

“Is this your patient, Irene?”

Irene was shocked to hear her name even though Kiki had mentioned it a second earlier.

“Yes, Sir,” she replied. Instantly, she wanted to kill herself for being so formal. She had lost all dignity.

“I’m about to go see her.”

Irene wanted to say a lot, but she didn’t. She dragged herself behind him as he walked down the hall. Most of her focus was on stopping herself from staring at him because he was only in his scrubs, sans the lab coat. And boy did he look hot.

‘I would hit that.’ The errant thought caught her off guard.

‘I don’t do doctors. Cocky nerds are terrible boyfriends! Cocky nerds are terrible boyfriends!’

It was highly unlikely that Dr. Warren was a nerd with his toned body and perfectly styled hair. She had a hard time seeing him cooped up in his room jerking off to Star Wars themed adult movies. That thought made her head turn to raunchier things.

They entered the patient’s room, where he smiled and charmed the poor lady. He had great bedside manners, that was certain. In fact, he didn’t seem all bad. Nothing like that time on the phone or the person who brought nurses to tears.