003

It had been two weeks since my ‘visit’ to the directors office and I have been taking care of the patient since.

My regular eight hour shifts had been modified so that I could be with the patient, throughout the day and half of the night.

I had been barely getting any sleep with how occupied I am and I spent most of my free hours on job searching.

Turns out no reasonable enterprise was looking to hire someone for only half a night. 

The option for strip dancing was beginning to look more and more plausible as time went by.

I let out a sigh, focusing on my task as I wrung out the warm towel and rubbed it on the man's stubble.

Too bad he was a patient.

He was quite an attractive man with his angular jaw, broad shoulders, muscled chest, narrowed waist, V- shaped torso- not that I was romanticising him or anything.

I need this job too much to do that.

Also it was just something about his aura, even unconscious he was… 

It was surprising that since he had been here, no partner or girlfriend had come to visit him. Which made me question who he was as a person.

Nobody but one person.

“Nurse Jones, good to see you,” The man called out as he quietly stepped into the room, shutting the door behind him once again.

Except for him, the patient's brother.

He strode across the room to his brother's bedside, looking at him in silence, staring down at him for a few minutes, like he had been doing everyday for the past few weeks.

“How is he? When will he wake up?” He asked with a crease in his eyebrows as he turned his attention to me.

I stood, tossing the damp towel in the slightly coloured water.

“He's healing pretty well, He should wake up any day from now actually, the doctor took him off the dose about an hour ago,” I answered with a smile, glancing at the head of the bed that was cleared of the additional machines, with only the feeding tube and heart monitor left behind.

“That's a relief, I want him to wake up as soon as possible“ A smile broke on his face as he glanced at me before averting his gaze back to his brother.

“Me and you both,” I thought as I watched him fawn over his brother.

“Cee,  do you hear that? You're going to be awake soon?” He spoke with such excitement that I could feel from across the room.

“I'll give you brothers some space to talk,” I voiced out, deciding to give them some privacy.

And mostly because I wanted to continue my job hunting on Indeed.

At this point an hourly online job will be perfect, I just needed to find something that I was actually qualified for.

“Nurse Jones, hiding away in the locker room again, are you?” Irene's stern voice rang out in the silent room, startling me.

My heart flew to my mouth and back again as I snapped my gaze to her with a gaping mouth.

“I was just answering an emergency text from my family,” I explained, lying through my teeth.

Before you judge me, I'm not sure how my superior would react to me doing a job search during working hours.

And I was not even interested in airing out my business for others.

She narrowed her eyes at me for a moment before she sighed.

“Whatever, you're not like the rest of us anyway,” She muttered bitterly, grabbing something from her locker and exiting the room without a goodbye, slamming the door behind her as she went.

I think it's safe to say that the other nurses were a bit displeased at my current working arrangements.

If only they knew how unhappy I was too. I would change positions with any of them in the blink of an eye, if I had the chance.

Who could have imagined that after two years of working as many shifts as possible, I would still be swimming in loan debts, college debts, and now I was about to be homeless.

I need that patient to be awake as soon as possible or else I was going to personally shoot him up with some shit to make him wake up.

After my nightly check-up, I exit the hospital, knowing fully well that I would be back before dawn.

If you could not already tell, I love my job.

I arrived home to continue my job search only to meet a piece of paper taped to my door.

“Give me my money or you're out in two weeks!”

Great, just what I needed.

A threatening notice of eviction from the building manager.

That man either hates me or he really hates me.

A scowl appeared on my face as I tore off the paper, crumpling it in my palm and tossing it with a lot more force than necessary.

With a huff, I pulled the door open, storming into the tiny apartment as I muttered underneath my breath bitterly.

“Inconsiderate money hungry douche!”

I spent the rest of my night in front of my laptop searching for jobs and shoving a box of cold noodles down my throat.

The next morning was even worse, I arrived at work bleary eyed with a huge migraine that persisted after drinking the shit hospital coffee and feeling like I had been run over by a truck.

Like usual, I paid no mind to the other nurses as I changed into my scrubs, dumping my things in my locker and grabbing a tray as I headed up to the VIP room on the third floor.

Today, I fully planned on doing the routine check-up and ditching my ridiculously attractive patient.

I needed to find another job, quickly.

This was the thought that filled my mind as I stepped out of the elevator and strode down the hallway to the spacious room.

Except that I was met with a shock as I stared at an empty room, no traces of my patient whatsoever.