4

“Yes?”

“Are you at the clinic?”

“Yes I am, what’s up?”

“I just came by your place and you weren’t there. I was out for my morning run and got worried you ditched out again for another weekend of searching. Couldn’t sleep?” I wanted to tell him the truth but couldn’t in present company so I just kept it vague.

“Nah, you either?”

“Nope. Oh well, more time to work I guess.”

“Yeah, but that isn’t always a bad thing.” her scent is getting stronger the longer we stand here and I can’t help but be torn about whether this was a bad thing or not.

“Definitely not. I kinda need it actually, a lot going on with all the negotiations for new contracts business and truce wise that are up for review this year. Hey stop by later if you get a chance.”

“Will do.”

I slide the phone back into my pocket and look up as she speaks.

“do you need to go?”

“Oh no, that was my brother. It’s fine. So how do you feel about organizing?”

She giggles and I lead her down the hall to a few of the storage rooms that are just full of empty shelves and boxes right now. I tell her about what is in them and then give her some free reign to choose how to organize them since she will be one of the two people using them the most. Then she can just pass it along how its organized to the others. I head back to the paperwork and continue on sorting through them. I was trying to create an entire new system for pediatrics since part of the old wing would be designated for OB and Pediatrics. There were enough pups in the pack now to keep the hospital busy enough on their own and I was glad to be expanding and handing that off to a specialist. It would benefit the entire pack.

“What up next, Doc?”

“Wow, that was fast.” I look up to see her leaning on the desk again the same way she was yesterday.

“Not my first organizing rodeo!”

I smile, her wit was damn near too much for me. I adored that about her already. She was whip fast in all her replies and I could banter with her everyday for the rest of my life.

“Well, there is an identical closet that needs the same type of organizing at the other end of the wing, or if you want to sit you are welcome to just hang out. We might be here, but you aren’t technically ‘on the clock’.”

“Oh so I can make a house call if I want?”

{ Novaleigh }

His deep laugh bounces off the walls and floods my heart with happiness. It was a genuine laugh and I pride myself on that. His eye crinkle up while he laughs and shakes his head.

“I’m gonna go ahead and say no, I’d prefer you didn’t.”

I meet his eyes and its all the things he said with them that matter to me, not his words. I could read between the lines when I looked into his eyes. Eyes that I swear  I’d looked into before but I was still wrestling with my brain to pull up the memory that seemed locked away.

My heart rate increases and not for the first time I remind myself to calm the fuck down. This man was my boss and I just met him. And I was acting like a teenager around him but I could not help it. Literally, I was trying my hardest. There was just something so natural about being with him and the way I felt with him near me.

“Alright, well then I suppose I will just hang out. What are you sorting?”

“our patient files. I’m creating a separate filing system for pediatric, since we are hiring a pediatrician and making them their own section in the hospital.”

“Wait, I thought this was just a clinic?”

“Uh, it is both. I mean, we use the term clinic but now that the building is twice the size, its a bit bigger than most clinics.” He chuckles but his smile turns to confusion once he sees my own confused look. “you haven’t seen the old wing have you?”

“How is it a hospital with one doctor?”

“Well, it won’t be. There will be a pediatrician,” he winks at me as if hes clever and I can tell he does it on instinct because he immediately rethinks it and it shows on his face.

“So a pediatrician… and you? And how many nurses?”

“Three including you. But we service a very small area.”

“But why get larger? The general hospital is a 10 minute drive from here?”

“We service a… certain group of people. That don’t want to go all the way to general.”

What the fuck does that mean. None of this makes sense.

“Listen, when you start some more specific training, it will all make sense. I can’t tell you more than that right now, but I promise when I can, I’ll answer all these questions.”

His words sound like a warranty. I believe him wholeheartedly, or more so I believe he would never lie to me. Why do I feel like that? I wasn’t a fall easy kind of person. I Wasn’t even a fall at all kind of person. Aside from two PG boyfriends and a horrifically stupid one night stand, I wasn’t even an anything person. I didn’t do relationships. My dad was pretty adamant about waiting for the right person and I liked the way he spoke about it.

“Ok” I agree without much consideration really. I had a thousand questions but I believed that he would answer them. Maybe that was naive, but I was willing to wait and see.

“In the meantime, we can just talk about anything else. Any questions for me?”

I smiled as questions filled my mind instantly I wanted to ask him. I sorted for the most professional ones but as if reading my mind he interjected before I could ask my first one.

“Off the clock, remember? Ask me whatever.” He looked back down and continued searching and sorting so I started slow and worked up to the bigger questions like, are you single. Which I hadn’t quite figured out how to ask without asking.

We had been talking for damn near two hours when the front door opened.

“Whew, it is windier out there than we have had in years, and who the hell’s car is here already it isn’t even sev-”

I wait until she notices me and sure enough as soon as her eyes land on mine her smile disappears.

“Oh, its you.” I can tell from her voice she is trying to be civil but her eyes are darting between myself and Remi and she seems unhappy we were here by ourselves which makes me unhappy.

“Hi, yeah, Novaleigh. Clarice, right?”

“Yeah. Um, Remi, been here long?”

“Doctor Remi, and yeah. We have been here since about 5. We just happened to show up at the same time.”

My entire body lights up in satisfaction as he corrects her to call him Doctor Remi. I’m not sure if he remembers he told me I could call him Remi, but it makes me happy he doesn’t allow her to call him that for some reason.  

“Doctor, sorry,” she says through clenched teeth. “So you just happened to show up at 5am when Doctor Remi did?”

She directs this question to me as she rounds the corner to go behind the reception desk I am currently sitting on and put her coat with ours. I nearly scoff as I take in her outfit for the day, the top she was wearing was low enough I could make out a good chunk of her B cups.

“Yeah, I was up and decided to stop by and see how early you all started here at the clinic, but low and behold, as I pulled in, he was opening the front door to come in.”

“What a weird coincidence.”

“A helpful one though, we’ve been busy and got quite a bit done that will lessen our load today. Clarice, if you can, please start filling in the store room in the old wing since that will be your wing primarily, and make sure you have everything you need for the pediatrics.”

“Mmm, of course,” she seems pleased with herself as he says ‘your wing’ however her smug face falters as she seems to realize the same thing I just realized. “Wait, the old wing will be my wing?”

“Yes, I mean we were going to discuss this later, but the rough draft plan is that you will be in the old wing, Novaleigh will be in the new wing, and Cora was also hired and she will be our Head nurse and run most of the paperwork and such here. She has years and years of experience and I think she will be a great asset of keeping all of us on the same page. The clinic is bigger, but still the same small business feel and having you with the pediatrics will go a long way because the kids already know you.”

If there was something I would have bet money on, it would have been that Clarice thought she was getting that Head Nurse spot. And if she was a cartoon character, there would be steam coming from her ears. She didn’t even say anything, just nodded to him curtly and walked, or stomped, down the hall, disappearing through double doors I hadn’t even realized were there.

“Oh that’s the old wing,” I say as it clicks.

“Yes, that is the old wing. Through there and you will find only about 3 rooms and an old office.”

“Is she more upset about Cora or me?” As much as I didn’t like the way she carried herself, I didn’t want to actually be stepping on her toes with work.

“Cora. I knew she would be though.”

He seems completely unphased by her stomping away like a toddler.

“Don’t worry about her, it’s not a normal day at the clinic if she isn’t upset with me about something.”

I see a smirk playing on his lips and I wonder what the meaning behind that is, but I decide not to ask at the risk of pushing his boundaries too far. I felt like I’d pushed far enough already.

“Alright, well I suppose we are on the clock now, so what do you need done next, Doc?”

“Mmm, follow me, please.”

He stood up and I followed him down the hall towards the doors where Clarice threw her temper tantrum. The double doors pushed open and revealed a very different looking building than the other one. Much older style and feel to it, but I found myself liking it more than the newer one. He wasn’t kidding, it was small and there were only about 5 doors. 3 were rooms, one was an office and one was the storage room where we found Clarice. I noticed that unlike the new wing, this area had only one storage room which made it full of everything and a bit crowded.

“It may be a walk, but it might make more sense to share some of the storage space on the other wing, if that wasn’t already the plan.” I voice this because I do think it will be important in the long run.

“That office at the back is my old office, and it is being converted into an additional storage and lab space. Once it’s finished, there should be equal amounts on both ends.”

Remi replies with a patient voice and temperament, something I didn’t see often with men in positions like his. Most doctors were arrogant, egotistical and dismissive of comments or questions. He had yet to make me feel like something I said or asked wasn’t appreciated by him.

“Will you be redocorating at least one of the rooms?”

He stops and turns to me with his eyebrows furrowed.

“Re-decorating how?”

“For the kids.”

“Oh… I hadn’t thought of that.” and I can tell from his expression he really hadn’t.

“Some wallpaper would be simple enough, a brighter color of paint maybe. And some toys and books. If there won’t be any adults being seen in there regularly it would go a long way with the kids to feel comfortable if it was ‘their’ room I think.”

I’d worked as a pediatric nurse at my last job. It wasn’t by choice, I was assigned there but I liked it enough. I preferred the more complex medicine though, so I choose to bide my time until I could find another position like this one where I’d be working with adults of all varieties.

He seems impressed? I can’t quite tell what he is thinking but he has a smile on his face and a soft look in his eyes that tells me he is extremely happy with what I said.

“I think, that is an excellent idea. I’ll run it by Clarice and let her pick out the paints, something light and bright like pale blue or green. How about, you pick out the wall paper and toys? The pediatric rooms need to be opened the soonest so if you could get that done today it would be in everyone’s best interest over anything else I could have you do. And it seems like you have been around and seen some so you’d be the best for the job.”

“Absolutely, I can do that!”

“Thank you, Nov. I appreciate it.”

He held up his finger to indicate I should wait here and that was fine because my feet were glued to the floor. No one called me Nov but my dad. Everyone assumed I liked to be called Nova but that wasn’t true, I preferred my whole name. Nov, was the only exception I made and hearing it roll of Remington’s lips was the sweetest it had ever sounded.

“Here is some money, you know the area so head to wherever you think is best. We have two pediatric rooms so enough wallpaper, toys, books, etc for both.”

“Alright, I’ll be back later.”

I walked by him towards the door and felt his gaze on my back which made me blush. What was it about this man.