Chapter Thirteen

DOCTOR, DOCTOR

The Tuesday after their late-night was a tough one for Sierra, she was exhausted from their late-night endeavors, yet Roman still insisted that an early morning workout was mandatory. 

His justification that she created a routine of working out was more important in the early days than ever and to add salt to the wound he pointed out that she wasn’t nearly old enough to be tired after a late night. 

“How old are you?” Sierra asked as she dabbed sweat off her forehead, she was done for the morning, but Roman still had a set to complete.

He glanced at her taking a seat on a bench across from him as he did his last set of elbow curls. 

“I hardly think my age is of consequence.” He commented, sounding unbothered, but Sierra knew better.

“Which is why there’s no reason for you not to tell me.” Roman scrunched up his nose at her smart retort. 

“Do you have an answer for everything? I’m turning thirty-one in August.” Sierra grinned triumphantly. 

“Cool, I’m twenty-nine.” She hopped off the bench at the same time that he stood up to return the weights to its rack. 

“What does my age have to do with anything?” Sierra shrugged.

“You just said I was too young to be tired after a late night, so it got me thinking,” Roman smirked. 

“You’re younger than me, so you should be able to go a lot further than me.” Sierra held up a hand. 

“Woah there tiger, just cause you’re hyperactive, doesn’t mean all of us are, younger or not.” Roman gave her a dirty look at the mention of the word. 

“I am not hyperactive.” He pouted, walking out of the gym with his hands latched onto both ends of the towel around his neck. 

“Come on, you wake up before 6 am, work out for an hour, work a nine-hour shift, go out at night, and still have the energy to do it all over again without batting an eyelash the next day. That spells hyperactive.” Roman shrugged.

“I spent the better part of my career working double shifts still determined to have a life at the end of the day, so I guess my body is trained for long hours of exertion and I’ve found that staying active and waking up early keeps me from needing excessive amounts of sleep and caffeine.” Sierra scrunched her face up in mock disgust. 

“You sound like a healthy food commercial, you know that?” Roman stuck his tongue out at her. 

“You’re just jealous that you can’t keep up.” He challenged and she rose to it. 

“One day you’ll be the one keeping up with me.” She winked and stepped into the elevator. 

“I already fight to keep up with you,” Roman mumbled with a smile when the doors closed. 

“Dr. Leek, I see that you and Miss Sierra have met.” Mr. Chiang smiled, appearing behind him. 

“Yes, she’s a lovely woman.” Mr. Chiang sent him a meaningful look. 

“I have no doubt of that.” Roman didn’t know what the older man was getting at so instead he took the opportunity to do a little investigation of his own. 

“Mr. Chiang, do you have any idea what company Miss Brightly works for?” Mr. Chiang smiled secretively. 

“Now Dr. Leek, isn’t that a question you should be asking her?” Roman schooled his features before he could give away that he was caught. 

“Of course, but she challenged me to find out on my own, so this is just me trying to do that.” He smiled charmingly and knew immediately that he’d gotten his way. 

“You didn’t hear it from me, but the apartment is owned by the PharmaCo company.” Roman’s eyes widened, they were one of the biggest pharmaceutical companies in the world, they had their own research facilities everywhere you could think of and didn’t just buy patents to drugs, instead, they created most of their own. Sierra must have been one hell of a scientist for the company to move her across the world for a project. 

“Thank you, Mr. Chiang, you have a nice day then.” He tipped his head at the man and made his way out of the building to get ready for yet another day at work. 

*** 

Sierra went about her day in a distracted manner which was quickly noticed by Ken, “Miss Sierra, are you okay?” Sierra’s head flew in Ken’s direction, not hearing what he said. 

“Could you please repeat that?” She shook her head to rid herself of the fog that gathered in it. 

“I asked if you were okay, you look distracted.” Sierra’s forehead creased. 

“What do you mean, I’m fine?” Ken raised an eyebrow at her.

“Are you sure? You’ve been staring into space for the past couple of minutes, you didn’t even hear when the lady back there greeted you.” Sierra’s eyes widened and turned back to find no one which made her glare at Ken. 

“There’s no one there.” She pointed out and he smirked. 

“I know, but you were too distracted to know otherwise.” Sierra frowned in annoyance, she hated that he was right. 

“I don’t know, I’ve just had a lot on my mind.” She sighed, making sure to pay attention to her surroundings. 

“Would you like to talk about it?” Ken offered and she was about to decline, but the words were spilling from her mouth before she could stop them. 

“I spoke to my parents earlier, they seem to be doing just fine, I don’t think it’s quite hit them that I’m not in the US anymore.” Sierra chuckled, “My mom mentioned something though, she got a call from Brent’s mother, apparently she was upset not having heard from me in such a long time and since I changed my number, she can’t make international calls so it won’t go through. He never told his mom about the breakup.” Ken listened as if he understood the contact of the whole situation which she appreciated. 

“Perhaps he hasn’t told his parents, because he hasn’t accepted it.” Sierra’s face scrunched up in thought.

“He broke up with me, what’s there for him to accept?” Ken shrugged.

“I don’t know, sometimes people make decisions they think are right and convince themselves are right, but subconsciously they’re just lost so in order to keep it from seeming like a mistake, they live in denial.” Sierra suddenly pulled Ken to a halt, shocking him. 

“You mean he’s unsure whether breaking up with me was the right decision?” Once again Ken shrugged once he composed himself. 

“I can’t speak for him, but if I ever broke up with  a woman like you, I know I would regret it.” He looked at her earnestly. 

“What’s so special about me?” Sierra wondered aloud, “And if I really was that special, why didn’t he try speaking to me in the three months I was there?” Ken frowned, she had a point. 

“Maybe he was afraid to come back to you after hurting you?” She considered it for a moment and shook her head. 

“No, he’s with the redhead now.” She brushed it off as if it were nothing much to Ken’s surprise. 

“Sierra, did you even love this guy?” It was the first time he’d ever called her by her name and not miss, but that didn’t shock her as much as his question. 

“Of course I did, why else would I have been with him for five years?” A challenging smile spread across Ken’s face. 

“If you did, why aren’t you bothered that he’s with another woman?” Sierra didn’t think of herself as unbothered, but she didn’t allow the thought of him with another woman ruin her peace. 

“I’m not unbothered, I just don’t want to be hurt by something like the thought of him with another woman.” Ken accepted her reason and resumed walking.

“Then maybe he’s afraid his family is going to think he made a big mistake by breaking up with you for the redhead woman?” Sierra did a little victory dance in her head, for the first time since their break up, she had the upper hand and whether it was the truth or not, she was going to choose that reason over the former, because it made her feel good. 

“Yeah, you’re right, that must be it.” Ken looked amused at her happiness and gone was the brooding woman. 

“Ken, I never did ask, I know why you’re working here, but what is it you really want to do with your life? If you were given a choice to become anything, what would it be?” If Ken was surprised by her question, he didn’t show it, instead, he fell silent. 

“I’d be a paramedic.” His answer was far from anything Sierra expected him to say. 

“Why specifically?” Once again he was quiet and for a moment Sierra thought she’d pushed too far, but before she could apologize, he spoke. 

“When I was a child we had a neighbor who was a paramedic, he was a very private guy, kept to himself mostly, but when my mom got sick one night, he had just gotten off a shift, he was on his way home when I went to find help, he asked what was wrong and when I told him that my mother got sick he didn’t think twice before helping us take her to the hospital. He saved her life and my baby sister, since then I’ve always wanted to have the opportunity to do that for another family.” Sierra was quickly growing fonder of Ken, he was a good kid with a lot to give back in life. 

“You’ll have your chance to pay that forward, Ken. I just know it.” Ken smiled gratefully. 

She would do whatever she could to make sure he got that chance.