Chapter Text
Claire waits for Melendez in the locker room, head swimming with thoughts about what to do with the shoe box of recipes in her lap.
It’s not as if she didn’t see this day coming. Kayla had made it pretty clear her desire to orchestrate some kind of grand romance between her and Dash after she died. They’d all mapped it out together — Kayla with purpose, and Claire and Dash indulging their dying loved one’s wish.
The plan is that when Dash feels as if he’s ready to move on, he’ll present Claire with the recipes as a way for them to explore a new kind of relationship. In the past year, she’s been too preoccupied with her grief and self-destructive behavior to remember this situation as something lurking in the background of her life. In fact, she’s ashamed to admit that she hasn’t been a very good friend at all in the past six months. No matter how things turn out, maybe this is an opportunity to make amends for that.
Though honestly, she has no idea what she wants. That’s why she needs to talk to Melendez. He’s good for handing out sage advice.
She’s been staring at nothing in particular while lost in her thoughts but furrows her brow when she realizes she’s been waiting for a while for him to show up. She checks the time — it’s about 15 minutes after he agreed to meet her. Just as she’s about to text him, a message from him pops up first.
Sorry. Called in for ER consult that’s now a surgery. Gotta prep. Want me to call after?
Claire frowns, wondering what that’s about. The ER didn’t look busy to her when she’d passed through half an hour ago. But if it’s interesting maybe she can get in on it and distract herself from this damn Pandora’s Box of recipes.
Need another set of hands?
She watches the text bubbles swirl and disappear a few times, wondering why it’s taking him so long to respond. They have a surgery in the morning and she knows Shaun’s on observation duty while he tries to work out a solution for their patient that she’ll agree to. Park left a while ago to spend time with his son leaving Morgan to monitor their crazy case and the group of unruly kids that came in with the patient. So why wouldn’t he want her to scrub in?
Mahoney’s second years beat you to it. Lim’s call
Seriously?!?! 😡
Sorry ☹️
Claire rolls her eyes and throws her phone down on the bench on top of her coat. Sure it’s petulant but she doesn’t care. She closes her locker door with one hand, gripping the box of recipes in the other. She definitely isn’t going to call Dash now given the nosedive to her mood. She hears the phone buzz once more and reluctantly picks it up.
I’ll call when done. Boring splenectomy anyway
She’d done two last month. Those are boring. That’s not the point, though.
It’s fine. Gonna turn in early. Raincheck
She’s definitely being petulant. But she’s disappointed and confused and emotional and figures she’s entitled to a little bit of pettiness. Maybe she’ll just set up an appointment with her therapist tomorrow instead. She puts on her coat and grabs the shoe box, slipping her phone in her pocket. It buzzes again.
Really sorry. Will make it up to you
Despite her irritation, she smiles at that. She does understand that he’s genuinely sorry. She sees another text pop up after that.
Will give you a 30 second head start next time we race 😉
That makes her laugh. He can be such a goofball. Who would have guessed that about straight-laced Neil Melendez. She’s glad she gets to see that side to him. She sends him an eyeroll emoji so he knows there are no hard feelings.
She sighs. That still leaves her a whole evening by herself to fret over what to do about the Dash situation. Going for a run might be a good idea, though it’s not that appealing without Melendez joining her. Maybe laundry? And then she can study up on tomorrow’s surgery. Perhaps Shaun would be interested in doing a case report on it.
Claire grabs her bag and checks for her keys. It’s only a few hours. She can keep from spinning her wheels for that long until she can talk to Neil about what the hell is going on with her life. Glaring down at the box of recipes, she finally picks it up and holds it close as she strolls wearily out of the locker room and to her empty apartment.
TBC…