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Mel was filling in a chart at the nurse’s station and humming to herself when a distant voice disrupted her focus.
“Delivery for Dr King?”
She popped her head up to see a bored looking man standing nearby with a plastic takeaway coffee cup and a small paper bag. She waved a small wave and walked over.
“That’s me. But I didn’t order anything.”
“Sometimes patients send stuff as a thank you,” Dana said from behind the desk, not looking over. “Means you did a good job, kid.”
“Oh! Right. Well, um, thank you, sir!” Mel said, taking the delivery from the man. “If you’ll just hold on one second…”
She half jogged back to the desk to put the stuff down. She walked back over to him, head buried in her wallet, and pulled out a couple of dollars.
“Here you…” She looked up to see that the man had already gone, “go.”
Dana gave her a wry smile. “Must’ve had somewhere to be.” She jerked her head at the delivery. “Go on, show us what you’ve got.”
Mel shoved her wallet back under the desk and sat down, picking up the drink.
“Boba!” She grinned, taking a sip. “Wow, that’s good. God, I haven’t had boba in a long time.”
Dana chuckled and came round the desk, patting Mel on the shoulder as she passed.
“I gotta get back to triage. Good luck with the vultures.”
Dana sauntered off and Mel looked up to see that the delivery had drawn more attention than she would’ve liked. Perlah and Princess were murmuring to each other and throwing mischievous glances in her direction as Santos flung herself down in a chair and rolled over.
“What’ve you got?”
“Boba. It’s my favourite. Aaand…” Mel gave the paper bag a nervous little poke. “A bag.”
Santos rolled her eyes. “Well duh, I can see it’s a bag. Aren’t you gonna open it?”
“Oh, right! I guess I will.” She pulled the bag closer and peeked inside. “I hope it’s not anthrax.”
Santos looks at her for a moment. It’s a long moment.
“Joke. That was a… Anyway.”
She pulled out a small box and opened it. Inside was a pretty iced cupcake with a note on top of it. She picked the note up and put it aside to inspect the cupcake. Vanilla, from the look of it, with pink flowers on top. She took a bite and was reminded that she hasn’t eaten all shift. Her eyes fluttered closed and she had to try hard not to moan.
“Oh my god Mel, who is Scott?” Santos’ voice interrupted Mel from her icing induced fantasy.
“Hm?” she managed to get out, her mouth still full of buttery chiffon sponge.
“This note.” Santos waved the note. “It says “From Scott” and it has a phone number written on it.”
There was a delighted glint in Santos’ eye and Mel’s stomach churned with the familiar feeling of not being able to tell the difference between cruel and friendly teasing. She chewed as fast as she could and swallowed her mouthful.
“I think he was, um, a patient I saw? A couple of hours ago, maybe?” she stammered. “Could I have that back please?”
But Santos had already passed the note over to Princess, who was desperately gesturing for Perlah to come back over from a patient she’d left to attend to.
“Is Scott your boyfriend?” Princess asked, leaning on the desk once she’d handed the note off to Perlah. Perlah’s mouth was wide open.
“What? No! He was just a patient. I don’t even know him. I spoke to him for like 10 minutes, maximum,” Mel insisted.
She stood up and went over to Perlah, but Perlah held the note out of her reach, still scrutinising it.
“He’s got nice handwriting,” she said finally, handing it back to Mel. “You should give him a call.”
“I’m not going to call someone based on whether or not they have nice handwriting. Besides, he’s a patient. It would be totally inappropriate.”
“Was he cute?” Perlah asked.
Mel spluttered and her cheeks grew warm.
“That’s a yes,” Santos said, and Perlah elbowed her, laughing.
“Wait wait wait wait wait.” Princess’ eyes go wide. “Was he the dislocated knee from this morning? Hair guy?”
Mel bit her lip and nodded. Princess squealed and grabbed Perlah’s arm.
“Oh he was so hot Perlah, you should’ve seen him. The things I’d do for a man like that.”
“Why don’t you call him, then?” Mel said, offering her the note.
“What? No! He clearly liked you.”
“I’m really not interested.”
“How can you not be interested in someone who looks like that?” Princess demanded. “He was like a Greek God, I swear.”
“At least text him to thank him for the gift,” Santos offered, and Mel almost collapsed in relief that the teasing seemed to be over.
“Oh, absolutely. And I mean this cake is really really good,” She took another bite and covered her mouth to speak through it. “Like, really good. It’s so soft.”
“Bet it’s not as soft as his hair,” Princess said, and Mel almost felt bad that she couldn’t live this fantasy if only for Princess to live vicariously through her.
“You ladies talking about me?”
Mel looked up and almost choked on her perfect mouthful of velvety cake as Langdon approached. Before she could reply, Santos got there first.
“Get your head out your ass, Langdon. We’re talking about King’s new boyfriend.”
Langdon turned to Mel and raised his eyebrows. “New boyfriend, huh? And why am I only hearing about this now from Santos of all people.”
“I don’t have a new boyfriend!” Mel said in a rush. “A patient sent me a cake and some boba and his phone number but I’m not going to call him because that would be very inappropriate and also he probably only sent it as a thank you for fixing up his knee so it’s really not that big of a deal and I would appreciate it if everyone would stop talking about it now.”
The four of them stared at Mel as heat rose to her cheeks again. She was about to apologise for her outburst when McKay burst through the doors with two paramedics pushing a gurney.
“Santos, you’re with me. Princess, Perlah, you’re needed in triage,” she shouted.
“Can I help?” Mel asked, reaching for a pair of gloves.
“You’re good. Someone will grab you if they need you, Dr King.” McKay shouldered open a door and was gone.
Santos grabbed the gloves off of Mel and looked between her and Langdon. “Good luck,” she mouthed, before running after McKay.
Mel avoided Langdon’s very obvious stare and sat back down to finish her chart. She didn’t even move when he sat in the abandoned seat next to her.
“So… you’re not even gonna call this guy?”
Mel bristled but continued to type. “If you’ll excuse me, Dr Langdon, I’m trying to chart here.”
“Sorry, sorry!” He spun in the chair for a good few seconds, and Mel was amazed at his apparent inability to get dizzy. He came to a stop facing Mel again. “Not even a text to be polite? I thought better of you Dr King.”
Mel sighed and stopped typing to turn to him. “I will send him a text to thank him for his generosity, but that is all.”
“You know it’s not unheard of for doctors to date patients, right? You wouldn’t get in any trouble.”
Mel stared at him, horrified. “But that’s so wrong! I would never do that.”
“Not even with someone who, from the sounds of it, has really soft hair?” Langdon grinned at her, and Mel’s gaze drifted up to his own hair, which she could only imagine was just as soft. Probably softer.
With a huff, she turned back to the computer for a second, trying desperately to not give the conversation any more attention. But her brain just wouldn’t focus on the task at hand.
Still staring blankly at her screen, she said: “Look, even if it is okay for me to… you know… I wouldn’t, okay? I’m not interested.”
“Why not?”
Mel shrugged, picking at a chunk of cake with her fingers.
“I thought you said the other day that you were considering putting yourself out there.”
Mel started a little at the memory. She’d been sitting on her sofa with Langdon, the two of them a fair few beers deep, her legs sprawled over his. His hand had been absentmindedly running up and down her calf when she’d admitted that she hadn’t dated anyone since high school, and that, on Becca’s (very persistent) suggestion, she was thinking of entering the layer of Hell that is dating in your late twenties. Langdon had agreed that it was a good idea, but he removed his hand from her leg to cross his chest and he didn’t stay for another beer. It had left her with a lingering feeling of unease, like she’d said something wrong – but she wasn’t sure what.
“Yeah, I guess I did say that,” she said, blinking slowly at him. “I don’t know. I’m having second thoughts.”
Langdon shrugged easily. “Well, I think you should. And this–” he nodded at the note lying next to her mouse “–seems like a pretty good place to start.”
Mel lay a tentative hand over the note and traced her finger over his name. Scott. He was a nice guy, and, as Princess had pointed out, pretty cute. Not perhaps a “Greek God,” but cute. She sighed.
“Fine. When I thank him for the cake I’ll see if he wants to get a coffee.” Then, as an afterthought: “Just as friends, though. At least, at first.”
Langdon smiled. “Good! That’s good, Mel. That’s really…”
“Good?” she supplied.
“Yeah. I’m glad.”
The two sat in silence. Not the comfortable sort she was used to with Langdon. The air felt heavy around her and she wrung her hands.
Langdon cleared his throat and stood up. “Well, I’ve gotta check on that asphyxiation case.”
“Yeah! Yeah, of course. Um. Have fun? Well, not fun, he almost died, but–”
Langdon smiled. “Relax. I know what you mean.” He squeezed her shoulder. “See you later, Mel.”
Mel nodded, looking down to hide her flushed cheeks as he walked away. She checked over her shoulder and, once she was sure he was out of sight, swiped the rest of the cake into the bin. The aftertaste had been bitter.
***
Frank refused to let himself think about Mel in a personal context when he was with a patient. If his thoughts about her so much as strayed outside of their professional relationship he was liable to slip up and make a mistake, and Frank Langdon did not make mistakes at work.
Unfortunately, he ended up spending the next two hours seeing patient after patient, which meant that by the time he had a minute to himself he was ready to explode.
The second he realised no one was going to die without his help right that second he slipped into the family room and thunked his head back against the closed door.
He’d encouraged her to ask out this guy, and for what reason? She clearly hadn’t been that interested and was going to let him slide by, but he had to press further. He just couldn’t leave it alone.
Frank groaned and slid down to the floor.
What had he been expecting? For her to admit that the reason she didn’t want to date this guy was because she liked him? For her to toss away that stupid cake and say “Oh Frank, don’t you get it? I’ve been in love with you this whole time. Now kiss me, you fool!”
Admittedly, it had come as a bit of a shock to him the other night when she’d mentioned wanting to start dating. Until then, he’d felt like they’d been in a bit of a grey area. They’d go out for dinner every other week, often met up on their days off to go for coffee and a walk, would regularly go back to each other’s after a shift to decompress together and watch a movie. And that night… Well to say that he didn’t think anything was going to happen would be a complete lie. She’d chosen to watch When Harry Met Sally, the most romantic movie in the world. She’d breached the touch barrier between them by throwing her legs over his lap. She’d snuggled closer to him when he’d started stroking her leg. And then she’d said she wanted to start dating.
He ran a hand down his face. Stupid patient with his stupid soft hair. That should’ve been him buying her sweet cakes and her favourite drinks. And then some guy she didn’t even know got there first.
Suddenly, he felt something hit his back, hard. He stood up and looked through the door window to see Robby staring at him, a woman and young girl behind him. Whoops. Robby was almost smiling, so he assumed no one had died. That was something, at least.
He cracked the door open and mumbled his apologies as he left. Back to work.
He avoided Mel for the rest of his shift.
***
Frank’s shift had officially ended twenty minutes ago and he was still in the Pitt. Granted, he wasn’t working, but still. He was there. He’d changed into jeans and a hoodie and was sitting at the nurse’s station on his phone with his feet up on a chair, checking the time every five seconds.
“Frank.”
He looked up at Dana. “Hm?”
“Go home. You’ve been here since, what, 5am?”
He shrugged. “I’m waiting for Mel. I’m giving her a lift.”
“She probably got dragged into something. I wouldn’t be surprised if she’s here for another two hours.”
“I’ll wait until I see her. I don’t want her to think I’ve ditched her.”
Dana scoffed. “Please, that girl worships the ground you walk on. She wouldn’t have a bad thought about you.”
Frank tried to fight down the glowing feeling of pride forming in his chest at that statement.
“Unlike you, then?”
“Oh only a few of my thoughts about you are bad,” Dana teased. “Although the main one I’m having at the moment is that I’m sick of seeing your face lurking around my desk.”
“Yeah? Well–” Frank swung his feet off the chair and kicked over a trashcan. “Ah, shit.”
“Look at the mess you’re making in my space!” Dana crossed her arms. “You’re cleaning that up.”
Frank through his arms in the air, getting up to grab a dustpan and brush. “I know! I’m not a slob, Dana. You think too little of me.”
He stooped to sweep up the, admittedly few, bits of trash that had spilt on the floor, ignoring the pain that flared in his back. In his distracted state, he almost missed spotting the remains of a familiar looking cake – “almost” being the key word.
He flipped the cake over with the brush and smiled. She’d barely even touched the thing. Feeling oddly triumphant, he swept the sickly-looking thing up and dumped it in with the rest of the trash. Take that, Soft Hair! He stood up and stretched his back, but the pain had just about slipped away around the same time he recognised the cake.
“Dr Langdon?”
He whipped around and there was Mel (of course it was Mel. She refused to call him anything other than Dr Langdon when they were at work. He didn’t like to think about the funny things it did to him), still in her scrubs and looking dead on her feet.
“Hey! You okay?”
She nodded. “Yeah, I’m good. Look, I don’t think I’m gonna be able to get out of here for at least another hour.”
“Oh. Okay.” His heart sank a little.
“I’m so sorry to keep you waiting. Someone just came in about half an hour ago, he’s only a kid and Robby really needs the help.”
“You don’t need to explain, it’s fine.”
Relief flooded her face and she didn’t look so tired anymore. “Okay. Thanks for waiting anyway. I’ll see you tomorrow?”
“It’s no problem, really. And hey, I don't mind waiting a bit longer!” But she’d already gone, dragged off by Robby to see to their patient.
He exhaled as he turned to grab his car keys and was met with Dana’s smirking face.
“You’re gonna wait, aren’t you?”
He rolled his eyes. “No. I’m gonna head home and crack open a nice cold beer and enjoy it on my sofa. Alone.”
She chuckled. “Keep telling yourself that, kid.”
***
It was raining when Mel finally got to leave.
The kid had ended up pulling through and was conscious enough to talk to his parents now, thank God, so Robby had let her go. She hated for any patient to die, of course, but especially at the end of a shift. At the start or middle of a shift she could distract herself by helping other patients. At the end of the shift it’s all she can think about until she next clocks in.
So despite the rain, she was feeling pretty good! She hadn’t brought a jacket, but her backpack had given her decent enough protection from the rain in the past. She held it over her head and prepared to dash out from the ambulance bay when she heard a beep.
Headlights flashed once, twice from a car pulled up on the curb. She squinted against the rain and saw a familiar shape in the driver’s seat. She jogged over and climbed into the passenger side.
“You shouldn’t have waited!” she said.
Langdon smiled. “Like I was gonna leave you to walk home in this weather.”
“You must’ve been waiting for well over an hour.”
“Hour and a half. But!” He nodded at a bag in the backseat. “I did leave to get food.”
“Oh, amazing. I’m starving.”
“I thought you would be.”
She looked up at him and, not for the first time, was floored by his generosity. She sometimes suspected he had a sixth sense that picked up on whatever it was that she needed in that moment. Tears pricked her eyes and all she could do was throw her arms around his shoulders and bury her face into his neck. He took a second to react, but soon his arms were sliding easily around her, anchoring her to him. She breathed in his familiar scent and sighed.
“Thank you,” she said into his hair.
He rubbed comforting circles on her back. “Anytime.”
After a moment, she pulled back and adjusted her glasses. “Your place or mine?”
“Yours is closer, and I suspect you’re gonna be wanting to drop off to sleep pretty soon.
She bit her lip and nodded, settling down as he started the engine and set off.
“Oh, I’ve been meaning to ask you.”
She tore her eyes away from the windscreen wipers. “Hm?”
“Did you end up texting that guy in the end? The soft hair guy?”
She flushed a little, watching him watch the road. His eyes shone in the reflection of the streetlights and his jaw twitched as he hit the indicator. He glanced at her.
“Mel?”
“Um.” She shook her head. “No. I didn’t.”
He turned back to the road, his face stony, but she noticed the faintest hint of pink colour his cheeks. “Okay.”
She watched him, smiling. He glanced back at her and she turned away to play with the end of her braid. When she looked at him again his eyes were back on the road, but the colour hadn’t left his cheeks.
She probably would get into the dating scene pretty soon, she thought as they drove on. But she had a sneaky feeling that if she did, it would only be with one person, and one she already knew pretty well.