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Joy still had a mandatory 20-minute break to rest after her blood test, but she was too restless to stay in a gurney with the loud sounds of the ER around her.
It reminded her of all the times she had to run to places like this when her grandma was sick. It made her think of all the ways her family had to fight to keep her alive. Too much history coming back to her prompted Joy to spend the last minutes of her break outside, near the ambulances’ parking spots.
With a momentary pause in the constant arrival of vehicle after vehicle, it was blissfully silent.
Or so she thought.
When she walked further away from the doors, she heard a sniff that was unmistakably a sob.
“Fuck me,” she cursed out. “Just what I needed.”
She still made her way towards the sound instead of away from it. Joy found Emma sitting on a curb, crying while she hugged herself.
“Emma?” She called out.
The girl startled, almost falling off her sitting spot. “Oh my God, you almost scared me to death.”
Joy sighed. “Are you crying because you dropped my sample?”
“No!” Emma replied too quickly. Joy lifted an eyebrow, just staring at her in disbelief.
Emma cleaned her tears with the back of her hand. She admitted, “Well, yes. But I didn’t want to say it so you wouldn’t think I’m crazy.”
Joy probably shouldn’t have, but she laughed at the sheer honesty of her words. She sat down by Emma’s side, looking ahead instead of at her to give the girl some privacy. “You’re crying. It’s not the end of the world. I’ve seen crazier shit around here just in the last four hours.”
Emm chuckled softly. “Right, that makes sense. Sorry.”
Joy shook her head. “Don’t worry about that. It happens. Everyone does something like that on their first day.”
Emma turned towards her, which Joy took as a sign it was okay to look at her now.
The sight of the remaining tears trekking down Emma’s cheeks made her weirdly uncomfortable.
“Really?” She asked with a trembling voice.
“Really,” Joy replied.
Her shoulders sagged in clear relief. She looked even prettier now that she was no longer crying.
Joy had to bite back a smile. How come this newbie nurse had managed to drop her blood sample, making her day even more complicated, and still look so adorable in Joy’s eyes even now?
“Let’s make a deal, okay?” She suggested. Emma bent forward, clearly interested in what she was about to say. “Grab a coffee with me before your next shift and we’ll call it quits.”
Emma smiled brightly, her whole face transformed by excitement. “Okay. Deal.”
Joy nodded and got up. “I’ll go back inside now.”
“Yeah,” Emma said, clumsily getting up too. “Me too. I mean, if that’s cool. I’ll, uh, walk with you.”
She was blushing, her cheeks colored red.
Joy decided this girl would be the death of her. “Sure,” was all she said in response even then.
Emma fell into step beside her quietly, but much more comfortably than before.