About time, p.3
About Time, page 3
Her week was much slower than her weekend, which led her to barely running into the angry doctor. Which June praised God for because she really didn’t want to have to explain herself or apologize. And the way Vasquez had acted when they ran into each other—literally—in the hallway? That had been odd, and June was sure it was a reaction to what she’d said to her the night before.
Sighing and rubbing the bridge of her nose to try to relieve the tension, June put her head down. Long weekend indeed. The knock on her door was a welcome distraction. Straightening her back in her chair, June turned to look at the door, calling out, “Come in.”
Chaplain Shirley came in with a smile on his face. “Hey, June.”
“Hey, what can I do for you?”
He sat down with a plop in the chair opposite hers and beamed. “Our birth mother got an induction date.”
“Really?” June grinned. Kevin and his wife had been waiting years for this to happen, and it was finally there. “When is it?”
“Next week, Thursday. So, we’re leaving here Tuesday.”
“Congrats, Kevin! I know how much you’ve prayed for this. Hell, how much I’ve prayed for it.” June laughed.
He was grinning so big she couldn’t contain matching his smile. “I know. But that brings me to why I’m here. She’s being induced far earlier than we expected because of her blood pressure. Anyway, I’m on call next weekend. I was wondering if you could cover for me.”
Cold swept through June’s chest and down into her toes. With the fights she and Lydia had had over her last weekend on call, she certainly wasn’t looking forward to experiencing that sooner than expected. Not to mention that also meant Kevin was taking his parental leave, leaving her and two other part-time chaplains to cover all his shifts for the next six weeks. It looked as though she would be seeing the inside of the hospital far more than she had anticipated.
“Yeah, absolutely.” She choked down the answer, knowing it was the right thing to do even if she really didn’t want to be there. She loved her job, but the drama that came in her home life while being on call made her reluctant to continue working in her calling. “You know I’ll do anything I can to help. What else do you need?”
“Nothing right now. We’re just jittery with anticipation and trying to focus on birth mom and her needs. This isn’t a done deal, you know? After our disruption last year—this brings a lot of wariness with it as much as it does excitement.”
“I know. That was rough on you.”
“It was, but we got through it. We agreed to focus on today and tomorrow, not the past, and the future brings us a baby…hopefully.” He gave her a sly smile.
June put her hands together. “Really, anything you need, let me know. Need a ride to the airport? I got you covered. Need your walk shoveled while you’re gone? Call me. We’re all here for you.”
“Thank you. And thank you for taking my weekend. That was my biggest worry since this was so unplanned.”
“Having a baby never goes as planned.” June leaned back in her chair, the happiness she had been feeling washed with a mix of pain and sadness as she remembered the last time she’d been called to maternity. It was rare to be called there on the weekend, and if she was, it usually involved the death of an infant or a mother. This time, it had been the former. Not wanting to bring it up to Kevin and fill him with unnecessary fear, she masked the emotion and focused only on the good. “So, you leave Tuesday?”
“Yeah.”
“Best get the rest of your life in order.”
“You’re right.”
After he left, June finished up her work in the office, then headed out to make a few more rounds before her day would be over. She passed off the on-call pager to Chaplain Jones as he came in. It was his weekend, thank goodness. She needed to work on some things with Lydia before she dropped the bomb that she’d be on call for their anniversary. Groaning, June rubbed the tense muscles in her neck in an attempt to alleviate the threatening headache. It wasn’t working.
Her collar seemed tighter suddenly, and she tugged at it as she turned a corner to go down to the Emergency Room. She swiped her way into the restricted area and turned one more corridor, stopping short when she once again ran face first into Vasquez. Stuttering, June stepped back, unsure of what to do next.
“I’m so sorry,” she sputtered out.
“Don’t be.” Vasquez was cheerful.
June shook her head. She’d been hearing rumors about Vasquez and something changing, but the nurses and all other staff were skeptical. They tended to gossip a lot. But the way Vasquez was looking at her did seem different. There wasn’t a shrouded atmosphere to her anymore.
“I should have looked where I was going,” June tried again.
Vasquez reached forward and touched her hand to June’s wrist. “Like I should have the other night. Really, don’t worry about it. It was an accident. Are you headed to the ER?”
“Ummm…yeah. I am.”
“I’ll walk with you.”
“O…kay.” June took the first step, and Vasquez matched her pace. They walked slower than June normally would, but she was so caught off guard that she wasn’t sure what should be happening. June’s heart rapped hard in her chest as the words spilled out of her mouth. “I’m so sorry about what I said the other week. It was out of line. There was no reason I should have done that.”
Vasquez stopped sharply. Her hand was on June’s wrist. June was sweating profusely, her long-sleeved shirt became sticky and hot, her cheeks flushed, and once again, her clerical collar felt way too tight around her neck. She slipped a finger from her free hand into the edge of her collar and pulled at it slightly.
“I actually wanted to thank you for that.”
“What?” June stepped back in surprise. “Why would you thank me?”
“Well,” Vasquez started, “I think it’s something I really needed to hear. I’d been thinking it for a while, but until someone is brave enough to say it, you can easily hide from reality, if you know what I mean. I needed to hear what a bitch I’d become over these last few years.”
“Oh.” June was in shock. She had no idea how to respond to that. It was completely unexpected, especially from Vasquez of all people. Her heart was still amped up, and a trail of sweat slid down the center of her back to pool at the top of her pants.
“Want to get some coffee later?”
June’s jaw dropped. This woman kept on surprising her. “Excuse me?”
“Coffee? We can just get some at the cafeteria. I have a patient and can’t really talk right now.”
Looking down, June realized Vasquez still had a grip on her wrist. Her fingers were tight, strong, firm, steady. Swallowing hard, June nodded. “Uhh…yeah. I guess. I’m off shift in about an hour.”
“I’ll try to catch up with you then.” Vasquez smiled. It was a brilliant smile, one that reached her eyes and covered her entire face. Vasquez took a few steps toward the ER but stopped and turned back to face June. “Oh, what’s your name? I can’t keep calling you Chaplain Smart-Mouth.”
June’s mouth went dry. “Smart-Mouth?”
Vasquez shrugged. “It was the first thing that came to mind.”
Snorting, June shook her head. “My name is June.”
“Beautiful name. See you in an hour.” With that, Vasquez was gone.
June was left in her wake, still not quite sure what to make of it all. Somehow within a week, she went from avoiding Vasquez to having a coffee date with her. Her mind spinning, she shook herself into reality and turned toward the ER to follow Vasquez’s footsteps and check in with a few patients there.
★
The sun had already set outside, thanks to daylight savings, and June waited anxiously in the cafeteria. It wasn’t her favorite coffee spot, but it would do in a pinch. She hadn’t heard hide nor hair from Vasquez since their last encounter an hour earlier, although she’d seen her in action. Something had changed. She had to agree with the gossip going around about that.
Vasquez seemed happier, freer. She more readily smiled at everyone she saw, and she complimented people, which was a huge difference. Only once did June see her have to catch herself from snapping sharply at someone instead of asking nicely for a test to be run. Observing was in June’s nature, and she had taken the opportunity of the last hour to watch Vasquez, trying to figure out what was going on.
She shuffled her feet against the floor and twisted the paper cup filled with coffee in front of her. She didn’t like waiting, and yet there she sat for the last fifteen minutes. She glanced at her watch again, knowing she couldn’t stay much longer before Lydia would throw a fuss about her being late, but she could always claim it was work-related. After all, chaplains weren’t just around for patients at the hospital—they were there for everyone.
The screech of a chair being pulled from the table drew June from her thoughts. Vasquez sat down with a steaming cup of coffee in front of her. She dumped in two packets of sugar before grinning. June finally looked at her for the first time. Her cheeks had more color to them, the olive tint to her skin making her seem as if she was glowing. Her dark hair was still loosely tied back, strands escaping their confines, no doubt from the work Vasquez did on a daily basis. Her dark-brown eyes were smiling, reflecting her lips. It was then June realized she was staring.
June cleared her throat and took a sip from her own coffee. “Busy night?”
“No. At least not yet anyway. It is a full moon, so I expect it to pick up rather quickly. Part of why I’m loading up on this.” Vasquez lifted her cup in a salute.
Nodding, June took another awkward sip, not quite sure why she was still there except that she felt compelled to listen and be there for this woman, someone who was obviously going through a trying time. It was her job. That’s all it was. She played the line over and over in her head, convincing herself it was truth.
“I wanted to tell you thank you. Really. For what you said.”
“I still don’t see why you would want to thank me for that. It was mean, and I certainly should not have said it. I’m so sorry I did.”
“Don’t be. It was exactly what I needed, the kick in my ass, so to say. I needed the reality check.”
June said nothing more. She didn’t know how to respond. Every time she tried to apologize, her efforts were thwarted. She’d tried her best, and that was all she could do.
“My husband…well, my ex-husband…it’s been a long time coming, but I finally signed the divorce papers the other night after we talked.”
Again, June chose to stay silent. This was why she was here. Vasquez needed someone to talk to, someone to release all the pent-up tension and pain in her life. That was her job, something she could do. Easily sliding into the role of chaplain, she put on her listening ears and opened herself to be there for Vasquez.
“He cheated. A lot.” Vasquez rolled her eyes. “I just never wanted to admit it. We were a bad fit from the start. Even in medical school, he wasn’t really all that into me, nor I him, if I’m being honest, which let’s face it, I am.” Her cheeks blushed red. “I’m sorry. You probably don’t want to hear this.”
“Go on. It’s okay. I’m here to listen.” June kept both her hands firmly around her coffee cup even though she wanted to reach out and squeeze Vasquez’s hand. She had to maintain professional boundaries, even if Vasquez was pushing them herself. The temptation to bridge the gap, however, was strong and steady.
Vasquez sighed and took a long drink from her cup. “The end of our relationship was a long time coming. It just took me a lot longer to admit it to myself than it should have taken, and you saying what you did, it helped. It made me realize that I had changed. I’d become someone I hated. I’d become an angry, mean person who had no kindness to share with anyone. That needed to change. Until you flat-out told me, I wasn’t ready to admit it to myself. So, thank you. Really and truly. Thank you.”
“Oh.” June’s cheeks were hot with embarrassment. Who knew that her not holding her tongue would result in something like this? “I’d heard the gossip that you were different this week, but I didn’t put much weight into it, until now.”
“Yeah.” Vasquez grinned. “I didn’t really want to explain the whole story to everyone. I just figured I needed to work on getting back to my old self. That’s where I focused. No one needs to know my drama.”
“Not a bad idea. The gossip in these places is bad.”
They shared a chuckle before another awkward silence came over them. June wasn’t sure where to go from there. It seemed as though the conversation had ended, Vasquez had shared what she’d come to share, and there was nothing more to say, but at the same time, it didn’t feel finished yet.
June shifted in her chair. “I should get going soon.”
“Right, I don’t want to you keep you from home. I felt I owed you an explanation, since you were kind of the catalyst for all of this.”
“Right…” June still wasn’t quite sure how to respond. “Well, I really should be going.”
June stood up, reached for her jacket, and threw it over her shoulders before twining her scarf around her neck. She buttoned her jacket and picked up her satchel. Before she could grab her coffee, Vasquez picked it up and handed it to her, their fingers touching briefly. Jerking her head slightly, June took the cup and stepped away from Vasquez, the electric feeling still flowing up her arm.
“I guess I’ll see you around, Doctor Vasquez.”
“Yeah.” Vasquez grinned. The smile warmed June’s heart. It was genuine. It was perfect. It was beautiful.
Shaking the feeling, June took a step to leave, but she stopped when she heard Vasquez’s soft voice once again.
“Call me Elle. Doctor Vasquez is way too formal for this.”
“Oh. Okay.” Biting her lip and preventing the question burning in her brain from tumbling forth, June exited the cafeteria as quickly as she could. Each step she took to get to the main floor and to the main doors, she tensed her muscles more and didn’t relax. She had to get away.
Everything about that conversation was awkward and boundary-line toeing and just plain uncomfortable. She had no idea what to make of it all. And the last comment? What did that even mean? June tossed her satchel onto the passenger seat of her car before she started the engine and waited for the heat to kick in while she sipped her now-lukewarm coffee.
“Too formal for what?” She finally voiced the question that had been burning in her mind. “For chaplain and doctor? For…friends? Surely she doesn’t want to be friends.”
June looked down at her satchel again and checked her gauges to see if the heat was on yet. Flustered and not wanting to stay at the hospital any longer, she shoved her coffee cup into the holder and put her car into reverse. She pulled out of the parking lot and made her way home, trying to come up with answers for questions she shouldn’t be asking.
When she pulled up to her apartment, the lights were on already. She knew Lydia would be home. They’d agreed to talk that evening—again. June parked in her designated spot, turned the car off, and slowly finished the rest of her coffee. One place she couldn’t wait to be away from and the other she could most definitely wait to get to. Doctor Vasquez—or Elle, she supposed—had certainly set her mind working in wonky directions.
With her cup empty, she couldn’t very well make any more excuses to stay in the car. Just as she was pulling her satchel into her lap and opening her door, she saw Lydia peek out of the window and check the parking lot for her. Smiling, she waved up at her before shutting and locking the doors and bustling inside into the warmth. Her night was about to get dramatic.
Chapter Four
The apartment was warm when June got inside, but the atmosphere was frigid. Lydia sat at their tiny two-person dining room table with dinner set out. June rubbed her lips together, anticipating the fight that was about to break out. It was an age-old fight, nothing they hadn’t discussed before and attempted to change and fix. But her job was her job, and she wasn’t going to be able to predict exactly when she would be home each and every day. It wasn’t a normal nine-to-five type of job like Lydia’s, or rather nine-to-three. Lydia had always explained her hours were for when they had kids, but beyond that, the conversation of kids had never come up.
June dropped her jacket and satchel onto the end of the couch and walked over to the table, ready to have it. Sitting down, she didn’t even dare to take a bite of the no-doubt cold steak. Lydia’s baby-blue eyes widened with tears.
“Who is she?” Lydia whisper-screamed.
“What?”
“Who. Is. She?”
June shook her head, confused. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Lydia scoffed. She slammed her hand down on the table, making the silverware jump and rattle. “Who is she?”
“Who is who? I really don’t know who you’re talking about.”
Lydia got up and paced over to the couch and then back. “You’re cheating.”
“I am most certainly not.” June’s jaw dropped, and she shook her head at the same time. “Absolutely not. I was delayed at work. I can’t share with you why because it’s confidential. You know how my job is. Sometimes stuff happens, and I get stuck there. I’m on call one weekend a month and six other nights during the month. It has literally been the same schedule for the three years I have worked there. Nothing has changed. Sometimes I get stuck at work.”
“That’s not good enough. You’ve been stuck at work far too much lately for it to just be work.”
“What are you even talking about? Where is this coming from?” June let out a sigh. These accusations were beyond ridiculous. The thought of cheating had never even crossed her mind. Breaking up, yes; cheating, never. She had enough problems with one relationship. She didn’t need to attempt two at the same time.
She stayed where she was at the table, hoping her open posture and remaining seated would calm Lydia down. Sometimes with her, body language was everything in a fight—it would either make it or break it. Lydia paced back and forth a few more times before spinning on her heel and cutting her hand across the air.
