Leave the Lights On

Chapter 15

When you wake up the next morning, you check your phone. Your dad hasn't called you again and you're glad. Last night, you had no idea how you felt about it. You just want this whole thing to be over so you can have two Christmases like all the other children of divorce.

As you're waiting for your mom to get out of the bathroom, your phone chirps. You pick it up and check the screen. You are being paged to the hospital. When you call in Mercedes tells you that it'll be at least an hour before you can get in there. The other surgeons have some organ damage to attend to before you can even think about looking at the broken bones. You thank her and tell her that you'll be in, in an hour.

Since you have time, you decide to do something nice for Brittany because she's always doing something nice for you. You stop by the store on the way to the elementary school. You walk right to her classroom and smile when you find her behind her desk. It looks like she's grading papers.

She keeps writing as you walk up, so you put the sunflower behind your back along with the bag of donut holes you got for her. You keep holding the coffee in front of you because you figure that you'll spill it trying to get it behind your back.

When she finishes, she puts her pen down and looks up at you. "Hey."

"Hey," you offer her the coffee.

She takes it and tries to lean over to see what's behind your back. "Did you bring me presents?"

"Sorta," you pull your hand with the bag of donut holes and the flower from behind your back. You present them to her and she smiles.

She takes them both from you, smelling the flower and then opening the bag. She stands up and walks around her desk to give you a hug. "Thank you." You hold her around her waist as tightly as you can.

"Mmm," she hums in your ear, "I love you."

"I love you too," you say back and pull away. Your hands are still on her hips. You hate the no kissing rule at work, but it would be majorly unprofessional.

She smiles, "My dad came over last night to mow the backyard and asked why where was a circle burned into the backyard."

You chuckle, "Did you tell him that Summer wanted to rough it?"

"Yeah," Brittany breaks away from you and walks back around her desk. She sits in her chair and opens the bag of donut holes, picking one out. "He laughed and said that we actually have to go somewhere for it to be camping. Then he gave me a map with all of the good camping in fishing places in the state."

"Are we going camping again?" you ask walking to the side of the desk and leaning on it.

"Looks like it," Brittany grins, popping a donut hole in her mouth. "Maybe this time you get to bring your machetes."

"Yes!" you do a mock fist pump and she chuckles. You check the door and make sure no one is there before dropping a kiss on her head. "I have to go cut open some lady's back and fix her spine."

"That's hot," Brittany says.

You give her a wink and start walking toward the door. "Call me if you want to do something later."

She nods. "I have a meeting after work so my mom is going to pick up Summer, but I'll call you after I get her."

You wave and step out of the room. You love spending time with Brittany. Any time at all. This actually started your day off wonderfully. You wish you could see her everyday before work. Or every night before you go to bed. Or all day all the time.

When you get to the hospital, you spot someone you recognize right as you walk into the lobby. "Hey Rachel," you walk up next to her as she walks toward the elevator.