What Love Is

Chapter 8

Drew tapped the edge of his pen against the reception desk, absentmindedly listening to the nurses up front chat with each other. His chin was balanced in his hand, which had gone spectacularly numb over the past ten minutes. The tingling was spreading down into his forearm, but he hadn’t really noticed.

“Andrew,” a voice broke into his trance. He glanced up, not bothering to move. Linda was eyeing him from her chair, fingers on the keys of her computer. Files were strewn across the desk, as well as a racy-looking romance novel featuring a dark-skinned man and pale woman thrown half-naked across each other. The cover of the book caught his attention for some reason. “You’ve been standing there for almost twenty minutes.”

“Sorry,” he smiled, shrugging. “My office is lonely and you ladies are lovely, what can I say?”

Linda gave him a saucy grin in return, turning her attention back to the computer screen. “What am I going to do with you, Drew? Eventually all of the nurses will fall in love with you.”

Drew felt the smile on his face slip. Her statement reminded him intensely of the woman that had spent the night in his apartment on his tattered couch. It had been three weeks since then, and it was now the middle of October, with barely any word from her. He saw her now and then, walking purposefully around the hospital in her dark red scrubs and pristine white gym shoes, her auburn hair tied up in a loose ponytail. She never wore her hair down at work, he’d noticed, and she was extremely edgy speaking with the doctors.

“What’s wrong, sugar?” Linda asked, balancing an elbow on the desk. He looked down into her hazel eyes, attempting to draw the smile back to his face to reassure her. The result was horribly weak.

“Nothing,” he reached down and patted her shoulder, squeezing. “I’m going to go see Hannah.”

“Alright,” she waved him off with a friendly nod in return. “She’ll be glad to see you.”

Drew stepped away from Linda and the handful of other nurses congregated behind the desk toward the elevators, past the people sitting in the waiting room with magazines and phones in their hands. He shoved his thumb into the button that would take him upwards toward his daughter’s room on the twelfth floor. When the doors slid open, he stepped inside with his head lowered to avoid the awkward situation of conversing with others in the cramped space.

There was someone else in the elevator; he could sense it. Drew glanced to the left at the shiny metal wall of the elevator, knowing the reflection of whoever it was would be shining on the panels. His stomach turned over when he saw the distorted image of a woman in red scrubs with her hair tied up high on her head.

Well, damn. Here she was. He had no idea what he was supposed to do with her blowing him off like she was. Drew couldn’t even understand the point of ignoring him.

“I know you’re looking at me,” Rowan said.

He folded his arms, not enjoying the tense atmosphere at all. The elevator moved up another floor and he frowned. Two could play at this game, and if she wanted to push him away, that was fine. She’d gotten all she needed out of him; she had her job and that was really all she’d wanted in the first place. He’d only been in the way, and she’d definitely done a good job pushing past him. The help and the kiss had only been a ruse.

“Look,” she sighed. “I’m not ignor – “

“Yes, you are,” he interrupted sharply, sending her an aggrieved look. She looked tired today, her face bare of makeup with faint purple circles under her eyes. Her deep brown eyes, thin eyebrows, and full lips, however, were still very much the same. “I understand, Rowan, you got everything you needed out of me. I get it.”