Every Last Breath || Jay Halstead

FIVE

Willa woke up the next morning feeling groggy, her back aching from the discomfort of lying on an overpriced couch that wasn't meant for sleeping. She rubbed her eyes and turned over, almost falling off said couch in the process. Once regaining her momentum, she swung her legs over the edge as the smell of freshly brewed coffee hit her nostrils.

"Morning, sunshine," greeted an all too familiar voice.

Willa rubbed more sleep out of her eyes. "You better be holding a big cup of coffee for me, or I will not be the ray of sunshine you're hoping for."

Emma laughed and handed her the mug in her hands. "I know not to talk to you before coffee."

Willa took a big mouthful and sighed with the familiar feeling of caffeine coursing through her system. "All those late nights in college and Med School taught you your lesson, good."

"That's right." She sat on the couch next to Willa and breathed in heavily. Emma called it friendship at first sight that first day in college, and Willa was inclined to agree. Eventually, they'd ended up in the same Med School and in the same hospital for their residencies. Emma had gotten her first choice of Oncology, while Willa had matched with her fourth choice in Pediatrics. "How is Chicago? I know you were nervous about going back."

Willa took another gulp of coffee. "I love it," she confessed. "I finally get to do emergency medicine, and I can't even begin to describe how satisfying that is."

Emma nodded, a smile on her lips. "I'm glad. You were miserable in Peds."

"Tell me about it." Pediatrics had been her fourth choice after putting emergency medicine at three different New York hospitals down before it. Still, they had all rejected her, so she'd accepted the Peds position where Emma was doing Oncology. Helping kids had been rewarding but telling parents that their kid was terminally ill after months or years of fighting took its toll, and it was not the kind of medicine Willa wanted to practice.

"Are you seeing anyone?"

She had been expecting this. Emma was anything but subtle in her pursuit to find love for Willa. "No."

"Then why are you grinning like an idiot?"

Willa caught herself. Standing, she made a straight line for the kitchen to avoid her friend's prying eyes. "We're not together," Willa clarified, knowing there was no point in lying to her best friend. Emma came into the kitchen and offered her a bowl to pour the cereal into.

"Then what are you?"

She shrugged, something she seemed to be doing a lot of these days. "I don't know, Em. All I know is it's a bad idea." She grabbed the milk from the fridge and poured it on her cornflakes. She put a large spoonful in her mouth, hoping it would distract Emma but deep inside, she knew better.

"Why is it a bad idea?"

She hesitated, knowing Emma would chastise her for being such an idiot. "He's a cop."

Emma's eyes widened. "A cop?" Willa nodded, swallowing her cereal. "You're stupider than I thought you were."

"Like I said," Willa shot back. "We're not together."

Emma topped up her own coffee, then buried her face in her hands. "I would almost prefer any of your old deadbeat boyfriends to a cop."

"Hey," Willa warned. "That's low. We can't all meet Prince Charming on the second day of college."

"You're right," she agreed. "I'm sorry, I just know that being with a cop can be difficult." Emma's father had been a beat cop his entire adult life. He never really got hurt until their sophomore year of college when he was shot while on the job and died on the operating table. A similar thing had happened to Willa's mother ten years before that.