The King's Nurse [Elvis]

Chapter 11 - A Close Call

Staying in my room all day was incredibly appealing, so that was what I did. Gertrude brought me some dinner, with the excuse that I had some work to do, and I went to bed with only saying goodnight to Lisa since she came into my room before she went to bed around ten. She usually did that. She was ecstatic that her father was doing a bit better, and everyone else was, too. That was what they talked about at dinner, apparently, while Elvis was sitting at the head of the table. He probably thought I was avoided him. Well... he was right.

Someone knocked on my door at around eight in the morning the next day. I couldn't stay in my room all day since I had to do Elvis's assessment. Maybe I would do that and go back into my room. How would I face him after what happened between us last, though?

"Come in!" I called.

I turned around in my desk chair and saw Ginger come in, and her hair was down, framing her face. She also had on a modest purple dress that showed her feminine form. She was honestly very breathtaking. She smiled at me. "Hello, Karen."

"Hey, Ginger." Her smile faded. "Everything alright?"

She came more into the room, but just stood there. "I was hoping that we could talk about something... about Elvis."

Oh, boy. I had a good idea of what was going on here. Elvis wouldn't have told her anything, but she was a woman, and women were hyper-sensitive to whatever was going on with their significant other.

"Alright," I said, and I motioned to the bed, and we both went and sat on the end of it, facing my desk. "What's going on?" She started tearing up, and my heart dropped. "Oh, dear... Ginger..."

"No, no, no," she said, sniffing, and trying to smile. "I wanted to thank you. Elvis... he's doing so much better. Yes, he's on a short fuse lately, but..." She sniffed again. "He's doing a lot better. We all wished you were there at dinner so we could thank you for all that you've done. Vernon was teary-eyed as we were talking about it. We all can't thank you enough."

She went in for a hug, and I gave it to her. This conversation definitely wasn't what I thought it was going to be. "It was my pleasure, but Elvis did a lot of the hard work. And he has a long way to go."

"I know. But he's on the mend." She kept her arms around me, and my nose took in her perfume. "He's told me that he feels that he won't live a long life, but I think he will. He's getting better, and it's thanks to you. Maybe... we'll actually get married. Maybe his illness was keeping him on hold with the wedding, but now... it could actually happen."

My heart pinched at hearing that, and in a jealous manner, not in a touched one. I tried to suppress it. This young woman was my friend. "I'm really happy to hear that, Ginger."

She hugged me a second longer, then let go. She used her finger to get any remaining tears. "I love that man so much. I can't say how happy I am."

Guilt started to take a hold of me. She had no idea about what was going on between me and Elvis. It pushed at my lips, the revelation, but I didn't want to kill this great atmosphere and make her unhappy when she was so happy, she was crying.

"So, Karen... have any of the guys asked you out on a date?"

That was unexpected. "Excuse me?"

She giggled. "I'm sorry. I'm just aching for some girl talk. A couple of the guys—I'm not saying who—are crazy about you. I just wanted to know if they asked you to dinner or something."

I shook my head. "No. It's flattering, though, that a couple of them feel something for me, but... I don't want to concentrate on that right now. I need to focus on helping Elvis through what he's going through right now."