A Heart Healed

“Good morning! Welcome to Otto’s. I’m Gina. Can I get you guys anything?” she asked with a surprisingly happy smile for someone who was working the morning shift. There were morning people in the world after all.

Naomi flipped through the menu, even though she took the same thing every time they came here anyway. “I’ll take the big city omelet and a tall orange juice, please.”

“Same,” Olivia said.

Gina scribbled down their order and practically rushed off with enthusiasm. Naomi looked at Olivia. “Is it me or was that a little too much energy?”

Olivia just shrugged. “I used to be like that, remember? Of course, that was before we ended up somewhere in third year trying to study for three exams that were all in the same week while trying to not give up binge watching movies as well.”

“Ah, memories. We used to have such energy.”

Olivia leaned forward, resting her chin in the palm of her hand as she stared at Naomi. “Speaking of memories, you ready to tell me what’s been going on over the past couple of weeks? The nurses seem to think you’ve been trying to date one of the patients’ family members.”

Seriously? Was that what they really thought? “What are you talking about?”

“Just checking in on some rumors. Apparently, after that day you got into an argument with some asshole who was harassing the reception staff, you’ve been awfully close with some man who has been visiting his brother every day. Want to tell me what that’s about?”

Naomi’s cheeks heated up. So, she didn’t know that they were the same person. Would it be a good idea to tell her? After all, who’s to say that the two of them would ever be friends with someone like that in the long term anyway. Besides, it’s not like she could deny that the man wasn’t an asshole, which he totally was, but there had to be a reason why he was, right?

“It’s nothing. I’ve just been supervising a patient for Dr. Adamson and had the uncontrollable circumstance of dealing with his brother. That’s all that happened.”

A grin started growing on Olivia’s face. “So, the part where he’s a prime piece of real estate was a lie then?”

The heat in Naomi’s cheeks flared as the image of Marc’s sleeping face came to mind again. “Now, I wouldn’t deny that…” she trailed off before Olivia burst out laughing at Naomi’s reaction. It was true. The man was very good looking, despite the terrible impression he had left on her, not to mention some of the staff.

“Looks like someone is interested in the hot brother.”

“What!” Naomi said a little too loudly, causing the people at the next table to look at them. “Sorry,” she apologized before looking back at Olivia, who was grinning at her like a maniac. “Can you stop? I’m not interested in dating, let alone in dating that man.”

“Why not?”

Before Naomi could respond, Gina came back with their juice in hand, placing the two on the table with an amused smile before walking off quickly. Naomi just picked up her glass and took a long drink of the citrus drink, wishing it was now something stronger.

“Trust me on this,” Naomi sighed. “What he makes up for in looks comes out of his personality.”

*****

That evening, Naomi was on shift again.

After breakfast with Olivia and a quick trip to the store afterwards, she couldn’t help but go home to collapse on her bed for most of the day to make up for her lost sleep the night before. After trying to ineffectively signal that she had not even a little bit of romantic interest for that man, her lack of sleep was amplified.

Olivia’s mind was made up that Naomi should at least give the man a chance, but there was absolutely no indication that he was even trying to get one in the place. They’d yet to even have a proper conversation without that awkwardly tense feeling hanging over the room. Even if he was interested, he seemed to have a rather immature approach at doing it.

Was it really so hard to just speak to her? Even if it was just to say that he was sorry for his behavior both towards her as well as the hospital. She’d even take his call if he was willing to fix himself up as well. Instead, it looked like he was ready to run himself into the ground first.

Naomi just shook her head. Maybe she should just leave this thought train right here. She was at work now and Ezra, despite being that man’s brother, was still her patient. She couldn’t afford to be unprofessional again.

“Good evening, Dr. Bennett.” A couple of female nurses nodded to her as they passed by her as she stood in front of the nurses’ station in the hospital’s general ward. The place was finally quieting down to its normal pace since the accident so there was finally a little bit of time to allow herself to breathe before heading to the next bed.

“Evening, guys.” She nodded back, her eyes following them around the corner as they started their conversation energetically before a small smile prickled at the corner of her lips. Even the nurses were starting to relax a little more. Which would explain the start of that story, now that Naomi remembered what Olivia said this morning.

She wasn’t plugged into the gossip vein of the staff like Olivia was so there was definitely going to be some questioning done very soon.

But first things first, she had to see her patients for the evening. There were a few coming in for abdominal pains, a teenager for a fractured leg from a wrong tackle during their school soccer game and then someone who thought it was a good idea to jump from the roof of their house into their swimming pool. Long story short, he landed on the wrong side of the pool.

If it wasn’t for the other doctors in the hospital doing the surgical work and the nurses who actually dealt with the patients on a daily basis, she wasn’t sure how often she could deal with patients like that one.

Naomi grabbed her pen from her pocket with a sigh. Time to do evening rounds then.

*****

About twenty minutes later, Naomi was already wanting to return home.

It wasn’t enough that she couldn’t since she was pretty much stuck here until the patients had gone to bed, but she was famished. The gnawing feeling in her stomach was more irritating than anything and every time she felt a new hunger pang started, she couldn’t help but wonder if heading to the hospital kitchen where the patients’ food came from was an option.

As bland as the food probably was, it would at least be something. Naomi fished her cellphone out of her pocket and checked the time. It was only 8:45. Maybe if she was lucky, there would still be some food left since the patients had eaten already. She only had two more patients to check on before lights out, so she’d have to move fast unless she wanted to spend night shift on an empty stomach.

As she turned the corner that went towards the staircase to head to the kitchens, Naomi collided with someone. A rather hard someone. She stepped back immediately and looked up to see a familiar pair of gray eyes staring down at her again. How is it that he somehow made their small height difference seem like it was much greater than it was?

“Dr. Bennett,” he greeted with a subtle nod. So, he was really going to ignore what just happened a few seconds ago? What happened to manners if you knock into somebody anymore? Anyway, that didn’t matter. She needed food first

“Mr. Hewitt,” she replied curtly. “Now if you’ll excuse me.” She tried to move around him before she felt a hand tug on the back on her coat, holding her back like she was some kind of kitten.