Chapter 1 - Be My Girlfriend
Lucas Friar, new resident doctor at Greenwich Village Hospital, was celebrating his recent accomplishment with his best friends Zay and Vanessa. After years of medical school, he was finally ready to take on his chosen specialty in pediatrics. They were at a local bar on a summer Friday night. The night was young and they were just getting started.
"To Dr. Lucas Friar," Zay announced, raising his glass of scotch and they all clinked their glasses.
"Thank you Zay, Vanessa," Lucas nodded. "I'm glad that you two are here to celebrate this very special occasion with me."
"Are you gonna have a party or what?" Vanessa asked.
"My parents want me to come home to Texas for that," Lucas laughed. "She said all I had to do was look good and show up."
Zay shook his head and chuckled, "F boy Friar at it again."
Lucas playfully punched his friend, "You know my mom. She's inviting all of her friends and their daughters to this celebration. You two are invited as well so please come for my sanity."
"I know med school is hard Luke," Vanessa began. "But damn, you gotta jump back in the dating game! You're not getting any younger."
"Tell me about it," Lucas took a sip of his whiskey and spun his chair around to look at the crowd. "I just haven't found anyone that really sparked my interest. If I'm going to date, I'm going to date for marriage you know? With my schedule and lifestyle, I need someone who can manage with that."
"Bro, this is not the time to get all up with your feelings" Zay said. "Look yonder. Every girl that the dim light touches, could be yours."
Vanessa rolled her eyes at her husband of two years, "Leave him be Isaiah."
"You know what guys? Let's just celebrate!" Lucas exclaimed. "Tonight is the night for us. The Three Musketeers!"
"The Three Amigos!" Vanessa raised her glass and cheered.
"The Three Blind Mice!" Zay added earning a look of disbelief from his friends. "You guys took the good ones! Oh to hell with this, let's drink more!"
The next day, Lucas woke up in his apartment with a throbbing headache. "Damnit," he thought. "I should not have drank that much." He picked up his phone from the nightstand to check the clock, 6:45 am it said. His eyes shot open and he jumped out of bed to run to the shower. It was his first day as a medical resident and he could not be late. Good thing that his shift didn't start until 8 and the hospital was just a walking distance from his place.
Lucas got out of the shower in no time. He wasn't going to bother with his hair today anyway. He put on his scrubs and grabbed his medical bag. He took one last look of himself in the mirror and smiled. Taking a deep breath he said to himself out loud, "You are gonna do just great!"
Grabbing his apartment keys from the bowl by the front door, he slammed the door shut and ran down the stairs. It was going to be a good day, he repeated to himself like a mantra.
Within 20 minutes of walking, he arrived at the hospital. He briefly stopped to take in the building in front of him and then proceeded to go through the main entrance of the hospital. He ran to catch the elevator that someone was holding for him and pressed the number 8, "Thank you," he uttered to the stranger that waited for him.
"You must be one of our new pediatric residents," the stranger asked. Lucas turned to look at the person and he was greeted by a brown eyed brunette who was all smiles. "I'm Riley Matthews. Registered Nurse." She stretched out her hand and Lucas shook it. He was still gazing at this beauty right in front of him. She was about 5'6" tall, petite, and had a slightly tan complexion. She was wearing purple scrubs with bunnies printed on them. "I'm sorry did I scare you?"
Lucas shook out of his daze, "No I'm sorry, first day nerves." He chuckled, "I'm Lucas Friar. Medical Resident. How did you know I was a pediatric resident?"
"Well I saw your ID badge," she giggled. "Plus you pressed 8 which is the Peds floor. And we were told that we would be getting a few residents today."
"Ah," Lucas nodded. "I see. Well Riley it's nice to meet a friendly face on my very first day at work. It just means that the day can only get better from here."
Riley smirked, "We'll see about that Dr. Friar." The elevator dinged indicating that they had arrived at their floor. "Good morning everyone!" Riley greeted the hospital staff, who all paused what they were doing to greet her. "Hey Doc Evans! Your new resident is here." Lucas was in awe at this brunette. She must be well liked by her coworkers. Especially if she gets to call Dr. Evans, Doc Evans.
"Dr. Lucas Friar," a gray haired man approached him and shook his hand. "Welcome to 8 North. I see you've already met Nurse Riley. What a great start to your day already!"
"Please to meet you sir," Lucas greeted and chuckled. "Yeah she's awfully nice."
"Let me show you the locker room where you can put all your stuff in," Dr. Evans lead the way and Lucas followed suit. "I'll ask one of the nurses later to give you a tour of the entire unit. I'll give my speech after you're settled. Welcome to Greenwich Village Hospital Dr. Friar. Hope your first 12 hours here are nothing but a great experience."
After a 12 hour shift at the hospital, all Lucas wanted to do was heat up the left over lasagna he made the other night, take a shower and then pass out on his bed-which is exactly what he did when he got home, except that things didn't happen as planned after he was done eating dinner. Just as he was about to hop in the shower, his cellphone rang.
"Hey Mom!" Lucas exclaimed. "I had such an amazing first day at the hospital! But I'll tell you all about that later. What's up?"
"I just wanted to check up on you and make sure you have everything set for your visit here,"
"Thanks mom. I have everything set. I just have to confirm my vacation days with my supervisor,"
"You must need some sleep Luke. You sound so tired!" His mom said. "I'll call you again tomorrow so you can tell me all about your first day."
Lucas furrowed his eyebrows. He knows this tone of voice from his mother. There was an underlying reason why she called, "Why did you really call mom?"
"You remember Missy right? My friend Carol's daughter? Oh she's such a lovely lady now Lucas and she's single!"
"Mom would you please stop trying to match me up with your friend's daughters?"
"Pappy Joe would love to see his only grandson get married and have kids soon," his mom retorted. "I'm just trying to help you out honey. You don't seem to be dating and wanting to settle down! I don't want you to grow old alone. Give Missy a chance?"
"I'm fine mom!" Lucas halfway yelled. "I don't need to date her and as wonderful as it is that Missy is a lovely lady now, I am going to have to say no."
"Oh come on! One date," her mom insisted. He could almost see his mother's pleading eyes.
"I can't and I won't mother,"
"Why not?" she whined.
"Because I already have a girlfriend!" Lucas screamed into oblivion. He face palmed himself. What did he just do? Oh god no.
"Lucas Friar you have a girlfriend you didn't tell me about?" She's upset alright. "Why would you hide this from me? You must bring her with you when you come home! There are no excuses. I want to meet my future daughter-in-law."
"But mother,"
"No buts. Bring her here. I'll call you tomorrow. Goodnight son! I love you!"
Lucas groaned loudly. He needed that shower, badly.
Meanwhile, it was almost midnight and Riley Matthews was out with her best friend Maya Hart to celebrate her newly hung painting at the museum. Both girls drank more than what they can handle and they were struggling to walk out of the local bar that they were at.
"We should most definitely take a cab home Maya," Riley suggested. "Woohoo! The world is spinning!"
"There's one over there!" Maya flagged the cab down and it stopped just in front of them. "1023 North Avenue please!"
Riley stumbled into the backseat of the cab and Maya followed right behind her. The two girls were laughing excessively that all the cab driver could do was laugh at the girls and shake his head.
"I'm so sorry we're bothering you Mr. cab driver sir," Riley apologized.
"No worries Ma'am," the driver responded. "It's part of the job."
In a few short minutes, the girls arrived at their apartment building. They paid the cab driver and hopped out of the car-more like stumbled yet again.
"Hey Riles, you know what we should do?" Maya asked.
"What?"
"We should climb up the fire escape in the back and enter our apartment,"
"Why can't we go through the front door?"
Maya grabbed her friends' hand and ran around the side of the building, "Because it's going to be awesome!"
"Well I never do anything fun so let's do it!"
"Okay you go first," Maya grinned.
"Why does it have to be me?"
"Because I said so now go!"
Riley jumped to grab on to the ladder that lead to the fire escape stairs. She was able to make it and a few seconds later, Maya was right next to her. The two ladies ran up the stairs trying to stifle their laugh. Riley counted the number of windows and turned to face the one that she knew was their apartment. She carefully landed on their balcony. How she did it? She would never know.
She gently opened the window and walked inside the room. She took off her shoes and her leather jacket and threw it on the floor. Without changing into her pajama's she climbed into bed and whispered, "That was amazing Maya. Goodnight." And she went into a deep slumber.
"WHAT THE HELL?" A manly voice yelled causing Riley to groan and cover her ears with a pillow.
"Son of a bitch would you shut the hell up? You're so loud!" Riley yelled back. After a few seconds, it registered that a man was in her room-or so she thought. Her eyes were now wide open and she shot out of bed. "Who is in here?" Her eyes darted towards the figure by the window and her jaw dropped.
"Riley?" The man said.
"Dr. Friar?" Riley responded gathering up the sheets up to her chest. She looked down and she was fully clothed. She breath a sigh of relief. "What are you doing in my... This isn't my room."
"Yeah! It's my room. What are you doing here?"
"I thought this was my apartment!"
"Clearly it is not!"
Riley jumped out of bed and was unstable for a moment, "Oh shit. Damnit I hate Maya. I am so sorry Dr. Friar." She started to collect her things. "I was out drinking with my friend last night and I remember her saying it would be more fun to climb up the fire escape and I thought I counted the windows wrong." She took a deep breath. "I am truly truly sorry." She looked up to see that Lucas was just staring at her with his eyebrows raised. "Dr. Friar?"
Lucas eyed her carefully, "You know I could technically charge you with breaking and entering."
Riley was shocked. This could not be happening, "Oh please please please forgive me! I really didn't mean to. My BAC was way above the legal limit I swear to you. I normally do not just wake up in random guys' bed."
"Well since I know you and I know that you're a good person, I will not." Lucas began.
"Oh thank you so much!"
"But," Lucas continued.
Riley cocked her head to the side, "But what?"
Lucas walked closer to her. Now that he was not against the light, she could clearly see his bold features. His beautiful eyes, chiseled jaw and disheveled hair. It took all of her not to drool at this Greek God in front of her. "Be my girlfriend."
"I'm sorry what?" It was all Riley could mutter.
This story concept had been dancing in my mind for so long now that I finally decided to write it!
Let me know what you think of my new story :)
Thanks for reading!