"Welcome back!" I greet Joan with a hug. Boy, am I glad to see her. Dr. Keller has been driving me crazy all week with his constant tsk tsk'ing. "How was it? Tell me everything."
"Like you have a choice." Joan grins. She can out talk the best of them, and she knows it. "I'm going to make you sit through a roll of photos at lunch."
She begins to give me the rundown of their trip, sparing no detail, between reading through some patient charts. She's telling me about running to board their connecting flight when she stops mid sentence, as though she's just remembered something more exciting. "OH! I brought you a magnet, of course."
"Thanks!" I certainly wasn't expecting anything, but the magnet collection inside my locker is becoming somewhat widely known. I haven't done much traveling, but I have such an interest in the world around me that my coworkers have started bringing me souvenir magnets from their travels. It's a very sweet gesture on all of their parts, and now the inside of my locker is plastered with small mementos from around the world.
She tells me about the room, the beaches and the sunset sail trip. She swoons over the bottle of champagne and candlelit dinner on the beach that Sam arranged to surprise her. She couldn't stop smiling if she tried, and I'm thrilled for her. She deserves the happiness. Eventually she checks her watch and announces that she's going to say hello to the night crew before the shift change meeting.
"I'm right behind you," I tell her, making one more note.
She's only been gone for a minute when the double doors to the department open. I glance up out of reflex more than anything, but I'm surprised to see Josh approaching me.
"Oh, good. Glad you're right here." He kisses me casually as though it's the most natural thing in the world.
"Hey," I beam at him. While I'm not quite sure why he's here, I'm always glad to see him, even if we only parted ways a few hours ago.
"I think we switched pagers this morning," he tells me, which isn't a surprise since he was called into The White House at 4am. "I wanted to try and catch you before either of us missed something important."
"I forgot my-" Joan stops mid sentence. "Josh? What are you doing here?"
"Hey Joanie. How was the trip?" He doesn't answer her but he certainly doesn't lie. And Joan is off to the races recounting her amazing week in the islands. The man clearly knew what he was doing when he asked.
Joan puts the stack of folders she's carrying with the one she forgot. She wanders over behind the nurses station to grab a lens cleaning wipe from the drawer and wipe off her glasses as she continues to talk. I take the opportunity to round the desk to the other side and stand a respectable distance from Josh as I unclip my pager and hand it over to him out of Joan's line of vision. He does the same and we make the exchange.
"Kay, well, sounds like you had fun." Josh randomly interjects into Joan's narrative, though he wasn't listening to begin with. "Gotta go."
"Okay… bye." Joan gives him a look like he's grown a second head but goes back to what she was doing.
"See you tonight," he whispers huskily in my ear as he walks behind me, lightly touching the small of my back. I'm going to have to really try to focus to not think about that all day.
I throw myself into my work and have a successful day. Joan is content to tell me about a nice couple that she and Sam met on a sunset sail trip. Even when she asks what's new with me, I take a page out of Josh's book and easily deflect, getting her back to talking about the trip.
It's not that she's self centered, it's not that at all. She's just deliriously happy right now. And I am too, but I'm not quite sure what to say about it. True, I've spent 8 of the last 10 nights with Josh, but in the scheme of things I have no idea what that really means. It just feels weird to say 'oh by the way, I hooked up with your brother while you were away. Don't worry, it's just a fling and neither of us were looking for anything lasting when we slept together on your wedding night. But just so you know, he is phenomenal in bed.'
I check my phone when I'm headed out to my car, but I don't have any missed calls. Josh must still be at work. I take the opportunity to run some errands and catch up on my laundry. I still haven't heard from him at 9, so I begin my evening routine and crawl into bed with a book. It's probably naive of me to have spent the evening waiting for him to call- after all, it's just a fling. But still- this morning at the hospital he said he'd see me tonight, so I was expecting to hear from him, though it's still early by Josh's standards. I suppose this is exactly why I didn't mention any of this to Joan earlier. It's just a fling. I'm not going to let myself get emotionally attached to him.
I doze off and wake later to my ringing cell phone.
"Hello?" I'm groggy but nobody ever calls me this late.
"Hey you."
A smile crawls across my face at the sound of his voice.
"Josh."
"Look, I'm sorry that the evening got away from me. It's been a busy night at work, but I've got a little over an hour before I have to be back. Can I…" He trails off, almost hesitant to ask.
"I'll see you in 15 minutes?" I respond to what sure sounds like a booty call. But I'm okay with it. We're both consenting adults with busy schedules. Especially Josh. I'd like to see him, even if it's only a few minutes for a casual hook up.
"Kay." I can practically hear him smile.
He knocks on my door a few minutes later looking rather beat down. I know he can't discuss a lot of what goes on at The White House, but it doesn't take a psychic to realize today was rough.
I take his hand and lead him back to the bedroom and he follows along but when we get there he seems less than eager.
He flops down on the bed and sighs, telling me how exhausted he is as he toes his shoes off. They land on the floor with a thud.
"C'mere." He reaches towards me, still clad in his suit, Sam's jacket, and I crawl in next to him. He wraps me up and sighs and it's really only a matter of moments until he's snoring softly. He seems to get some actual rest, even though it is short lived when his pager wakes ups with a shrill beep hardly an hour later.
He slides out of bed as quietly as he can and softly kisses me goodbye. I feel him pull the blankets over me and whisper that he'll lock the door on the way out and call me tomorrow.
And it occurs to me that maybe I'm not sure what this thing with Josh is, but I'm starting to think it's not so casual after all.