"When did you actually meet Jazmine?" Huey emphasized.
"Let's see...I remember it was somewhere in the middle of June," James said thinking about it.
I first met Jazmine at the Washington Hospital. She was one of our new nurses that came in and she would be working under me.
Since Jazmine aspired to be a doctor in the future, Ms. Grace, who was our nurse practitioner had assigned Jazmine to me.
I was in my office looking at some papers on a patient I had. I wrote down as side notes what medicine to prescribe them so I could go back and give them the prescription.
Usually, the nurse would take notes, come back with the information, and then I worked my magic by telling them the results based on the information I see.
The last nurse I had got fired because she kept presenting me with misinformation and she was always late. That not only looked bad on her, but it also looked bad on me as a doctor.
I wasn't going to let her ruin my name and the hospital's name because she put in less effort to check a patient correctly.
Ms. Grace got so many complaints about her from my patients that I decided to fire her.
She told me I would have to check my patients myself until she could find me a new nurse.
The problem was that no nurses wanted to work under me because my patients were hard to deal with. Not with how the way they act, but the nurses sometimes couldn't identify what problem they had due to the patients' symptoms.
Most of the nurses that worked at this hospital didn't have a college degree which bothered me. They got their licenses from their high schools that offered classes, but some of them didn't take those classes into mind when they actually became a nurse.
Another reason why other nurses didn't like working under me is that I had way too many patients that came in while other doctors didn't have that many. If you worked as a nurse under me you wouldn't get that many off days.
I started to write down a prescription for my patient and then I heard a knock at my door. I looked up from my paper to see Ms. Grace standing at my door.
"Ms. Grace, how can I help you?" I asked sitting my stuff down.
"Dr. Anderson, I would like for you to meet your new nurse, Jazmine," she said smiling as I looked at her confused.
I didn't see who she was talking about and then she looked to her side smiling at Jazmine. "Come on, don't be shy," she said encouraging Jazmine to show herself.
I sat there and waited for Jazmine to show herself and then she finally showed herself.
I looked her up and down to see she had creamy skin, two large puffballs, green eyes, and strawberry hair, and she had the standard body type for a woman.
I feel like I've seen this girl before!
"Jazmine, go ahead and introduce yourself to Dr. Anderson. After all, you're going to be working under him," Ms. Grace said as Jazmine took a deep breath and stepped in front of me.
"Hi, my name is Jazmine DuBois," she said holding her hand out.
DuBois...I know I've heard that name before.
"DuBois," I repeated, "Would you happen to be related to Tom DuBois, the lawyer,?" I asked as her eyes widen.
"Yes, that's my dad!" she excitedly spoke. I smiled and just shook her hand.
"See, I knew I heard that name from somewhere," I exclaimed.
"Yeah, such a small world," she said.
"Do you know Sarah DuBois, my mother?" she continued.
"As a matter of fact, I do know your mother. I keep in contact from time to time when I come into town," I said as Jazmine kept smiling.
I know her mother alright! I still see her mom till this day. I don't see her often as you think I might see her but I see her every once in a while. Usually, see her at least three or four times a year.
I visit some friends in town and then, later on, I have my affair with Sarah.
Sarah wasn't the only woman I was fucking. I fucked a couple of women I met at the bar, parties, and when I was out and about. In the end, I never committed to them.
Sarah was a desperate slut that couldn't find sastification in her marriage, the women at the bar were just sluts or hoes that wanted to get laid, most of the women at the parties were divorced and were just trying to put themselves out there, and when I met women out in public, they just never satisfied me. In general speaking, they were all boring! I pitied most of them!
A couple of years ago I was a married man. I was married to a woman named Jane Thompson
I met Jane at the library where she worked. The only thing she ever did there was managing the books and help people find a book. Just the basics of what any librarian does. There wasn't really anything that exciting about her job.
When we started dating it was romantic at first. We fell asleep from talking on the phone almost every night, I bought her flowers, candy, and stuffed animals, we went on dates, our sex life was decent, and then we soon got married and started living together for a year in a half.
I was a loyal man because I didn't believe in cheating on your lover.
The thing that led to our divorce was us slowly separating ourselves from each other throughout the years.
We soon realized the hard way our schedules could not work out with our time together. I was always at the hospital helping and saving patients' life and she would be at home alone, waiting on me to get back.
Jane had always wanted what I could never give her: my time and a family.
I found my job way too valuable because it was my safe space and when it came to starting a family, I knew for a fact I was not going to fulfill that. My sperm count was low and it affected my chances of starting a family.
I wanted a child of my own but it just seemed like faith never worked out in my favor so I just gave up on the idea.
Jane soon got tired of not feeling happy in our marriage, so instead of telling me, she decided to cheat on me with other men. I found out about it but I didn't say anything.
I found this as a way to revert to my old ways. I started sleeping around behind her back just as she did the same to me.
The breaking point of our marriage was when she told me she had AIDS. She was snotting and crying and I could not bring myself to care when she told me. I feel she brought that upon herself when she decided to cheat on me.
She ruined her future with the effect of not starting a family and finding someone compatible with her because she couldn't open her mouth. I know I should have said something but I didn't.
What you do in the dark will come to light!
"Oh my God, it is so nice to least be familiar with someone in this area," she said feeling relieved.
"Yeah!" I said agreeing with her a little.
"How old are you Jazmine?" I asked out of curiosity.
She looked as if she didn't want to answer the question and she started to think about it.
"I'm 18!" she answered as I wanted to look at her funny. She seemed sure but at the same time unsure. I just went along with it because I assumed she was still nervous.
The reason I asked is that I want to see if she has any experience or education in being a nurse. When she said she was 18, that let me know she just got out of high school and she was probably one of those nurses who got their license from the nursing program.
I was most likely going to have to train her on a few things because at this point I wasn't going to just let any nurse be around my patients. People who work under me are a reflection of me and I can't have a bad reflection.
"What aspired you to be a nurse?" I asked.
"I wanted to help people," she answered.
"Well that's good, at least we know you have the best intentions for our patients," I said as she smiled.
It was quiet between the two of us and Ms. Grace decided to step in. "If you don't mind, I'm going to show Jazmine around the rest of the hospital. I just wanted to introduce her to you, so that way she'll know which doctor she's working under," Ms. Grace said.
"Okay, that's fine with me," I said as Ms. Grace gave me a quick smile and then decided to walk away.
"It was nice meeting you Dr. Anderson," Jazmine said before she jogged to go catch up with Ms. Grace.
This should be interesting!
"Jazmine wasn't 18 when she first started working as a nurse," Huey corrected.
"Yeah...I unintentionally found that out," James said.
"How?" Huey asked a bit confused.
I started to warm up to Jazmine after working with her for a couple of months. She was a hardworking nurse and I respected that. She did better than most nurses we hired from out of high school. She's the only one who's trying to go to college while the others are living off of their license they got from high school.
I looked at her resume to see that September 15th was her birthday. She was turning 19 years-old today and I thought it would be nice to get her a friendly gift.
Jazmine always talked about how her favorite animals were pegasus and unicorns. I thought the two creatures were both unrealistic and the same thing but she she said that unicorns had horns while pegasus had wings.
I broke it down and realized that horses were generally her favorite animal. She just like the fictional versions of them more.
So, I got her a figurine of a pegasus and unicorn combined together. I don't know what you call those but it looked nice.
I was going around the hospital looking for Jazmine so I could give her her birthday present. I couldn't find her in my office, the cafeteria, my current patients rooms, or outside where the other nurses and doctors were smoking.
I don't know why I assumed she was outside smoking. She doesn't seem like the type to smoke. Jazmine looks way too healthy to even be smoking.
I kept walking around the hospital exhausted trying to look for her, but that was until I had slightly spotted strawberry blond hair in the laundry room. I had went back to enter the laundry room to see Jazmine carrying a basket of dry clothes back to the table.
She then sat down and then she started to fold the clothes.
I slowly walked up to her hoping that she noticed I was in the room with her. Nobody really comes in the laundry room because no one wants to do laundry.
It looked as if she was folding some of her clothes because it didn't look like it belonged to the hospital.
"Jazmine!" I said knocking on the table to catch her attention.
She looked up at me and jumped a little.
"Dr. Anderson!" she said a bit taken back.
"Did I scare you?" I asked slightly smiling at her.
"A little!" she innocently answered.
"I'm sorry," I apologized as she smiled in relief.
"It's okay! I need to be more alert of my surroundings," she said accepting my apology.
"Is that right," I generally spoke.
She continued to fold her clothes and I remembered the reason I was looking for her.
"I got you something for you 19th birthday," I said as she looked at me confused.
"19?" she questioned.
"Yes, 19, isn't that the age you're turning?" I asked confused myself.
"I'm not turning 19, I'm 18 years-old," she corrected.
"When I met you, you said you were 18 years old," I reminded as she had to think about it.
"Oh!" she said remembering and then she looked nervous.
"Don't tell Ms. Grace," she said as I laughed a little.
"Don't worry, your secrets safe with me," I assured.
"Thanks Dr. Anderson!" she said relieved once again.
"You don't always have to call me Dr. Anderson, Jazmine," I said making her blush a little.
"Aren't we supposed to call you doctor and then refer to you guys by your last name?" she asked as I shook my head.
"You are but that's only when we're working, or really when we're in front of our patients and their families," I corrected.
"That's understandable, but you do have older doctors around here that want us to refer to their professional names," she said as I was a bit offended.
"Older?" I emphasized smacking my hand against my chest a little hurt.
"No, you're not old for a doctor! You're actually the only doctor here that's young," she corrected as I smirked.
"There are some doctors who are around the same age as me and they look older," I added.
"Exactly!" she agreed.
We both kind of laughed for a little bit until we calmed down.
"So, what did you get me for my so call 19th birthday?" she asked being funny.
I placed the present on the table and then said: "You can find out when you get home."
"Why can't I open it now?" she asked a bit confused.
"I don't normally get my coworkers birthday presents and I don't want them being envious," I said as she said, "Oh!"
"When you think about it, people are never really happy when it's your birthday. You have some people in the world that get very envious on what others get," I said.
"True! You honestly sound like my boyfriend when you put it that way," she mumbled a little. I didn't really hear what she said cause she mumbled it.
Jazmine started back folding her clothes and I just watched her.
"Why are you folding your clothes at the hospital?" I asked as she looked up at me again.
"I don't have a wash machine," she simply answered.
"A wash machine? Don't you live in an apartment? You know they provide those in the building right?" I asked as she slightly smiled and then shook her head.
"I don't live in an apartment. I live in a tiny house I have to pay rent for every month, just like an apartment," she corrected.
"I see!" I said.
"It's not easy paying all of your house bills. I have to make a few sacrifices and use my other resources," she said.
"And the hospital wash machine was the way to go?" I asked as she nodded.
"No one comes down here to wash and fold clothes," she argued.
"Touché!" I said. Very touché!
It was quiet between the two of us once again until I thought of another thing I could give her.
"Would you like to go out to eat after work, as a little birthday dinner?" I asked.
"Sorry, I can't do today. I already have plans for when I get off of work, but we can do it tomorrow during break," she suggested.
"Okay, that works for me," I assured as she smiled.
"Is that when you started liking her?" Huey asked.
"As a friend, but I felt like my feelings developed over time," James answered.
"Did you know when?" Huey asked.
"Not exactly! It's kind of hard to explain because I never saw her that way when I first met her," James said.
Thank you for reading!