The Exception by Lauren H. Mae
Five
No fucking way. If it wasn’t for making it home in one piece after three tours in Afghanistan, Trav would have marked this moment down as hard proof that he must be the most unlucky son of a bitch on earth.
The nurse from the plane glared at him, arms crossed and a look of pure hatred on her face. Flashbacks from boot camp had his spine straight and his hand twitching to salute, though he had the distinct impression he’d take a drill instructor over Nurse Ratched as his preceptor any day.
Most annoying out of the entire experience—while his gut twisted in indignation, he’d already noted that the dress she had on gave him another view of those legs.
Just as nice as I remembered.
“I guess we can add your name to the list of lies that have come out of your mouth?” she asked.
His gaze jerked back to her angry face. “What’s that mean?”
She looked at a file folder, then back at him. “You told me your name was Trav when you were pretending to be a doc—Hey!”
He hooked his arm through hers and tugged her around the corner, waving sheepishly at the nurse at the front desk. The last thing he needed was that story floating around the hospital. Especially this hospital. “Can we keep it down? Please?”
“I will not! You know, I wondered why you went by Dr. Travis, but it worked for Dr. Phil, so I let it go.” She yanked her arm free and shook it like he’d given her cooties. “If you think I’m going to sit here and pretend that you haven’t already established a reputation for dishonesty, you can forget it…” She looked down at the file in her hand. “Ben.”
“Hold on. Just… wait. My name is Ben Travis. Everyone calls me Trav. I didn’t lie about my name, so can you please just calm down?”
Her eyes narrowed even more. He was beginning to wonder if she could even see him. “Well, either way, this is obviously not going to work. I’ll call the ED myself. You can’t work here.”
“The hell I can’t.” He paused and pinched his nose bridge. “Look, nurse…”
“Pope. Sonya Pope PMHNP.”
Okay, that was impressive. Of course she would have an alphabet of qualifications to her name. “Look, Nurse Pope, I need this internship to finish my degree by summer. If I have to wait for the ED to take me, I’ll miss my chance to make the city’s next hiring. I need a job. Now.”
“Absolutely none of that is my problem.” She turned on her red high heel—hot—and started marching back to the desk.
“Wait.”
“What?” Her voice was oddly high-pitched. This was obviously an emotional response, though he had no idea why. From the quick interaction they’d had so far, he hadn’t pegged her as the type to get flustered. Either way, he wasn’t going to out negotiate her.
Time for a new tactic.
He pasted on his sweetest smile, the one that made his dimples pop. “You and I got off on the wrong foot and I apologize for that, but this is my career we’re talking about. At the risk of sounding unprofessional, you’ve got me by the balls here and we both know I deserve it. So what do you say? Here’s your chance to make my life miserable three days a week. Karma’s a bitch, right?”
She turned around so she was fully facing him and her scowl defrosted a smidge. “That was very unprofessional.”
“It was.”
“So is flirting with the staff.”
“I—” Don’t argue, Trav. “Noted. Won’t happen again.”
“You can stay today, but I haven’t made up my mind.”
“Understood.”
“And if I do let you stay, it will be like you said. To make your life miserable.” Her eyes dropped down his chest, then back up. “Put away your stuff and meet me on the floor.”
She marched off and his breath escaped in a whoosh. He’d almost lost this opportunity before he’d even begun.