Page 13 of Scrubbing In
“A first start?” At his nod, she continues. “Okay, after I finish here and leave Dr. Jacobs with Dr. Walsh, I’ll look at staffing and check with anesthesia, then get back to you.”
“Already spoke to Benny, and he said no problem for an extra start. And Tasha said she is available.”
She taps at her phone for a moment. “Tasha is scheduled off on Wednesdays for school, though."
“She already talked to her professor. Said she’ll come in to scrub, no problem. All we need is a nurse.”
“Wow, looks like you’ve done most of my job for me.” Silent for a moment, she begins bouncing her phone against her thigh. “But I’ll still need to check staffing, who’s on call tonight, what today’s schedule currently looks like, and make sure we can handle the extra room and accommodate breaks tomorrow in case we have staff off post-call.”
Her obvious competence is a huge turn on.
“Okay, thanks! I know you can make it happen,” Diego replies with a wink.
Grinding my molars as he glances at his watch, he misses the subtle tightening in Leena’s brows at the comment, whereas I’m so locked in on her, I spot it immediately.
Is there a history between them? Is this why she won’t even entertain a relationship with someone she works with? Has she been through a “messy” situation herself? My runaway thoughts make my jaw ache as I clench down even harder.
Fuck.Leena has me tied up in knots because,yes, I’m serious about whatever this connection is between us.
“Alright, I'll let you two get back to the tour. Ian, I’ll see you tonight for dinner.”
We watch him walk away, and when he’s out of sight, I turn to Leena. With a tilt of her head in the direction Diego came from, she moves away from me.
Her rigid posture, tight expression, and stilted but formal speech makes my gut clench with anxiety. I hate it. I long to see her eyes soften when she looks at me with a blush on her cheeks. I know this isn’t the time or place to try to continue our unfinished conversation, especially after observing that interaction with the Chief of Surgery. There seems to be more going on here, and while I want to get to the bottom of it, I won’t push her. I’m getting the feeling I will need to chip away at the walls she has built up. But I am no stranger to hard work and putting in the time. I’m certain she’s worth it.
After our tour of the unit, along with pre-op and the recovery room, Leena also takes me to the physicians’ lounge to see the newly installed dictation pods. We circle back to the room Connor is operating in.
I can’t help staring at her as she looks through the window while confidently tying her mask on. I admire her nimble fingers manipulating the ties, imagining them wrapped around my dick.
Clearing my throat and mind of that particular image, she glances at me with a questioning quirk of her brows while she pushes the door open and enters the room. I put my own mask on and follow behind, nodding at Connor’s greeting.
“Great timing,” he says as a scrub tech hands him the sterile blue material to start draping the patient. “We’re doing an IM Nail.” Pointing at the scrub tech, he goes on, “This is Charlie, ortho’s lead surgical tech. Scrub in while we drape.”
Leena indicates another set of doors. “Scrub sink is to the right. There is also lead hanging in the alcove.”
“Wait!” Charlie shouts before I can leave the room. She eyes me up and down before turning to Leena. “I’m gonna need an extra long gown, plus his gloves. Can you open those for me?”
Making my way over to Leena at an open cabinet, she indicates an array of surgical glove styles and sizes. Spying my preferred combo, I say it out loud and automatically reach forthem at the same time she does. Our hands brush and the unexpected touch makes my fingers tingle. Rearing her hand back, she rubs it over her collar bone, bringing my attention to the rapid rise and fall of her chest.
I try to catch her eye, but she refuses to look at me. She’s once again professional and aloof as she pulls out the gloves and turns back to the table to open the requested items.
Holding in a sigh of frustration, I head out into the alcove to choose a lead x-ray gown and perform my hand scrub.
Leena may have said nothing can happen between us, but I think she’s underestimating the spark we have. One I’m unwilling to ignore now that I know where to find her.
CHAPTER TEN
Leena
The usual noiseand chaos of the operating room grates on my nerves. A pain in the back of my throat makes it difficult to swallow.
I’d really like to just open Julian’s gown and gloves then bolt. My mind and emotions are in turmoil. How unfair that the hot guy from the coffee shop—the one who I’ve been obsessing over, wondering if I took off too soon and therefore missed out on something more coming from our meeting—is now going to be working at Palmetto Regional? And not just at the same hospital as me, but in my unit because he is a surgeon. The drama and gossip surrounding people getting romantically involved with coworkers has left a bad taste in my mouth, putting me off the idea of ever dating or hooking up with some I’d routinely see. Therefore, the man I’m infatuated with like I've never been before—and who seems to be equally interested in me—is someone I’ve deemed completely off limits.
I’m also frustrated about the situation with Dr. Merritt. It’s not an irregular occurrence for surgeons to want to add on cases outside their regularly scheduled block time or to reach out to anesthesia about adding those cases before they come to us. That’s just par for the course. It's the fact that he’s made it ahabit of planning who will work his cases, particularly his latest side piece.
Okay, that may be a little unfair. Tasha may have been one woman in a long line of not-so-secret hook-ups, Merritt has officially divorced his wife now and seems to be committed to his most recent “other woman.” It also rankles me that we have gone out of our way to be accommodating with her school schedule while she was adamant about only being available on certain days, but she still often comes in on her off days to scrub his cases. All of it is so icky.
Likely sensing how off my mood is, Charlie asks me for a few other supplies instead of Sarina, the nurse actually working the case. “What’s wrong? Is your ankle bothering you?” she asks.
