Page 19 of Forced Into Your Arms
“You don’t have to thank me.”
“Still...”
“I mean it.” She bumped my shoulder with hers as we stepped onto the elevator. “Now enough of all that serious stuff… I’ve been meaning to ask you something.”
“Oh Lord...”
Nia laughed. “Don’t ‘oh Lord’ me. I’m just trying to get to know you.” She then proceeded to ask her question. “So, what made you leave Florida and come back to Atlanta?”
We stepped off the elevator and started toward the nurses’ station.
“I moved back because my life in Florida blew up in my face,” I admitted. “Ten years disappeared overnight, and staying there felt like reopening the same wound every single day.”
She looked over at me without saying anything, giving me room to keep talking if I wanted to.
“My fiancé married somebody else.”
Nia stopped walking and went, “Oh, damn...”
“Yeah. Tell me about it.”
“Like... after ya’ll broke up?” I shook my head, no, and her eyebrows shot up. “Wait a minute.”
“I found out he was getting married two days before the wedding.”
“What? You’re joking, right?”
“I wish I was joking.”
She stared at me for a long while before finally speaking.
“So let me get this straight. This man was engaged to you...” I nodded. “And married another woman?”
“That’s the short version.”
“The long version better involve him hitting his damn head.”
I laughed.
“I’ve been trying to figure that part out myself.”
“Girl...” She rubbed her forehead. “Men really wake up every morning and ask themselves how they can stress us the hell out.”
“I don’t know if all men do.”
“The good ones don’t.” She smiled. “The rest? They deserve flat tires.”
I laughed again.
“You are something else.”
“I’ve been called worse.”
By the time we reached the nurses’ station, I’d almost forgotten how exhausted I was—almost.
Nia grabbed a tablet off the counter before looking back at me.
“Well, for what it’s worth, I’m glad you came back,” she said.
