11. Growing Can Be Rewarding

Ali

A li tapped her foot on the linoleum as the phone rang. “Pick up. Pick up,” she murmured between rings.

“Hey, you’ve reached Nolan. You know what you’re supposed to do, so do it.”

Ali hung up and pulled up the text messages.

Ali:

Heard you are a little sick. Let me know if I can bring you anything. I work until six. I’ll try ya later.

She pocketed her phone and looked around the wing. Jo exited a room and went to the nurse’s station. Ali allowed herself to gaze at her for a few extra seconds. Ever since they had their breaking point, she felt compelled to trust Jo. She had allowed the rumors to get to her mind and for what? Only to be made a fool. Never again.

After that night, her view of Jo had improved. Jo looked up as if she sensed Ali had been thinking about her. She gave a smile and waved. And from that action, Ali knew that things had also improved in Jo’s eyes. Ali moved closer to the desk.

“Hey, so I was wondering if you wanted to go grab something for lunch?”

Jo looked up and glanced over her shoulder. “Me?” she asked.

Ali laughed. “Again, you’re the only one here. By my calculation, you need lunch. We could go to the corner diner or something. I don’t know about you, but sometimes I get tired of hospital food.”

“It’s not bad,” Jo replied.

“Well, it’s better than it could be. That is true, but a change of scenery wouldn’t be so bad. What do you say?”

“What about Nolan? Don’t you typically take lunch with him?”

“Poor Nolan is sick today. I mean if you have a better offer, you don’t have to feel obligated. It won’t go against your work history if that’s what you’re worried about.” Ali came across a bit snarky, and she withdrew.

“That’s not what I meant,” Jo quietly argued. “I think lunch would be nice.”

So, it was settled, and they went to lunch together. Ali feared that maybe it would be a bit awkward. However, that fear didn’t last as they headed out of the hospital and took the short walk to the end of the street. They took a seat and looked at their menus. They were ready when the waitress was there to take their orders.

When she left them, there could have been a daunting silence, but Ali wasn’t going to let that get into their lunch. “How do you like working at CAPMed?” Ali asked. It was something that would help boost the conversation and it didn’t disappoint.

“It’s been nice. It’s always hard to make a change, no matter what the situation is, but sometimes change can only be positive.” She gave a bright smile. “And this is turning into one of those changes.”

Ali had to admit that her response was a relief, especially considering where the conversation had previously gone and the misunderstanding that Ali had faced when she listened to the rumors. To think that she believed that Jo had killed a patient and was forced to run from it. She would be more cautious the next time she heard such talk.

When lunch was over, Ali led the way back to the counter. They both paid their bills and then were off to get back to the hospital. “We’ll have to do it again sometime,” Ali said. That statement elicited silence as they walked back to the hospital and then entered the building. Ali opened her mouth to state it again, believing that Jo hadn’t probably heard her the first time.

“We should,” Jo replied, slowly nodding, but her smile seemed to have faded. They rode the elevator up to their floor, and Ali watched her curiously. “If ever Nolan is sick again,” she replied as the elevator door opened to let them off. Jo hurried back to the nurses’ station, and Ali stared after her. After enjoying lunch together, it seemed like a strange reply. Why would that be the only time Jo could eat lunch with her? She pushed that thought from her mind, determined to ask Jo the question one day.

The next day, though, Nolan was still out of the hospital. Ali had taken him some chicken noodle soup the night before but didn’t stay. He looked like death had fallen over him, and the last thing Ali needed was to find herself under the weather, especially with the promotion still heavy in her mind .

In the morning, it felt like Jo was ignoring her. She would rush around, working on one patient after another, barely making eye contact with Ali. It confused Ali, but she figured she had to be pretty busy, so she couldn’t give Ali much more than two glances. When lunchtime approached, Ali finally wanted to get Jo’s attention. She was headed to the elevator when Ali came out of the office.

“Glad I caught ya,” Ali started. “Are you headed to lunch?”

“I am,” she replied. Then seemed to have a moment of hesitation. She nervously looked around the corridor and then met Ali’s gaze. “You?”

“Thought I would. I have meetings this afternoon, so I thought I would just grab something at the cafeteria. Nolan is still out, so I didn’t know if you’d want to join me.”

“Sure. Why not?” The response came out evenly, with no cause for worry, so they got in the elevator and took it down, heading to the cafeteria. “It’s been a busy day,” Jo replied as if to break the ice.

“Yeah, I noticed you were too busy to really chat this morning.” Ali gave a slight laugh, and Jo’s jaw dropped. “I mean, I get it…it’s work, and it’s like we shouldn’t be talking, but a few nods would be appropriate.”

Jo gave a nervous giggle, then shrugged. “I’ll remember that.” They stepped off the elevator and headed to the cafeteria. When they entered the cafeteria, Ali spotted May sitting at a table with a group of nurses. She waved Jo over, but Jo looked to Ali, then turned back and shook her head. “If you’d rather,” Ali replied. “I’m not going to be the least bit hurt.” While Ali spoke the words confidently, there was a moment when the idea hit her square in the chest. Ali realized that she would be hurt if Jo decided that she would rather ditch her and go to sit with the rest of the nurses .

“You could join us,” Jo replied.

Ali laughed. “Doubt that any one of them would want me to tag along. This is the time that they want to get away from their bosses and not have to think about them peering down their necks. That’s how I’d feel.”

Jo glanced over and tilted her head. “What about me, though? I haven’t steered clear just because you’re in a senior position.”

Ali smirked. “Well, that’s a bit different.” They had turned a corner in their relationship, or at least she wanted to think so. “I don’t want to interfere.”

“You’re not. I swear.” Jo reached for her hand and pulled Ali after her toward the table, but it was then that Ali felt the tiny bolt of electricity. She didn’t want to make it awkward, but she couldn’t have made that up, right? She swallowed as her throat went dry. “Look who’s going to join us,” Jo began. She looked over at Ali, but Ali looked down at their hands, which were still connected. Jo quickly pulled her hand away and turned back to the table. “You all don’t mind, right?”

“Uh, no. Of course not.” May then shot a look at Jo, and Ali felt like her real response was a hard pass: no. “Plenty of room.” May glanced around the rest of the table, and they clearly felt it was an awkward situation, but no one found it as awkward as Ali had felt. Especially when that spark hit her to the core, and Jo didn’t even seem to notice. “Grab your food, and we’ll save your places.”

It was settled, even if Ali felt unsettled about the whole situation. She went with Jo to the Italian section but reached out and touched her elbow. “I don’t think that anyone over there is really too keen that I’m going to sit with them.”

“They said it was fine,” Jo replied, shrugging.

“They were being nice.” Ali shrugged. “I can sense that I’m the last person they want to sit with, and that’s just fine. I don’t want to make things awkward. How about I just casually remove myself from the situation and tell them that I have work or something? No one needs to know the real reason. I’m good with that.”

Jo frowned. “But I wouldn’t be. That’s not fair. We were going to have lunch together. If you’re uncomfortable, then we’ll just go sit somewhere else.”

Ali arched an eyebrow. “You’d be alright with that?”

Jo gave a genuine nod. “I don’t want you to feel weird. I’ll leave it up to you.” Jo turned to the selections and finally settled on the spaghetti and salad. Ali waited for her pizza to be finished and then glanced at Jo who asked, “Did you decide?”

“Let’s take a seat at their table. Maybe I’m just being paranoid.”

Jo grinned, then led the way to the cashier and back to the table. Ali could make it work. If it wound up being too much, then she would up and leave, but at that moment, she wanted to be wherever Jo was, and she knew that giving in to what Jo wanted was the high road to take.