MilaAfter Ben had left on Thursday, I’d showered and headed to work. My mind had been filled with Ben and everything we’d done. I was walking on air after we’d slept together.It had been so much better than anything I’d been able to do with my vibrator, and I felt like I was more of a woman now that I had lost my virginity. I reveled in the delicious feeling that washed over my body whenever I thought about Ben.I headed back to the hospital on Friday. My mind was on Ben again, but I thought about Jerrod and how he had nearly caught us. It had been a complete coincidence that Jerrod had decided to bring me donuts on the same morning Ben was naked in my bed, but shit happened sometimes.It hadn’t been the first time Jerrod had brought me donuts for breakfast to cheer me up after I’d had a rough time at the hospital. And he’d never had to worry about me having any company before.But it had been so close this time. I shuddered to think what would have happened if he’d figured out what
Mila“She looked like she was going to faint when I took her with me to clean Mr. Hendricks’s stitches.”They all laughed.“What do you think?” Claire asked me.“About what?” I sat down with them and opened my sandwich.“About Danielle, the new nurse. Have you met her?”I shook my head. I’d seen her around, but she had been shadowing the other nurses and seemed shy and unsure.“She’s so green. I’m sure she’ll cry if you look at her wrong,” someone said.“We’re placing bets on how long she’ll last.”My mouth dropped. “That’s a bit rude, isn’t it? We all started somewhere.”“It takes a lot to do this, you know that Mila,” Claire said. “Not everyone has what it takes.”I couldn’t disagree with that, but we had all learned how to cope with the horrors we saw here every day. If this new nurse had a passion for helping people, she would make it through.Suddenly, I wondered if nurses had bet on whether I would survive as well. I had started in the ICU ward in the same way. It was a hard pla
Ben“So, what are you doing to do, then?” Jerrod asked, leaning on the bar with his elbow. He had a beer in his hand, and his words were already starting to slur a bit. We’d been drinking a while.“I don’t know, yet,” I said.“But you can’t just hang around here and do nothing. Didn’t you leave and quit everything to run that company of yours? And now you’re not there, but you’re not doing the firefighter thing here, either.”I shrugged and took a sip of my beer. I wasn’t going to tell Jerrod that I was headed back soon. I was merely spending as much time here as I could before I had to leave. I suddenly had so much to lose, and I couldn’t talk to anyone about it. I was lying to my best friend and my girlfriend. Calling Mila my girlfriend had a beautiful ring to it.“It’s just a lot for me to deal with,” I said. “Besides, I have a ton of cash, and I own a million-dollar company. I can do whatever the fuck I like.”Jerrod shrugged. “This isn’t the Ben I know. We had all these plans, re
BenMila nodded and grinned. We stood together as we shuffled toward the bar. I held Mila’s hand, and we let the crowds push us together. Instead of getting upset about being shuffled around, I embraced the situation. A few times, I brushed my hand over her ass or her breasts, touching her as much as I could without being too obvious.Mila giggled when I did. “You’re impossible.”I grinned. “You’re irresistible.”We got to the bar and ordered our drinks.“Let’s have shots,” I suggested.Mila agreed, and we ordered Tequila. It was my weakness. As soon as I started, I knew I wouldn’t stop, but I was already tipsy, and I wanted to get drunk with Mila.After we took our first shot, I pressed my lips against Mila’s ear.“This makes me so horny for you,” I whispered.Mila giggled and leaned against me. I put my arm around her. We weren’t being very careful, but I was sure with the crowds Jerrod wouldn’t be able to see us.“When can we do it again?” I asked.“Right now, we should just get th
MilaI had to work on Sunday. After the number of shots Ben and I had done at the bar and all the alcohol I had put away with Skylar last night, I had a hell of a headache, and I felt like shit. I shouldn’t have had so much to drink when I knew that I was going to work again the next day.It wasn’t that I wasn’t able to do my duties or take care of my patients, but still, feeling like death-warmed-over wasn’t great when I needed to be sharp and ready to save lives.I had to stop drinking so much. It wasn’t that I had a reason to drown myself in alcohol – every time I had gotten so drunk it was because I was out with Ben and having a good time. It was more like I was relaxed and able to let go of all the pressure at work completely when I was around Ben. I had never been able to do that before, which was saying something. When I was with Ben, I felt like I could just be calm.Now, all I had to do was be relaxed and let go without so much alcohol in my system. The only time I had done t
Mila“Stop saying ‘we’ like you’re one entity,” he spat. “Yeah, I’m pissed off. And I have every right to be. This is fucking ridiculous. I can’t believe you would fuck me over like that.”He was starting to swear. It was an indication of how angry my brother was. The more he swore, the angrier he was.“I thought we were close,” Jerrod said.“We are.”“No, we’re not. If we were, you would have talked to me about what was going on. Instead, you snuck around behind my back, and you’re dating my best friend. It’s disgusting.”We had been wrong, and Jerrod had every right to be upset. But he had come to me without warning, and he was challenging me in my own home. Naturally, my temper was going to rise to match his, and there was no way we were going to be able to talk about this like adults.Jerrod walked to the couch opposite me and sank down into the cushions. Finally, I sat down, too. It was as if the anger had left Jerrod and now he was deflated.“This is so fucked up,” Jerrod said,
BenI had expected to hear from Jerrod the moment Mila had let me know he’d been to her place to confront her about our relationship. I couldn’t believe it had come to this. I had been an idiot to think that our being together wouldn’t come out somehow.I had no doubt that it was our stupidity at the bar. We had been flaunting it, all over each other. And Jerrod had been so different when Mila and I had come back from the bar. I had thought it was because he was drunk, but I knew Jerrod almost as well as I knew myself. I knew what he was like when he was drunk, and that hadn’t been it.The only reason I hadn’t realized something was up right away was because I had been arrogant enough to think that just because we wanted it to be a secret, no one would find out, no matter what we did.We had been fools.Jerrod had already confronted Mila, and I was upset that I hadn’t been there to protect her. No doubt, Jerrod had not been pleasant with her. Jerrod had a short temper on a good day, a
BenI shook my head. “You’re not letting me do anything. And you’re not going to let her do anything, either. We’re both adults, and we can make our own decisions. She’s your little sister, but she’s far from being a baby. She’s twenty-five. Or did you forget she’s not in high school anymore?”“Would it have made a difference to you?” Jerrod asked.“Fuck you, man,” I said. “You know this has nothing to do with her age. I know you’re pissed off, but you don’t have to be such a dick about.”Jerrod’s arm shot out, closing the gap between us as he grabbed me by the shirt. He pulled me closer. If it weren’t for the space between us, he would have been right in my face.“It’s my sister, Ben.”“I know,” I said. I wasn’t going to lose my shit. I didn’t want us to come to blows. We had fought before, but it had never been a full-on fight. This time, we wouldn’t stop. If it came to blows now, we would fight until one of us put the other down. I didn’t want to do that to my best friend.When I d