Bound to Remember, a Paranormal Romance (Book 1 of the Spellbound Series) (2 page)

"It’s just like high school. Find an open one and you can keep whatever you want in it. Just don’t bring anything that smells," I said, scrunching up my nose. He said nothing, but nodded, and found one. He was so quiet it was almost scary.

"So what brings you to San Francisco?" I asked, trying to make small talk as he put his bag into the locker.

“
Why do you ask?” He looked up at me with a curious expression on his face. His question startled me and I wondered how something so simple could be considered too personal.

“
I’m sorry. I was just curious,” I replied with a shrug.

"I like the fog," he said nonchalantly.

I thought about that for a second. "Well, you’ve come to the right place. We have a lot of fog. Where are you originally from?"

"Excuse me?" He seemed confused by my question. I couldn’t help but notice that he’d avoided answering both questions directly.

"Where did you grow up?" I asked, sitting on the bench close to his new locker.

"I was raised in Delaware," he answered, turning away from me.

"Delaware, huh? I like that state. They have no sales tax.” I smiled. He said nothing. It was going to be like pulling teeth to have a descent conversation with him. I rolled my eyes as he turned toward me and closed his locker before sitting next to me on the bench.

"What about you, Dr. Hollander?” I looked up into his beautiful five o'clock-shadowed face and his mysterious eyes.

My face warmed and I diverted my eyes, "W-what about me? And remember it’s Toni."

"Where did you grow up, Toni?" he asked with an emphasis on my name.

"Oh, not far from here — in San Jose — but San Francisco is my home now. Why do you keep doing that?" I stared back at him as he watched me.

"What am I doing, Toni?" he moved away from me as his eyebrows furrowed together.

"Looking into my eyes like that!"

"I apologize if that bothers you,” he said somberly. “You look like someone I knew. But she died many years ago." His face contorted, and I felt a stab of guilt.

"I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to pry," I offered.

"Well, at least now you know," he said as we sat there quiet for a moment.

"So shall we finish our tour of the hospital?" I said. I stood up, and Ben did too. “You work the weekend night shift?” I asked, to change the subject.

"Friday to Tuesday, from eight to six."

"That’s my schedule too. You must not be married either," I said as I began to walk out of the locker room.

"What makes you say that?" he asked, touching my arm, genuinely puzzled.

“
Well, most of us that work this schedule are single," I reassured him.

"Is that your case as well?" he asked, keeping pace with me as we left the locker room.

"Yes, but I’m a third-year resident. I work five or six days most weeks. I don't see myself getting married anytime soon," I said with a shrug.

I continued the tour of the emergency floor. If you’ve seen one, you’ve seen them all. It’s the same triage, resuscitation area, operation rooms, and recovery rooms. Still, the tour took longer than I expected. Ben seemed to question everything, like this was his first time in a hospital. I disregarded that as this one being new to him. We ditched the busy E.R. for the cafeteria, were I answered most of his questions. We drank coffee and told each other stories about our ER lives. We were both all about keeping the patients alive even if it meant going to extreme measures. By five, he began to look anxious and ready to go.

"I guess we can end now. I’ll be here tomorrow. I’m not sure if you will be with me or another doctor, but if you need me just page me," I said, tapping my pager, a relic from the 1990’s.

"Toni, will you be leaving as well?" he asked.

"Soon. I have a patient that I want to check on personally," I said.

"I can stay. Do you mind if I come with you? I would like to meet this patient that I kept you from,” he said as I stood up to stretch.

"Are you sure? I don't want a crazed girlfriend coming after me for keeping you longer than usual."

"There is no crazed girlfriend as you put it." His mood changed with the topic, which, to me, meant he had something to hide. I leaned against the wall closest to where Ben sat in the cafeteria.

"Why no crazed girlfriend?"
I would be crazed
, I thought as I looked at Ben's thin frame with his black, short, messy hair, dark mysterious eyes, and dimples that only showed when he smiled.
I wouldn’t let him out of my sight.

"I had a girlfriend; she was not crazed. She was actually quite lovely, but she died some time ago and I have sworn off relationships since."

I gasped at the thought of the memory my questions had evoked. Dammit, I had to stop with the probing. But I couldn’t seem to help myself.

"That’s so sad, that your girlfriend died. What was her name?" I was more concerned with him swearing off relationships than I really was about the girlfriend.

"Catherine," Ben replied, and his smooth cool face disappeared as a sad frown took its place. I felt horrible as I looked at him, bent forward, and extended my arms to wrap them around his neck. Then I pulled away from him, not knowing the right thing to say. I mean I just forced my hug on him.

"Ben, I didn't mean—" Ben's long cold finger brushed my lips as goose bumps broke out over my body.

"Please, do not apologize; you are the first person that I have spoken to about this." He removed his finger from my lips as my heart began to flutter and my cheeks flushed.

"Well, at least let me take you to breakfast after we see my patient." I smiled and had a warm fuzzy feeling that seemed to not want to go away, and I didn't want it to either. I had never felt such bliss from the simple touch of a man, not even Kevin — and I’d thought I loved him. Ben didn’t respond; he just stood up and took my hand.

"Okay, let's go up then." We walked towards the elevators, where we stood waiting for the doors to open.

"Do you live nearby?" he asked.

"Close, but I can't really afford much with my student loans. Still, I need some place to sleep, so I do what I must.” I shrugged as we walked on the elevator he released my hand and I pressed the seventh-floor button. “What about you?"

"Have you ever heard of an area called Pacific Heights?"

All the blood drained from my face.
He’s not a nurse; he’s here to review me
. I pushed the button to stop the elevator and turned to look him in the eye.

"You live in Pacific Heights?”

“
Yes.” He must have sensed me tense up because he took a step back and towards the furthest corner.

I knew my next few questions could get me fired, but I needed to know. “Is this an evaluation? Did they send you to see if I would be a good sport about this tour?"

"I do not understand." He looked lost by my question.

"If you’re living in Pacific Heights, your salary can’t pay your rent. So I’m guessing that you must be here to review me." I folded my arms across my chest.

"No, I am not here to review you, Dr. Hollander. I live in Pacific Heights because that is where my friend’s home is located." His words calmed me, and I felt ashamed for calling him a spy.

"I'm sorry, I—" Before I could get another word out, he’d moved in front of me. I leaned against the wall of the elevator as I looked up at him and he down at me.

"Do not worry. There is a lot that you will not understand about me," he said, before taking a step back. I exhaled deeply like I was holding my breath when the elevator doors opened to the seventh floor. He must have somehow released the stop button without me noticing. I looked up at Ben as he was exiting the elevator, and, I regained my composure, followed him.

"PICU. Your patient is a critically ill child?" he asked.

"Yes, Dylan came into emergency with a stomachache that turned out to be a ruptured appendix. While in surgery, I found he had an enlarged liver that was later diagnosed as advanced leukemia." I stopped at the first door and I stood on my tiptoes to look through the window.

"He's asleep, so I'll just ask the charge nurse how he’s doing." I walked over to the nurse’s station. "Hey Jackie, how's my favorite patient?" I asked as I picked up Dylan’s chart to review it.

"Dylan is better — slowly but surely better. He starts chemo later this morning. But the real question is, who’s your sidekick?” she said with a smile. Jackie was the funniest and flirtiest nurse I knew. I rolled my eyes.

"Jackie, this is Benjamin Slaton, our new surgical night nurse," I said, looking back at Ben.

"Benjamin Slaton? THE Benjamin Slaton?" Jackie asked, eyeing Ben. I looked from her to him.

"I guess," I answered, since they both remained silent.

"Wow, it's an honor to meet you!" Jackie said, pulling him into a hug.

"Okay, what did I miss? Why are you hugging him?"

"You don't know who your sidekick is?"

"Apparently not!" I said, looking up at him. "Should I?"

"He’s the nurse that saved all those kids in that school bus crash down in Los Angeles a few weeks ago."

“
Is that true?” I questioned as he nodded and fidgeted with a pen.

Jackie began to gush more about Ben. I stood there for a second, looking into his face, before it hit me:
He was really Nurse Hero!
I had seen his picture on one of the news bulletins. A bus driver with eleven kids onboard had lost control on a rainy night coming home from a sporting event; the bus flipped over four times down an embankment, killing the driver and one kid instantly. Ben was passing by, saw the crash, and saved the ten that survived.

"It is you. Wow! I had no idea that I’ve been walking around with Nurse Hero," I said with a smile, before reexamining Dylan’s chart, partially to conceal what an idiot I felt like.

"Nurse Hero, mmm," Jackie said as she pulled him closer to her.

"Well, Jackie, you can find him in Emergency, Friday night to Tuesday morning on the graveyard shift. Please tell Dylan that I stopped by and said hi." I pulled Ben's arm to release the hold Jackie had on him, intending to make our way back to the elevator.

“
Will do, Dr. T, and see you around, Nurse Slaton.” She smiled and winked at Ben. He waved as we walked towards the elevator. I pushed the button to the elevator then turned to Ben.

"Why didn't you tell me? I thought everyone was looking at me like I was crazy all day when, in fact, they were looking at you, Nurse Hero." I folded my arms across my chest.

"I liked that you were unaware. That is why I left Los Angeles. Too much attention and I’m a private person. I just wanted to be a regular nurse again," he said sincerely.

The elevator doors opened as a high-pitched alarm went off. Startled we both turned and raced back towards the shrieking sound that came from the PICU.

The blaring sound sent a pain in my head and made my stomach churn as I saw nurses and doctors flood the doorway of Dylan’s room. I felt like I moved in slow motion compared to the speed of Ben. By the time, I made it to the doorway of the room I found Ben beginning a chest compression as a doctor pushed a steroid into Dylan’s IV. The flat lined sound buzzed vociferous in my ear as I grabbed a pair of latex gloves. I stepped next to Ben to take over the resuscitation process when the rhythmic beep of the machine started, prompting the alarm to silence.

“
You saved him!” I was breathless like I had just completed the marathon chest compression. Ben shook his head.

“
No, I just gave his chest a little push to help wake up his heart” Ben winked as he motioned his head to walk out of the overly crowded room.

“
But—how did you get there faster than I did?” I questioned.

“
You froze when you saw it was Dylan’s room.”

“
I froze? I never freeze, that was my patient. I would do everything I could to save him, again!” I vented. I was trying to convince myself that I didn’t shut down from panic and a high-pitched noise. I was used to these things.