My Soulmate is Not My Type

Chapter 5: Assured

We finally make it to the hospital and Jae pulls up to the entrance. He goes inside to get a wheelchair and help to get me out of the car. I fumble to get my seatbelt off as Jae returns with a tall, lanky man in pale blue scrubs. Jae pushes the wheelchair up to my side and opens the door. The nurse, whose name I see is Aiden Lee, kneels beside me and looks at my ankle. He presses genly around the swollen area and I notice that his arms are more toned than I had thought. He was skinny, but there may be some muscle there.

He smiles up at me and the way his eyes shine brings me instant comfort. I smile back and allow him and Jae to manuver me out of the car, supporting most of my weight between them, and onto the wheelchair. He takes the handles from Jae and together we go into the emergency department. I hear the sound of Jae’s engine pulling off and I turn to see his car heading for the guest parking garage.

“Don’t worry. You’re in good hands.” Mr. Lee whispers to me and I look to see that same smile on his face.

“I can see that.” I reply and he wheels me up to the admittance desk. The admittance clerk is an older woman who has clearly had some kind of botox. Her skin is too tight around her mouth so when she smiles I imagine I hear the skin cracking with the effort. “Welcome to Mercy General. Have you been a patient here before?”

“No. This is my first time.” I answer. She flips through several manilla folders at her side and pulls out more paperwork than I see in a typical working day. She clips the stack onto a clipboard and hands it to me. “Fill this out and make sure you have your license and insurance card with you. Once you’re done, we’ll get you seen about.”

“Thanks, Nancy.” Nurse Lee says and wheels me to the sitting area. He locks the wheels of my chair and kneels beside me. “It’ll take a while for them to get you into a room, so just try to make yourself as comfortable as you can.”

‘Thank you, Nurse Lee. I appreciate your help.” He gives me another grin before leaving the waiting area. I fill out my paperwork as best as I can. I don’t go to doctors unless it’s absolutely necessary. I don’t have diabetes, thank goodness, or any other health problems. I’m not allergic to any medicines, so on and so forth. By the time I finish filling out the forms, the sun is sinking out of the windows. The waiting room is still packed with people coughing up their lungs, complaining about the wait, or being sneezing into clumps of tissue paper. One guy looked as though he were bleeding from his stomach and he slumps in his chair only to jolt awake again. If he hasn’t gone to the back yet, there was no chance in hell I would see a doctor before dawn.

I unlock the wheels and adjust my purse on top of the paperwork so I can wheel myself back to the admittance desk. I barely move before I feel myself being pushed forward. I turn and see Jae behind me, that same look of annoyance firmly on his face. We get to the desk and I hand Nancy the clipboard. Her grin is wider as she looks at Jae and tucks her bottle blonde hair behind her ear.

“You have such a handsome husband.” She says.

“Oh, he’s not my…” I begin quickly.

“Like hell I’m her husband!” Jae interjects loudly. The waiting room gets silent for a split second and I swallow past the lump in my throat. Jae stands beside me and puts his arms on the desk, giving Nance his most charming, business smile. “Listen, Beautiful, we work in a very demanding industry, so we can’t afford to wait around here all day. Think there’s something you can do to speed things along for me?” He brushes her wrinkled hand seductively and I swear she shivers hard enough to loosen her skin again.

She composes herself and teases the top of his hand whispering, “I’ll see what I can do for you.” I had managed to fish my ID and insurance card out of my wallet by the time the flirting and exchanging of numbers were done. She makes a quick copy of both, before handing them back to me.

Jae wheels me back to the waiting area and takes the seat beside me. He undoes his third button and leans back against the seat sighing. He crosses his leg at the ankle and proceeds to scrolling on his phone. I take my own phone out of my purse and begin playing Phase10. I am zoned into the game until Jae shifts beside me and pulls me back to my situation. People rush in and out of the ER, names are called every two or three hours, but once several folks are either wheeled or walked back, more people come in. The sun steadily vanishes and night takes over. Jae curses and goes up to Nancy for the fourth time. They talk quietly for a moment, Nancy giggles at whatever Jae is saying. After a few moments, Jae returns to his seat. Not even ten minutes later, my name is called.

Jae pushes me towards the automatic swinging doors and we follow a beautiful nurse witht ebony skin, rich blue eyes, and medium length brown and black hair to a small room with only a single curtain for privacy. Jae is quick to strike up a conversation with her and she continues to look over my chart, completely oblivious to his flirting. After a few more moments of Jae asking her if she was interested in being a model, the woman looks at me and gives the first smile since she walked us through.

“That chair must be uncomfortable. Let me help you on the bed.” She pushes past Jae and I am shocked at her strength as she helps me up smoothly from the chair and sits me on the bed. Jae takes the single chair in the corner and remains silent. The nurse, whose name is Layla, asks me about my pain level as she moves my foot in different directions. It’s a ten all around and she notates that on the chart.

“It could be anything from a hairline fracture, to a simple sprain. We’ll know after an xray.” She pulls the tiny computer from the wall and begins typing away at it. She takes my blood pressure, blood sugar, and oxygen levels, notating them all as the numbers pop up. “Okay, so for this next part of the examination, I’ll need your escort to leave.”

“Excuse me?” Jae says outraged.

“You’re excused.” I turn and see Nurse Lee enter the room. He fixes Jae with a not too friendly stare and Jae rises to his feet. They glare at each other for a moment then Jae says something to him in Korean. Nurse Lee laughs and responds. The words sound aggressive and I can feel the tension rising in the room.

After a few more words from Jae, Nurse Lee begins speaking in English, “It’s only natural that an unrelated party not be present when nurses and doctors ask the patient questions.”

“What the hell makes you think I’m an ‘unrelated party’?” Jae retorts.

“You were pretty vocal about the fact that you weren’t her husband. You don’t seem to be her boyfriend. I don’t think you’re blood related, nor do you seem to be her friend. Therefore, you are an unrelated party and have to leave.” Nurse Lee folds his arms over his chest and I can see the muscles jumping in his arms. The word sinwey comes to mind.

Jae turns his glare to me and I flinch slightly, “Do you want me to leave?”

I hesitate for a moment looking from him to Nurse Lee and Nurse Layla. After few seconds of deliberation I nod, “Yes. Please wait for me in the waiting room.”

Jae’s eyes blaze with anger and disbelief. He takes a step towards me and Nurse Lee blocks his path, “Surely, you aren’t thinking of striking a patient.” His voice is low, dangerous.

Jae glares into his eyes, “What the f**k do you take me for? I don’t make a habit of hitting women, punk.”

“Could have fooled me.” Nurse Lee responds cooly.

Jae clenches and unclenches his fist. He takes a deep breath in and lets it out slowly clenching the bridge of his nose with two fingers. The tension leaves his body and he looks at me around Nurse Lee, the anger still in his eyes. “I’ll leave, but find your own damn way home. I’ve wasted my whole f*****g day on you. I’m done.” He storms out of the room, ripping the curtain away with such force a few rungs come loose. My heart is thudding in my chest and I force back the tears that threaten to break free. I know Jae wouldn’t have hit me, but these people don’t know that. Jae is very standoffish and hates being told what to do. I’ve been in more than a few meetings to know how his temper flares when he doesn’t agree with something. I know that and I still asked him to leave.

A gentle hand touches my shoulder and I look up into Nurse Lee’s eyes. There is still a hint of heat there, but the expression was gentle. “Are you okay?”

I nod not trusting my voice not to shake. Nurse Layla smiles comfortingly at me and the tension in the room eases away. She asks a few follow up questions, including the one I dread the most. “How much do you think you weigh?”

“287…” I mumble.

“Pardon?” Layla asks.

I clear my throat, “287. I think.”

“We’re going to take your weight just to make sure. It’ll be uncomfortable, just put as little pressure on your foot as possible.” I groan and they both give tiny laughs as they help me to my feet once again. They walk me out to a small weigh room across the hall and I stand as best as I can on the scale. I hold my breath as the numbers tick higher and higher. Finally settling on 272. I yelp in shock.

“See? That isn’t so bad is it?” Nurse Lee says. I am beaming by the time we make it back to the room. I had been doing a bit of dieting, but I didn’t think it was working. I sit on the bed feeling pretty good about myself and Nurse Layla tells me they have scheduled me for an xray. Nurse Lee tells me the procedure and says it should only take about ten minutes.

They leave and I lay there feeling giddy about my little ten plus pounds of weight loss. It isn’t long before they are back wheeling in a small camera-like machine. I had seen that same thing at my dentist office. The process was easy. They covered me with a heavy blanket, dimmed the lights, and snapped several pictures of my foot. They went around three times, getting my foot at all angles. After about ten minutes, they turned the lights back on.

“Easy as pie, right.” Layla says as she removes the blanket from my torso. “Now, a doctor will be in to take a look at these images and we can decide where to go from there. Until then, just relax and feel free to watch TV.” She hands me a remote covered in plastic and they both leave the room. I flip the TV on to a random game show and scroll through my phone to find someone willing to come pick me up. Despite falling in front of my crush, possibly breaking my foot, and blowing my ride I still managed to feel assured about the rest of my night.