"we were. and then we weren't."
a chance meeting.
a whirlwind romance.
a life changing trade.
a broken heart.
a tale of love, loss, forgiving, and forgetting.
Jamie Oleksiak + Greer Holden
{lowercase intended}
Incoming call, nurse's station three, incoming call, nurse's station three.
The phone clipped to the waistband of my scrub pants continues to bark as I attempt to untangle my patient's IV line Rubik's cube. "Ugh, what now?" Grumbling under my breath I wrangle the phone free from my pants, press the green button, and wedge the device between my shoulder and ear. "Yeah, this is Greer?"
"Hey, G, it's Megan. Sorry to interrupt you, but I just wanted to let you know that you have a delivery up at Station 3."
A delivery? I didn't order out for lunch, so whatever it is has to be addressed to the wrong person. "Umm, okay, I'll be up in a few. I'm in the back hall right now."
Hanging up I get back to untangling the lines as the little girl lying in the bed below smiles up at me. "Miss Greer, did you get a present?"
"I guess I did Josie, what do you think it is?"
She ponders as I finally mange to untangle the three lines and start the correct one. "I think it's donuts. You like donuts a lot."
Well, she's not wrong. I'm even wearing my finest pair of donut compression socks today to prove it. But something tells me the surprise isn't donuts. "Well, I'll be sure to share if it is, okay? And I'll be back later, push your button if you need anything, Jos."
Closing Josie's door I begin my walk up from to Nurse's Station #3. As I round the corner I'm greeted with the chatter of a handful of my co-workers crowded around the unit secretary's desk. "Hey ya'll, what's going on up here?"
The crowd opens up and I can see now that the delivery Megan was talking about is definitely not donuts. Instead laying on the desk is a bouquet of sunflowers wrapped in brown kraft paper. They're beautiful and the only person I can think of that would be sending me flowers is my dad.
Maybe he's trying to soften the blow that he's deploying?
"So, who's the boy, G?" Jade asks waggling her eyebrows as I get close enough now to pick up the flowers.
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There's a sticker on the paper revealing that they're from a local flower truck and a note stuck in the seam of the wrapper. "Well, I thought my dad. But these are local, so I, I don't know who they're from."
Turning the card over I'm shocked to see unfamiliar chicken scratch scrawled across the note.
Greer,
These reminded me of you and the pins on your badge. I really enjoyed meeting you and I was hoping we could grab that coffee sometime? If you're interested here's my number, 892-287-6189. - 5
Jamie. Jamie Oleksiak who walked off my unit 2 days ago had sent me flowers. Beautiful flowers with his number attached.
