Need Someone | [Complete]

Chapter 21: Second Chances

Two days ago marked six months since Ziggy left. He hadn't called me. He hadn't answered my call either. I knew I shouldn't have let it bother me, but it still did.

I had been working hard to let go by focusing on repairing what I actually had—my job, my reputation, my friends. I finally stopped ignoring Rebecca's calls and allowed her to apologize. Without her or Ziggy, I had no other friends here. Now that I didn't have Ziggy, it was more of a reason to forgive her.

I checked on my newest patient, Mary, who was still under the watchful eye of Theresa. She was entertaining, to say the least, but she used her sense of humor to hide her pain. She was here to receive a new fibromyalgia treatment, but would lie about her pain levels until she was literally blue in the face. Theresa put me on her case knowing I would be the only one who could get her to talk. I figured her out quickly.

"If you can't see it," she flipped the ace of spades between the fingers of one hand. "It doesn't mean it doesn't exist. Or does it?" She flipped the card back around in her fingertips and it was now a queen of hearts.

I gasped with surprise, snatching the card from her. "Are you fucking serious?" I'm such a sucker for inexplicable things like magic tricks. Mary laughed, looking like a kitten with her small features and stark black pixie cut. "You have to teach me how you do this. It's driving me insane."

"A magician never tells reveals her secrets." Her smile had a charming feline quality to it—something about the ironic pointiness of her canines. "But . . . if you go on a date with me I'll make an exception."

I laughed. Why does this keep happening to me? "You're my patient, Mary. That would be inappropriate." That reasoning would work from now on, I would make sure of it.

She gave me a playful frown. "Fine. You're way out of my league, but I'd hate myself if I didn't try."

"I would absolutely be in your league if I wasn't reffing the game," I joked. She laughed.

Her pale cheeks flushed as she started to say something else. She stopped when she became distracted by something in the hall behind me. "What the hell is that?"

I looked over my shoulder at what seemed to be a colorful cloud approaching the nurse's station. I froze when I saw what it really was. It was Ziggy and he was holding a vase of flowers as big as he was.

A smile spread across my face. "That is a long story," I said to Mary, returning my focus to what I was supposed to be doing. "Do you have any pain at all?"

"Nope."

"Really? Give me a number," I pointed to the chart we modified for her. A level four was her level one.

"Two."

"Thank you," I said, standing from her bed. I glanced back into the hall again. "I'll be back to check on you later."

"Enjoy the flowers," she said as I left.

When I walked out of her room, my heart pounded nervously.

Ziggy leaned onto the desk, schmoozing Denise and Tiffany. I stood and stared.

He was barely recognizable. His smile bright and wide, his hair long again and undyed. Though it was still styled in that hipster undercut, something about the dark brown made him look taller, darker, and made his hazel eyes pop. With his elbows on the counter, his biceps flexed and his shirt hung tight as his middle. He looked strong—muscular again—his body filling out his clothes nicely. Too nicely.

"Ziggy." His name left my lips like a gasp.

He turned to me and smiled. "Nurse Brennan."

He looked like a completely different person than the last time I saw him. Even though he had always been handsome, I had forgotten how hot he was when we first met. He gave me a knowing look.