Free A Love Like This by Kahlen Aymes

was six hours
later in Barcelona and so the jet lag was bound to be an issue. If
I slept now I would be awake when Ryan finally came home around two
in the morning. Yes… this was a good idea.
     

    I peeled the latex gloves off as I left the
examining room. It had been a hellaciously busy day and it was only
dinner time. I looked longingly at the clock. I’d been on for
almost twelve hours and still had eight more to go.
    I was excited when Julia told me that she
was coming home three days early, but I’d carefully arranged my
schedule with the other residents and the attending so that I’d be
off on Sunday, the day after she was supposed to arrive.
    “Jane,” I spoke to one of the nurses, “I’m
going to take a break for a few minutes. My wife is getting back
from Spain and I need to see if she called. I’ll be right
back.”
    “Sure, Ryan.” The pretty blonde smiled at
me. She was a very good nurse, competent and efficient; two traits
extremely important to work in emergency medicine. I could count on
her to be steady and focused. She didn’t get rattled like some of
the others. A few were so scattered, I wondered how in the hell
they ever made it through school.
    “Page me if I’m needed.” She nodded and I
rushed to the physician’s lounge so I could retrieve my phone from
my locker. I rubbed the back of my neck as I walked down the
sterile hallway, the white floor shining in the bright florescent
light. “Uhhh…” I sighed as I pushed the door open.
    It was a large room with lockers on one wall
and a few tables with counters, a refrigerator, cupboards and a
microwave on the opposite side. There was a television and a few
recliners on one end and a door leading into a couple of small
rooms with cots where the residents could rest when we were on
call. I sometimes felt like I spent more time in these rooms than
in my own apartment.
    Caleb Montgomery, one of the other
residents, was coming out of a sleeping room. He was a small kid,
almost scrawny with red-rimmed eyes and hunched shoulders, easily
six inches shorter than me. He was third year, and even though two
years my senior, he seemed younger, somehow. He was a genuinely
nice guy and we became fast friends when I offered to share some of
Julia’s cheesecake a couple of months back.
    “Hey, Ryan. How long you been on?”
    I continued my walk to my locker. “A little
more than twelve hours. You?”
    “Just ten. I have a couple more then I’m
outta here. Do you have any of Julia’s deliciousness with you?”
Caleb asked with a smirk.
    I smiled as I fumbled with the padlock. “Not
today. She’s been in Spain all week. I haven’t seen her.”
    “Spain, huh?”
    I flipped my phone open and saw a text from
her. She’d paged me earlier, but I couldn’t get to my phone to call
her back.
     
    I’m back in town. Cluster at the office.
AGAIN. Going straight there from JFK. Home later. Can’t wait to see
your handsome face. Love you, BB. XXOOXX!
     
    I sighed and then registered Caleb’s words.
“Yeah. She was working on a shoot in Gibraltar and Barcelona.”
    “Sounds like a rough gig.”
    “It can be. Coordinating our schedules can
be murder.” He made no move to leave so I decided to go into one of
the sleeping rooms to call her. “Hey, man, I need to call Julia.
Will you excuse me?”
    He smirked at me. “Sure, I understand. Does
she look as good as she cooks?” I laughed and went back to the
locker. I pulled out my wallet, flipping it open to the photo just
on the inside and handed it to him. It was the close up of her
outside of Harvard that Mike had taken of just her face, veil and
flowers. Caleb’s appreciation was apparent in the low whistle that
came out.
    “Wow. She’s a beauty.”
    I just smiled and took the wallet back when
he was finished. “Thanks, I have to agree.” He moved past me to
leave the room and I continued toward one of the sleeping rooms to
place the call. The light was low, only a small built-in fixture
strip