Free Dream Walker by Shannan Sinclair

rounds.”
    “Okay, thanks.” Aislen started to push the cart away from the nurse station.
    “Oh! Before I forget,” said Rachel. “Troy was looking for you before his session started. He wanted to see if you could go with him to an appointment at A.R.C. I told him it was okay and that I’d cover for you as long as you were back by the end of my shift.”
    “Do you know what that’s about?”
    “He didn’t go into it with me. But, you know how he is, always trying to mentor you with your career,” said Rachel using her quote fingers around the word “mentor”.
    “Yeah, right,” said Aislen, slightly embarrassed.
    “I think he has a little more interest in you than career counseling...lucky girl.”
    “Okay, stop. It’s not like that,” Aislen said, flushing a bit at the insinuation.
    Troy Kellen was a fairly new therapist at Chrysalis. He was polite and professional, nothing but respectful to all the nurses and aides. He was completely guileless, without the enormous ego the nurses had come to expect from the other therapists and facility doctors. That alone scored him big points on the floor.
    It didn’t hurt that he was also cute as hell. Troy wasn’t hot in a bulky, brawny, sex-god way. He was tall, with the lean and sinewy physique of a swimmer. Unlike many guys nowadays, he didn’t appear to put too much effort into his appearance—no long hours at the gym, no overly styled hair or mani-pedis for him. He was casual and relaxed, wearing khaki Dockers, long sleeved shirts rolled up to the elbows, and no tie.
    But what made all the nurses practically swoon was the particular way he looked at you during a conversation—the steady gaze of his soft brown eyes that peeked out from beneath tousled, golden brown locks and the slight play of amusement on his lips. You could easily believe you were the only person in the world. He would listen attentively, respond with something insightful and interesting, then flash a warm smile that made you just want to grab his face and plant a huge, wet kiss on him.
    Not Aislen, of course. She couldn’t get distracted by cute. All the flitting and primping that occurred when Troy walked in the door was enough to make her gag. It was especially annoying because he seemed completely unaware that his mere presence caused such a stir with the ladies.
    Rachel’s comment was completely ridiculous. Yes, Troy had been very helpful to Aislen, providing her with information and encouragement about the wide variety of career paths she could take after graduation. During conversations in the break room and during quiet moments in the evening when residents had settled down for the night, Troy would hang out and do that thing that got the ladies’ panties damp—asking questions about her life and her goals, what had motivated her to become a nurse, what she liked about working in psychiatric care; and he listened to her answers as if he actually gave a shit.
    Aislen had worked for Chrysalis Treatment and Residential Facility for four years. After slogging through a semester at the junior college with absolutely no idea of what she wanted to do with her life, she landed a job here as a nursing aide. The busy pace, wide variety of tasks, and satisfaction she got from helping her patients grew on her and she became an LVN. When she decided to continue with school and work on becoming an RN she thought the hard part was done. She had expected things to get easier once she made the decision about what to do with her life, but there were so many different avenues—specialties and advanced degrees available—she found herself even more overwhelmed now that she was nearing the end of her program.
    Troy had been encouraging Aislen to pursue an advanced nursing degree in psychology, or her master’s degree, or even work toward becoming a nurse practitioner. It would have been easier for Aislen to just be satisfied with her achievement and settle into a secure career. But Troy touched on