Total pages in book: 99
Estimated words: 92062 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 460(@200wpm)___ 368(@250wpm)___ 307(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 92062 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 460(@200wpm)___ 368(@250wpm)___ 307(@300wpm)
My brother was getting married.
At Christmas no less.
The holiday I hated the most.
Let me list all the reasons why this will be the worst season yet:
One would be my luggage not arriving.
Two would be being told I had to find somewhere else to sleep since my room was occupied by family members.
Oh, and now I am forced to stay with my brother's best friend.
The man who broke my heart seven years ago.
Nate
My best friend was getting married.
I was happy for him.
Until I had to offer his sister my spare bedroom.
It'd be fine, two weeks and she'd be out of my hair.
But the thing with Elizabeth was that she pushed every single button I have.
She gets under my skin in the best ways.
All we have to do is survive the wedding and the holiday.
Then she'll be gone yet again.
Unless maybe, just maybe, my wish of having her comes true
*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************
CHAPTER 1
Elizabeth
SO THIS IS CHRISTMAS
November 2nd
“So this is Christmas.” I roll my eyes when I walk into the doctor’s lounge and hear the soft sound of the music coming out of the radio.
“Ugh,” I grunt, looking over at Ty, my coworker who’s sitting at the table, scrolling on his phone while he eats his breakfast bowl. “Isn’t it a bit early for this?” I point to where the music is coming from, just in case he didn’t know what I was talking about.
“It’s perfectly okay for Christmas music to be playing at the beginning of November,” he says, his Australian accent annunciating “ah” instead of “er.” “It’s kind of a global rule.”
“Who said this?” I ask, taking off my white doctor coat and opening my locker. “I want to know their actual names and not something you just made up.”
“Society,” he informs me and I roll my eyes as I hang up the jacket before grabbing my big tote bag. “I’m pretty sure society as a whole.”
I put the bag over my shoulder. “We should have a rule made where there should be no Christmas music playing in the common areas until the first of December. Or if we even want to tempt fate, dare I say, two weeks before Christmas. Just enough time for us to not be sick of it.”
“As soon as Halloween is done, it’s fair game.” He grabs a forkful of eggs, shoveling them in his mouth.
“How can you even think Christmas when it’s hot outside? When you think of Christmas, you think snow and cold.” After living in Australia for the past seven years, I’m still not used to it being summer during Christmas celebrations.
“That’s just in movies.” He winks at me, and if we didn’t work together, I might maybe, just maybe, think of hooking up with him. But I’ve seen it time and time again, nurses and doctors getting involved with each other and the breakup is felt through the whole department. It’s just too small a circle. So, I’ve made it a strict rule that I will never get involved with someone I work with. Not a nurse, not a doctor, not anyone who I will be seeing more than once in my workspace.
“Are you the kind of person who puts their tree up the second week of December and then takes it down the day after Christmas?”
“Pfft.” I fold my arms over my chest, shaking my head. “As if I put up a tree!” I shake my head. “I’m the type of person who likes to enjoy life and I value my time, so I do not even try to attempt to put up a tree,” I tell him. “Besides, for the last five years I’ve done nothing but work the whole two weeks around Christmas and then I take a glorious month off.” I exhale. “You should try it.”
“I love Christmas,” he says. “I can’t ever imagine not being able to have Christmas dinner with my family.”
“I’m feeling nauseous,” I tell him, making fun of him and putting my hand to my stomach. “I’m tired, so I’m going to head out, and you can enjoy your breakfast”—I point to the bowl—“and all things Christmas.” I hold up my hand to the sound of the music playing. “I think my ears are going to start bleeding soon.” I stick my hands over my ears, making him chuckle, as I walk out of the doctors’ lounge and notice the nurses changing shifts.
The whiteboard that hangs right in front of the nurses’ station is being tended to by Gayle, the head nurse in charge during the 8:00 p.m.-to-8:00 a.m. shift. She’s making sure she writes all the notes for the day nurse who is coming in to relieve her. “I’m off,” I tell Gayle, and she looks over her shoulder at me. Her black scrubs have prints of colorful Band-Aids all over them.
“See you tonight,” she replies and I nod my head.
“Just so you can be ready and prepared”—she moves the paper in her hand toward me—“my Christmas scrubs are coming out.”
I groan. “I might have to take this up with HR,” I stop and tell her and she just smirks at me. “I don’t know if I can work in these conditions.”
“I’m just giving you the heads-up so you can properly prepare yourself.”
“I’m going home right now and getting scrubs that are the color of the Grinch.”
She tosses her head back and a bark of laughter comes out of her, making her light-blonde bob move just a touch. “That will look like snot,” she states. “Highly do not recommend.” She smiles. “But I don’t know what the cool kids are wearing these days. You do you.”
“Great,” I mumble as I walk out of the swinging doors of the emergency room and head for the front of the hospital. The hustle and bustle of morning has people arriving as I head out after my twelve-hour shift. Nothing like walking out into the bright hot sun after spending the night going crazy in the darkness that is the emergency room night shift. I squint just a bit as I head over to the side of the parking lot where the staff parks.