The Nurse's Station

He hopped into the room shirtless and with a swollen foot, still clutching a half-empty bottle of Heineken beer. I was at work and he was on vacation. He said his name was Ruben Van den Berg, and he sat on the bed, putting the swollen foot up beside him. He looked at me, smiled, and asked, “Be honest, how many of these did you ever see come in here?”

“Lots and lots, I’ve lost count, that is, if you are referring to tourists,”

He tilted his head back to drain the bottle, and with an eyebrow raised he examined me from head to toe through the corner of his eye.

I rolled my eyes, thinking, “Here we go again, another drunken bout of overconfidence.”

Pushing my hands into a pair of sterile gloves I pulled my chair closer to him to examine his injury, almost mistaking the thing stretching from his toes up to his ankle for an elaborate tattoo.

 To give him a boost I stroked his ego, “People with jelly fish stings like this don’t usually just hop in here smiling. You have nerves of steel Ruben.” but I really believed alcohol had something to do with the numbing of what should have been excruciating pain.

“Maybe I do,” he replied, and then our eyes met. His searched mine, trying to determine if I was impressed or not, until I touched his foot and he screamed like a little girl.

His confident smile quickly transitioned into a frown, “That hurt. Nurses are supposed to be gentle.”

“I was gentle, but you’re in luck. I’ll have to scrape the stingers out,”

He furrowed his brows, worried, “What! Isn’t there another way?” He asked, moving his foot further and further away from my hands on the bed. He probably wasn’t drunk but I believed he was half way there.

Watching a man turn into a boy like this is a nurse’s dream, but on the outside I tried to maintain my professionalism, “No, sorry. The longer I wait the more likely you are to die from the venom,”

 He looked at the foot and then at me and then at the foot and then at me and did this with ever increasing panic in his eyes until I couldn’t take it anymore and face planted in my hand in laughter, “I’m kidding. I’ll get some vinegar in the cupboard. That’ll help. What happened to ‘Brutus the Barber Beefcake’ who hopped in here earlier?”

“You don’t look like a ‘Brutus the Barber Beefcake’ type of woman, am I right?” he asked.

I sealed my lips to kill the conversation, but when I raised his leg to put it inside a plastic bucket and pour the vinegar on it, he leaned back, put his foot back on the bed, closed his eyes, folded his arms and with a grunt he said, “Ok, I’m Brutus. Go ahead and scrape them out.”

I scrutinized his handsomeness while he was lying on the bed: dark brown hair, a stubbly beard, he also had a dimple on is left cheek. I needed to treat him and get him out in a hurry before he opened his eyes and noticed me noticing him but when I paid attention, his eyes were, barely, but open. I tried to look away. It didn’t happen fast enough and I hoped that fumbling the attempt to open the bottle of vinegar with a bland stare would distract him from his train of thought.

Instead, he opened his eyes fully with half a smile saying, “I need someone to take care of me until I recover. My room number is 547.”

I poured the vinegar but shut the door on the conversation instantly, “You hopped in here all on your own with a jelly fish sting. I think you’ve gotten past the worst,”

“What if I have a bad allergic reaction or something…to the vinegar, that’ll be your fault, won’t it?”

 “I’ll give you a call in the morning. Don’t go back in the water, at least not for the next three days. You’ll be fine,”

He gave his personal phone number.

“I already have your room number,” I said, desperately trying not to make eye contact with him again. Unfortunately I did and that’s when I knew our encounter was just the beginning. When he hopped out the door smiling I sighed in relief.

In the morning I reluctantly called him in his room as promised, “Hello Ruben, its nurse Faith Williams calling. How are you feeling?”

“My foot hurts. My leg hurts. I have a fever now. It’s getting worse,” he said, but he didn’t sound worse to me.

“Can you come in Ruben? I might need to call the doctor,”

“No, no, don’t call the doctor, just come and see me,”

 “Ruben, I’ve done all I can for you, if you are getting worse, I have to call the doctor.”

 I thought the call got disconnected, and then I heard his voice again, “Ok, maybe it’s just a side effect of the vinegar.”

“I hardly think fever is a side effect of vinegar. I’m calling the doctor,”

“No, don’t do that, please. I’ll wait and see. Thanks for calling,” he said, and hung up.

The phone in the nurse’s station rang. At first I let it ring until it stopped. The second round of ringing I couldn’t ignore. If it was my manager calling, busy is an excuse I could use only once, so I answered, “Hello,”

“Hello nurse Williams, its Ruben. I’m coming in. My leg hurts so badly,”

“Ok Ruben, do you need assistance getting here?”

“Ah...no, I think I’ll manage,”

I called Doctor Liam Anderson and gladly gave him this dying patient before going on my lunch break, dashing out the door before Ruben arrived.

When I entered my station one hour later, Ruben greeted me in the waiting area with an outstretched foot plastered in hydrocortisone cream. I looked around for Doctor Anderson who in passing tapped me on the shoulder on his way out with a smile and said, “He’s all yours. Call me if you need anything.”

 I prepared my inner mother to be stuck with this man-child patient for the remainder of his holiday.

Another guest walked in before I could talk to Ruben, and Ruben’s eyes and mine met again before I walked away. It turns out the patient who came in also got stung by a jelly fish. This time I alerted Doctor Anderson by phone, and he alerted the manager who in turn alerted the life guards to warn the guests on the beach and in the water. By the time word got out five more patients hobbled in with stings.

Ruben sat in the waiting area until Doctor Anderson and I attended to all of them. Then Doctor Anderson got called away, leaving me alone with Ruben again. I completely ignored him, finding unimportant things to do. No one else braved the waters. They stayed by the pool or on the sand watching the sunset with their beloved, but Ruben stayed inside the nurse’s station, waiting for my shift to end. Occasionally I glanced at him, hoping he’d run out of patience but the watch on his wrist only gave him the extra minutes he yearned in my presence, and he waited, patiently.

I picked up my purse and closed the windows. I picked up my car keys and the keys to the front door and approached him. He seemed to be terrified of what I might say next, so I asked, “Now what?”

“Let me buy you dinner,” he said.

“No Ruben, a simple ‘thank you’ is enough, and I’ll help you get to your room,”

With folded arms and an outstretched leg, he refused to accept no for an answer.

“Ruben, you are not the first guest to try something like this, I’ve been working here for years,”

“Ok, so let me say thank you by buying you dinner,”

Every time I tried to shut him down it got harder and harder to do, and more doors opened for him to keep trying.

 “We have a ‘no shirt, no shoes, no service,’ policy in the dining room,”

“Is the boutique still open?” he asked, stretching out his hand which I held to help him stand.

He hopped beside me into the store and asked me to pick out a shirt for him.

 I found a black to compliment his dark hair and a pair of sandals to keep his ailing foot comfortable. To my surprise he sent me to the ladies department in search of a dress he intended to pay for. I refused the offer. It opened another door; he continuously measured me with his eyes and then hobbled away to find me a dress.

He came back ten minutes later with a jaw-dropping three hundred dollar satin Alfred Sung gown and I gasped, “Ruben I can’t accept this.”

“Try it. If it fits I’ll pay for it,”

I tried it on in the dressing room, because I couldn’t resist the allure of such a mesmerizing gown. It fit like a glove, and I was beautiful. I couldn’t let this go on. I fought tears and I wiped them away, not wanting them to catch the dress I couldn’t afford to pay for if I ruined it. I slipped out of it back into my slacks, hung it on the dressing room door, and dashed out the back door while he waited for me to come back.

I ran to my car and drove away, hoping he wouldn’t come out to look for me but I glimpsed him in the rear view mirror on my way out the gate. He was holding the dress.

 I hated myself, hoping I finally did enough to keep him away.

In the morning, Doctor Anderson greeted me at my station for the first time. A gift bag waited for me on my desk. Doc was at my desk with the bag between us. He glared at me over the top of his glasses, waiting for a reaction. I greeted Doctor Anderson the way a bag of ice would, with no warmth whatsoever, “Good morning Doc.”

Swiveling from side to side in my chair, he smiled, blushed, blinked a few times and then said, “Good morning Faith, one of our patients has expressed his gratitude for your caring attention, and personally delivered this for you this morning. His name is Doctor Ruben Van den Berg, room 547.”

 I picked my jaw up off the floor in a hurry, “Thanks Doc. I’ll give him a call later,” I said, and picking up the gift bag, I shoved it into the cabinet and locked it, hoping to forget about it and Doctor Ruben.

Doctor Anderson shrugged this nonchalant behavior off and exited with a message, “Well he left a note. It’s in the bag,” he said, and walked out.

Doctor Ruben Van den Berg didn’t impress me as much as he thought it would, but I gave him credit for all his effort. I ignored the ringing phone throughout the day, manager or not.

Curiosity led me to the cabinet and into the bag for the note which said ‘Have dinner with me,’ signed ‘Ruben’.

 To my astonishment Ruben strolled in right after, wearing a full tuxedo. He unbuttoned his jacket and sat. Our eyes met, again. Ruben was on a mission. I watched him adjust the bowtie under his neck a few times and brush any semblance of lint off his jacket. Every now and again I glanced his way to make sure he was still there watching me ignore him.

A few more patients came in and Ruben stayed, confidently and patiently inside the waiting area until another sunset passed him by.

 I picked up my purse and closed the windows. This time I sat beside him. I sighed and asked, “Ruben, how did you get your foot inside the shoe?”

He bit his lips and then replied with knitted brows, “Honestly, It hurts like hell.”

If I held out after that, it would have also been an act of cruelty. I explained the rules instead, “I can’t fraternize with guests on hotel property. If we have dinner, we’ll have to go somewhere else,”

“As long as you wear the dress, I’ll go wherever you take me,” he said.

Suddenly I cared about him, “The dress is breath-taking Ruben, I’ll let you see it but please, for your own sake tonight I’ll dress down. Let’s walk across the beach to a different hotel. Take your shoes off, remove all this formality, roll up your sleeves and your trousers and unbutton your shirt. We already missed the sunset.”

Whatever he used to get this far he ran out of it. Speechless and in uncharted waters he gladly obeyed.

We walked slowly. He draped his jacket over my shoulders—the excuse he needed to put his arm around me. I didn’t complain but reminded him, “Ruben, we are on a beach in the tropics.”

“Nobody out here cares what you’re wearing,” he said.

I relaxed and put my arm around him, leaning on him. He smelled incredible, like he took a bath in a Musk fragrance.

I confronted him about his mischief, “Why did you let me fool around with your jelly fish sting, you should’ve told me you’re a doctor.”

He cackled a bit. Resting his hand on my head, he gently pressed my head back onto his body, and said with a smirk, “I’m a podiatrist…but you are a wonderful nurse, by nature.”

We talked for hours walking for two miles, stopping to skip rocks on the water, holding hands, rocking in each other’s arms as if we were on honeymoon, and with my heart responding to every touch. I reluctantly woke up. A handsome doctor walking into my station sweeping me off my feet into the sunset was just too good to be true, but inevitably delay becomes fuel for desire. All the questions I should have asked I didn’t and sunrise was three hours away. I turned to face him, but he took the questions in my eyes as an invitation. I fought the questions back again, hoping to be wrong for once. He answered with intent, interlocking his fingers with mine, pulling me closer. I tried pulling my arms back. He slowly pulled them around his back with his, easily. I closed my eyes and his forehead touched mine. I opened my eyes trying to escape the intoxication, falling deeper into it when our noses touched. Flushed and breathless, I yanked my hand out of his and placed three fingers on his lips, but it was too late, kiss or not, I already gave him the answer he searched for.

I asked him, “Ruben, tell me the truth, before we go too far. What are you searching for out here?”

He held his head down and sighed. I knew it.

I asked him again, “Ruben what are you searching for? Be honest with me,”

“A new beginning,” he said, but refusing to hold his head up and look into my eyes the way he did before.

I gave him the opportunity to explain, because he evoked something in me I couldn’t deny. I held his chin up for him, and we made eye contact again. I searched his eyes for answers and found a man hungry for love but bound to another, and so I asked him, “Ruben you are married aren’t you?”

“I won’t be for much longer. Faith I’m sorry, I should have told you. I am legally separated,”

I backed away, devastated about being right again, but I let him see my tears because what we experienced in one night was too real and powerful, “I’m sorry Ruben, I can’t be the reason for your divorce. Goodbye.”

This time there were no rear view mirrors. I ran away from him. He called my name twice, but I refused to turn back because if I did, I would be running back into his arms.

When I got back I called in sick, locked myself in my quarters and cried the whole day. Doctor Anderson came to check on me and came with a message. When he knocked on the door I let him talk to me through it, “Faith, Doctor Van den Berg came today, he wants to see you,”

“I don’t want to see him Doc. Please ask him to leave me alone,”

“Faith, Doctor Van den Berg is a very good man. I know him personally. This is my fault. I should’ve told you,”

“This is why you don’t do stuff like this Doctor Anderson, now two people are hurt. Ruben is married, but I guess you already know, don’t you?”

“Faith, not everything is what it seems. All I can say is this: if you ever open your heart to someone, let it be someone like Ruben. I’ll leave you alone,”

Ruben came by the next day. I ignored him sitting in the waiting area, but he was serious. He waited until the end of the day, and watched me close the windows and pick up my purse and car keys. I walked up to him and he stood, “Faith, if you tell me right now that you believe it was real, I’ll go fix my life and come back for you,” he meant it, every word.

“Ruben, you could’ve told me you were a doctor and you didn’t. You could’ve told me you were married and you didn’t. Where does this end?”

“It ends with you Faith. Give me one chance, please,”

“Go and fix your life Ruben. Maybe if you do you’ll never come back for me,”

He promised he would come back for me, but it’s been three months since Doctor Ruben Van den Berg went home, and I’m starting to think, once again, I’m right.

THE END