Warmness on the Soul

Gracie clocked off work not long after her chat with Zacky. She was going out for something to eat with her girls and then home. To lie in her pyjamas, pig out on popcorn and watch some movies with her cat, Geoffrey, she was off the next day you see.

She said goodbye to the rest of the nurses and Dr Gordon and headed out to her car. Her black Honda Civic (a graduation from med school present from her father) was parked where she had left it this morning. Where she left it every morning, in the staff car park, to the rear right. She liked parking further back, her reasoning behind this? Well, the further away she was from the hospital, the less, chance there would be of someone parking next to her, therefore the less chance there was of her car getting scratched. However, there was always one car, that just had to park beside her, it never failed. She drove home relatively quickly, considering the traffic at rush hour, and hopped out of her car, unlocking her house and getting in just in time to catch her phone from ringing off.

“Hey girlie,” her friend Roxanne said on the other line, “We still on for dinner tonight? I already called Maria, she can‘t make it.”

“Yeah, sure, I’m just going to have a quick shower, meet you at the restaurant in like forty-five?” Grace asked, taking her coat, bag and shoes off, going into the kitchen to feed her cat, all the while thinking about the Sanders’. Roxanne agreed, and hung up.

After her shower, Grace got dressed, grabbed her purse, keys and phone and bolted it out the door, she was going to be late at this rate. Why was she never on time?

She took off for the restaurant, thanking god that it was only a ten minute drive. Parking her car in a fairly secluded spot (although she knew there was no point, there was always someone who had to park beside her) she gathered her bearings and ran into the building, “Yes, ladies and gentleman Gracie Reynolds is late, as usual,” Roxanne laughed.

“Shut up Rox, you know I’m never on time…” she tried to say with as much enthusiasm as she normally would, but she still had Mrs Sanders’ on her mind, she felt bad for her husband, and her boys. It wasn’t like her to get so caught up in someone else’s life, especially a patient, but she couldn’t help it, there was something about them, something… familiar.

“Grace? Graaaaace? Gracie!” Roxanne was trying to get her attention, “The waiter is asking what you’d like,”

“Oh, right, um… I’ll have the pasta on the specials menu, thanks,” the waiter nodded.

“Gees, what’s wrong with you today?”

“Did you hear about the car crash earlier this morning?” when Roxanne nodded she carried on, “Well, I can’t actually talk about it, patient confidentiality and all that, but I’m one of the victim’s nurse, she was pregnant Rox. Her husband’s distraught, I feel bad for them, you know?”

“I know babe, but they’re doing all they can right?” Grace nodded and started to tuck into her dinner, as the waiter had brought it over. “So, what do you have planned for tonight m’dear?” Roxanne asked over dinner.

“Oh, Roxie, you know me, saving the world, the usual,” she laughed.

“Night in with the cat I take it?”

“Of course, he’s my soul mate, you know that.”

“Still off men I take it,” Grace nodded, she had recently broken up with her long-time boyfriend, who she’d met in college. He’d cheated, numerous times. So now, it was just her, and Geoffrey of course.

They finished their meal and sat talking for a while, the coffee flowing, that was Gracie’s only vice. Coffee, it was her poison. They paid the bill and went outside to their cars, and yes, there was a car parked beside her, it never failed.

“Your place or mine tomorrow?” she asked.

“I can’t tomorrow sugar, I,” she emphasised the ‘I’, “have a date,” she said winking, “You know, you should really get back in the dating seen too you know, fall off the horse you get back on and all that. You know who would be great for you…” Grace just nodded tuning her out, Roxie had tried to set her up numerous times, each ‘compatible male’ failed miserably. She went on dates to humour Roxie, not because she wanted a boyfriend. Her job took up all her time, even though she didn’t want to be one of those people who worked all their life and then ended up alone, with a lot of cats and no friends. She wasn’t the crazy cat lady, Maria was.

So she got home and snuggled up on the couch with Geoffrey, at the risk of being a crazy cat lady, watching ‘Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas’ (it had to be one of her favourite films), when her pager rang. She knew a day off tomorrow was too good to be true.