Alex was working at the hospital on a Tuesday morning when he got a text from his girlfriend, Angela-

Hey Alex, I think we should call it

What do you mean?

Its not working out for us

Alex’s heart sank-

Like, break up?

He waited for Angela’s answer with bated breath- No, it’s not real!

Yeah, sorry...

Alex tried to think of a response, but his mind was blank, his eyes still glued to the screen.

“Hey Alex, quit sexting your girl and help me move the patient in two-oh-five” came an aggressive-sounding voice. Alex looked up and saw that John from transportation was addressing him. The sting of his words only lasted a moment before his attention returned to his phone.

“C’mon man” John said. He reiterated his need with a sideways tilt of his head toward the room in question. It only took John another second to realize that something was wrong...

“What’s wrong?” he asked, walking over to Alex in the hallway.

“Angela just broke up with me”, Alex said simply.

“Oh, shit, really?” John said. His face instantly softened.

“Yeah, just like that” Alex replied.

“Oh, I’m sorry man. How long were you two together?”

“6 months...” Alex couldn’t think of anything else to say at the moment.

“And she broke up by text? That’s cold, dude” John sympathized. Alex didn’t respond immediately-

Did I do something wrong? Was it about that fight we had last week? I thought it was going so well!

“Don’t worry, man, you’ll get over her. Plenty of fish in the sea, right? You’ll find someone in no time”

“Yeah” he mumbled. But Alex knew that wasn’t him- he was never the type to go out and find some girl to take home, like his other friends did. He wanted a real connection, and was willing to wait for the right girl- I thought it was her.

bzz bzz

Alex instinctively looked down at his phone-

I’ll leave your stuff by your apartment

“C’mon, let’s get your shift done. Then you can worry about that shit later” John offered. Alex knew he was right, so he nodded and followed John into Room 205.

Alex thought a lot about his relationship with Angela during the rest of his shift- Should I call her? Ask her what went wrong? He tried to play the conversations in his head, but they always wound up with her hanging up on him.

Alex sniffed, feeling the slight tingle in his nose that meant he was about to cry-

Was I not attentive enough?

Alex thought about all the times he had tried to talk to Angela about her feelings. Angela seemed to really enjoy how much he was into her problems- and Alex just figured it was expected from a boyfriend.

Too demanding?

Alex liked to go hiking and jogging, and knew that Angela wasn’t into that kind of stuff, so he cut down on his outside exercises to once a week. Since he was working 3 12-hour shifts in a row every week, he thought that having one day to recover and go outside wasn’t asking too much...

I’m too boring, Alex realized. He wasn’t into all the shows that other people seemed to enjoy- although he certainly tried to get into Angela’s shows. He wasn’t a sports fan, or a risk-taker, or anything cool like that. Just a loser, he thought.

An image of the Forever Alone meme came to his mind, bringing tears to his eyes. Yep, that’s me. Forever alone...

Sure enough, when Alex came home to his apartment complex that night, there was a box of his things right by the front door. He grabbed his things and brought them inside, trying to fight back his emotions.

Alex knew he could’ve opened that box and looked through all the things he had left at her place- a loaned t-shirt, a toothbrush, some pictures he had framed for her ... so many things, so many memories.

All gone. But Alex knew himself well enough not to open Angela’s Box, despite the curiosity of what she decided to give back, and what she kept.

Checking his phone before going to sleep, Alex knew he had to make one last try at their relationship-

_Please, just talk to me. I know you haven’t been very happy

these past few weeks, and I want to know how to make it

better. I still love you, and I want to be with you. Please

call me or text me- XOXO_

Alex waited for Angela’s response, but the messenger app didn’t show that Angela had read the text yet, so he went on Facebook and browsed his news feed to kill time.

It didn’t take long for him to try to look up Angela’s page, but he soon found out that she was no longer on his friends list, and that he didn’t have access to her profile.

Alex couldn’t fight the tears anymore, and just let go of his emotions. He sobbed for a good half hour before a text came back-

I don’t want to draw this out. There’s nothing that can be done

Please just leave me alone.

And just like that, Alex knew that it was truly over.

Alex went back to his job the next day, feeling like he was just going through the motions. His only motivation for work at this point was that he didn’t want to get fired...

But Alex was, in reality, a really good nurse, having graduated from the state-run school in the top 10% of his class a couple years ago. And the reason behind his excellent nursing skills was not only his smarts, but his heart as well- he gave some of his patients the compliments they needed to lift their mood, and he motivated other to walk in the hallway or participate in physical therapy as much as possible. Although he couldn’t please everyone, Alex was definitely one of the patient’s’ favorites on the general ward floor.

On his second day of three, Alex was feeling exhausted, and he knew it wasn’t just the killer 12 hour days this time. Fortunately for him, he was still 24 years old, so he could still function just as well as the older nurses, who were a bit slower, and the newer employees, who were still trying to learn the system.

“New patient for ya, Alex” said the heavier woman at the nurses station. Maureen was almost 50 years old, and her 23 years of experience at the hospital had only gained her the role of charge nurse for their floor. Although she was cantankerous and not people-friendly, she was still Alex’s boss.

“Patty’s full right now, and Yvonne has a student. Here ya go” she said, plopping the clipboard on the counter top. Alex took it and gave it a glance-

38 year old female presented with chest pain that started 5 hours prior to admission. Seen in the ER by Dr. Manu, and given aspirin, morphine, and nitroglycerin for chest pain. EKG given to cardiologist, who read it as ‘nonspecific t wave changes’”. Cardiologist recommended observation, with possible stress test for cardiomyopathy on discharge. Troponin negative x1, but patient will need serial Troponins x2 every few hours and another EKG tonight to watch for ST-elevation.

Sounds like I need to keep an eye out for her, Alex thought. Although chest pain was one of the most common presentations to the Emergency Department, it didn’t mean this one couldn’t take a turn for the worse-

I’ll have to let the lab know about those Troponin lab orders. Let’s see ... first one was at 2 pm ... so 6 and 10 should be fine ... and the overnight float gets here at 7, so I’ll have the EKG ordered at the same time as the second Troponin.

Past Medical History: Hypertension, Ovarian Cancer (remission), Anxiety, Depression, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder...

Well, the psych history would lean me towards a noncardiac source for chest pain, Alex wondered, but then again I’m only a lowly nurse, what do I know.

Past Surgical History: Tonsillectomy 1985, Appendectomy 2002, Salpingo-oophorectomy (bilateral) 2010, Breast augmentation 2015

Medication list: amlodipine 10 mg po daily, clonazepam 1 mg po q12h prn anxiety, diphenhydramine 25 mg po daily prn breasts, fluoxetine 40 mg po daily, fish oil 1000 mg po daily

5’9’’, 125 pounds. HR 82, bp 143/88.

Alex continued to read the labs, which were unremarkable.

I think I’ve got this patient figured out. Might need to be a little more reassuring, since she’s already had a run-in with cancer, probably back in 2010 when she had her ovaries and fallopian tubes removed. Transport should have her up in a few minutes.

Alex checked in on another of his patients before he spotted the transportation bed leaving room 212, his new patient. Clipboard in hand, he almost walked into the room without checking the name-

Tiffany Larson. Be extra nice, he told himself.

“Hello Miss Larson, how are you today?” Alex asked. The patient was in a two-patient room with the curtain divider pulled between the two beds. He didn’t know the other patient.

“I’m alright” Miss Larson said, sounding anxious. She put on a small smile. “Are you my nurse?” she asked.

“Yes, ma’am” Alex answered, cheerfully. “I’m Alex, and I’ll be keeping an eye on you for the rest of the shift.” Shouldn’t have said that, Alex realized, now it sounds like I’m waiting for something bad to happen to her.

“You seem pretty young to be a nurse” Miss Larson said, pushing herself up on the inclined bed.

It was then that Alex noticed that Miss Larson looked pretty good for a woman of 38 years- she looks more like 30, he thought. “Well, you look pretty young yourself, if I can say so” Alex said, smiling.

Miss Larson seemed to appreciate the compliment- “Thank you dear, you can compliment me anytime you’d like” she said with a laugh.

“Alrighty then, I’ll keep that in mind. Now if you’re ready Miss Larson-”

“Tiffany” she interrupted, “Call me Tiffany.” Boy, she has a nice smile.

“Sure thing, Tiffany. I just have to confirm some of this information with you, if you don’t mind” Alex said.

“No, not at all sweetie” she said. Alex caught her using a pet name again, and wondered if that was just her diction.

“So it says here that you take amlodipine, probably for blood pressure. Do you know the strength of the tablet, and how often you take it?” Alex inquired.

“10 milligrams, I believe. Once a day.”

“Good” Alex replied, checking the medication off his list. He tried to keep his questions as open-ended as possible.

“And the clonazepam? Brand name Klonopin?”

“Ah, Klonopin is 1 milligram up to two times for my anxiety. I might need another one now, actually” she said offhandedly.

“Alright, I’ll check to see if the provider entered the order for you. How about the diphenhydramine?” Alex remembered that the instructions on the diphenhydramine looked odd, but didn’t want to get too personal.

“Which one is that, dear?” Tiffany asked.

“The Benadryl” Alex said, clearing his throat, “It just says as needed for breasts.” Alex couldn’t help but glance at Tiffany’s chest after mentioning the instructions, and hoped she hadn’t noticed. With her upper half on the bed at a 45 degree angle, she was showing much of her breastbone. Those hospital gowns do have a deep v-neck, don’t they?

“Oh, that’s for my breast augmentation surgery, dear” she said. Alex stared straight at her, trying not to break eye contact and show that he was uncomfortable.

“Oh” Alex said, moving his eyes back to his clipboard. He was still confused.

“They’re for itching, honey” she said, clearing the confusion.

“Ah, thank you” he said with a nervous laugh, “I didn’t really know what they were for.”

“Yeah, I had the boob job about a year ago” Tiffany continued nonchalantly. She looked down at her chest, appraising them. “I’m thinking about going bigger- they’re only 34D’s right now.” She looked up at Alex, who was now staring at them.

“I was told to only go up a couple sizes, ya know? That way they still look natural.”

Although Tiffany was wearing the hospital gown and none of her cleavage was showing, her breasts did push against the fabric, making small mounds. Alex had seen his fair share of braless women in hospital gowns, so Tiffany’s protrusions were certainly unusual in the unflattering attire.

Catching himself, Alex looked back at Tiffany, “Well, they look very nice” he said. What?! Why did you say that? he yelled in his head.

“Thank you, you’re so sweet” Tiffany said, happily.

Wow, she’s really open. “So, you take fluoxetine 40 milligrams daily?” Alex asked.

“Yup, I get a little compulsive sometimes” Tiffany responded.

“And you take fish oil, right?” Alex asked. He just wanted to get the rest of the medication reconciliation over with.

“Yup” she said.

“Okay, well there’s a call button right there if you need it”, he said, pointing to a small controller that was connected to the bed. “If you need anything, just let me know.” Alex started making his way to the door...

“Thank you, Alex”

“You’re welcome” Alex nodded, looking back briefly before exiting the room.

Alex didn’t know if it was his lack of sleep, or his emotional state, but it was hard for him to focus on much else besides Tiffany for the rest of his shift-

She had big wavy blonde hair that came down to her shoulders, like you might see on a country girl from Texas. The more he thought about it, actually, the more she looked like a young Heather Locklear.

Her skin was smooth and lightly tanned, which was the reason he said she looked younger. She obviously didn’t have any makeup on, but she had a natural beauty that defied the need for any cosmetics. She also has soft blue eyes, white teeth...

Woah, Alex, this is not appropriate thinking. She is a patient-

A hot one-

But still a patient, and besides, nothings ever gonna happen with her. Just do your work, get out, and move on with your life. She’ll probably be gone tomorrow anyways.

Alex continued to chide himself when he finished his shift and finally went home, but sleep overrode any more thoughts about Tiffany or Angela.

Alex was feeling so much better the next day, that he was surprised when Maureen took him to the side before his shift even started-

“Just want to let you know that one of your patients was feeling neglected yesterday, and they were thinking about calling the complaint hotline.”

Alex was stunned, and not because he had never received a complaint before (it happens to every nurse), but because none of his patients seemed upset about anything yesterday.

“Are you sure?” he asked.

Maureen rolled her eyes, “Does it look like I’m joking?”

She was right- patient complaints were no laughing matter. Deserved or not, they went on a nurse’s record, and that shit could hurt you when the hospital finally decided to give out merit raises. Nurses hardly make enough money for all the things they do as it was.

“Which patient?” Alex said sternly.

“Miss Larson. She mentioned something to Edna last night. You can ask her about it when she hands off.” And with that, Maureen walked away, rumbling over to her seat at the nurse’s station.

Alex found Edna pretty quick after that, and sat down with her at the nurse’s station.

“Hey, so what was Larson saying about me last night?” he asked in a low voice. Although there were constant noises on the floor, and people talking, it was still an open area where people could eavesdrop.

“Well, I checked in on Larson after dinner so I could get a fingerstick reading, and she mentioned that she hadn’t hardly seen you after you came in to check her home meds. She was feeling like you were maybe ignoring her. She was pretty upset, Alex”

Oh, man.

“I was able to calm her down, and said you were probably dealing with a more acute patient. She talked about using the patient complaint hotline, but that she would feel much better if you would just spend some time with her.”

Edna nodded, “I know you didn’t mean to do it, and she might be a little wackadoodle, too. Just give her what she wants, and you won’t have to worry about anything” she said, shaking her head. Edna had some years of experience, and spoke from it often.

“Yeah, maybe I wasn’t giving her the attention she needed” Alex admitted. Time to man up. She’s probably just scared, is all.

Walking in to talk to an upset patient is never enjoyable, but Alex also knew that he had to take the bandaid approach, and just get it over with quickly.

“Good morning, Tiffany, how are you feeling today?” Alex asked. Tiffany was sitting up in bed again, watching tv. But the blanket was pulled up around her.

“Oh, I’m good Alex.”

Just get it over with- “So I wanted to apologize for not spending enough time with you yesterday; I was pretty busy with other patients, but that’s not an excuse. I’m really sorry about that.”

Seeing that Tiffany was not in the same cheery mood as yesterday, Alex believed that she was still upset.

“That’s alright, dear. Do you have some time now?”

“Absolutely. What do you need?” Alex said, lacing his hands together.

“Have a seat” she told him, looking down at the simple plastic chair that was next to the bed.

Alex sat down, crossing one leg over the other. Tiffany turned the volume down low.

“When I first found out I had cancer, I thought my life gonna end” she said, out of nowhere. Oh, okay.

“I had panic attacks about it, really bad ones where I couldn’t breath. That’s when they put me on Xanax. My boyfriend at the time couldn’t handle the stress, so he bailed on me.”

Yeah, I know how that feels, Alex thought. He didn’t realize how bad Tiffany had it.

“I’m sorry to hear that” Alex said, sympathetically.

“He was a jerk, ya know?” she said with a strained voice. Alex saw her hand reach out towards him, and he held it.

“He only liked me for my looks, and when the going got tough, he left. Didn’t even say goodbye!” Tiffany choked out, tears forming in her eyes.

“Oh, I’m sorry to hear that. You know, my girlfriend left me on Tuesday.”

“Really?” she asked, wiping her eyes.

“Broke up by text, actually” Alex said flatly.

“Oh that bitch” Tiffany said angrily, “Oh, sorry” she added.

“No, it’s alright. I’m not sure what went wrong, but she said she didn’t want to see me again, and at this point ... I know it’s over.” Alex was staring at the floor, and felt Tiffany’s thumb stroke the back of his hand. She’s got nice fingernails, he noticed. They were pink, and shined in the light.

“You’re a great guy, Alex” Tiffany emphasized, meeting his eyes. They were both at the same height, and Alex was seated near her upper body.

So sweet, too. “Thanks ... and I think you’re better off without that guy in your life, by the way.” Alex instinctively stroked her hand too.

“Thank you” she said, sincerely. They stared at each another moment, before Tiffany pulled her hand away from his and fanned her face.

“Phew, feels warm in here” she said, embarrassed.

“Yeah, it is” Alex agreed. Tiffany then pulled her bed sheet down, and rubbed inside the lapel of her v-neck hospital gown. From his vantage point, Alex saw the side of her boob, but Tiffany didn’t seem to realize it.

Alex looked away quickly, but the image of her smooth breast, laying on her chest like a teardrop, was burned into his memory. He thought he saw her dark-colored areola, too...

Alex looked around the room, trying to distract his mind, but was having a hard time doing so.

Her breasts are so full, so round and beautiful. Better than Angela’s.

“Do you think you’ll find someone else?” came a voice to distract him from his preoccupation.

“Well, I’m not really good at finding women” Alex admitted, not realizing he was blushing.

“Hey, sweetie” Tiffany said, again reaching for his hand, “To me, you are a catch. Any woman would be lucky to have such a sweet, attractive young man in their life.”

Alex felt warmth inside. “Thank you, Tiffany. Things were hard earlier, but now it’s getting easier.” Oh, shit, I’m starting to get hard right now, though. Think of something...

“And you’ll find someone who deserves you, too” Alex replied, “Someone who appreciates you for who you are on the inside.” Although the outside is really nice.

“I think you’re right, sweetie. I should find someone who isn’t just attracted to my body.” She reached toward Alex’s face, and moved a hair away, “Someone more like you” she said, smiling.

Alex’s mind felt numb, and his eyes were focused on Tiffany’s smiling face.It was like he was drawn to her goodness, her beauty. He stroked her hand some more, lost in the feeling of happiness.