For the second time in the space of a few minutes, the man had snuck right up on her. This time he was holding out a cup of coffee and a card. “Revolution Mixed Martial Arts. It’s local, if you’re staying in the area. There’s a women’s self-defense workshop coming up in the next couple of weeks. Boom made me promise to come give this to you.”
Words stuck in her throat as she stared at the proffered card. It took a minute for her to pull her wits together long enough to take it from him, and the coffee, too. His hand remained steady until she had both in her own. As she gingerly took the offerings, he didn’t extend his fingers to touch her the way some men did.
Warm brown eyes, the color of dark chocolate, studied her. “The workshop takes it slow and easy. It’s assumed everyone is a beginner. If you mention my name, you’ll get a discount. Rojas.”
She blinked. “Oh, but that’s not nec—”
“You distracted Boom for a while and I appreciate the help.” His words had gone back to gruff, his speech concise in cadence. “And she’s right, you’d benefit from the workshop.”
He turned on his heel and headed back to the ER.
Okay then. Elisa studied the card for a minute. She was too new to the area to recognize the address, but if she could get a hotel room with Wi-Fi, she could map it pretty easily.
Exhaustion rolled over her in a wave. If she decided to get a hotel room tonight. Everything she owned was stuffed into her car, not that there was much. She could find an out-of-the-way rest stop and catch a little sleep before trying to find a job tomorrow morning. Nothing like her last job, but hopefully something full time with some sort of benefits. Even fast-food restaurants had full-time positions, if it came down to it. But she’d try bookstores or maybe a nearby mall first. Anything to get an income going while she looked for a more stable position.
She took a sip of coffee. She’d think more on it. Later. After she had her wrist examined. One step at a time.
As she worked through her jumbled thoughts, realization washed over her in a wave of caffeine. She’d completely misjudged him at first, and he’d done one nice thing after another and she hadn’t thanked him. Not once.
Elisa looked around the waiting room. A few people had entered but the room seemed emptier somehow, without the girl and her dad. Boom, he’d called her. Had to be her nickname. And, somehow, Elisa could picture the girl kicking butt in a martial arts class. Boom was probably appropriate. Imagining what her father could do was something Elisa shied away from, but the thought was tantalizing more than frightening.
Elisa shifted her position in her seat, her hamstrings and backside aching from hours of driving. Her foot hit something and she looked down to see a stray glove on the floor almost under the chair. She bent to pick it up and found a tag on the inside wrist of the glove.
Boom
Hope’s Crossing Kennels.
Oh, no. Elisa rose and wondered if she could ask the nurse to return the glove to Boom and her father. After all, they’d be there a while.
But as she approached the desk, the nurse took the clipboard from her without looking at her. “Thank you, dear. They’ll be calling you any minute now to take you back. Have a seat.”
Before Elisa could say anything about the glove, the nurse had turned her attention to another person who’d just entered. And there were two more coming through the doors. The night was getting busier.
Elisa returned to her seat. Hopefully, she’d either catch sight of Boom in the ER area or ask a nurse to find the girl and her father to return the glove.
She really wanted to manage to thank him if she saw him again.