The door to Lance’s room opened and I ignored it, preferring to keep walking around and thinking about what was going on and what I was going to do about it…if anything.
“You know, Charlotte,” I heard Drake’s voice from the direction of the door as I heard it close, “if you keep pacing like that you’re going to wear a groove into the floor.”
Always with the jokes, that Drake. I wondered how Lily put up with him, but at the same time, whenever I saw those two together I couldn’t help but realizing just how in love they clearly were with each other.
I looked up, suddenly distracted. “Oh, yeah, sorry about that, it’s just that I was…”
Lily stepped toward me. “We know, dear. You were pacing around and wondering about Lance in there.” She looked at me with consolation on her face, like she knew where I was coming from because she had been there before. “It’s not always easy, is it?”
“The work? Yeah, things can get pretty hairy around here, with the schedule and all.”
Drake grimaced, and Lily shook her head. “No, dear, that’s not what I meant. It’s not always easy falling for a man like that.” She punched Drake in the ribs, and he leaned against the wall, feigning all sorts of pain. “Sometimes you have to go out and hit them with a stick until they realize you mean business.”
I was dumbfounded. “So…I should go find a stick somewhere?”
“Oh, honey, I can’t tell you what’s right for you, I just wanted to say that I understand where you’re coming from and I hope it gets better for you soon.”
I looked down. “I’ve been thinking about quitting, you know? Going back to Kansas and trying to find something else.”
This time it was Drake who spoke, though Lily clearly wanted to also. “NO” He looked around sheepishly, like he was ashamed that he’d yelled out of nowhere. “You cannot go anywhere, Charlotte. Not this far into the season.”
“What? This is only week 3, there’s like 14 weeks left in the regular season alone.”
“Yeah, but Lance needs you. And not just because of this injury.”
“He’s made it pretty clear he doesn’t even want my help with that, either.”
“Look, Charlotte, I haven’t known Lance Parker all that long, but if there’s one thing about him I can say, it’s that sometimes he misses the forest for the trees.”
I wrinkled my nose. “That doesn’t seem like a good trait for a quarterback. He needs to see both.”
“And on the field he’s better than anyone at it. But off the field, he’s got a major case of blinders going on.”
“What’re you saying?”
Drake didn’t speak, but Lily did. It was weird how having a conversation with one of them basically meant you were having a conversation with both of them. “It means, honey, that you gotta stick with it. We know Lance, he’ll come around, but until he does it’s not gonna be easy for you.”
“I dunno if I can, guys…”
“We do. We haven’t known you all that long, but it’s pretty clear that you’re not the type to give up, even if the thought does cross your mind from time to time. So stick with it, and don’t be afraid to use a stick when Lance needs it.”
“How will I know when that is?”
Drake laughed. “When he’s awake.”
That lightened the mood enough that all of us laughed out loud, and Lily and Drake nodded to each other. “Time for us to make our exit. I think you should go check on your patient, Nurse Charlotte.”
I saluted back. “Will do. And thanks for the advice.”
“Anytime, honey. I wish I’d had someone around like that to help me when I was dealing with this guy.” Lily poked Drake again, who was still rubbing his stomach from the last one. “It might have saved me a lot of headaches.”
“You love it,” Drake said, and ushered her out of the room. Ugh, those two were so obnoxiously happy together I didn’t know whether to congratulate them or feel super jealous.
So I settled for doing both. They were incredibly fortunate to have found each other while each was going through big turmoil, and it showed in how strong their relationship had become in just a short time.
I wanted something like that for me, hopefully without all that turmoil, but this definitely seemed like a case where Charlotte was not getting what she wanted.
Lily and Drake’s advice definitely came from the right place, though. I just didn’t know how I could keep working with Lance when he was like this. Especially now that he wasn’t going to be playing football for at least a few weeks, he was going to be insufferable, and not just because each time he looked at me I wanted to take off all my clothing and rub myself against his hard body.
I really needed to stop thinking like that, but I already knew that I couldn’t help it. It wasn’t fair - all day I got to touch Lance Parker’s body, but never the way I wanted to. Never the way we had touched that one night.