His Little Black Book

Jasmine, RN, ex-Vegas dancer, walked into the report room at the hospital.

She swept her long chestnut hair over her shoulder as she glanced at her patient assignment sheet, then her hazel eyes widened. Marcus Blackburn. She knew that name.

With trembling hands, she checked the patient information sheet on the next page to verify the name. Marcus Wilson Blackburn, age 42.

It was him. The man she hoped never to see again. The man who could ruin her chances to marry Dr. Shaun Hollis, MD.

She slowly shook her head and mumbled, “It can’t be…”

The nurse sitting on her left looked at her and asked, “What did you say, Jasmine?”

She swallowed and whispered, “Nothing.”

She read the patient information sheet: Post-op day two, open appendectomy. IV fluids. IV antibiotics. NPO – nothing by mouth. The previous nurse had written a note on the sheet: Requests frequent pain meds, demanding, difficult to please.

Jasmine nodded as she read the note. That sounded like the Marcus Blackburn she knew. The man she’d dated several years ago. The man who had her name listed in his Little Black Book.

Her heart raced and her mind whirled with a thousand questions. Did he know she lived in this town? Would he recognize her as a nurse – and not as the stiletto-wearing dancer he’d known a few years ago? Would he leer at her salaciously the way he had before? The worst fear of all, and her biggest question: Would he tell his surgeon, Dr. Shaun Hollis, that he knew her, had known her, before?

Jasmine ran her fingers through her long, brown hair and stared blankly at the far wall.

Seeing his name on her assignment sheet was the second shock Jasmine had had that day.

The first shock had come that morning when she opened a certified letter from a law firm. The letter stated that her recently deceased great-aunt had named her in her will, and they were enclosing a certified check for twenty-thousand dollars.

Jasmine had stared at the check in disbelief and contemplated calling off work because she could barely concentrate, thinking of how she might spend that money. And now, staring at her patient assignment, she wished she had called off, but for a different reason.

Jasmine twirled a lock of hair around her finger as she considered various options.

She could pretend to have the flu and ask to be sent home. Glancing over at Alberta, the charge nurse, she knew that would never work. Alberta was a stickler for rules and would send her to the ER to be evaluated before she would ever consider sending her home. Nobody fooled Alberta.

But Alberta might approve her request for a different patient in place of Marcus. However, that would require her to give a valid reason for requesting the change. Jasmine did not want her or the other nurses to know that she knew Marcus Blackburn, or the extent of their relationship. That declaration would result in too many raised eyebrows and too many questions she’d rather not answer.

Jasmine pulled her long hair into a bun and secured it with the scrunchy she wore on her wrist. Then she scanned the room, searching for a co-worker who might trade patients with her and take Marcus off her hands.

Brynn, the nurse on her right, glanced at her assignment sheet. She shook her head and said, “You’ve got Marcus? I had him last night. What a jerk! I refused to take him a second night. Good luck, girl.”

It appeared that Marcus hadn’t changed.

The other four nurses looked over at Jasmine and sympathetically shook their heads.

So much for that option, she thought. She pursed her lips and continued thinking. I wonder if I could pay him for his silence. He takes bribes – maybe he’d take one from me. Then I could get my page torn from his Little Black Book.

She closed her eyes and rubbed the back of her neck. He wouldn’t do it for less than a thousand – maybe even two….

She grimaced and looked down at his information sheet, musing. If Marcus would take the bribe, I’d be willing to give him half the money from my great-aunt – ten thousand dollars. For that, he has to agree to leave me alone and not tell Dr. Hollis about me or our past…

“You okay, Jasmine?” Brynn asked, interrupting her thoughts.

Jasmine looked over at her and felt a rush of warmth come to her face and neck. She nodded, and when Brynn looked away, she turned back to her paper. She breathed in slowly through her nose and blew it out through her mouth. She did this several times.

Looking down at the information sheet, she reached for a pen. She drew abstract squiggles down the margins of the information sheet and ended at the bottom of the page. She wrote in the left corner: Shaun and Jasmine, then traced over their names several times. In the other corner, she wrote Marcus and $15,000.

Nervously tapping her pen, she stared at what she had written. Jasmine imagined a conversation with Marcus: Fifteen thousand is my top offer. She pictured him shaking his head and saying, No, Jasmine—twenty thousand.

She bit her lip, then scribbled out $15,000 and wrote $20,000 above it.

Brynn nudged her. “Hey girl, time to hit the floor.”

Jasmine ignored her. She saw herself facing Marcus and saying, Twenty thousand in exchange for my page from your Little Black Book, and you are to never contact me again. Agreed? In her mind, she visualized him tearing out the page and handing it to her.

“Earth to Jasmine!” Brynn spoke in a louder voice.

She looked up in a daze. “What?”

“Come on, girl, it’s seven-fifteen. We’re late for report.”

Jasmine shook her head, then scooped up her papers and followed Brynn out of the report room.

At the nurses’ station, Jasmine looked up at the whiteboard and noted that Susan had most of her patients. She stared at the board without moving until she heard someone call her name.

She jumped, then turned and asked, “Did you need something?”

Susan glared at her. “I need to give you report so I can go home. Do you mind?”

“No, no, of course not. You can go home.”

Susan narrowed her eyes and growled, “I need to give you report first.”

“Yeah, sure. Ah, yeah, go ahead…”

Susan’s eyebrows drew together, and she asked, “Are you okay?”

Jasmine answered with a shaky smile. “Not yet – but I will be. Sorry. Give me what you’ve got so you can go home.”

Susan gave her report, then Jasmine managed to focus her attention long enough to get report on her other two patients.

The dayshift nurses left, then Jasmine sat at the desk and pulled the scrunchy from her bun. Her dark wavy locks tumbled to her shoulders, and she ran her fingers through them. Shaking her head, she groaned, “What am I going to do?”

A male voice interrupted her thoughts and asked, “Have breakfast with me in the morning?”

Her eyebrows lifted and turned with a smile to face Dr. Hollis. “Shaun. I thought you’d be gone by now.”

The young doctor, with his unruly shock of curly black hair and twinkling blue eyes, grinned at her.

With a glint in his eye, he sat on a rolling stool and wheeled over to her. “I wanted to see you before I went home.”

“I’m so glad. Thank you.” She tilted her head towards him and smiled warmly.

“Hey, do you have a minute to walk out to the employee balcony with me?”

“Yes. I could use a little sunshine on my face.”

Shaun chuckled. “It’s eight o’ clock at night, sweetheart. There is no sunshine on the balcony right now.”

“There will be when you step out there,” she said with a wink.

He leaned close and whispered, “I’d like to kiss you here, but I’d better wait ‘til we get out to the balcony.”

Jasmine laughed. “I wish I didn’t have to wait forty more seconds. I could really use a kiss from you right now.”

Shaun raised his eyebrows and grinned.

Their hands brushed but did not touch until they reached the balcony.

He held the door open for her, then, after it closed and he’d locked it, he pulled her into his arms and kissed her.

After the kiss she pressed her cheek against his shoulder and whispered, “Hold me a little longer, Shaun.”

He stroked her hair. “Tough night, honey?”

“Oh, yes. Did you see my patient load? I have your post op patient, Marcus Blackburn.”

Shaun took her by her shoulders and moved her back a step so he could look at her face. Beaming, he said, “I know! I promised him you’d be his nurse when you got back on duty. I asked your charge nurse to assign him to you.”

Her eyes widened and her mouth dropped. “Shaun, why would you do that?”

His head jerked back in surprise and he said, “Because I wanted him to have the best nurse on the floor – and that’s you. Besides, honey, he says he knows you.”

Jasmine’s eyes widened and her face flushed. “Oh, Shaun…” She felt her knees weaken. “I need to sit.”

Shaun helped her over to a chair.

Jasmine dropped her head and covered her face with her hands. “Uh, Shaun, did Marcus tell you how he knew me?”

“Yes. He said he had your name and phone number in his Little Black Book – and you were the only girl he’d ever known that he couldn’t talk into going to bed with him. He gave me your number and said I should call you. He thought we’d be a good match.”

Jasmine straightened up and stared at him, speechless.

He knelt and looked into her eyes. “I knew the minute I saw you, Jasmine, that you were the girl for me. And over the past six months, I’ve saved every penny I could for a ring and to pay for a honeymoon. But with these crazy school loans, it’s still not enough.”

Jasmine shook her head and a smile grew on her face. “Shaun, are you asking me to marry you?”

He blushed. “Well, yes, I am, but I don’t have a ring, sweetheart…”

She laughed and leaned in for a kiss.

He kissed her warmly then asked, “Honey, why are you so happy? I said I don’t have money for a ring – and I really can’t afford to marry you right now.”

She beamed at him and tenderly stroked his face. “Sweetheart, would twenty thousand dollars help?”

The End