Voices From The Past

It is such a mistake to post this, but I'm an idiot and can't help myself. Oh, I guess you can forget about the anti-negative posts. This one will probably ooze with negativity.

I'm working hard today (riiiigggghhhhttt) and I get paged overhead that I have a phone call on line two. I figure it's a nurse or somebody wanting to know something about a patient. I snap off my gloves, leave a patient on the table (with a needle in her right boob no less), tell the doctor that I will be right back and go to answer the phone.

I pick up the handset and in my phony hospital voice I give it the "This is Chad, how may I help you?"

A female voice replies "Chad?"

"Yes."

"This is T.B." And I go quiet, real quiet, because my first guess is that something is really wrong. Either her mother has gotten much sicker or she is in some kind of bind and needs my help.

"What are you doing?" I managed to choke out, "Where are you?"

"I'm pulling up into the hospital drive, I was on the way back from my boyfriend's and thought I would leave you a note on your car, and then just decided to call you."

My mind just goes limp. Why in the hell would she risk her current relationship, for which she dumped me like a hillbilly drops a rattlesnake after he handles it one time too many. I mean, this is the guy that FOUR days after she met him, she called me and said something along the lines of "I don't want to risk losing him by seeing you." No way would he be happy about her being in Jackson.

So things are quiet for a second, it's fairly obvious that she wants to see me, but I'm not sure what to do. We have some kind of awkward verbal exchange that I don't remember and I agree to meet her in thirty minutes in front of the emergency room.

She's there with her daughter. She looks good. She is smiling. I tell her first thing that she is nuts for being there, working up to really giving her a piece of my mind. She says she knows and that her boyfriend is obsessed with me and our relationship. That stumps me and I realize that I'm not really mad at her. So we hug and there is some small talk. She asks about my dogs and I ask about her kids and her mother. She wants to know how my grass is doing and I inquire about her new car. I meet her daughter for the first time. Shirley Temple curls and all. The little girl wants kisses. I can't resist. T.B. and I hug again and then say goodbye.

So now I'm totally confused. It has been about six weeks since she suddenly dropped out of my life, so what does it mean when she wants to see me out of the blue? Is she having trouble with her current beau? Am I just that irresistible? Does she miss our friendship? What?

I sent her an email. I don't know if she will get it anytime soon since the only one I could remember was one that she didn't really use much. I told her not to do that again. It isn't fair to me. It isn't fair to her boyfriend either, but I couldn't care less about him. I have no idea what her angle was. Made for an interesting day though.


*Here is a small addition, I got home about 10:30 p.m. after playing softball (we lost). There was a messege on my machine, "Chad, this is T.B. Please don't send me an email, somebody has my password and will read it."*