the wait feel like torture. I tried to admire the bricked walls and old photographs of who I assumed was the owner, but I knew better than to try and distract myself. It was always impossible and every passing second felt like an hour.
Eventually, we ordered our food from a tall man with chocolate skin and warm eyes. Then, we waited some more, as he called to a Jenna to grab our slices and sodas, and we watched as the curly-haired woman bustled around to collect our lunch.
“I had such a freakin’ night,” Elle complained, crowding one of my ears, amidst the static, while the other was occupied with the now annoyed curly-haired woman.
“Dammit, we're outta paper plates,” she muttered, before calling out, “Vinnie! Grab some plates back there, will ya?”
I believe we are all born with gifts, and one of mine is intuition. I could be having the most ordinary day, until I hear a name, see a sign, or turn a corner, and intuition will strike. Sometimes it comes as a ping in the gut, or as a gentle brush against my heart. And right now, it was a flick against my brain, a sudden rekindling of a memory.
I turned my head toward what I assumed to be the kitchen door, as Elle continued, “Mike is driving me completely insane. And it’s not like I ask for much. Just give me some attention, you know what I mean?”
“Uh-huh,” I muttered, watching the door.
“So, last night, we’re getting hot and heavy, and he tells me he really wants me to, you know, use my mouth. And I did, thinking, like, I’m gonna get the same treatment, right? But the bastard just fell asleep—girl, are you even listening to me?”
“What?” I faced her abruptly, my eyes wide and startled. “Yeah, sorry. I’m just, I dunno, distracted or something. What were you saying?”
Elle went on about her night, telling me about her night of laying awake, with her sleeping husband and her vibrator. I offered my sympathies, just as the door swung open and I heard a voice so distinctly familiar from a moment that shouldn’t have been so profound.
“Here ya go.”
I turned to see a tall man with dark eyes and dark hair peeking out from beneath his white cap. I would have to be blind to not recognize he was attractive, but it wasn’t his looks that awakened my intuition. It was that I knew him once, albeit briefly. We had met just days ago, outside the Regina Miller show. And in a city of millions of people, what were the chances that I’d find myself face to face with him again?
“Damn, girl, you’re seriously on your own planet today, huh?”
“Yeah,” I answered absentmindedly. “I guess so.”
Jenna plated our slices, before handing them to us over a glass partition. “Here you go, ladies. Enjoy.”
We took our food, but while Elle went to find a seat on the sidewalk, I stood near the counter, watching awkwardly as Vinnie went about his business. I wanted him to notice me, to recognize me, and to make me feel a little less like a freak and more like the feeling was mutual. But he never looked in my direction before disappearing back into the kitchen, leaving me wilted with disappointment.
“Andrea, what the hell are you doing?” Elle laughed, as I headed outside and approached the table.
“Sorry,” I repeated, and readied myself to eating my lunch, while trying to escape the static.
***
Finally, it was the end of my workday. I had already given my patients’ report to the night shift and my purse was already slung over my shoulder. But before I could leave and find sanctuary at home, I turned to the old man.
Still following. Still watching.
“Okay, sir,” I said quietly with a weighted sigh. “Let’s do this.”
He offered a short nod before leading the way to Room 315. Mrs. Schreiber was asleep, cuddled in her bed, with her arms around an old stuffed bear, and I imagined her in the beginning of her life. A young girl, full of possibility and hope, dreaming of what her life would be like. Wondering who she would marry, who her children would be. And now, her story had been written. Her children were grown with families of their own and her husband was already gone from this Earth. It was time to close the book on her life here and now, so that the next could begin.
It was time for her to let go.
“I’ll call