Exquisite

Chapter One

Lena raced through the hospital lobby and into the staff cafeteria.

“Late again Lena? I bet you haven’t been on time once this year.”

Looking over at Shelly, who sat at one of the tables drinking her coffee, Lena saluted her with her middle finger.

“Bite me Shelly. You only get here early so you can stuff your face with the breakfast they bring.”

Lena got there right as the time turned 7:01am.

“Shit.” she muttered and walked over to where Shelly was and picked up the other half of the donut and bit down. Pulling out the chair she slumped into it flinging her bag onto the table.

“One minute. One lousy minute! I’m telling you McKinney is going to kick my ass. He has eyes everywhere.”

Shelly grinned as she continued stuffing her face. “What the hell do you do all night anyway that you can’t be here on time?”

Lena rubbed her eyes then forced a grin onto her face, motioning Shelly to come closer, she whispered. “I stay up all night getting hot and sweaty.” Well, it wasn’t that far from the truth.

Shelly raised a blond eyebrow then sat back picking up another donut. Munching down on it, she watched Lena closely then tilted her head to the side.

“You’re full of shit Lena. No one as tense as you could be getting laid regularly.”

Standing up Lena slung her back pack over her shoulder then started to walk out. As she got to the door, she looked over her shoulder.

“Shelly I'm not tense. I am stiff, there’s a huge difference.”

Lena left with Shelly’s laughter ringing loudly in her ears, and before she could call her bluff. Shelly knew her too well. Her friend knew that she hadn’t dated anyone more than once in the last nine years. She also knew that there hadn’t even been a first date in a very long time. Getting into the elevator, she rode it up to level six where she got out and wandered down to the lounge. No one was in there thank God, and McKinney was no where to be seen. Lena had been late so much in the last few months he'd called her into his office and asked her if he needed to buy her a watch, asshole. It didn’t matter that she happened to be the best damn pediatric doctor he had, he still had to give her shit.

Opening her locker, she took her sweater off and hung it on the peg on the door. She stashed her back pack on the bottom level then pulled her lab coat on. Picking up her pens, she stuffed them in her scrubs and unzipped her bag pulling out her glasses. Looking at the picture stuck to the door, she kissed her fingers and placed them on it. Then she shut the locker with a firm hand and turned on her heel ready to face the day.

As Mason Langley stood at the front desk of the pediatric ward he mentally reminded himself over and over that he was so not ready for the challenge of children. Looking over at the young mother to his left, clutching a chubby dark haired monster, he watched in horror as the child screamed like someone had got his hand stuck in a door. She kept cooing to the child but the tiny terror was having none of it. He would take three deep breaths and there’d be a lull, for all of twenty seconds, then the little demon would start the ear blistering shrill all over again.

Mason looked around the waiting room tapping his foot impatiently. He was standing at the desk with a huge bunch of red roses, who he was assuming were for a patient, and he’d been standing there for the past twenty minutes. He was waiting on the little receptionist behind the desk who'd scurried off looking for Lena, whoever the hell that was. Quite frankly he was beyond caring. At this stage he just wanted to put a lot of distance between himself and the child who was trying to make him deaf before he reached thirty five. He still couldn’t believe his mother had suckered him into dropping off flowers to a customer on his way back to the restaurant. He was about to call her and demand a phone number or at least a paycheck for his time, ha like she’d go for that, when the receptionist reappeared looking frazzled.

“She wants to know who they're from.”

Mason stared at her like she’d gone mad. He leaned on the desk and placed the vase down slowly.

“Does it matter who they're from? They're roses for God sake.”

The lady peered at him over the rim of her thick black glasses. He was sure she thought they were hip, but really just took away from her eyes.

“It matters because it's Lena. She doesn’t like anything…” she stopped and it looked to him like she was looking for the right word. “Cheery.”

Mason frowned then sighed. See? That was the problem with women, who the hell knew what made them tick? He braced his elbows on the counter.

“Look. I don’t know who they’re from, the card’s sealed. To be quite honest I really think that Lena needs to be a bit more grateful and just come and sign for the damn flowers.”

He knew his voice had got louder towards the end, but with the screaming child and the way the receptionist was staring at him, he thought she was lucky he hadn’t picked the flowers up and walked out with them. He watched as she shrugged.

“I don’t know what to tell you, Sir.”

Mason clenched his teeth, prayed for patience then slowly he smiled. All of a sudden it came to him that maybe, just maybe charm would work. He watched the lady’s eyes soften and her posture become less rigid and thought to himself, oh yeah charm works every time. It was whether or not he could keep up the pretense with a wailing banshee in the background and the start of a major headache.

“Well maybe you could go and get,” he stopped for a moment forgetting the not so cheery lady’s name. “Lena? So I could talk to her?”

Dark glasses smiled sweetly then nodded. “Ok give me a minute. I’ll see if she’ll come out here.”

Mason kept the fake smile plastered on his face. “Thank you so much.”

Then thought, if she won’t come out here I’m dumping her flowers all over the waiting room floor. With that cheery image he turned and took a seat on one of the chairs. Impatiently waiting for the annoying Lena to make an appearance.

Lena had just walked into her office and taken a seat when Brandy came in. She watched her, oh so perky receptionist almost skip to her desk then stop and try to stand patiently for her to acknowledge she was there. Finally, when Lena couldn’t stand the fidgeting, she looked up at her.

“So? Did you find out who they were from?”

Brandy frowned, pushed her glasses back up her nose then shook her head. She crossed one leg then the other and it almost looked as though she needed to go pee. When she didn’t answer immediately Lena probed, “Brandy? Flowers’ focus. Did you find out who they were from?”

“Oh. Nope. He said the card was sealed and that he wasn’t allowed to open it.”

Rolling her eyes Lena sighed. What? The flower guy suddenly had morals and ethics? She'd basically given him permission to check who they were from when she’d asked, didn’t she? Inwardly groaning Lena stood and walked around her desk. Brandy watched her warily and she thought, am I really such a horrible boss she needs to look terrified? Striding past her out into the hall Lena decided, if she was being honest, that she probably was.

She walked down the east hallway and turned onto the main drag that led to the front desk of the Pedi wing, pushing open the door to the waiting room Lena saw a tall dark haired man folded into one of the tiny waiting room chairs clutching a vase with a dozen red roses. The first thing she noticed was he did not look happy. In fact, he looked extremely pissed off. The second thing was his very very long legs folded up at an awkward angle to balance the vase on his knees. Lastly, was his tapping foot which seemed to be getting more impatient before her eyes. Finally, he turned toward Lena and she watched as his face changed from a look of disgust to a fake blank smile. Standing where she was she watched him stretch out his tall frame and walk over to her. Lena stood at 5’7, so in heels she was often taller than most, but even she had nothing on this guy. Gees what did his mom do? Stand him in manure every night as a child? Smirking at that she looked up at him and asked.

“Can you not read?”

Mason stared down at the annoying, yeah he was going to think of her as annoying, woman in front of him and wondered how much trouble he’d get in off his mother if he lifted the vase and tipped the contents all over her. Taking a deep breath he decided he didn’t need to put up with this crap. He'd already been there forty minutes more then he wanted to be, so standing there being patronized was not on his high list of priorities.

“Excuse me? What did you say to me?"

She didn’t step back from his cool tone. In fact he watched her spine, if it was possible, get stiffer.

“I asked you if you could read?” she paused then continued with her patronizing ramble. “Because that’s the only reason I can think of for why you couldn’t Brandy who the flowers are from.”

Mason felt his eyes narrow and the hair on the back of his neck rise. Just who did this snotty thing think she was? The Queen? The psycho who was standing in front of him was in sky blue scrubs and had a stethoscope draped around her neck. She had dark brown curls that were tied up in a high top notch bun on her head with several of them escaping around her neck and on her pert stuck up nose were a plain pair of thin wire rimmed glasses that magnified her big bottle green eyes. He swallowed and told himself to calm down, he was doing this for his mother. One other question he wanted answered was, who the hell would ever by this woman flowers?

“Yes. Surprisingly I was taught how to read all through elementary school. I even managed to graduate. The reason I didn’t answer your little peon over there Princess was because A) I didn’t want to, B) The card is sealed and C) I didn’t want to. My job was to bring these flowers to your ungrateful self. Not stand here and take your condescending crap.”

Mason watched her as she listened to him and wasn’t surprised to see no emotion what so ever cross her features. What was wrong with this woman? He thrust the flowers at her along with the clipboard.

“Just sign for them sweetheart so I can get the hell out of here."

Her eyes narrowed at the false endearment and she grabbed the clipboard out of his hands. She scrawled her name across the bottom then snatched the flowers up into the crook of her arm. Turning without another word she stormed back through the swinging doors. Thank God, what an uptight little shrew. Mason turned to see Brandy peeking at him from over her desk then he smiled slightly and waved.

“Good luck with that one.”

By the time Lena reached her office she was furious. Furious with herself for behaving like an obnoxious jerk. It wasn’t as though she didn’t know she was doing it, she did. Her excuse, well the one she used, was that she did it too keep people away. The less people in her life meant the less likely she had to give a shit and that equaled the less possibility that she’d get hurt. It was a good theory, if she didn’t have a soul. Lena put the vase on the edge of her desk and walked around flopping down into her chair. Staring at the flowers she willed them to go away, as if that would actually work. Then when there was no other choice, than to drive herself bat shit crazy, she leaned forward and snatched up the card. Tearing it open Lena thought of the mule headed, freakishly tall flower delivery.. what could she call him? Certainly not a boy. Ok mule headed, freakishly tall flower delivery man. What was his problem anyway? It wasn’t like he knew her, so what the hell did he care if she was the biggest bitch in the universe? Another random thought also came on the heels of that one and it was far less welcome. Why on earth could she not stop thinking about how blue his eyes had been? Pushing his irritating presence out of her mind she looked down at the card in her hand knowing exactly who they were from;

“Lena, Go visit her today. She would want you too.

Mom and Dad”

See? This is what she does to me, Lena thought as she stared at the ceiling. This is why she wanted that moron to tell Brandy. So she could get rid of the flowers in advance and feel no guilt for not visiting her sister’s grave. Just like she'd done for the last nine years.

Mason was pissed off as he stepped off the elevator. God what a piece of work! His jaw hurt from clenching it as he dialed his mother’s number. He mentally told himself not to take his anger out on his mother, or his phone. It rang twice then his mother’s voice flowed into the ear piece. “Precious Petals, how may I help you?”

Mason smiled automatically. “You can take me to dinner to thank me for taking on your customer from hell.”

“Who? Lena?”

Mason clenched his fist as he walked out to his car parked on the street. That name all on its own upped his headache to migraine status.“Yes Lena. Or as I refer to her, Queen Bitch.”

“Mason Nathan Langley!” his mother admonished. “Don’t you dare talk about her like that. That poor girl.”

Opening the car door, to his blue Nissan GT-R, Mason folded his tall frame in. “That poor girl just made me wait forty minutes then had the nerve to ask me if I could read!”

“Well, well. It isn’t often that someone dares to take you on, so good for her.”

Mason pulled the phone away from him and stared at it. Good for her? Is that what his mother had just said to him? What the hell was the world coming to and how did his mother know Queen B anyway? Grumbling to himself Mason pulled the phone back to his ear.

“Never again.”

“Oh come on now Mase."

“No mom, never. Bye.” With that he snapped the phone shut, realizing he hadn’t got an answer about her taking him to dinner.