Alex (2 page)

There that
hadn’t
been too bad. Now
he’d
see if he could help out with
anything else.

The
waitress
was bringing three plates of pancakes to a table by the window. He smiled at
her. She looked beat, hot, and some of her hair had worked its way loose from
her ponytail. Pieces of it hung around her face making her look even more
alluring.

“Anything else I can help you
with?” he asked walking over to her.

“Could you grab the maple syrup
off the shelf over there?”

“Sure can.”

Alex took down the container and
carried it over to the table where
she’d
just placed
the three plates.

“Thank you so much for manning
the cash register for me,” she said. “I guess I bit off more than I can chew
here this morning.”

“You’re doing great. By the way,
I’m Alex.”

“Eva,” she said putting her hand
out to him.

He shook her very firm, soft
hand. Maybe he should ask her out but now
didn’t
seem
the right time.

“Well, if there’s anything else I
can do for you before I leave just name it.”

“Nothing comes to mind and I
think it’s slowed down in here now.”

Yeah, the place was starting to
empty out. Probably the food had more to do with that than anything else did.

“I’ll see to my own bill on the
way out if that’s okay,” said Alex.

“Sure, let me get that for you.” She
rummaged through some receipts
she’d
pulled out of the
pocket on her apron. “You had the Café Classic, right?”

“That’s me.”

She handed him the bill and once
again
their fingers brushed.
No ring on
the third finger left hand.
Maybe
he’d
stop by
again tomorrow and ask her, in a not so obvious way, if she had a boyfriend or
was seeing anyone, then if he was in luck, he’d ask her out.
Hopefully,
Missy and Mike would be back and the food would be edible.

“Thanks again for the help,” she
said.

“Anytime.”

Alex walked to the cash register,
rang up his bill, and then left a five-dollar bill in the tip jar. She was
worth every penny and he knew waitressing
didn’t
pay
much. He headed outside and slipped on his cowboy hat. Wow,
she’d
almost made him completely forget about his physical.

Almost.

****

Eva took off her apron and hung
it on the peg by the door. Todd was busy scraping down the grill.

He looked up at her and wiped his
brow. “You look as worn out as I feel.”

“I’m going to leave bigger tips
next time I go out to eat,” said Eva. She sat and took off her running shoes,
flexing her toes back and forth, hoping
she’d
get the
blood circulating again.

“I’ve no idea how your sister-in-law
and brother cope with this craziness every day.”

“It’s made me appreciate them in
a whole new way,” said Eva, rubbing her fist over the soles of her feet.

“I can cook great at home for
Nina and the kids and hence the reason I volunteered today, but when you’ve got
orders coming at you from every direction, well, holy crap. I just hope the
food was okay for everyone.”

Eva hoped he
didn’t
see her pulling a face. Just
about
everyone had
complained about at least one item on their plate. The only person who
hadn’t
was the sheriff and she knew his eggs looked like
they could rebound off a wall. Very nice of him just to eat them and say
nothing. He was cute too; tall, dark, handsome, and
he’d
been her knight in shining armor. If she had to work another shift for Mike and
Missy, she hoped the handsome
lawman
would drop by
again.

“If you get a load of patients
with stomach ailments later on today, you’ll know who to blame,” said Todd.

Eva hoped she
didn’t
.
That combined with the flu would be a disaster.

“You did great,” she said. That
wasn’t
a lie. He had,
it’s
just his
food that was so damn awful.

“That’s very nice of you but I
think I might have overcooked a few things.”

A few.
However,
what did you expect when a car mechanic becomes a short-order cook?

“Hopefully Missy and Mike will be
back on their feet tomorrow,” he said.

Why did he have to mention feet
because hers, despite the massage, hurt like
hell.
All
she wanted to do was
go
home and soak them.
In fact, soak her whole body in the tub but in less than an hour,
she had to start her real job.
From midmorning
onward
her schedule was full.

She stood. “Nice working with you,
Todd. Maybe I’ll see you tomorrow morning, maybe not.”

He held up his fingers, crossed them,
and smiled “Same here. See you later, Doc.”

****

Alex sat in his truck eyeing the
building. His stomach bubbled and bile backtracked up into his throat. He
wasn’t
five years old anymore, and his mother didn’t have to
drag him through that door. Although someone might have to do some gentle
pulling because he
couldn’t
get his ass to move off
the seat. He tapped his fingers on the top of the steering wheel.
The exam probably
doesn’t
hurt. The
doctor’s
a guy and therefore knows how we
males feel in that tender region of the body.

He was overthinking this. The
sooner he got this
over and done with
the better. His
mom used to buy him and David an ice cream after
they’d
been for their shots or to the dentist. After he
got
done, he was going to treat himself to a steak and cold beer at the local
watering hole this evening. He suddenly thought of David and how
he’d
been scared just like Alex was right now, and that’s
what had cost him his life. He missed his brother so much.
He’d
promised him he’d take care of Julie and Sasha and he couldn’t do that if he
didn’t get checked out to make sure that he was one hundred percent okay. He
wasn’t
doing this himself but for them.

Hurrying out of the truck before
he lost his courage yet again, he locked the door and headed across the parking
lot. He quickly pulled the door open and went inside. Although, Thurston
wasn’t
a huge town and didn’t have its own hospital, it did
have one professional building that housed Dr. Jackson’s office, and a host of
others like the dentist, insurance agent, realtor, etc. Today Alex opted to
take the stairs up to the third
floor which
would buy
him some more time to calm his mind. Alex briskly walked up the stone staircase
and finally arrived at the third floor. He opened back the
door
and walked along the hallway
and turned left into a small corridor that
housed the doctor’s office.

His cell phone rang just as he was
about to step inside. Maybe it was an emergency, maybe even a dead body. Not
that he wished death on anyone, but it
couldn’t
come
at a more opportune time for getting him out of having the physical.

Glancing at the caller ID, he
noticed it was his mother. He debated
whether or not
to let it go to his voicemail. However, if he
didn’t
take the call, the thing would ring or vibrate throughout his exam, unnerving
him even more.

“Hi, Mom,” he said.

“Have you been for your physical
yet?”

“Just heading
there.”

“I don’t want to hear that you’ve
chickened out. I don’t want to hear that you’ve done the same foolish thing as
David.”

Her voice was becoming faint and
he guessed she was on the verge of tears.

“As soon as I say goodbye to you,
I’m going in to get checked out from head to toe.”
And
places in between.

“I’ll be calling back to make
sure you’ve gone through with it, so don’t let me down.”

“I won’t, I promise. Bye, Mom” He
pressed the end call button and realized that now as her only child, he’d
stepped into the role of youngest son a position that David had occupied since
Alex had been two.

He took a deep breath, opened the
door, and walked inside and up to the receptionist.

“Alex Davis and
I’m
here for a physical.”

She tapped some keys on the
computer and then handed him a clipboard. “As you haven’t been here for over
ten years, I need you to fill this in and then bring it back to me.”

 
A decade?
Had it been
that long? Alex took it from her and walked over to the waiting area where he
sat and smiled at a young woman who was clearly very pregnant.

He took the pen from the top of
the board and began filling in his name, address, and insurance information.
Next
he tackled the health questions.
Allergies—none
that he knew of.
Pregnant—not that he knew of. He smiled. He guessed the
doctor might find that response amusing.

Medical conditions—fear of
doctors. Yeah,
he’d
put that down to keep things light
and funny. Are you sexually active? He looked around wondering what he should
put that might bring a smile to Dr. Jackson’s face.

“Kay Adams,” a woman’s voice
called out and he saw the pregnant woman struggle to her feet.

 
Sexually active
—only if you consider jerking off as actual sex.

Any family history of heart
disease—yes, his dad had died of a heart attack when he was fifteen.

Cancer?
No. Any close
relatives with
cancer?
Yes—brother.
Type—testicular.

Medications—none, mental health
issues—none. He checked all the boxes, signed his name and dated it, and then
walked back to the receptionist and handed her the forms.

“Someone will call you shortly,”
she said.

He’d
barely had a chance
to sit down and pick up a magazine when the nurse called his name.

He stood, hoping this
wouldn’t
be as bad he’d feared.

“How are you today?” she asked
him.

“Great.”

“Let’s get you weighed first.”

He stood on the scales and she
wrote something down on his chart.

“Great, and if
you want to follow me to the changing area.”

He walked behind her and she
stopped and pulled a paper robe off the top of a table.

“You can go in there and change
into this. You can place your clothes in this basket and I’ll look after it
until the doctor’s finished with you.”

Alex went inside the tiny room,
stripped off his clothes, folded them, and put them into the plastic basket. He
unfolded the paper robe and wrapped it around his body. Just as he suspected,
the back gaped wide open, so he held it in place with his free hand as he
walked outside into the corridor.

The nurse took the basket from
him and placed it on a shelf.

“I’ll keep my cell phone because
I’m on call. Hope that’s okay?” he asked

“Shouldn’t be a
problem.”
The nurse walked him back to one of the examination rooms and he followed her
inside.
 

“If you want to sit there I’ll
take your temperature and blood pressure.”

Alex stared at the wall opposite
as she placed the thermometer under his tongue and wrapped the blood pressure
cuff around his bicep. Maybe this
wasn’t
so bad after
all. Well, except for the cold metal chair on his bare ass.

She took the cuff off and typed
in some numbers on the computer. “The doctor should be with you in a few
minutes. There are some magazines on the table there if you want to read while
you wait.”

“Great, thank you.”

Alex placed the cell phone on the
chair beside him, crossed his legs, and picked up a cooking magazine. It reminded
him of the steak and beer he was going to reward himself with after this
ordeal. Strangely enough, it also reminded him of the almost inedible
breakfast. An image of the
waitress
popped into his
head. Maybe he should go to
McQuire’s
for breakfast
again and hopefully
she’d
serve him. Maybe that could
be his reward for the doctor’s visit. He heard the door opening but was too
busy thinking about the
waitress
to look up straight
away, but when he finally did he couldn’t believe his eyes.

It was
her
.

The
waitress
.