Total pages in book: 72
Estimated words: 67982 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 340(@200wpm)___ 272(@250wpm)___ 227(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 67982 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 340(@200wpm)___ 272(@250wpm)___ 227(@300wpm)
I’m not happy with what I find. Tons of photos of Aiden and Josie together. Always happy, laughing, and that shining look of love in their eyes. Photos of them working together in a hospital, on trips together, or just around what I assume was perhaps a house they both shared. I pay particular attention to those details, and they clearly had a house that was well lived in. Personal photos and knickknacks all over the place, which is so contrary to Josie’s home now.
I keep scrolling backward through time, watching the evolution of the relationship in reverse order. Three fucking years is a long time to be with somebody. When I get to the post that documents the beginning of their relationship, I start scrolling back through chronologically, looking for any details that might strike me. I particularly look at the joint photos of Aiden and Josie to see if perhaps I can detect a waning interest on his part over time. If it’s there, it’s too subtle to see.
But the one thing that’s absolutely clear from every photo right up until the last is that Josie was really in love with him.
Chapter 16
Josie
If there’s one thing I appreciate about progress in a medical setting, it’s the fact that cafeteria food has gotten really good in recent years. This is a bonus for me, so I don’t have to worry about packing food to bring each day. Of course, I’m lucky if I’m able to scrape together fifteen to thirty minutes to be able to eat during my shift.
I choose a sandwich and a small side salad along with a bottle of water and make my way to the checkout lane. I’m only half paying attention to my surroundings when I hear, “Hey, Josie.”
I spin around and see Aiden standing two customers back. He has tray of food in his hands and I wonder why he’s here at the hospital cafeteria.
Aiden nods down to my tray and then back to me with a grin. “Looks like I get to have that lunch with you sooner than I thought.”
I laugh and give him a nod of acknowledgment. “I guess that would be true.”
I’m actually relieved to run into Aiden in a hospital setting. There’s something about having my white lab coat on that feels like some type of protection. I also didn’t want to be in any circumstance with him where he would take me out for lunch somewhere that is too “datelike.” So this works out perfectly.
“I’ll get us a table,” I tell him, and turn away to pay for my food before he can offer to do the same, because I know Aiden, and he would have.
I find a booth that’s out of the way and with no one sitting around. Not that I require privacy, but merely because the table looked like it had been wiped down recently. With the amount of hospital staff and visitors who come through this cafeteria, it’s not easy to find a clean table, as most are eating and dashing with another horde waiting for the table.
By the time I’ve chewed my first bite of sandwich, Aiden is sliding into the seat opposite me. I can tell with one glance down at his plate that there are some things that haven’t changed about him. He’s got his typical salad with a lean protein—this time a grilled chicken breast—and dressing on the side. Aiden was always one to eat super healthy and he worked out diligently.
Aiden beams across the table at me and says, “Gosh, Josie. It’s so damn good to see you again.”
“Likewise,” I say, although my smile doesn’t beam as brightly as his. “So, tell me all about what you’ve been up to over the last two years. Kevin has kept me updated when he hears from you.”
Aiden nods his head. “The ability to get emails out was spotty at best, so I wasn’t able to update Kevin all that much. My first year I worked down in Haiti. The country was struggling to recover from the last hurricane, as well as some strikes that were going on in their public hospitals. And that was good. Really important work we were doing. But ultimately it got a little boring, so I volunteered to go to Yemen. That’s where I’ve been for the past year, and it was a little dicey at times.”
I sit and listen to Aiden tell me an incredible story that fills me with horror and awe that he would do such a thing. Yemen has been involved in a full-scale war the for the past few years. Medical services are critically needed, and many hospitals have been shut down due to air strikes, shelling, lack of supplies, and doctors and nurses getting killed. I don’t know much about Doctors Without Borders, because frankly I never bothered to look after Aiden made his decision to leave. It’s almost as if I was avoiding any acknowledgment of the organization. But as Aiden continues, I learn that it was beyond dangerous. Many of his friends and colleagues have been killed over the past year.