She jerked her head up and stared into my eyes. I watched as the realization of my words, along with what she had been doing, washed over her. My breath hitched as I waited for the usual signs of extreme mortification to follow—reddened cheeks, stammering speech, avoiding making eye contact. All the things that would make it easy for me to move in for the kill.

But I got none of those. Oh no, not from this chick.

Instead, Mia rose up and smacked the soggy napkins against my chest. As I fumbled to grasp them, she replied, “I’m so terribly sorry. I don’t know what came over me.” She then proceeded to give me a sickeningly, sweet smile—one that reminded me of Abby right before she gave one of us a verbal smack-down. When she edged closer to me, I knew I was in for it and then some. She cocked one brown brow. “How terribly embarrassing and inconvenient it must be for you to have such a sensitivity problem down there. I mean, chicks expect a night of passion with Mr. Latin Lover, and they get mere seconds.” She made a tsking sound in the back of her throat. “Pity.”

My mouth gaped open, and instead of a witty, maybe even scathing, come-back, I could only open and close it, like a dying fish out of water. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d been rendered completely speechless by a female outside of my mother and abuela.

Mia eyed me one final time before turning to Frank. “Mr. Patterson, I’ll be back to check on you on the hour,” she replied before quickly side-stepping me and stomping out of the room.

When the door closed behind her, Rhys and Frank howled with laugher. “Holy shit, dude! I can’t believe what she just said to you!” Rhys exclaimed, wiping the tears from his eyes.

I stared momentarily at the closed door before a smile spread across my cheeks. “Now, that gentlemen, is the future Mrs. Resendiz, right there.”

4

As soon as I slammed the door shut behind me, my thinly veiled composure evaporated and mortification replaced it. At the sound of muffled laughter from Mr. Patterson’s room, I hustled down the hallway, wanting to put as much distance as I could between myself and what had just happened. But as hard as I tried, AJ’s words, coupled with the image of me giving him a rubdown, kept playing over and over in my head. “Jesus,” I grumbled. Rubbing my eyes, I wished more than anything I could bleach those images out of my mind forever.

I skidded into the nurse’s station, mowing into Dee. “Oomph,” he muttered, as multi-colored paperwork scattered through the air like confetti. “Damn girl, where’s the fire?”

“In AJ’s pants,” I muttered.

“Huh?”

I shook my head. “Nothing. I’m sorry. Lemme pick these up for you.”

“Why is your face so red?”

“I said, it’s nothing. Just drop it, okay?” I bent over and started sorting the papers.

Dee harrumphed before crossing his arms over his chest. “Don’t tell me Mr. Gordon in 409 asked you for another sponge bath? Cause you know I’ll go down there and tell him I’ll take care of whatever he needs. I’m sure that’ll shut his perverted, old ass up!”

I rose up off the floor. “That’s not it.”

With a skeptical look, Dee took the paperwork and tossed it onto the desk. “Well, something sure has you riled, Mimi.”