Us Against the World

29. The MRI

"You're chewing on your nail again," Ezra impishly notes. From his seat on the orange plastic chair next to me, he pulls my hand gently out of my mouth and kisses my pulse, which picks up its pace at the touch of his lips on my skin. A line of fire darts across my skin. "Are you sure you don't want to take the relaxant?"

"Pfft, that's for babies!" I scoff, then bring my hand back to my mouth, chewing on the nail that I had almost gotten off. Ezra chuckles and takes my hand again.

"Meera, sweetheart, everything will be fine," he tells me with a laugh. "I'll be right here with you when you wake up, and then we'll go home and watch TV for the rest of the day."

"It'll be night by then," I say and yawn, wiping a hand across my face. "Why do medical personnel take so long to start?"

"Because they have a lot of people to take care of too." Ezra's mouth twitches. "You're impatient but also nervous. I'm not sure what to think of you sometimes, babe."

"I'm rightfully impatient and nervous," I snap. "I'm paying for their time! Shouldn't I get it when I come during my appointment?"

"That's fair...maybe he's just running late?"

"Maybe." I pick at my fingernails. "He did mention once that he goes from the pediatric to the adult ward."

"Sounds like my ex," Ezra muses, staring at the huge white light that hangs above the bed that they're going to bring me into the operating room on. "My first wife was a nurse. She used to come home exhausted every day from work and it was very rare that she got a day to herself."

"It certainly is a difficult job, from what I can gather," I agree. He never talks about his past relationships...this is interesting. The doctor had better not come now. "What was she like?"

"My ex?"

"Yeah...if you don't mind?"

"She was...headstrong." He snickers. "She liked things her way and she was very ambitious. She was also quite intelligent..." he hesitates.

"What?" I frown. "What is it?"

"Nothing, nothing." He shakes his head, laughing. "I just realized that I think I have a type."

"Do you?"

"Yeah. Stubborn, ambitious, intelligent girls." He winks at me. "I can't say that's a bad thing, though."

I snort. "Naturally." I put my phone on my lap and lean on the armrest. "Sorry, I'm just checking on Chandini. She asked me when I was half-asleep if she could stay with Spencer while I came for my MRI, and my dumbass agreed. So now, I'm left ridden with anxiety while I try to make sure she's not up to any sneaky business."

"She's a teen," Ezra says. "Obviously, she will be."

"That's not helping," I grumble. "And to add to that, Riya keeps asking me for information from here since she's been trying to apply for a Visa. Why the hell is it so hard to get that crap? It's just a paper or something..."

"Ask the government." Ezra scowls. "They make everything difficult."

"What else do they have to do?" I sigh. I glance at him. "Uh, hey, if you don't mind me asking, why did you both break up?"

"Huh?"

"You and your ex," I repeat. "Why did you guys divorce?"

"We...we were going in different directions," Ezra says after a moment. He runs his tongue over his lips and his chest rises heavily. "We loved each other, and I still care about her, but she and I rarely spent time together. Our work schedules were so imbalanced that whenever I was sleeping, she was working, and vice versa. My company was also still rising up the ranks, so I used to spend long hours at the office whenever she would be home." He shrugs. "We had plans for a family, but no child should have to grow up with only one parent. It wouldn't have been fair, not to the kid, and not to either of us, so...we decided to divorce."