Fridays were busy. They always were and this Friday was no different for Mallory Branton. She didn't primp up or slip into her favorite pumps. it was a sneaker and pencil skirt kind of day.
The waiting room of The Branton was full. Not a vacant seat within its tan walls. Her assistant had to relinquish his chair to a preterm mother. A feat that he didn't have to be persuaded into as he bustled around the room ensuring that everyone had what they needed with the routine questions he probably muttered in his sleep. Do you need water? Have you signed in? Care for an energy bite or granola bar, they're freshly made.
Home-cooked goodies. It wasn't his doing. It was Mallory's. She took her patients' health to heart and even more—her patients' unborn children. It was the prime reason she left the busy hospital behind and opened up her practice more than three years ago. Ignoring the naysayers who shook their heads at her for leaving a lucrative position behind and the ones that didn't withhold their 'I told you so's' during her sluggish first year with very few patients. Regardless, he kept hustling and grinding. Now, she stood in examining room one with contentment pulsing through her veins.
She loved busy days. Busy days kept the haters at bay.
"Everything's right on schedule," Mallory told the eager young couple as she rolled up the sleeves of the blindingly white lab coat. "Now, do you want to know the sex of your baby?
"Yes." Julissa quickly told lying on the examination table with her hands framing her protruding stomach.
"No," Greg said as soon as his wife released the word from her mouth. A sweet, endearing look from Julissa dripping with 'please let me have my way' swayed the gummy bear-built man. "Yes. We'd love to know."
A happy smile curved Julissa's lips as Mallory reached for the gel out of the drawer. "I'm glad y'all are both on the same accord." She squeezed the warm gel on Julissa's copper belly. "That'll come in handy when this little one gets here."
"Communication is the key to making anything successful." Greg regurgitated an iota of his spiel from his new book Life Keys to Unlock Any Door. Mallory hadn't read it but she'd probably get to it once she remembered where it was. "But it's also in how you speak to the person. You get more bees with—"
"Honey..." Julissa patted the hand he rested on her shoulder, "Dr. Branton doesn't want to hear that."
"This is knowledge for every—"
His words stalled on his tongue once Mallory angled the transducer in the right position. Strong heartbeats sounded through the room.
"You hear that..." Mallory smirked. This was one of her favorite moments; the wonder and love painted on the parent-to-be's faces followed by a dash of worry now coming to terms that there is a life depending on them. "A robust, healthy baby girl."
Greg squinted at the monitor, "You sure it's not a boy."
"Oh, I'm sure." She handed Julissa some paper towels after hooking the transducer back on the ultrasound machine. "It's a girl."
"All the things I need to buy," Julissa muttered as if she was making a checklist in her head already.
Greg disturbed his temple with short strokes as his wife wiped the gel off her stomach, "She won't need much. She's a baby. Crib. Changing table. Stroller. Let's keep it simple."
The glare in Julissa's eyes let Mallory know this wasn't a conversation for her, "Do you have any more questions for me?"
"Yes," Greg spoke up, his hand falling from his face. "I'm going out of town, do I need someone to stay with her."
Julissa shook her head, rolling her shirt down.
"Mr. Johnston, she's three months. Not nine." Mallory slipped her hands in the pocket of her lab coat with a light smile. "She'll be quite fine while you work and if anything unusual occurs she has my number."
With that Mallory hustled out of the room to her next patient not having time to unpack the tinges of bitterness that tainted her heart. Busy days were good for her. Busy days helped her forget.
*****
Time soared by. The morning quickly morphed into the evening and Mallory finally wished the last patient ado. She swapped her lab coat for the brown blazer hanging on the coat rack in her office. The room in the back of the clinic shined under the radiant sun pouring into the windows behind the cedar desk.
Just as she sunk into the desk chair with a relieving sigh the door swung open. Chris Armstrong strolled in with his model good looks and GQ style. Most would cast their eyes upon his rich, smooth mocha skin, and rigid jawline assuming he was eye candy for the many women who visited their favorite OB/GYN but he wasn't. The man standing in front of Mallory's desk with navy slacks, a baby blue dress shirt, and a yellow tie was a business graduate from Wharton who was working as her assistant slash receptionist to save money to start his own business without getting a bank loan.
"Tired?" Chris placed a manilla folder on her organized, polished desk.
"No." Mallory sat up, the swivel chair popping up with her movement as she scooted closer to the folder. "Just taking time to catch a breath before the madness."
"Matthew's coming home." His baritone rose with his eyebrows. "You should be jumping for joy."
She really should. Her brother was going to be back in the same zip code as her after all these years. But she wasn't extremely enthusiastic because she knew he wasn't going to be the only one resurfacing in her life. The more people she invited into her world meant more souls to lie to.
"I miss him. I do." She decided not to flip the folder open, instead, she stacked it on her laptop and pushed it all into her briefcase. "It's the other characters that come with his arrival that stresses me."
"Oh." Chris slipped his hands in his pocket with a knowing nod. "You mean Kazan. He can get on anybody's nerves."
This was true. Mallory knew it. "He's Matt's best friend." She smacked the briefcase on the desk hoping no one at the dinner party was going to do the same to Kazan's head. "So, I had to invite him but you, you should come."
"Nah. I can't. " He shook his head reading his watch. "I have plans so I have to get home, change. Anyway, I don't want to be in the same proximity as Kazan. I might catch a case and don't let him...all of them stress you out. Remember what's a risk."
"I remember," Mallory smiled warmly, grabbed her briefcase, and rounded the desk, "I'll take it easy. Be calm."
"Good." Chris' eyes stayed on her as she strutted out of the office studying her. The way she carried herself. The woman that she was. The person that she was. It all entranced him.
Mallory was someone he'd do anything for. Anything.
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