“How do you, um, unwind after work?”
Trinity stopped all the way and inhaled through her nose while blinking a few times. It took her a moment to reply, in full honesty:
“Sex.” She shut her locker with a slam and started walking. “Really… intense sex. Mind blowing sex. Just—”
“Oh, okay,” Mel merely said. What else was she supposed to say. “That’s great I—“
“You should try it sometime.” Santos swung her backpack strap over her shoulder.
“I… haven’t had sex in a while,” Mel breathed out a small laugh. “Not sure if it’ll work.”
“Of course it will. Have someone in mind?”
“I actually don’t have anybody, at the moment.” Mel glanced down at her feet.
She hasn’t had anybody in a long while.
“Is there… anyone you like?”
Yeah, but he’s married, she thought, just as the devil himself came into view around the corner.
He was on his way to the lockers, and heat instantly crept up on her face.
“Hey,” he greeted them both. Mel liked to think his eyes lingered on her a bit longer. Santos didn’t bother to acknowledge him and hurried her pace ahead. “Thought you’d left on time today.”
“I- I did, yeah,” Mel replied. “I was in a session with Claudia.”
Claudia was the hospital’s therapist, and he was her patient, too.
“Ah.” He nodded, and started to undo and play with the strings of his scrub pants. Her eyes followed his hand movements involuntarily because, why else would her eyes ever go there.
His wedding band glinted.
“Yeah.” Mel cleared her throat. Focus. “This week’s homework is finding new ways to unwind after a shift.” She held tight onto the strap of her bag with one hand and scratched her forehead with her thumb. “How do you, um, relax? After a shift?”
She squinted her eyes up at him. She couldn’t wait to get out of here and rest her sight in her dim-lit apartment.
“Um-” He tore his gaze away for a moment, then shaking his head a bit, he answered. “I picked up jogging recently. I go around the neighborhood and run. For hours and hours.”
For some reason, she expected him to say something related to his kids or wife like going out to the park, perhaps.
“You can’t run that many hours, though,” Mel said.
“Yeah I do.” He raised his brows to make a point. “I can go all night if I want to.”
An incredulous look etched on her face, all while amusement flickered on his features.
Ah, he wasn’t being serious.
“But of course, who’d want to do that,” he continued. “So I usually just run about six to seven miles. Like an hour, at most. Then take a long shower. Eat a fulfilling dinner. Cooking helps me, as well.”
Now, she couldn’t help but picture him doing all that.