My Kind of Town
>> Queen's Medical Center Privatization
Quinn Ah Sun was not the kind of guy to sit around waiting for a call. But he didn't have much choice at the moment. Ten minutes already since he'd called his cousin Lily, and she said she'd call back. She was on a long-distance call with her brother Laird in California. Probably had lots to talk about, what with their younger brother Lance also being a patient here.
Eleven minutes.
Plus, Laird was about to graduate from Stanford Business, so there were plans and arrangements to make. Quinn wanted to call again, but not the way things were between them now. That would only piss her off more.
Twelve.
Quinn had to get out of this hospital ASAP. Nice as everyone was -- especially the lovely nurse Nina Ramones -- the place was still like a prison for an active guy like Quinn.
Thirteen.
The question was, where would he go when they let him out. The docs said he'd have to do some rehab on the leg that took the .22 slug. Until a few hours ago, Lily had insisted he come home with her to Hawaii Kai -- inviting him to move in with her. And he was all for it.
Fourteen.
But something happened while Quinn was knocked out from the painkillers, and it changed Lily. She wouldn't talk with him when he called her home, telling her maid to tell Quinn he could "go straight to hell." But what had happened? That's why he wanted to talk with Lily, to ask her.
Fifteen.
The door opened and in a heartbeat Quinn forgot all about Lily, the clock and the phone. There was Nina, in her civilian clothes. And my God what a civilian she was. Instead of baggie scrubs and de rigueur white tugboat shoes, Nina now wore platform sandals, black jeans that revealed an intoxicating combination of curves, and a silky kind of cream colored shirt, er, top, uh, blouse, with no sleeves, and a dipping neckline that begged peeks into her shadows. Fashion was not Quinn's thing. But he knew what he liked. And he liked what he saw. One minute Nina was Florence Nightingale, the next she was a fantasy come to life.
"Wow," he said cleverly.
But it was exactly the right thing to say.
"Thank you," Nina said.
Recently and painfully divorced, Nina and her ego needed a few strokes. She needed to be appreciated as a woman, not just a nurse. She could see the appreciation in Quinn's eyes and hear it in that one little "wow."
"The docs say I'm going to need some help at home when they let me out," he said. "A private nurse."
Don Chapman is editor of MidWeek.
His serialized novel runs daily in the Star-Bulletin
with weekly summaries on Sunday.
He can be emailed at dchapman@midweek.com