“Is there something I can help you with?”
He scratched the back of his head and fumbled with his words.
“Yeah, I just wanted to thank you for earlier on the elevator. I really appreciate your fixing JaBria’s hair bow.”
I smiled, thinking about how bright her eyes lit up when I fixed her bow. “You’re welcome.”
“I also want to thank you for helping my mom out. She speaks highly of you.”
“Your mama’s a wonderful lady. I enjoy being her nurse.”
We stood there in awkward silence. I looked everywhere but at him, but I could feel his eyes on me. I felt myself cracking under his stare, so I needed to get out of his space quickly before I folded.
“Is there anything else I can help you with?”
“Oh, nah. I’m good. Thank you, I’ll let you get back to work.”
“You’re welcome.”
I turned on my heels and headed to my next patient. I turned around and saw Jabari was still standing outside the room watching me. Another chill shot through my body, hitting every part, muscle, and organ. With every step I made, I encouraged myself to remain professional. It made little sense that Jabari had me feeling all the tingles, and we hadn’t even had a five-minute conversation. I had two more patients to visit before returning to Gloria, so I took that as an opportunity to regain control of the situation before I ended up throwing everything to the wind and getting Jabari’s number.
By the time I returned to check on Gloria, my thoughts had settled. I felt a lot better than I did prior. However, when I opened the door, my eyes ballooned. JaBria was climbing on the doctor’s stool with wheels. Gloria was trying her hardest to tell her to get down, but she wasn’t listening. Jabari was back on his phone with his back turned to them. Whoever was on the phone had him ignoring everything around him. Before I could intervene to ask her to get down, the stool went one way, and she went the other way, falling flat onto the floor. She let out a loud scream, and Jabari finally turned around.
“Jesus!” Gloria shouted.
I immediately sprang into action, getting on the floor, checking her for any broken bones.
“Are you okay? Does this hurt?” I asked as I gently touched her arm and legs.
She shook her head but continued to scream and cry. She had a small cut on her knee. I ran to the cabinets to grab bandages and wipes and got back on the floor with her. Jabari’s facial expression showed fear and embarrassment as he squatted beside her. I rolled my eyes at him because if he had been paying his daughter or his mother any attention, this all could’ve been avoided.
“JaBria, you have to be careful,” Jabari instructed from behind me.
I stopped in the middle of placing the bandage on her knee. My head shot up and looked at him. I shot him a death glare. I continued to clean her bruises and kept my thoughts to myself. By the time I finished, she had stopped crying.
“All done, pretty girl. Do you feel better?”
She nodded and sniffed.
“How about I go get you a cookie and juice? Will that make you one million times better?”
“Yes, please,” her little voice replied.
She pulled at my heartstrings without even knowing. I stood on my feet.
“Amina, thank you so much. That could’ve been worse.”
“No problem, Gloria.”
I looked back at Jabari and shook my head before I walked out of the room. Before I reached the nurses’ station to grab the cookie and juice, I heard my name being called. It was Jabari.
“Amina! Amina!”
I slowly spun around, trying my best to control my irritation. “Yes?”
“About that back there, I’m not an irresponsible parent.”
“I never said you were.”
