"Princess & the Plug": Read Chapter Five

Chapter Five

Aliyah

Also, that night…

“So, how was your last day slumming it up with us regulars before you start dating the sexiest man in the building?” Jade asked me with a wink as she strolled over in her stiletto heels.

Even though walking the hospital halls was hard on the feet, Jade wasn’t one to compromise style for comfort. She stayed dressed to the nines in her designer threads despite the fact that she spent her days dealing with bodily fluids, while I could barely eat a crumb without messing up my clothes. She never ceased to amaze me.

“You’re hardly regular, Jade,” I retorted, glancing pointedly at her Chanel outfit. “Haute couture?” I questioned under a raised brow. “Didn’t you have two deliveries today?”

“Three,” Jade corrected, leaning on the nurses’ station with a sigh. “The last one was an emergency c-section. The husband was even louder than the wife. She had already worn me out with her screaming and hollering through her contractions. But as soon as I got her quiet with the epidural and started with the first cut, the husband began screaming about how I was splitting his wife in two.”

I couldn’t help but giggle at the visual. “Split his wife in two? Does he not understand what a c-section is?”

Jade shook her head, a baffled look on her face. “Girl, all I have to say is, he learned today. Or at least, he learned some of it. He passed out halfway through, and I had to have a group of nurses drag him out of the room.”

I closed the file I was making my final notes in and shook my head.

“Well, your day was much more eventful than mine. The most exciting thing that I saw today was a man who came in with an infected penis after injecting it with some steroids he said he got from a friend.”

Jade’s expression turned incredulous. “All that for a bigger dick? You’ve got to be fuckin’ kidding me.”

“I wish I was,” I admitted with a shrug. “But the male ego is unmatched.”

We made our way down the hall to my office, Jade keeping pace beside me.

“It sounds like you’re talking about someone in particular,” she teased.

I frowned. “Not really,” I said, shaking my head. “When you get down to it, all men are the same in that way. Rarely have I met one that’s been a surprise.”

“Probably because you’re just dating different versions of the same men. Might need to switch it up.” She shrugged, poking out her bottom lip. “But anyways, in light of your upcoming date, I have to ask, have you ever thought at all about dating a guy like the one from the club the other night?”

I frowned at her. “Not at all. Why would I think about that?”

“Because you two had an obvious connection, even without talking,” she replied nonchalantly. “You with your good girl vibe and him with the bad boy swag. The way you two flirted with your eyes. I mean, it was cute to watch. Like something from a movie.”

“Cute, huh? Don’t you always say cute is for babies?” I reminded her, rolling my eyes at her analogy.

We entered my office, and Jade plopped down in a chair as I began packing up my things to go home.

“Yes, cute is for babies. Babies that you and a man like that could be making.” Jade wiggled her brows suggestively, a playful smile on her face.

I scoffed, dismissing her lame sense of humor. “The last thing I need is to lay down with a man who would eventually leave me to raise another kid without a dad.”

Jade’s eyebrows knitted into a frown. “That’s a loaded statement. Why would you assume that he would leave you to raise a child alone? Because he’s not as clean-cut of a guy as you’re used to?”

“Yes.” I nodded, exasperated at having to explain things to Jade that I’d rather not deal with. “That’s exactly it. He’s a thug, and I know the type. Even the ones who may have the best of intentions can’t escape the things that come along with that life. I’ve worked too hard to get where I’m at to let a man come around with his toxic dick and ruin it.”

Jade didn’t miss a beat. “Girl, I feel you on that because there is just something about that toxic dick that messes with our brain waves. It’ll have even the smartest woman doing stupid shit.”

Silence ensued as we both fell into our thoughts after being reminded of our own toxic experiences. I couldn’t help but think about my on-again, off-again relationship with my own toxic ex, Romeo. Romeo and I met when we were residents in medical school, and it didn’t take long for me to decide that he was my one.

There was something about the idea of being a doctor and marrying a doctor that seemed to complete my fantasy. I had visions of us being like the Black version of Meredith Grey and Dr. Shepherd from my favorite show, Grey’s Anatomy. Everything was perfect between us until it was time to complete our residency program, and Romeo landed a residency in another state.

We tried the long-distance thing for a while, but at some point, things began to feel different. It wasn’t until I visited him when I realized the reason things felt different was that we were different. Romeo was cheating on me. I would’ve probably been able to get over it if it had been a meaningless fling, but it wasn’t that. He had a full-blown relationship going with another doctor in the hospital where he was completing his residency. I broke up with him immediately but instead of cutting him off completely, we continued to be friends.

That was my first mistake. I went from being his girlfriend to being his best friend to then being the chick on the side that he slept with when he realized the woman he thought he wanted wasn’t actually the one he needed. Somehow, I convinced myself that he would come to his senses at some point and choose me. I became the ‘pick me’ girl, and though wisdom has taught me that that shit never works out, at the time, I thought it would.

It wasn’t until Romeo told me that his girlfriend had become his fiancé that I finally ended things off for good. My heart was broken, and it took a long time for me to get over feeling worthless.

“All I know is that I’ve been there, and I never want to go back there again,” I concluded our conversation.

“Same here,” Jade agreed.

As our conversation wound down, I found my mind veering towards Ethan. The thought of our planned phone call that evening sparked a wave of excitement that tingled through me. He wasn’t just another man. Sure, there was the physical. Anybody with eyes could see that he was fine as hell. But it wasn’t just that. He was an enigma wrapped in a layer of charm and intellect, every bit the personification of my ideal man.

As I stuck my badge in my purse before walking out the double doors of the exit to staff parking, I couldn’t help but glance at the photo that I kept inside of my parents. It was one of the last professional photos that they’d taken together. The only thing I kept of my past life, and I made sure to keep it there so a day wouldn’t go by without me thinking of them.

My goal was always to create a life that I thought they would be proud of. Like my father wanted, I aimed to make a difference in the world and, like my mother wanted, I sought to exude her charm and ideals of femininity. The day my mother was killed, I changed into another person. I changed into the woman that I felt my parents would love and be proud of. I made every decision in my life hoping that I was earning their approval and, even though I made missteps along the way, I was motivated by the hope that they would think I was doing things right.

Swapping out my badge for my keys, I had just made it to my car when I heard the loud revving of an engine approaching me. I could tell from the sound that the car was speeding, because it was going much too fast to be in a parking lot with people walking. But I was also alarmed by the fact that it seemed to be coming right towards me.

The screeching of tires made my neck snatch up, and I realized too late what was happening when two men, their faces covered, jumped out of the moving car, and grabbed me. Before I could yell, one of them roughly covered my mouth, and I was lifted off my feet.

I had no time to react. The men moved quickly. They blindfolded and gagged me, and the next thing I knew, I was being tossed in the back of a car.

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