Nurse's Date with a Billionaire Read online

  “Well I didn’t have much of a choice the first time, did I?”

  Kali turned away from him and opened the door, rolling her eyes where he couldn’t see. She flicked on the light.

  “It’s not much, but it’s cozy.”

  “It’s brilliant!” he said, striding in behind her. “I feel like I just walked into a little cabin in the woods.”

  “Yeah, thanks,” Kali said, a bit gruffly. In truth, she was quite pleased with how the basement apartment turned out. She spent a lot of time figuring out how to remodel the small space to make it passable as a studio. Her dad and brother helped with a lot of the manual labor, and she spent countless days popping in and out of thrift stores to find just the right decorations to give it a cozy feel. Craig didn’t need to know all of that, though. He needed to know he couldn’t flatter his way out of behaving responsibly.

  Craig took off his coat and set it on a nearby chair before walking around slowly to look more closely at a painting on the wall. Kali caught herself looking at him for a moment too long – she’d only ever seen him in the poofy coat or in a hospital gown. He was wearing a black t-shirt now, though, and he was wearing it well. She realized she was staring at his broad shoulders and brawny arms. Clearly he wasn’t a vagrant – no one maintains muscles like that while underfed.

  No, whoever he was in his real life, Craig clearly worked out and took care of himself. It also meant that he could easily overpower her. She reminded herself of this and cleared her throat.

  “I’ll run upstairs and bring down some food for you, in case you’re hungry. I’m not sure what I have, but…”

  “Oh no, I’m alright. Thank you for the offer, though. Is your husband…?”

  “No,” she said a little too quickly. Shoot, he didn’t need to know that she lived alone. As much as he joked about her being a threat to him, he was clearly the more threatening one with his crazy gym muscles.

  “My – roommate won’t mind,” she added. She didn’t have a roommate, but he didn’t need to know that. “It’s my townhouse. We share a wall with the owners of the townhouse next door, though. So be sure to keep it quiet.”

  “You got it, boss. Forgive me, but is this a painting of the Eiffel tower?”

  “Yes, you recognize it? Have you ever been?”

  He stared at it for a moment. “I feel that I have, but I can’t be sure. Have you?”

  “No. Not yet. Someday, though.”

  He smiled. “Ah, Paris est une belle ville!”

  “You speak French?”

  He made a face as though he was impressed with himself. “Apparently, I do.”

  She looked around for a moment. “Alright, well, towels are in the bathroom. You can help yourself to the tea or whatever is in the kitchen. The TV should work, too. And, uh, have a good night.”

  “Thank you Kali. You too.”

  It wasn’t exactly how she dreamed her first rental of the studio would go, but oh well. Kali went up the stairs, closing the door behind her and making a big show of locking the door that separated the basement staircase from her kitchen. The lock was broken, but he didn’t need to know that. She shoved a door stop under the door so it wouldn’t open easily. Just in case.

  As much as she thought it’d be impossible to sleep with a stranger downstairs, Kali was too exhausted to even think about it. Her first week in the ICU wiped her out. She laid down in her bed and within a minute, dozed into a heavy sleep.

  Chapter 4

  Craig listened as Kali walked up the stairs and locked the door behind her. He thought joking about Sweeney Todd would make her feel more comfortable – to sort of point out that he knew it was odd for her to take a strange man into her home. But after he said it, he realized that it might’ve made her feel worse.

  He rubbed his forehead. Hopefully he wouldn’t need to inconvenience her too long. He was more than grateful that she offered him a place to stay. This place was loads better than the men’s shelter. He made a tiny, little white lie that the shelter was full. They never said they were full. But Craig took one look at the place and turned around. It looked pretty full anyway. He decided he’d rather freeze to death than spend a night there. Somehow it was even worse than his hospital room with the dying man.

  After inspecting the space, he decided to take a shower. He stared at himself in the mirror for a few minutes before getting undressed. It was like looking at a stranger. His face looked vaguely familiar, like someone he knew long ago, but he couldn’t have picked himself out of a lineup if he needed to. It was too uncanny to stare at his reflection; he turned on the shower and stepped into the hot water. Kali left some rather sweet smelling shampoo and soaps that made the experience thoroughly enjoyable.

  After toweling off, he settled into bed. It, too, was luxurious in it’s own way, the blankets with just enough weight to make him feel wrapped up without feeling overheated. Despite wanting to stay up to try to remember something about who he was, he quickly slipped into a dreamless sleep.

  The next morning he awoke naturally; there wasn’t much sunlight coming into the basement. He could hear a lot of activity above him – Kali was walking around, the floor creaking beneath her, and he could somewhat make out her voice talking in a high pitch. She seemed to be talking to an animal or a small child. He smiled to himself – even beautiful, stern Kali let her guard down sometimes.

  He got dressed, feeling a bit annoyed that he didn’t have another set of clothes. The homeless shelter gave him a small bag with basics the night before – socks, underwear, and little packs of tuna and granola bars. At least he had some fresh undergarments, but getting anything new would be difficult without money.

  He knew he had money – somewhere, he must have a bank account. It might just be a few days until he could access it. Not knowing his own name was a bit of a hurdle.

  He made his way up the stairs and knocked quietly on the door. He heard Kali stop moving.

  “Yes?” she called out.

  “Morning,” he responded. “I was wondering if I could have a word with you.”

  He heard her walk towards the door before opening it a crack. “Okay?”

  He cleared his throat. “I promise I don’t bite.”

  She sighed, apparently weighing the risk of letting him inside versus having to ignore him all day. She opened the door.

  He smiled and took a step into the kitchen. She closed the door behind him.

  “I heard you speaking to someone up here? Was it your…roommate?”

  “No, I was feeding the cats.”

  “You have cats?”

  Kali nodded, stooping down to pick up two small bowls from the ground.

  “You have two cats?”

  “No,” she said, rinsing the bowls in the sink. “They’re not mine, they’re foster cats. They’re just staying with me until they’re adopted.”

  Craig leaned to peer into the next room, spying a large rectangular cage on the ground and a tall bird cage, fluttering with activity, above it.

  “And those?”

  “Oh. Foster ferrets. And budgies. I take any overflow animals from the shelter. They don’t have enough room to keep them all the time, especially in the winter.”

  “I see. So along with homeless people, you host homeless animals as well.”

  “That’s right,” she said dryly.

  “I thought I dreamed up the menagerie up here, I had no idea that you were running such an operation.”

  She leaned against the counter and crossed her arms. “What did you want to talk to me about?”

  “Ah, right, well – ”

  “Did you come up here for breakfast?”

  “No, actually, the shelter provided me with some courtesy tuna. I’m happy to share it with you, in fact, I find room temperature tuna to give a great start to the day.”

  “Ugh, gross,” she said, cracking a smile. He liked those rare smiles.

  “Your loss. No, I have a proposition for you.”

  She raised a
n eyebrow. “Oh really?”

  “Yes. You might’ve noticed that I’m having trouble recovering my memories.”

  She nodded.

  “I really thought that they’d be back by now,” he continued, “but they just aren’t. So I find myself in this grand predicament where I don’t have an identity, or any means to discover it.”

  “Right,” she said slowly.

  “And the thing is, I must have a past. I’m sure I have a life somewhere, but until I can find it, I’m sort of out of luck.”

  She stared at him. “Clearly.”

  He smiled. “See, I can tell you’re really not buying into this, so I think I can safely say that I’m not a salesman in my real life.”

  A half smile formed on Kali’s lips, but she said nothing.

  “Hear me out. I’d like to arrange to take a small loan from you, just enough to buy another set of clothes, perhaps, and to arrange transportation on the bus. We can put it in writing, and once my memories return, I’ll return the money with whatever interest rate you choose.”

  “Sounds like you might’ve been a banker in your past life,” she replied.

  “Hm.” He paused. “No, that doesn’t sound right. But I like the idea, keep them coming!”

  She rubbed her forehead. “How much money are you talking?”

  “Literally as close to nothing as possible. Perhaps a month bus pass, a few more shirts and the like. And of course, I can reimburse you for any petrol that we use in acquiring these things.”

  “Petrol…” she repeated. “Right. And an interest rate that I set? Two hundred percent?”

  “Sure. I assure you that I plan to inconvenience you as little as possible. I’d like to walk the area where I was found, to see if it triggers any memories. Hopefully that’ll do the trick.”

  “Do you know where you were found?”

  “Ah, I will also be needing your expertise for this. I’m not sure how I was even brought to the hospital.”

  Kali frowned. “I see.”

  She wasn’t agreeing to anything, but at least she was listening. He took it as a good sign. “Also, I’ll be glad to repay you the full cost of renting the room.”

  “And if you never regain your memory?”

  Craig paused. The thought hadn’t even crossed his mind. Surely that couldn’t be possible? Surely someone was looking for him?

  “I’m sorry, that was mean,” Kali said, softening her tone.

  “No, you’re right,” he said. “I just…hadn’t considered it.”

  “Oh,” she said.

  “I’d like to think of myself as a positive person,” he said with a wink. “It’s easy to do when I don’t know who I am.”

  “Good point.” She laughed. “So, you want to go to the thrift store and get some cheap clothes? And then find out where the ambulance picked you up?”

  “Yes,” he replied. “And I’d like to return there. I think it’d help.”

  Kali stood for a moment, studying him. “Well – I’m off for the next two days. From work. I guess I can help you poke around a bit.”

  “Really? That’s brilliant!”

  “I need some coffee first, though,” she said, pouring herself a cup. “Would you like some?”

  “Sure.”

  “Milk and sugar?”

  He crossed his arms. “I don’t know.”

  “Oh, right,” she said. “Well, try this and tell me if it tastes good to you.”

  He took a sip of the coffee and made a face. “That’s…not good at all.”

  She laughed, pulling open the fridge door to grab milk. “Try it with this.”

  He poured in some milk and took another taste. “Oh, much better.”

  “Good,” she said, busying herself with cleaning up the kitchen.

  “Can I help with that?”

  “Uh, no, that’s fine. I need to get ready so just, uh, stay here. I’ll be back in a minute.”

  He obediently didn’t move from his seat, swiveling only to get a better look at one of the cats who emerged from hiding to give him a dirty look.

  After a few minutes, Kali reemerged with a laptop. She also changed out of her hooded sweatshirt and into a t-shirt. Craig couldn’t help but look at her. Before this, he’d only seen her dressed in bulky scrubs, and she was gorgeous even then. Now he had to force himself not to stare at her. Though he obviously couldn’t remember all of the women he’d seen in his life, he was sure that she was one of the most beautiful women he’d ever seen with his own eyes.

  He cleared his throat and motioned to the laptop. “What’s this for?”

  “For you. I’m going to find the phone numbers for some of the local ambulance companies and see who brought you in.”

  “Oh, brilliant.”

  They spent the next half hour making calls until they got their answer: Craig was found down at the edge of James Madison park, on the corner of North Butler and East Gotham streets.

  “That sounds ominous,” Craig said. “Is that Gotham like, Batman’s Gotham? Did Batman attack me?”

  She stared at him, a blank look on her face. “I think you may be onto something.”

  Craig nodded. “I knew it. Shall we head out and find him then?”

  Kali sighed. “Alright, sure.”

  He considered opening the front door for her, but thought it might be overkill. People didn’t do things like that nowadays, did they? She’d probably think that he was gunning to steal her car. He settled for taking the front seat and not making any sudden movements towards the radio.

  It only took a few minutes to get into town, and Kali was excited to find a parking spot on a street a block away from the park. Craig was impressed by how smoothly she parallel parked, but decided to keep it to himself. No need to be a brown noser; he looked out the window to see if anything jogged his memory.

  As soon as Kali stepped out of the car, a truck pulled wildly in front of her. Engine still running, a large, red-faced man charged towards her. Craig only realized what was going on when he heard the man yelling.

  “You stole that spot out from under me!” screamed the man. “And you hit my truck doing it!”

  He gesticulated to a large indentation on the side of the truck bed. Craig hurriedly undid his seatbelt and got out of the car.

  Kali took a step back. “I don’t think my car is even tall enough to, uh – ”

  The man poked Kali hard, forcing her to fall backwards.

  Craig felt a flash of rage burn through his chest. He’d had enough of this fellow.

  Chapter 5

  Kali fell into the side of her car. She couldn’t believe that a single poke could dislodge her like that – looking down, she realized she’d slipped on some ice. She coughed, trying to recover after the air was knocked out of her lungs.

  That never happened to her before – not in real life anyway, except one time in high school gym class when a game of flag football got out of hand and she landed flat on her back. Even with her most violently delirious patients, she’d always managed to get by without too much damage.

  A second later, she saw the blur of Craig’s jacket rushing towards her attacker. Though the man was fairly large, Craig was taller and clearly faster, and in a moment had him by the scruff of his jacket.

  “That’s quite enough,” Craig said firmly, holding the man immobilized against his own truck.

  “Get off me!” he yelled, struggling to free his hands. One arm broke free and a flailing elbow landed square on Craig’s eye.

  Craig calmly grabbed the man’s arm and pinned it back to his side. “Not so easy with someone your own size, is it?”

  Kali came to her senses and straightened up. “Craig – let him go!”

  He peered back over his shoulder at her. “Are you sure? I can hold him here ‘til the police arrive.”

  “Are you kidding me?” the guy called out, squirming angrily in Craig’s firm grip. “You’re gonna call the police over this? I’ll sue you!”

  Craig turned bac
k to him. “You’re going to sue me? After coming at us, ranting and raving, then assaulting a lady? Luckily our dash camera caught your whole saga on video. Bravo, it’ll be an award winner.”

  The man stopped struggling and his tone quickly changed. “Please, let me go, this is all a big misunderstanding.”

  Craig loosened his grip, patting the man playfully on the shoulder. “Is it? That’s funny, because I also heard you accuse us of hitting your truck in a spot that we couldn’t possibly have reached with our little car.”

  “You’re right,” he stammered, rubbing his neck with one hand. “My mistake.”

  “Can I see your phone?” asked Craig gently, turning to Kali.

  She nodded, still a bit in shock, and pulled her phone out of her back pocket. She watched as Craig took a picture of the man and his license plate.

  “Good. Now if we return to our car and anything is amiss, I’ll know who to contact,” he said lightly, as though he were making plans for dinner.

  “Yeah yeah,” the guy said, walking back to his car. “Crazy Irishman,” he muttered.

  Craig turned to Kali in surprise. “Did he just call me an Irishman? He’ll clearly have a hard time identifying me in court. Then again, maybe someone can identify me in court, it’d be quite the help really.”

  Kali watched as the man got back into his truck and drove off.

  “Are you alright?” Craig said, taking a step towards her.

  She cleared her throat. “Yes…yes, I’m fine.”

  “Are you really alright? Let me get you a coffee. Or a hot cocoa. You can put it on my tab.”

  She let out a small laugh. “No, it’s alright. I’m okay. I guess I just – I was stunned. I didn’t know how to react. I’m not usually…easily surprised.”

  It was true. She’d dealt with so much craziness at work that she almost expected it. One lumbering idiot in a truck, though, and she reverted back to being a quiet and meek girl. Kali felt disgusted with herself. How could she have let that man literally push her around?

  “Hey, it’s okay. You weren’t expecting to be assaulted just then. Happens to the best of us.”