Total pages in book: 197
Estimated words: 199143 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 996(@200wpm)___ 797(@250wpm)___ 664(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 199143 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 996(@200wpm)___ 797(@250wpm)___ 664(@300wpm)
This time, she put in for emergency time off due to family. There was absolutely no reason for her boss to refuse the time, but that really depended on the man’s moods, to be honest. If she only had to go through the head nurse, then that would be one thing.
This was something else entirely.
Camilla made sure to clean up all her stations, and anything else that needed finishing last minute before she headed down to the spread of lockers where her stuff waited. At least, making sure she cleaned up helped with the shift of nurses just coming in. Less work meant more time one on one with the babies.
And God knew they needed that.
Waiting until she was dressed back in her normal clothes, and the second shift of nurses had come in and were settling into their routine, only then did she head upstairs in the hospital to the office where her boss would be waiting.
He’d said by the end of her shift, he would have an answer for her. So, here she was, ready for that answer, and hoping it would be good news. Because otherwise, she didn’t know what in the hell she was going to do for her father.
“Ah, Cam, there you are,” her boss said when she came to stand in his open doorway.
He didn’t look at her in the eyes.
Bad sign number one.
“So I looked over the request you put in for the emergency time off for your ... family thing,” her boss started.
“And you refused it.”
Finally, the man glanced up from behind his desk. “Well, you have to understand that the hospital is already understaffed, Camilla, and we can’t really afford for someone in your ward to take time off right now when there are already two other nurses on their vacation, and Jenny will be starting hers next week when Tania comes back.”
“Except this isn’t regular vacation time,” Camilla said, making sure each one of her words came out careful and measured. For now. “This is me putting in an emergency request for time off so I can fly to Ireland where my father just had major brain surgery.”
“He’s alive, yes?”
She blinked. “What?”
“Your father—he’s alive, came out of the surgery fine, didn’t he?”
Did not being able to speak, feed himself, or get out of bed mean he was fine? Because Cam didn’t think so, and those were all things Calisto would need to relearn. She would rather be there for a couple of weeks to be one of the people helping him learn how to use his body again to take care of his most basic needs instead of strangers who would only undoubtedly upset him more because they were strangers. Everyone had their pride, after all, but her father even more so.
“Just say you’re not giving me the time off,” Camilla said calmly, although at this point, she didn’t have the first clue how she managed it, “and keep everything else to yourself, if you wouldn’t mind.”
“Now, there’s no need for the attitude.”
“This isn’t attitude. That’s a line you don’t need to cross. The fact my father still has a heartbeat doesn’t negate the fact that he will spend the next several months of his life in intensive rehab before he will even walk again. So, if you could just say you’re not giving me the time off, so I can then go ahead and find another route in this hospital to get the time off I need to help care for my father, I would appreciate it.”
The man across the room stiffened in his chair. “You won’t get the time off, and that’s my final decision. If you try to go over my head about it, you won’t have a job to come back to at this hospital, Cam. I hope you understand.”
Camilla smiled.
Oh, was that what he thought?
There were a lot of things in her life that Camilla tried not to do. Using her family name, her husband’s name and status in Chicago, or even her contacts to get herself further ahead in anything in life was one of them. She just didn’t do it.
“So,” she said, “I suppose when I ask to speak to the board tomorrow and I casually mention how my husband will be pulling back on his five-million-dollar donation ... then they’ll be in line with your ... . position here, won’t they?”
Her boss’s jaw ticked.
Camilla shrugged. “Well, we’ll find out, won’t we?”
She didn’t wait for a response.
She really didn’t need one.
Baubles and Babies
Camilla’s smile grew the longer she held her brand new nephew. Little Nazio slept happily having just been fed by his mother, and then swaddled tight by his father in what was apparently his favorite blue muslin blanket.
Tom wasn’t really sure how newborns could have favorite things, but here they were. Who was he to argue with the parents of the boy?