Never too Old

He’s absolutely gorgeous. Curly dark brown hair, piercing green eyes, and the slightest dimple on his right cheek when he smiles. Not to mention his slim body, not too tall and not too short. I’m tempted to say perfect, except for the fact that he looks like he’s in his late twenties and I’m only seventeen. But his good looks aren’t enough to completely distract me from the pain shooting up and down my left arm. I think it’s broken, but I wouldn’t know because I have never been to the ER before. I just had to try skateboarding with Link. I knew he liked me, so I agreed to let him teach me how to skateboard, and, well, now I’m here, in the ER with nurse gorgeous. I hear him start talking, but I miss half of it. “What?”
         He looks up from his clipboard. “I said, I’m nurse Nolan, please don’t laugh I know male nurses are funny, and rate the pain from 1 to 10, 1 being not bad and 10 being excruciating.” His eyes flicker down my body, and feeling self conscious, I put my right arm over my already slim stomach.
         Getting over the check-out, I move my left arm a little, and almost scream from the pain. “10,” I squeak. He writes something on his clipboard and then puts it down to start examining me. He drags his fingers up my arm, gently putting pressure every inch or so, and sending fireworks up my arm. I know it should have hurt, but his touch is like electric. I see him trying to keep his careful nurse composure, but I can tell he feels something too, or at least I hope he does. Anyways, he continues pressing, only stopping when he sees my face contort in pain at his fifth press. “Can you not do that?” I ask, a little breathless from both the pain and the fireworks.
         He smiles and nods slightly, filling my stomach with butterflies. “Okay, Kiora, I have the information I need to confirm that your arm is broken, but we still need x-rays to determine exactly which bone is broken. You’re probably going to be here awhile, so you might want to cancel any plans for tonight. But first, exactly how did you break your arm?” He picks his clipboard up and poises his pen above the paper, ready to record my every word.
         “Well,” I start, “my friend Link was teaching me how to skateboard, he let my hand go, and halfway down the hill I fell. Pretty run of the mill, huh?” I laugh, but he stays serious.
         “And Link drove you here?” Is that jealousy I hear?
         “Yeah, but I don’t think I will be going on another date with him anytime soon.” I see his eyes light up a little bit, but I pretend not to notice.
         He clears his throat before handing me an ugly blue gown and matching shorts. “Just change into those, take off any metal, and open the curtain when you’re done and we can go down to radiology.” He smiles with that adorable dimple and closes the curtain. I take off everything except my underwear and put on the gown and shorts, trying to keep my arm as rigid and still as possible, but it still hurts. Why did I choose today to wear my underwire push-up? Oh, that’s right, I was trying to impress Link. Ugh.
         I open the curtain and start to walk out, only to almost run into him. “Nurse Benson?” He turns around and smiles.
         “Call me Sean. Ready for radiology?” I nod, folding my arms over my chest, still feeling self conscience. “If it helps, you look a lot better in the gown and shorts then most of the people who come in here. At least you’re not covered in blood.” He shoots a smile back at me, and I feel warm tingles everywhere. No, I tell myself. I can’t go after an older man that has seen me like this. “Alright,” he says, “this is radiology, Kathy will be doing your x-ray. It’s been a pleasure but you’re on your own now.” He shoots me another gorgeous smile before handing me a little piece of paper. “Don’t open it here,” he whispers. I nod and return the smile before heading into radiology.
         

         Three hours later I finally get home. “Mom? Tara?” I don’t hear anything. I take off my brown faux-leather jacket and step out of my shoes and head towards the kitchen. My arm itches and I just want to take some of the pain meds I picked up and fall asleep to a show on the food network. Just as I’m filling up a glass of water, Tara walks in.
         When she sees my arm, she squeals and runs over to me. “What the hell happened?” She grabs my arm, almost making me drop my glass.
         “Jesus, Tara!” I yell. We may be twins, but she is way more overdramatic than I am. Other than that, we’re identical. We share the same thick dark brown hair, caramel skin, and dark brown almost black almond eyes. I’m just a little curvier than Tara, but guys like curvy, right? I take two pills out of the bottle while Tara examines my red cast and swallow them with the water. Once the glass is empty I pry my arm away to throw it in the dishwasher. “You know my date with Link?” I ask her. “Well, he let go of me when I wasn’t ready and I fell going down the hill.” Tara starts to laugh before I hit her with my good hand.
         “Ow! Chill Ki, you’re just really uncoordinated.” She rolls her eyes and starts to walk away. “Oh, and mom called,” she said. “She’s going to be late and she’s picking up subway.” I was about to say okay but she disappeared upstairs.
         “Okay, yeah I’m fine, thanks for asking.” Did I mention that Tara is a little self centered? Oh well. I walk into the living room and lay down on the couch, turning on the food network but not paying attention. And then I remember the piece of paper from Sean. I take it out of my jeans and unfold it to reveal seven digits. He gave me his number! But…why? I’m way younger than him, and he is too cute to be single at his age. Should I call him now? Or later? Or should I call at all? On one hand this could be bad, but on the other hand, it could turn into something. I take out my little Pantech and dial the number.
         He picks up on the third ring. “Hello?”
         “Um, hey. You gave me your number?” I laugh a little, not knowing what to expect.
         “Oh yeah, Kiora! I was hoping you would call! I have to admit, I wasn’t sure…but I wanted to ask you something.”
         My heart skipped a beat. “Yeah?”
         I heard him take a deep breath before he said anything. “I wanted to know if you would get a cup of coffee with me?”
         “Um, yeah, sure! When? Where?” I can’t believe this! The most gorgeous guy in the world asking me out? This has to be a dream.
         “How about you meet me at  the Starbucks on main street? Tomorrow at four?”
         “Okay, I’ll be there.” I paused. “Um, Sean?”
         “Yeah?”
         I had to ask. “Not to be rude, but how old are you?”
         “If I tell you, will you promise to still come to our date tomorrow?”
         My stomach flipped at the word date. “Of course! I was just curious.”
         “Alright. I’m thirty two.”
         I let the sink in before answering carefully. “Cool. So I’ll see you tomorrow?”
         “Yeah, I can’t wait. Bye!” He hung up. Thirty two? That’s fifteen years difference. I’ll still go, It’s just a little weird that he’s so much older and showing interest in me, of all people.