VII. Provider.

I hate hospitals. Too white. Too sterile. Too full of grandmothers who guilt their grandchildren into sneaking them booze while they recover from a hip replacement, as evident from the overly opulent bouquet of hydrangeas I was riding up twelve floors with.

The only other person in the elevator was a nervous looking teenager with skater shoes and a floppy haircut. I caught him staring at my in my work tank top and turned my head suddenly to make kissy faces at him. He turned bright red and I had to stop myself from laughing when he practically fell out of the elevator doors when they opened, skittering off in the opposite direction.

I made my way to room 1214, which housed the world's worst old woman, Abigail Simmons, or Nana to me. When I finally struggled to get the door open she wasn't alone and I didn't even try to hide my shock. "Baldy! What are you doing here?"

"Hey, Kitten." A genuine smile stretched across my roommate's face, a smile I hadn't seen in weeks. I had an endless string of platonic love for Sam Lamont but it didn't make up for the fact that I hadn't seen his in forever because he was always in the hospital, or at least in one of the hospital's nurses. How his hadn't turned green and fallen off, I didn't know. He was sitting in the lone chair by Nana's bed with five playing cards in his hand, I'd obviously interrupted their card game. "Getting my kicked by Miss Gail here before my shift starts."

"Ah, my young grasshopper. Perhaps I will teach you the ways one day," Nana stated dramatically, laying her full house down on her lap while Sam had five odds. "But for now, you owe me twenty big ones."

Sam grumbled but reached in his pocket, pulling out a twenty-dollar bill that she all but snatched out of his hand gleefully. "Damnit! That's the tenth hand in a row, how do you do it?"

"She cheats, you idiot," I helpfully informed him while I sat the vase on the dresser across from the bed. "There's like, six casinos on the eastern seaboard she's banned from. You're just a er."

"Shut it, heathen!" Nana growled at me, before reaching a thin hand to Sam's cheek lovingly. "Samuel, be a dear and have a nurse bring me a Sprite. I'm parched."

"Sure thing, Gail." He kissed her on the forehead and crossed over to me, stopping just short of being in my personal bubble. "You doin' okay, Kitten? What's up?"

"Nothing really. Oh, my boss is our new neighbor, but that's about it."

His forehead scrunched a little. "Tony moved in?"

"No, the other guy. The guy from England who bought the restaurant. I guess his friend bought the duplex from Sehun as a gift, I don't know, Europeans are weird"

If Sam wasn't confused before he sure was now. "What the ? What do you even know about this guy? This whole thing sounds weird, do I need to be worried about this?"

I rolled my eyes up to the high heavens. Sometimes Sam gets overprotective for no reason, especially when it comes to other guys. I'd think it was jealousy if I didn't know any better. "I don't think Sehun would have sol