At the end of the day, the doctors who are not on call tonight leave one after the other.
“Dulcina, aren’t you on duty tonight? Why don’t you leave? Do you want to stay and work overtime?”
Dulcina Calvo pursed her lips and smiled, “I’ll get my things.”
She snorted, not quite wanting to leave. She looked at the pregnancy test form and finally put it in the inside drawer of her desk.
…
Esteban Zaragosa waited half a day downstairs at the hospital but saw no one come out. Looking at the time, it was also the end of the day, so Esteban Zaragosa became restless and got out of the car and went straight into the hospital to look for them.
Arriving at Dulcina Calvo’s office, I found her alone in the large office, the little girl slumped over her desk, apparently asleep.
Esteban Zaragosa approaches at a brisk pace.
Dulcina Calvo was not sleeping soundly and woke up when he approached.
“Esteban Zaragosa? What brings you here?”
the girl asked, rubbing her eyes, a little confused.
The man’s voice was low and magnetic: “You forgot, I texted you half an hour ago and told you I was waiting for you downstairs, why didn’t you come down and sleep here instead?”.
Dulcina Calvo then recalled: “Oh … I forgot. I’m a little sleepy today.”
Esteban Zaragosa couldn’t stand the reprimand, but he couldn’t resist remembering: “In the future, when you sleep in the office, remember to cover yourself with a blanket so that you don’t catch cold.
Dulcina Calvo nodded and got up to take off her lab coat, and before she could turn around, she was suddenly grabbed by Esteban Zaragosa in a cross-legged embrace.
Dulcina Calvo gasped, the hazy dream of a moment before being shaken.
“You, put me down now… this is an office…”
Esteban Zaragosa was unconcerned and frowned slightly, “Aren’t you sleepy? Now lean on my arms and you can sleep.”
“…”
Now I wasn’t sleepy at all.
“I was, I was scared out of my sleep by you.”
But Esteban Zaragosa still did not put her down, but led her at a leisurely pace towards the office: “You don’t look well, lie down”.
Dulcina Calvo knew he wasn’t going to let her down, so she shamelessly buried her face in his arms, thinking that no one else would be able to see her face anyway, and that the only person who would be embarrassed would be Esteban Zaragosa.
I can’t see her, I can’t see her.
“Dr. Dulcina?”
It’s really … Murphy’s Law!
Dulcina Calvo looked up to see one of the doctors in her department, who was returning from dinner.
Dulcina Calvo’s clumsy hands and feet, the man still embraced by Princess Esteban Zaragosa, “Hello, Dr. Rio, how are you?”
Dr. Rio gossiped and looked at Esteban Zaragosa who was hugging her and asked with a smile, “Dr. Dulcina, you don’t introduce yourself either, this is your boyfriend…, right?”
Dulcina Calvo seconds those who are discouraged.
Esteban Zaragosa had been the first to speak: “No”.
Dulcina Calvo and Dr. Rio froze, quite embarrassed.
But the next moment Esteban Zaragosa had broken down to admit: “Hi, I’m Esteban Zaragosa, Dulcina Calvo’s fiancé. We are getting married soon”.
Dulcina Calvo: “…”
Dr. Rio smiled with his eyes, “So that’s it, Dr. Dulcina, your boyfriend is so funny he scared me.”
Dulcina Calvo smiled dryly, “So, if there’s nothing else, shall we go first?”.
“Okay, okay, you guys go ahead.”
Once Esteban Zaragosa had taken Dulcina Calvo to the car, she covered her face with her hands and said embarrassed, “In the morning our department will know everything, that Dr. Rio is a friend of women and nothing comes out of his mouth that doesn’t leak.”
Esteban Zaragosa looked at her with a slightly disgruntled frown, “Don’t your section mates know you have a fiancé?”.
“Why say such things, they are too gossipy and I don’t want to be the subject of their gossip all day.”
Esteban Zaragosa pursed his thin lips, and it seemed that it was time to label it as his own.
…
When she arrived home, Dulcina Calvo was not in high spirits either, and after taking off her shoes in the hallway, she ran to the bedroom and lay down on the bed without saying a word to Esteban Zaragosa.
Esteban Zaragosa was a bit confused, he didn’t seem to have provoked her.
Esteban Zaragosa entered the bedroom with long legs and sat on the edge of the bed, reaching out to touch her little head, thinking that she was still not feeling well.
“Do you want to go for a gastrointestinal exam?”
Dulcina Calvo squashed her little mouth and thought to herself: I’m just pregnant.
“I don’t want to throw up, so what’s the point of having a gastroscopy, and besides, colonoscopies and gastroscopies are so uncomfortable that I don’t want to do them.”
“Didn’t you say yesterday that you didn’t feel well in your stomach and wanted to throw up?”
Dulcina Calvo gave him a blank stare, vaguely annoyed with him, “I’m in a good place! You’re the one with the upset tummy.”
Esteban Zaragosa: “…”
Dulcina Calvo is not usually so reckless, and Esteban Zaragosa indulges her, even asking her what she wants for dinner.
Without thinking, Dulcina Calvo said: “I want to eat pickled fish, you do it”.
“Fish with sauerkraut tastes too heavy, you should have an upset stomach again.”
Esteban Zaragosa’s evidently well-meaning reminder annoyed Dulcina Calvo: “I just want sour, and if you don’t, I’ll order takeout.”
“…”
Esteban Zaragosa went back to the kitchen and had to buy a fish and a bag of sauerkraut, along with some of the condiments needed for the sauerkraut, from the supermarket fresh on his cell phone.
It turned out that the fish had been bought by mistake and was full of bones. Esteban Zaragosa had to go round and round for more than an hour to get the ingredients ready.
Only after 8 p. m. did the two of them have dinner.
Although Esteban Zaragosa has a talent for cooking and this first time making sauerkraut wasn’t too bad, …
“What’s wrong with your hand?”
Dulcina Calvo’s sharp eyes saw what looked like several needle pricks in her hands.
“It’s okay, I bought the wrong type of fish, not the specific one to make escabeche, this one has more bones and I stuck it several times when handling it. Try it, if it is good, tomorrow I will buy another one to try it again”.
Dulcina Calvo picks up a piece of fish, missing its backbone, and hangs its face while tears fall from her eyes.
Esteban Zaragosa was slightly taken aback, “What’s the matter, isn’t he well?”
That’s not bad enough to make you cry, is it?
Dulcina Calvo shook her head: “The fish was delicious. I’m sorry … I’ve been too willful today, but I don’t know what came over me and I just wanted to be mad at you.”
Esteban Zaragosa reached out and stroked her head, “The more reckless you are in my presence, the more I like it.”
“… But if I stay like this, you’ll hate me one day too.”
“No, never.”
Dulcina Calvo lifted her little face, her watery, starry eyes looked at him and asked while the iron was hot, “Even if I did something you didn’t like, even if I did something you didn’t want, wouldn’t you hate me?”
“I’m open to whatever you want to do, unconditionally.”
“Really?” Dulcina Calvo’s eyes lit up even more.
Wouldn’t she be angry even if she was pregnant?
But then he said he didn’t like children and didn’t want them now.
“Really.”
Dulcina Calvo looked at him with such solemnity and was secretly relieved.
After stuffing his mouth with sauerkraut, he was about to say, “I have something to tell you,” when Esteban Zaragosa spoke even faster: “Po, there’s something I have to tell you.”
“What, what?”
“I received the code and secret orders today, and I may have to return to the organization in the next few days.”
Dulcina Calvo bit her lip: “So today you let me fiddle around because you’re leaving and that’s why you tolerate me like this, right?”.