Flinging It
Table of Contents
Other Books from G Benson
Acknowledgements
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
CHAPTER NINETEEN
CHAPTER TWENTY
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
EPILOGUE
About G Benson
Other Books from Ylva Publishing
All the Little Moments
Wounded Souls
Crossing Lines
Fragile
Coming from Ylva Publishing
Not-So-Straight Sue
Heart Trouble
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Other Books from G Benson
All the Little Moments
All Wrapped Up
Flinging It
by G Benson
Acknowledgements
To my Beta Reading Wonder Team: Erin, Katie, Katja, and Alex. Katie, you kept me motivated and talked over any idea I needed to. Katja, you kept my plot on track and helped shape Jack. Alex, you made sure Jack rang true. Erin, your feedback was as invaluable as ever and you helped me keep the character’s voices strong and distinct. You guys should be given half the credit and this story wouldn’t be half of what it is without your input. Thank you!
To Concha, because she had to deal with me disappearing into this book, yet supplied me with endless coffees and reminded me that sometimes I need to take a break.
To the YLVA team, as always. Michelle, editor extraordinaire, who sometimes thinks I’m funny and who catches my terrible grammar mistakes. To think I teach English as a second language… Astrid, the best publisher, project manager and friend. And for you, Steffi, because you have endless patience when it comes to formatting. I owe you at least one thousand Mythos beers. Genau.
CHAPTER ONE
Frazer was awake before sunrise on a Monday. A combination that was already exhausting. Yet screaming was echoing down the hallway, bouncing off walls to reverberate in her ears, making that combination even more painful.
The sound was enough to make a grown man cower. Sure enough, she spotted one doing just that before a closed door through which emerged the bloodcurdling screams. Frazer approached him and stifled a yawn. The man pressed his hands harder against his ears, his eyes screwed shut as if that could shut out the sound. The corridor was dim, the lights not yet on for the day.
Frazer waited to see if he’d look up. He didn’t, but a loud grunt from the other room made him wince. She tried to smother any amusement that may have appeared on her face.
“Sean?”
Nothing.
“Sean?” She raised her voice slightly. Still nothing. Frazer brushed his arm and he startled. Red eyes opened to stare at her. His mouth partly dropped open.
“Hey.” She grinned at him.
His shoulders sagged. “Frazer! I’m so glad you’re here. We knew we couldn’t guarantee we’d get you, even if you’d been with us from the beginning.”
“Lucky for you, I’m covering an on call tonight.”
Which was super unlucky for Frazer since her Monday was going to be as normal, meaning a meeting in five hours and then her usual work day. Thankfully, the night had been uneventful thus far, and she’d slept in the on call room on the top bunk above a snoring resident she’d never met.
“What are you doing out here, Sean?”
Even in the dull light, Frazer could see the red that swept up his neck and into his cheeks.
“She kicked me out.”
Frazer was unable to bite back her amusement. “She throw something at you?”
After a pause, he nodded. “A tissue box.”
Frazer snorted and Sean smiled weakly as he rubbed the back of his neck. “Let’s go see how Tanya is doing.”
For a minute, Frazer thought he’d refuse, but then he straightened his shoulders and gave a nod. It was as if he was about to go into battle. Frazer almost felt bad for him.
Almost.
Even as tired as she was, the usual excitement overtook her. She missed on calls sometimes. But she supposed she was lucky that being the head of Midwifery still left her a few days a week on the ward. She’d go crazy if all she ever did was deal with budgets and rostering and staffing issues. Besides, it was kind of nice to go back to her roots.
Inside the room, Frazer was hit by fluorescent lights and a woman on the bed who looked ready to cry. Or scream. Or all of the above. Her large, pregnant belly was straining and Frazer remembered that the nurse who had woken her had told her that Tanya was at nine centimetres and almost ready to go.
“Frazer.” The woman on the bed grunted, veins popping in her neck. “Thank God it’s you. Sean is being fucking useless.”
Already next to the bed, Sean flinched, arms hanging at his side.
Frazer choked down a laugh. Tanya had never sworn in Frazer’s presence before. Always soft spoken, gentle—she’d seemed on the timid side.
“Well,” Frazer said as she washed her hands and looked over her shoulder so she could keep her patient’s eyes on her, “it’s your lucky night.”
Tanya’s already flushed cheeks were growing redder, and the sheen of sweat on her forehead shone in the light. With a flick of her wrist, Frazer threw the paper towel in the bin and snapped on a pair of gloves. As Tanya huffed on the bed, her eyes screwed shut, Frazer dropped onto the wheeled stool by the sink and pushed herself to the edge of the bed. Tanya had already scooted down it.
“Do you want me to ask Sean to go?” She winked at him as he jolted up, staring at her wide-eyed as if she’d just betrayed him.
“No! No.” Tanya’s eyes snapped open, and she gripped Sean’s arm, yanking him half onto the bed, her knuckles white. “No. I want him here.”
Just as Frazer had known she would.
Sean gave Frazer a look that verged on grateful and let Tanya grip his hand, his face only twitching a little at what must have been a very hard grip.
“Great! Now that that’s settled, you want to tell me why you waited so long to come in?”
* * *
It was still Monday morning.
Eight o’clock.
At least the sun was up now.
Another work meeting at the hospital. The only sounds Frazer could hear were the ticking clock and yawning.
Apparently this was the only hospital in Perth that had these meetings. Robin didn’t have to suffer through them. Maybe Frazer could transfer and work with a friend and get to sleep in past eight on a Monday like a civilised person.
It was like some kind of hell. Looking around the half-asleep employees, Frazer hugged her coffee tighter against her chest and wondered what she’d done to deserve this. The seat wasn’t even comfortable. She shifted, the hard plastic biting into her tailbone. Surely Alec could hold these meetings another day. Or at least another time. Eight in the morning on a Monday? Why?
Across the room, Frazer caught Tia’s eye. Alec’s secretary was plump and deceivingly pleasant looking, with an acidic tongue that shocked most employees and Frazer found utterly delightful. She paid out Frazer on an almost daily basis. Now, in the shifting, sighing silence of the room, Tia rolled her eyes and gave a pleading look towards the coffee in Frazer’s hand. It only made Frazer clutch it tighter. There was no way she was giving up this liquid gold. Once Tanya had delivered a perfectly healthy baby, Frazer had run to her favourite coffee place so she could get through the meeting without murdering anyone.
In response to Frazer’s small but unmistakable headshake, Tia’s eyes narrowed. Frazer shot her an evil grin.
The door at the back of the room opened. Everybody straightened, then slipped back into their seats when they saw it was just a group of fellow employees. One of the women, the head of Social Work, slid into the seat next to Frazer, who gave her a lukewarm smile.
Alec’s wife, Cora. For reasons that made no sense, Frazer blamed her by extension for the early hour. It was doubtful that Cora had anything to do with planning her husband’s horrible morning meeting, but when Frazer was this tired, logic didn’t play much of a role.
Did she have to sit next to Frazer? The two of them always clashed a little, and Frazer did not have the energy for that right now. Also, sitting next to someone who looked so damn put together so early in the morning was really not good for Frazer’s self-esteem. How did she manage to look so flawless while Frazer looked like she’d scraped herself out of bed with a spatula? How did her hair look like that while Frazer’s resembled a bird’s nest?
Just because she was married to the guy that controlled all their budgets, she somehow got all the better deals on the money side of things. A fact that drove Frazer crazy.
Cora’s returned smile was on the cold side, and Frazer was grateful for the heat of her takeaway cup.
“Morning, Cora.”
Cora gave a nod, her amber eyes somehow bright when everyone else’s were barely open. “Good morning.”
“Excited for another meeting?”
The sarcasm in her voice was clear, and Cora’s chin jutted out just slightly. “I wouldn’t say excited, but aware that it’s a necessary one.”
Necessary? Frazer just barely bit her tongue. Every Monday they rehashed the same information and went over certain cases. As head of Midwifery and coordinator of her team, Frazer was required to attend. But after being on call all night, Frazer was even less inclined than usual to put up with it.
Still, she didn’t go there. Clearly, this was not an argument she would win.
“Alec coming? He’s late.”
Again, there was a hard edge to Cora’s eye. “He’ll be on his way.”
Strange—indirect information. Shouldn’t she come in with her husband? Maybe even Alec was bored by her.
Guilt flared in Frazer’s stomach as she sipped her coffee. That was an unfair thought. Granted, Frazer had trouble thinking fairly so early. Maybe Cora secretly hated the meetings too, and if she and Alec were in the same car together, she would request a divorce then and there out of spite. That thought made Frazer smirk against the lid of her coffee.
Finally, the door opened, everyone straightening again as Alec swept in, shoulders back and spine straightened with the sense of authority his higher position as a suit provided him. Even though he was on the lower end of the blurry hierarchy that ran the hospital, his power over budgets and staff cuts and the privilege of never dealing with anyone but the heads of departments seemed to have left him quite inflated. However, Frazer’s thoughts about her boss were generally quite neutral. Right now, though, she was about to suffer through this meeting, seated next to his boring wife with legs to die for, and she blamed him for all of that.
Brown legs that were a welcome distraction, especially in the pencil skirt Cora was wearing.
Alec stood in front of them, one hand in his pocket and his laser pointer in the other. He looked as put together as his wife, though different in that he was clearly European descent as he was much paler. Maybe he was a vampire. Frazer hid her glee at the thought with another sip of her coffee. To be fair, he wasn’t that pasty. There was a sharpness to his face, though, with his high cheekbones. His blonde hair, still slightly damp after a morning shower, was shorn close to his head.
The first projector slide was already up. It took everything within Frazer to stifle a yawn.
They spent a long time going over some recent cases, updates provided by other departments. After a long report from someone in Renal, Frazer almost fell asleep in her chair. When she caught Tia’s raised eyebrows, Frazer sat up straighter and tried to ignore the fact that the look made her feel like a teenager rather than a grown woman in her thirties.
A slide covered in figures popped up, and Frazer wanted to scream. Next to her, Cora sat straight, legs crossed and eyes focussed on the screen, taking in everything Alec said.
God, maybe they discussed this stuff over dinner. How romantic.
Since the figures were up, department heads started raising questions about their budgets and grant distribution. Frazer felt a twist in her stomach. This was when she should speak up, but she really didn’t want to. It would be much better to speak to Alec one-on-one.
“Obstetrics?”
Across the room, Lee spoke up, her glasses glinting in the fluorescent light. “Nothing from me, and no one’s reported anything. But I know that Midwifery had something.”
Inwardly, Frazer groaned as every eye in the room turned to her.
Alec raised his eyebrows, a placating smile on his face. “Okay. Ms Jindal?”
Straightening at her name, Frazer was ready to dump her coffee on Lee’s head, chief of Obstetrics or not. Next time Lee wanted Frazer to adjust the Midwifery roster so she didn’t have to work with someone that rubbed her the wrong way, she was going to be met with a glare. Even if Lee did always show up on the ward with coffee and muffins for everyone. “Uh. As brought up at the last meeting, I’m through the final stages of planning the outreach programme for hard-to-reach pregnancies, especially teenage parents. It’s going to include topics on natural births versus caesareans, formula and breast feeding, drugs and alcohol—the usual topics, but with easier access and with incentives to come. The focus, however, will be support, rather than pushing information down their throats. The key to this being the mentors, of course.”
Alec nodded. Frazer was just happy he’d apparently read her grant requests. All five of them she’d had to send through.
“Remind me of the projected start-up date?” he asked.
“Three months, all going to plan.”
As she’d stated in all five of those requests.
“Great. I saw your report costs—you need to halve that.”
Frazer’s eyebrows shot up. Halve it? She’d already cut all the costs she could. A not so neutral feeling swelled in her chest. “Alec, that was the third revision of costs. If we cut any more, we may as well just sit in a box on the side of the road and throw condoms at people, for all the good it will do.”
On the other side of the room, Tia snorted and Alec glared at her. Frazer winced internally. Professionalism, she reminded herself.
Alec turned his look back to her, and Frazer resisted the urge to poke her tongue out at him. “Revise the budget, have it on my desk.” He turned his head, already moving on. “Then we can talk.”
Clenching her jaw, Frazer nodded and Lee winced at her.
Traitor.
Smoothly, Alec moved on. Ten minutes later, he informed them of an increased budget for Social Work for the geriatric side, and Frazer turned her head so fast she almost got whiplash in order to glare at Cora. The woman kept her eyes on Alec.