Luca's Dilemma Read Online Free PDF

and adequate career” for “a life of utterly reprehensible nonsense.”
    However, her parents’ lack of sensitivity to Sheila’s circumstances wasn’t completely their fault. After the massive coaxing it had taken to keep her brother from abandoning his military post for the sole purpose of annihilating her ex–lover, she’d thought it wise not to enlighten her overprotective parents about Ahmed Burnet’s infidelity or the other bullshit he was trying to pull just yet. Not only did the Leighs and Burnets go way back and the details of her breakup risk ruining that, her parents had enough to worry about with their son so far away and putting his life in danger on a daily basis.
    Somehow Sheila had hastily concocted the idea to convince her worried parents that Tina was going through some things and that her dear friend needed her close by. The lie had worked to stay their wretched inquisition… for the time being, anyway.
    Remnants of the conversation still weighed heavily on her heart after she pulled into the virtually empty employee parking lot. Instead of getting out of her car right away and heading inside, she called April and told her it would be a few minutes more before her arrival. Sheila gazed out the windshield, not really seeing the small park in front of her as the same old desperate feelings of being stuck looking from where she was to where she wanted to be in life began bludgeoning the edges of her sanity.
    Shutting her eyes tightly, she inhaled deeply, allowing the cooling air of the car to fill her lungs and cleanse her darkening mind. She exhaled the exchanged air forcefully, letting those noxious emotions seep from her body. “This isn’t the time to start feeling sorry for yourself.” A long, twelve–hour shift dedicated to improving the lives of others awaited her, and it wouldn’t be fair to her patients or her co–worker if she brought the stink of her situation to work with her.
    Realizing April would start to worry if she didn’t go in soon, Sheila plastered on a fake smile to cover up her foul disposition and forced herself to exit her beloved Beamer. However, her ever–thoughtful co–worker wasn't buying the fake smile.
    “Sheila, honey, you don't look so good. Is everything all right?” the ever–benevolent April inquired the minute Sheila walked in the door. “Why are you scowling?”
    The sound of her nurturing voice and the sincerity in the young woman's large hazel eyes touched Sheila in a way she couldn’t describe, instantly lightening her solemn mood. “I will be,” she responded, exchanging her fake smile for a genuine one.
    “I’ll tell you what,” April started, attempting to place a rail–thin arm around Sheila's back. “Why don't I take two tonight? I know you've been putting up with your share of the twins more than the rest of us, and if anyone deserves a break, it's you.”
    Normally, Sheila would’ve laughed at the slight against the twins and the sight she and April must be making at the moment with the much shorter and smaller woman trying to get her thin pale arm across Sheila’s back. At six feet even, Sheila literally towered over the tiny brunette. Gazing down at the top of April's head as it innocently rested alongside her huge breasts, Sheila couldn’t help but notice it resembled a perfect third boob in size as well as color. But instead of laughing, she felt moisture gathering in her eyes, brought on by April's kind attempt to console her.
    “Are you sure, April?” she managed to get out in a normal voice despite the lump of gratitude that had formed in her throat.
    “Positive,” April responded, dropping her arm from around Sheila and moving toward the closest monitoring station. “Besides, I already divvied the assignments that way when I heard how upset you sounded on the phone.”
    Sheila felt her cheeks warm with embarrassment, grateful that April’s back was to her. In the world she came from, one didn’t burden acquaintances