Chapter 37: I won’t tell anyone, if you won’t?
The sliding doors whooshed open as Damon approached. He stepped in, trying not to look out of place. He kept his hoodie up, his hands in his pockets, and walked to the main area.
The front desk was quiet, just one nurse at the reception, typing away at her terminal. She looked up as he approached, giving him a glance. "The visiting hours are over," she said, voice low and gravelly from too much caffeine or too little sleep.
"Ummm... yeah, I figured," Damon said, giving her a sheepish smile and scratching the back of his neck. "I’m not here to visit anyone. I was hoping to speak to someone from the supply department? I’m a grad student doing a research project, and I was wondering if there was any way to... uh... get access to a unit of blood."
"Huh?" The nurse raised an eyebrow, her fingers pausing mid-type. "You want what now?"
Damon cleared his throat and tried to look as harmless as possible. "Just a unit. For a simulation project. It’s a virtual model—we’re trying to replicate clotting factors in synthetic environments. My supervisor said real samples help with calibration. I figured I’d check if there were a protocol for it."
"You are kidding me, right? Of course, there are protocols. There is a whole boatload of them. Which school are you from? You need to speak to your school coordinator. They will contact the hospital and make the arrangements. There are a lot of forms that need to be signed. You cannot simply walk in and ask for blood."
The nurse shook her head with a lot of judgment in her eyes.
"Can’t I just get one right now? Just this once? I won’t tell anyone, if you won’t?" Damon tried a sexy wink, all the while cringing hard from inside and wondering what the hell he was doing.
The nurse almost laughed in his face and returned to her work without bothering to even give a response. "Kids these days." She laughed.