Maria the Nurse Wannabe
Josh met Maria when he was in his first year at Portland Tech when they were taking a writing course that was required for all students. Maria was a new resident that arrived with her parents and brother from San Diego to begin a new life working in the northwest at a wholesale nursery. She met the qualifications to enter a training program that would help her find an entry-level medical position, but as the end of the one-year program approached, she needed to demonstrate how to prepare a person for a doctor's appointment during a final examination.
Maria wasn't very popular, probably because she had a Hispanic accent and many in the school were narrow-minded about immigration and seemed out of touch with reality as far as Josh was concerned. She wanted someone to practice with, and when she approached Josh, he asked her why she didn't ask her boyfriend. He saw her eyes well-up and heard her say his family had been arrested by ICE and was waiting for the judge to send them back to Mexico.
Josh had seen them together often when he'd drop Maria off at classes early in the morning, and he'd seen how she clung to him like a child to a mother, responding as if she were more than just friends. Josh was past his phobia and had been fortunate enough to know Dr. Anne Pembroke's receptionist, Jillian, who had enjoyed his company overnight a few times, since he was cured by his new primary care doctor and the shrink, who Jillian worked for.
Josh was aware that Jillian wasn't interested in a long-term relationship, and that she was trying to regain her self-confidence and lose her fear of men, which was caused by her brutal husband who raped her and caused serious bodily injuries during their short marriage, which was now absolved. Josh was convinced Maria's boyfriend had been scoring regularly with little the sweet dark-complexioned girl that had a sturdy figure that reminded him of a fire hydrant. Josh figured her locked up boyfriend had little chance of returning to Maria, or anyone else in the United States, and he felt her pain. She wasn't particularly good-looking, but he thought she might teach him a few things about pleasing a woman that Jillian hadn't revealed, but his main goal was to assist her through her upcoming test and see her credentialed to work in a better job.
Josh admired his new friend, Maria, and her goal, which she'd discussed with Josh over lunch, and he decided he'd offer to help her over her shyness when talking with other students and instructors. Josh had never made a pass at a girl and had no experience other than with Jillian who initiated the affair they were conducting when he stayed overnight in her apartment and was gratified that she made such progress overcoming the creep she married and regretted she'd ever met.
Josh lived in a small apartment building that his parents rented. He had free rent but was the main contact when people had issues and needed a plumber or an electrician, or the smoke alarm batteries needed changed. It took very little of his time to keep the place humming efficiently, and he liked the swimming pool, which he made sure was managed properly by the pool company.
Maria told Josh that Luis had been sent back to Mexico, and Josh asked what type of help she needed for her class. She said her brother refused to help, and besides that, there was no place for her to practice preparing patients for doctor appointments at home anyway. Josh thought if he could be alone with Maria a few times he may be able to strike up a short-term relationship and invited her to his apartment after his last class, which ended at 2 PM, to practice her class assignment.
Josh was sure he'd get a hug or possibly a sweet kiss from the leathery dark-skinned Latina with the pretty smile, gorgeous even teeth, and piercing coal-black eyes. He realized someplace along the line one or more of Maria's ancestors were probably black, but her features other than dark skin and coal-black hair were typical for American girls. She was on the heavier side, and short for an eighteen-year-old woman, but her breasts appeared smaller than most girls he knew from tech school.
Maria asked if Josh had a bathrobe before she arrived, but at the last moment, her teacher gave her a paper gown and suggested she practice using that. He didn't say that it was for a woman, but she knew the only difference was the length, as the girth was plenty for even the heaviest woman or man, and the ties remained closed. Josh wasn't the only person with motives beyond teaching and learning how to prepare patients to see a doctor, and Maria produced a complete little travel bag containing the required tools, and several pages of questions to help a patient complete a new patient form.
Maria was wearing a deep pink skirt with a white halter top, much like she wore to school every day. He'd seen her wear the same outfit before, and it attracted him then as much as it did that first day, when she knocked on his apartment door carrying her little medical kit and a light sweater in case, she was cold in the air-conditioned apartment. She didn't have air where she lived, and frankly, she grew up living in hot apartments and preferred heat over cool.