“What?”
“For sending Hazlette on his way and saving you from yourself,” she said.“Again.”
“Oh.” I followed her back to our table as the café crew surveyed the damage. I gathered my things and checked my phone. Took a quick sip of my drink. “Right.”
As we headed back to the hospital, she asked, “That’s what you wanted, isn’t it? To get rid of the best man?”
We walked in silence for several minutes, which was long enough for her question to fade away. When the hospital complex came into sight, I asked, “Are you going to tell me what happened with your thing that wasn’t a thing?”
She was quiet all the way to the main doors, her hands in her pockets and her gaze on the ground. I eyed her as we waited for the elevator, but she didn’t say anything until we stepped inside. “I don’t think either of us is ready to talk about our things thataren’t things. Let’s just leave it at that until we learn how to be brave.”
“We’re brave,” I said, a touch defensive. I was really fucking brave.
The elevator dinged at her floor. “That’s what I thought too.”
I was fullyaware that what I was doing was dangerous. Ill-advised. The kind of thing I’d talk someone out of if I had the chance.
Dangerous…but not indefensible. And that was the important part.
I’d figured out what to say while walking home from work and then rehearsed it in my head for an hour while Brie painted her nails and complained about one of her clients. I spent another hour tidying everything I could get my hands on, as if that would make any of this better, and then finally got so tired of my bullshit that I grabbed my phone and closed my bedroom door behind me.
My heart rate was an absolute commotion as I dialed the number.
I almost ended the call on the second ring, but he answered before the third. “Dr. Hazlette,” I said, all business as I barreled right past hishello. “This is Dr. Aldritch. Do you have a minute to speak?”
He was silent for a moment, just long enough for me to seesaw between doubting my entire plan and remembering that he was one of my residents which meant he damn well had a minute for me.
Henry let out a soft laugh that sounded breathless and startled, and he said, “Of course, Dr. Aldritch. All the time in the world for you.”
“Excellent,” I said. “I wanted to acknowledge your quick thinking today in the café. Not everyone would’ve been able to stay as calm and focused as you did in that position.”
“Yeah. Of course. I mean, thank you.”
“I also observed this afternoon’s procedure with Dr. Salas from the gallery and I have some notes for you.”
“Some…notes,” he said.
“Yes. I’ve highlighted several areas for improvement, specifically in your time in motion and instrument handling.”
“Oh, really?”
He laughed again, but it wasn’t startled. It sounded as though he knew I’d searched high and low for a reason to call him. While part of that was true since I had gone into that gallery looking for a reason to talk to him, I hadn’t expected to notice such tentative instrument handling from someone with his experience. He needed to hurry the hell up and that wasn’t my fascination with him talking.
“I’m very interested in hearing your feedback,” he said.
“There’s quite a lot to go over and I’d like to address certain technique issues,” I said. “Why don’t you come to my place on Sunday evening? I’ll walk you through some simulation practice. I’m not too far from the hospital. Thirty-two Temple Street.”
Again, he paused, and I could imagine a slow smile touching the corners of his lips and brightening his dark eyes. They were a shade of midnight blue that leaned toward black. If I hadn’t seen them up close enough times to know, I would’ve guessed them to be a rich chestnut brown, just like his hair.
“That would be very helpful. Thank you for offering, Dr. Aldritch. I’ll be there.”
“As you may know, Dr. Acevedo frequently hosts residents at his home in Cambridge for journal discussions and skills work,” I added. “So you should expect more of these small group sessions when you get to your peds surgery rotation.”
“I’ve heard that about Dr. Acevedo. And a few others too.”
It was then that I realized I hadn’t planned my exit from this conversation. I knew I was going to get down to business and keep it absurdly professional, but I hadn’t thought past the loud and clear caveat that lots of attendings invited residents to their homes and this wasn’t unusual. That’d been my only real priority aside from making a case for seeing him outside of our usual confines. I wasn’t sure where to go from here.
We were quiet for a long, heavy moment. It reminded me of all the other moments we’d shared, the ones where we would’ve talked all night at the beer garden or lingered in the elevator or today in the café, if there hadn’t been someone or something to cut us off.
