“I can do today,” I said, hopefully not too quickly.
“Excellent. How about two?”
“Sounds good.” I tried not to vibrate out of my skin. Something about Dr. Cobb’s voice made me feel hopeful on the inside. I couldn’t explain it, but I immediately liked his tone.
“I’ll text you the address so you’ll have it on your phone. I’ll see you later.”
“Good idea, thanks. Bye!”
I stood up and flailed around a little. Something told me this was it.
I immediately called Lake and Theo, who were on their way to Theo’s friend’s place. I might’ve gushed about the situation a little.
When Theo said that Dr. Cobb’s name didn’t ring a bell, Lake asked if I’d done any social media stalking.
“No, wait, that’s a good idea!” I grabbed my laptop off the coffee table and googled the doc.
I heard Theo through the speaker. “I would’ve never thought of that.”
“I bet you have a Facebook account you don’t use,” Lake said in a slightly flirty, snarky tone.
I could practically hear Theo’s eye-roll. “I’ll let you know I don’t have any social media.”
I laughed at them and clicked on the first proper image I saw of Dr. Cobb. “Holy shit.”
“What? What did you find?”
“Okay, okay…so think Doctor Mike, only ten, fifteen years older and with full sleeve tattoos.” I felt a bit stunned. “One of which definitely has the pride flag colors subtly incorporated.”
“Oh wow…”
“That could explain why the older nurses might not want to work with him or feel like he’s…I don’t know.” Theo snorted softly. “There’s a lot of that sort of thing in the medical field. Prejudices against tattoos and stuff, I mean.”
I confirmed that I knew a lot about that shit.
“Okay, well, good luck with the interview. We’ll call if we get delayed at any point, but we should be home around dinnertime. Make sure there’s enough to feed Theo, too,” Lake instructed.
“Good luck, River,” Theo called out.
“Thanks, guys; see you later,” I replied, already trying to find another picture of the ever so hot man who might be my future boss.
* * * *
Before I left for the interview, I contemplated on what to wear, including makeup. From what I could gather online, Dr. Cobb was probably queer in some way, and even though he seemed to be in his early forties, he would surely be able to take my appearance as I was?
In the end, I put on skinny jeans with a dark blue dress shirt and limited my makeup to eyeliner. And of course, the nail polish I had on, which I wouldn’t take off unless I started working in nursing somewhere.
The drive to the clinic took me twenty-five minutes and was very straightforward. It was in a neighborhood that had mostly homes, with some small businesses like a garage and a little grocery store sprinkled in. The building itself was a two-story, two garage house. I immediately assumed that Dr. Cobb both lived and worked here.
I parked the rescue’s spare truck in the driveway and took a deep breath. I could do this.
Walking to the front door, I checked the time. I was a few minutes early, which I congratulated myself on, because I hadn’t actually checked how long the drive would be, just guesstimated it.
I pressed the buzzer.
When the door opened, I was face to face with a man dressed similarly to my own attire.
“River?” he asked, raising a brow at me and smiling slightly.
