That makes me laugh. "You're overthinking it."
"I'm a surgeon. Overthinking is in the job description."
"Fair enough." I finish my burger, push the plate aside. "What do you want to know?"
"About Suzy?"
"About any of it."
She considers that. "Were you with her when she died?"
"Yeah. Came home from deployment, spent every day with her until the end." The ache lives in my bones now, worn smooth by time. "She made me promise not to waste my life alone. Not to let grief turn me into someone who went through the motions."
"But you did anyway."
"For a while, yeah." I meet her eyes. "Easier to shut everyone out than risk that kind of loss again."
"And now?"
The honest answer sits complicated on my tongue. Now I'm sitting across from a woman who breaks through every defense I've built. Who looks at me like my scars don't define me. Who makes me want things I swore I wouldn't want again.
"Now I'm figuring it out," I say instead.
"That's very diplomatic."
"That's honest." I lean forward. "Your turn. Tell me about Boston."
"Nothing to tell."
"Now who's being diplomatic?"
She grimaces. "Fine. Boston medical dynasty. Father's chief of surgery at Mass General, mother runs one of the top cardiac programs in the country."
"Impressive."
"Oppressive." She takes a drink of water. "I was supposed to follow in their footsteps. Attend their alma mater, join their practice, marry someone from an appropriate family."
"But you went to Johns Hopkins instead."
“How do you know that?”
“I’ve read your file Gwen. It’s all in there.”
"Not all of it." Bitterness edges her voice. "I made my own path. They never forgave me for that."
"Their loss."
She looks up, surprised. "You don't know that."
"I know you're brilliant at what you do. I've watched you work. If they can't see that because you chose a different school—" I shake my head. "That's their failure, not yours."
Color touches her cheeks. She looks away, picks up her grilled cheese. "The malpractice suit made it worse."
"How?"
"They told me I'd brought shame to the family name. That I should've been more careful, more thorough." She sets thesandwich down untouched. "Even after the case was dismissed, they blamed me for the scandal."
"You weren't at fault."
