Her phone buzzed. It was Maggie. She had just pulled in.
Evie set her phone down, feeling slightly steadier. Maggie was back at Oakridge. And Evie would have to see her and pretend that her heart wasn’t doing backflips every time Maggie entered a room.
Six months of this.
They could do six months.
“Alright,” Patel said, standing. “Let’s round.”
Evie saw Maggie for the first time just before noon.
She was walking through the atrium with her tablet, reviewing a patient chart, when she felt that familiar pull—the awareness of Maggie’s presence before she even looked up.
And there she was. She could feel the pull towards her like a magnet from her soul.
Across the wide space, walking with Dr. Chen. White coat crisp and perfect hair pulled back, posture straight. Every inch the senior attending who commanded respect without raising her voice.
But Evie could see the tension in her shoulders. The way her jaw was set just slightly too tight. The careful way she held herself, like she was waiting for someone to question her right to be there.
Their eyes met.
For half a second, the world narrowed to just that—Maggie’s dark alluring eyes finding hers across fifty feet of hospital atrium, everything else fading to background noise.
Evie’s heart kicked against her ribs.
She wanted to smile. Wanted to walk over. Wanted to touch her, even just a hand on her arm, a reminder that she wasn’t alone in this.
Instead, she gave the smallest nod.
Maggie returned it, equally subtle.
Then they both looked away, continuing in opposite directions like two people who barely knew each other.
Evie’s chest ached.
This was going to be harder than she’d thought.
The elevator encounter happened an hour later.
Evie was heading up to the ICU to check on a transfer when the doors opened on the third floor and Maggie stepped in.
Along with two nurses and another attending Evie didn’t know well.
They all shifted to make room, and suddenly Evie was standing three feet from Maggie in a confined space, very deliberately not looking at her.
“Doctor Laurel,” one of the nurses said warmly. “Good to have you back.”
“Thank you, Sarah,” Maggie replied, her voice perfectly controlled. “Good to be back.”
“How was your time off?” the other attending asked.
“Productive,” Maggie said. “Got caught up on some reading. Completed a training.”
There was an uncomfortable pause—everyone knew why she’d been on leave, even if no one was saying it directly.
Evie stared at the floor numbers ticking upward, hyperaware of Maggie’s presence. The faint scent of her soap. The sound of her breathing. The way her fingers drummed once against her tablet—a nervous tell Evie had learned to recognize.
The elevator stopped on five. The nurses got off.
