The woman isn’t particularly nice, but she’s excellent at organization. The entire department defers to her superior scheduling powers. I find her in the surgery office, head bent over some paperwork. A knock on the doorjamb announces my presence.
She looks up and smiles. “Asher. Good morning.”
“Hey, girl. How was your holiday weekend?”
“Oh, fine.” She waves a hand and returns to the paper before her. “I was on call for most of it.”
In a move that isn’t subtle, I swing the office door closed. The soft click draws her attention, and her questioning gaze bounces between the door and me.
I approach the desk and sit in the single chair facing it. “I was hoping to ask a favor.”
“Oh?”
“The schedule today...” My fidgety hands are being super dumb. One of them knocks twice on the desk. Like... could my tension be any more obvious? “Do you think you could assign Kevin to my cases?”
She glances at the paper before her, then back to me. “Is something wrong?”
Luckily, I’ve prepared for this question. “Fantasy football starts today. I fucked up my draft. Trying to convince him to trade. Need every chance I can get.” Not true, of course. My fantasy team is amazing. Cassie, however, hates football. I’ll get away clean here. No suspicion. No follow-up questions.
“Oh.” Her expression clears, then turns a little calculating. “That will put Joss with Van Camp. You okay with that?”
Van Camp is the skeezy colorectal surgeon constantly cheating on his wife with younger, blonder women. Joss hates him.
And yet...
I shrug. “She’ll understand.”
“All right, then. Will do.” She scribbles something on the paper and looks up. “Does Pool Party Saturday continue past Labor Day?”
“Hell, yeah. We party all year.”
She has a pretty smile when it’s real. Makes her eyes crinkle. “Maybe I’ll keep from spilling a drink on you next time.”
My chuckle is forced. “Yeah, maybe.”
Straightening, she gestures to the paper before her. “I’ll take care of the schedule. Good luck with the fantasy stuff.”
“Thanks.”
Now there’s ample time for a quick workout at the hospital gym before my first case. Need to release some of this pent-up energy. Because no matter how much I scheme to keep space between us, Iwillsee Jocelyn today. I’ll have tolook her in the eye, remember I told her I love her, then watched her destroy all hope of a future for us.
Geoff finds me in pre-op. All around us, nurses hustle between patient bays, prepping them for surgery.
“Hey, man.” I lift my gaze from my computer screen. “What you got today?”
He plops into the chair beside me as he ties his blue scrub cap. “Adult circumcision.”
Oof. I whistle. “Dude’s in for a rough week.”
He huffs a breathy laugh. “We still on for tonight?”
“McNellie’s, right? Yeah. I’ll meet you around six.”
“How you doing today?”
I lift an eyebrow at him. “I’mfine.”
He raises his hands in submission. “All right. Just checking.”
