The receptionist hesitates, but finally she picks up the phone’s receiver and presses a couple of buttons with her long, pointy nails. “Hi Sheila. I have someone here who wants to see Dr. Lukes. I told him it’s not possible on a walk-in basis, but they just won’t leave.”
She pauses and listens to the voice on the other end. “Uh… yeah… one second.” She looks up at Casey. “What’s your name?”
“Casey Tucker.”
She turns back to the phone, bored. “He says his name is Casey Tucker.”
She flinches when the person on the other end of the line shouts his name back to her. “Yes. Ok. Hold on.” Then to Casey. “Sir, do you have some ID on you?”
Casey pulls out his driver’s license. She takes an annoying amount of time checking its validity, even running her fingers along the edges to see if it’s real. “He looks legit… yeah… ok… I will.”
She hangs up the phone and smiles politely. “Dr. Lukes is willing to take you in this one time.”
“Which floor can we find his office?” asks Sage without returning her polite smile.
“He’s on the seventh floor. Room 727.”
“Thank you.”
While I knew I could interject at any time, I had way too much fun watching Sage school that woman. “You were magnificent,” I say when the elevator doors close.
She grins cheekily at me. “Wait until you see what else I can do with my tongue.”
My smile fades. “Damn, now I’ll walk into his office with a hard on.”
She laughs and covers her mouth. “No. I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
I close my eyes and think bad thoughts. I think about the time a rookie hit my jock strap while he was warming up. It hurt like the devil, and the memory quickly shrivels any burgeoning desire.
The receptionist jumps out of her seat the moment she spots us walking out of the elevator. “Mr. Tucker,” she says, extending her hand. “It’s a pleasure to meet you.”
“Thank you,” I say. “This is my friend Sage Summers.”
I instantly regret using the term friend, but if it bothers Sage, she doesn’t show it.
“Please follow me. I’ll show you to one of our examining rooms. Dr. Lukes will be with you shortly.”
She opens the door to a typical examination room, albeit this one is larger with more comfortable chairs. I take a seat next to Sage and grab her hand while we wait. I’m rubbing my thumb over her index finger when I say, “I’m sorry about calling you my friend.”
She waves me off. “Don’t mention it.”
I turn my chair toward her and caress her cheek with the other hand. “I want you to be my girlfriend, Sage. I just didn’t want to say it for the first time to a receptionist.” Her eyes soften and she swallows slowly, so I continue. “I want to be exclusive with you. I don’t want to date anyone else. But what do you want?”
Her gaze shoots up to the ceiling and her leg bounces beneath my hand. “Sage, baby, look at me.”
She does and her eyes are watering. “Shit. I don’t want you to cry. I want you to be happy.”
“I am happy,” she sobs, which is confusing, of course.
“Then why are you upset?”
She shakes her head. “I don’t know. This is complicated,” she says as she points between us. “You’re in L.A. I’m in Cedar Brook Falls. How are we going to make that work?”
I shrug. “I don’t know. A lot of Facetime. I can ask Caleb for his private plane and see you more often or you can come to me. We’ll figure it out.”
She nods, but she isn’t smiling. “Yeah. We’ll figure it out.”
I’m about to kiss her when Dr. Lukes walks in. “Casey Tucker,” he says with a broad grin. “Great to meet you.”
