“It’s, um. Yeah.” I rubbed my thumb along the rim of my cup. “It’s a little delicate.”
“Delicate,” Tessa echoed, as if testing the word. “Why?”
“Because you know him,” I told her, then glanced at Khai. “You do as well, just…more from afar.”
Tessa was nearing the end of her pediatric surgery rotation. They’d made Tay her mentor—Jesse suspected that Novak was setting Tay up for an attending position she’d open next winter, a year later than originally planned. I’d caught no regret when Jesse had mentioned it; in fact, he’d sounded happy for someone he was coming to consider a close friend.
“Tay is gay.” Tessa sounded like she was working through a math problem. “But he’s with Dr. Hollis, and you’re no homewrecker.”
“Plus,” Khai said, “Dr. Hollis would totally kick your ass.”
“Hey,” I said even though Khai was probably right. He’d already done his CT surgery rotation while mine was just coming up—but from what I’d heard, Dean Hollis wasn’t a guy you crossed lightly. Tay wouldn’t date an asshole, though, so the rumors about Hollis’s icy disposition must be exaggerated. They usually were.
“His scalpel control is the stuff of legends,” Khai said, entirely unrepentant.
“Okay, fair. And no, it’s not Tay.” I took a sip of coffee to steady my nerves, peering at them over the rim. “It’s Jesse. Uh—Maddox.”
“Dr. Maddox?” Khai asked, frowning—surprise, not disapproval. At least I didn’t think so.
“You bagged one of the hot seniors?” Tessa sounded deeply impressed. “Good for you. But isn’t he leaving in the summer?”
Ah, yes. Devon didn’t need an intercom system—rumors bounced faster than radio waves. I nodded. “Ashwick Presbyterian, yeah.”
“That’s not too far,” Khai put in.
“No. And he’s looking at apartments that are sort of halfway between here and there, so—not too far, no. Smaller places, you know? Trees, birds in the morning. Air to breathe.” The knot between my shoulder blades tugged loose at Tessa’s beaming smile, at Khai’s quiet approval that sat mostly around the eyes. I cleared my throat. “He sent me some listings. Asked if I wanted to come along, see them together.”
Khai’s eyebrows arched. “Sounds serious,” he said, and Tessa’s eyes narrowed, clearly more awake than she’d been just five minutes ago.
“Sounds like it’s not exactly new.”
I’d expected the question, and when Jesse and I had discussed how to answer it, he’d said he trusted my judgment. So far, only Neil, Shane, and Eli back home knew the full truth.
“It’s not,” I told Tessa, glancing from her to Khai. “I’ll tell you the whole story sometime, like when we’re all awake and there’s booze. But, yeah. We’ve been keeping it quiet. Not because it’s dirty, but…you know. For obvious reasons.”
“Because people don’t do nuance,” Khai said.
I folded my bottom lip between my teeth, realized I was doing it, and released it again. “Pretty much.”
Tessa leaned forward to grasp my hand. “They won’t hear it from us. You know that, right?”
The door opened on a gust that blew almond-sugar air at us. “I know,” I told her, squeezing back. “That’s why I told you. I really don’t need to shout it from the rooftops—honestly, it’s none of their business. But I didn’t like keeping it from you both.”
“We get it, though. Why you waited.” Tessa paused, then inhaled sharply as if just figuring something out. “Oh. Is that why Maddox—or, well,Jesse. Is that why he stepped back as your supervisor?”
“Yeah. We… We kind of ran into each other. After the blackout.” I turned the mug in my hands, its blue-striped ceramic warm against my fingers. “Up until then, it felt like we had it under control—the attraction. I mean, we still tried, for a little while after. But I was pretty much in love with him already.” The milk-foam heart on my cappuccino had grown lopsided in a way that made me smile, then glance up. “It’s mutual.”
“It better be,” Tessa said, fierce.
“Especially if he’s organizing joint apartment viewings,” Khai tossed in.
My smile widened. God, it feltgoodto finally tell them. These coffee crawls had become little islands after the storm, when nights were long and I wondered if the smell of antiseptics had become a permanent part of me—but somehow, I’d never quite worked up the courage to share this. At least not until Jesse had sat me down yesterday and asked what I was waiting for. “You trust them, right? Or is it me you still don’t? Like, are you still waiting for the other shoe to drop? Because newsflash, babe—it’s been nine months since we’ve met, and I’m only falling more in love with you.”
And… Yeah. I did. I trusted them. Trustedhim.
So here we were.
“He didn’t ask me to move in,” I said. “Just if I wanted to come along. Informational.”
