That was what I was good at.
“Beautiful work, Dr. Darcy,” Sarah, the charge nurse, said as she updated the surgical board. “Dr. Morrison is going to be thrilled with those margins.”
“The margins were adequate,” I said, because I didn’t do false modesty, but I also didn’t gloat. “The tumor was well-encapsulated. Any competent surgeon could have—”
“Any competent surgeon would have taken six hours and left residual tissue,” Sarah interrupted. “You did it in four with clean margins. Take the compliment.”
I nodded. “Thank you.”
She smiled. “You’re in a good mood lately. It’s... unsettling.”
“So I’ve been told.”
“But nice,” she added quickly. “Different, but nice.”
“I’ll take that as a compliment as well.”
“You should.” She finished her notes and looked up. “Your wife called earlier, by the way. Asked if you were still in surgery.”
My heart did something stupid and unscientific in my chest.
“What did you tell her?”
“That you were in the OR and would call her back when you were done.” Sarah’s smile widened. “She said to tell you that your aura looked ‘particularly vibrant’ this morning and that she’s proud of you.”
I felt my face heat.
“She can’t see my aura through the phone.”
“I told her that. She said the universe doesn’t need phones to communicate.”
“Of course she did.”
Sarah laughed. “She’s delightful. Completely insane, but delightful.”
“That’s... accurate.”
I pulled out my phone to text Athena, but before I could type anything, I saw Hayden and Gabriel walking toward me down the corridor.
Both smiling.
That should have been my first warning.
Hayden never smiled unless he was about to say something that would make me regret every life choice that had led to this moment. And Gabriel only smiled like that when he was trying to soften bad news.
But I was still riding the high of a successful surgery, still thinking about Athena’s message about my “vibrant aura,” still feeling that strange sense of unease that I couldn’t quite shake.
So I smiled back.
“Gentlemen,” I said. “Perfect timing. I just finished a meningioma resection. Clean margins, no complications, patient’s vitals are stable. Dr. Morrison is going to be very pleased with the—”
“Julien,” Hayden interrupted.
I stopped.
Hayden never interrupted. Hayden let me finish my sentences, no matter how long they took, because he found my precision “endearing”—his word—and “obsessive”—also his word.
“What?” I asked.
