Page 4 of More Than a Match

“Yeah, him.”

Katie peeks again as we reach the doorway. “Well, we better run fast then. He saw us.”

“Shit!” We make it into the hallway and break into a run. “We’ll never make it to the far end!”

“Here, duck into this conference room,” Katie says, practically shoving me through the open door into the dark room.

She shuts the door and adjusts the blinds so they are mostly closed, but we can still see a little bit of the hall through the narrow slats. I hold my breath as we see him come barreling into the hallway, obviously searching for me. He approaches the bathroom door and pauses for a minute.

“He probably thinks we ducked in there,” I whisper. “Good thing we didn’t.”

“Maybe he’ll go away.”

“Hopefully!”

“Girl, you owe me one hell of a story. Why is this hottie after you?”

“Shh, I’ll tell you when he’s gone. I don’t want to risk him finding us.”

“Alright. You better.”

We watch in silence as he begins to pace the hall, occasionally checking his watch. The minutes tick by, and I begin to think maybe we’ll be stuck in this room forever. After about 15 minutes he seems to give up, checking his watch one last time and then shuffling back toward the cafeteria, his head hanging.

“He looks so sad,” Katie whispers. “I almost feel bad for him.”

“I do too,” I agree. “But I can’t face him again, not this soon. It’s too embarrassing.”

“Sounds like quite a story,” Katie giggles. “Good thing we’ve got a little time left.”

“Oh, it is. And thankfully, it’s not a long story. But man, it’s humiliating.”

“So, spill.”

I sit down with my back against the wall and sigh deeply. “So, it all started a few days ago…”

I sink into the plush couch with a sigh, my feet reminding me what a long day it has been. I keep replaying the near-disaster in the courtyard this afternoon in my head, imagining all the possible outcomes if things had gone differently. Katie’s reaction to my story wasn’t what I expected it to be, either. She seemed shocked that I wasn’t trying to track him down and jump his bones immediately. I tried to explain that I could live without that kind of embarrassment, but she wasn’t having it.

“Mina! Obviously, he finds you attractive and wants to talk to you. He stood outside the bathroom forever hoping to just bump into you. I don’t think you should be embarrassed. I think you should be flattered.”

“So I turn him on. Sure, it’s kind of flattering. But he doesn’t know anything about me. And if we did sleep together, how would we handle the inevitable fallout?”

“What fallout? Say it’s terrible sex, and you never want to see him again. What are the odds of running into him, especially if you’re both trying to avoid contact? You’ve never seen him before all this, so odds are, after, he’ll just vanish into the background again.”

“Maybe. But maybe I haven’t seen him before because I haven’t been paying attention.”

“Girl, you know that’s a lie. He’s hot asfuck. You would have noticed him.”

I sigh again and lean backward against the cushions. She’s right. He’s hot enough that I definitely would have remembered seeing him before. So why haven’t I?

“I can’t afford to get involved with him, Katie. The last thing I need is more workplace drama.”

“More? What do you mean?”

“Well, you know Jason? Doctor Visera?”

“Of course, everyone knows that creep.”

“He has asked me to go on a date with him several times already, and I keep turning him down. I’m honestly getting a little bit worried about my future here. He is an attending, after all.”

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