Page 15 of False Assumptions

He shook his head, adjusting in his seat to get more comfortable. “Nah. I’ve never had a problem with doctors.”

“Why were you acting so weird then?”

His brows crinkled, and he tilted his head to the side. “I was trying to figure out what to talk to you about. But was coming up with nothing.”

She let out a spluttering laugh.

“Why’s that funny?” His voice held a mixture of curiosity, irritation, and amusement.

She shook her head. “I’ve never seen you at a loss for words. Especially not with a girl.”

His grin turned rueful. “Yeah, well, you don’t respond to me like most girls. I was worried that anything I said would piss you off.”

“Why would you think that?”

He laughed out loud at that, full and booming, and Layla couldn’t help smiling as well at his hilarity. “Christ, Layla. You get mad at almost everything I say. I could walk up to you and say that the sky is blue, and you’d get mad and argue with me.”

She opened her mouth to protest, but before she could, the doctor walked in, shaking her hand as well as Evan’s and introducing himself as Dr. Zakin. Pulling up the rolling stool he settled in next to Layla’s bed. “So I hear you’ve hurt your ankle.”

“Yeah. My right one. I was out for a walk on the High Drive Parkway Trail, and I tripped on a rock and slipped in the mud, rolling my ankle really bad. It felt like something popped. I tried walking on it, but kept having to stop and rest because it hurt so much. And then Evan here came across me and carried me the rest of the way back to the parking lot.”

Dr. Zakin glanced at Evan, who gave a closed mouth smile and nod of confirmation. Turning back to Layla, Dr. Zakin rolled to the foot of the bed closer to her ankle. “Lucky you. I take it you guys already knew each other?” He paused and waited for her nod. “Good. That’s a little less awkward then, huh?” Not exactly, but Layla didn’t feel the need to correct him. It didn’t matter to the doctor, anyway. “Let’s take a look at your ankle, and then we’ll get some X-rays to see what’s going on inside, okay?”

Layla nodded, rolling up her pant leg to give him more access. At least she’d shaved her legs this morning. How embarrassing would it be to have not only the doctor looking at her stubbly legs, but Evan there witnessing it too? Thank goodness for small mercies.

She winced as Dr. Zakin poked and prodded at her ankle, following his directions to move it around. When he was done, he stood, offering his hand again. “Alright. I’ll get those X-rays ordered. You can move it well, despite the swelling, so I don’t think it’s broken. But since you said you felt a pop, we want to make sure everything’s okay. I’ll be back once we get the images and let you know.”

With a nod at Evan, he moved past the privacy curtain and left the room. A tech came in and introduced himself and helped Layla into a wheelchair to go to X-ray.

When she returned to the room, Evan looked up from his phone and stood to help her from the wheelchair back onto the bed. Resuming his seat, he tucked his phone in the kangaroo pocket of his sweatshirt. “How’d it go?”

Layla grimaced. “Fine. I had to hold my ankle in weird positions that hurt while wearing a lead apron, but nothing too traumatic.”

“Good, good.” He looked around, and it seemed like the awkward tension from earlier was going to take over again. But instead, his signature flirty grin came back. “So, Dr. Caldwell. Made any progress on our project?”

She grinned back at him, glad for the neutral subject. “Not really. I’ve started, but figured we could plan our project out together. I was going to write down some ideas and talk to you about it on Tuesday after class.” She wrinkled her nose a little. “It’s still funny to me that Dr. Rankin calls us all doctors.”

Maybe spending a few hours with Evan in the ER wouldn’t be so bad after all.

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