Page 14 of The Exception

No. That was just his dad getting in his head. And Nurse PopePMHNP. And some weird, juvenile response to misreading the room and being embarrassed. He had a lot to learn. Readjustment wasn’t always smooth, he knew this, but it still made him feel unprepared and like his flank was exposed. He slammed his locker shut and rolled his shoulders.

“Shake it off, Trav.”

He was a likeable guy, damn it. Today he was going to run until he puked. Tomorrow he’d work on winning hearts and minds.

Eight

“Ihate him.” Cat shoved a handful of popcorn in her mouth, brushing a couple of stray pieces from the pink hat on Lucia’s head. Her seven-month old daughter continued to sleep in the Moby wrap, oblivious.

“Of course you do,” Dani said. “He has a penis.”

Cat’s huge brown eyes popped. “What is that supposed to mean?”

“You’re a man hater. Besides, Sonya said he’s hot. Jerk or not, she should at least get to enjoy the eye-candy for a while.”

“I most certainly did not say that.” Sonya kicked Dani’s high heel and got up to refill her glass of sangria from the spigoted Mason jar on the counter.

Emma’s theme for tonight’s girls night was Spring has Sprung for Cinco de Mayo. A mixture of fresh flowers and fiesta streamers decorated her kitchen, along with a full buffet of Mexican dishes. It was… a lot.

They’d all complied, though. Cat wore a Mexicana floral t-shirt over her leggings. Dani had on a crown made of silk flowers that Sonya was pretty sure was left over from a bachelorette party, and Sonya had dug out the Spring Fling UVA sweatshirt from the back of her closet.

“That’s what you got from that entire story, Dani?” Cat perched on the arm of Emma’s couch and flicked Dani’s crown. “That he’s hot?”

Dani shrugged.

Sonya gulped her drink and topped it off again. “I didnotsay he was hot.”

Emma had been quiet while she relayed the story of her new assignment with Mr. Almost Paramedic, but something was brewing behind her brown eyes and pursed lips. “Say it, Em.”

“It’s just that you did say he was hot.”

“I saidhewouldhave been hot if he wasn’t so loud and wrong. And, oh my God! Did any of you listen to theprofessionalconsequences of this story? I’m going to have to work with him three days a week and he infuriates me.”

Cat held a hand up. “And that’s why I hate him. You’ve worked too hard. You need to get out of this inmediatamente.” She punctuated her Spanish with a slosh of her wine glass.

“But wouldn’t that be worse?” Emma asked. “She requested the assignment.”

“Also,” Dani held her glass in the air. “Hot.”

“No,” Cat said, ignoring Dani. “Because backing out now for completely acceptable conflict of interest reasons would show she has scruples. She saw the issue and fixed it.”

Cat was a lawyer and she was drinking for the first time in over a year. Sonya had expected a closing argument. And she’d expected Dani to bring the levity. But she’d been hoping for more from Emma.

One more top off, and she paced the tile in front of Emma’s kitchen island. “Okay so option number one is I go to Abi and nip this thing in the bud. I lay out my reasons, ask for another assignment and wait for one to present itself.”

Cat raised her hand in a silent vote.

“Or,” Dani said, “you suffer through the internship, really lean into this whole sexual tension thing, and when he graduates, you hate-bang him in a medical supply room to get over Marcus. Two birds, one bone.”

Cat gasped, then sprayed wine from her mouth on a giggle, barely missing Lucia’s head.

Emma’s mouth froze in an O, her pale cheeks the color of a sunset.

Sonya crossed the room, tipping Emma’s chin closed as she passed, and took the baby before Cat’s husband came to pick them up and found his daughter smelling like booze.

“You,” she said, pointing at Dani, “are off the counsel.” Dani shrugged and Sonya snuggled Lucia while Cat cleaned the wine from her chin.

She pressed Lucia’s head to her nose and breathed in the soft, powdery baby smell, now with a hint of rosé. “I’m not hate-banging anyone and I don’t even hate him. I don’t care enough about him to garner that strong of a response. He’s an obnoxious man in a world full of obnoxious men. I just… don’t need the conflict in my life right now.”

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