Page 36 of The Exception

He’d taken two cold showers since last night just trying to numb the effects of his new favorite memory. He was like a teenager with a crush. But Sonya had been business as usual all day.

It was probably for the best, even if he didn’t like it.

“Are you sneaking up on me in the break room because you smelled the special of the day?” He waved a hand over the empty Pyrex on the table beside him. “Yours is in the fridge.”

Sonya glided around the table, hands in the pockets of her scrubs. She’d started today covering on another floor so she wasn’t dressed in her usual ball-busting outfit of heels and a lab coat. He might have been disappointed if that look hadn’t been replaced in his favorites by the casual outfit she’d had on when they went shopping.

“You made me dinner?” she asked, opening a drawer for utensils.

“It was supposed to be lunch,” he said, ignoring the way the offer sounded very intimate all of a sudden. A shared lunch had felt less so, since they did it regularly now, but they’d been slammed all day and neither of them had taken one. “What?”

“Nothing. Just… thank you.”

“You’re welcome,friend.”

She groaned as she opened the fridge door and pulled out the package he’d put together for her, stabbing a forkful immediately.

“You’re not going to heat it up?”

She shook her head, cheeks puffed out. “Too hungry,” she muttered with a mouthful. “What’s this?” She pointed to his stack of books.

“This, unfortunately, is statistics.”

A slow smile spread across her face as she swallowed her food. “I freaking love stats.”

He raised an eyebrow. “Said no one ever. You can’t be serious.”

“Of course I am! Stats is so, I don’t know, predictable. It’s comforting.”

“You are such a nerd.”My favorite part about you, he thought.

This was getting ridiculous.

“Hey!” she said, slapping his arm and seriously not helping the ridiculousness. “I didn’t get to be the youngest nurse manager in hospital history by being half-assed about my learning.”

He smiled. “Tell me that story again. I think I’ve forgotten the last four times I’ve heard it.”

Her mouth twisted in a grin. “Okay, wise guy. Math and science are part of the nursing curriculum, and I have my faves. Sue me.”

“I think I will,” he said, crossing his arms over his chest. “Plaintiff alleges Defendant is the nerdiest nerd he’s ever met and she’s trying to gaslight him into thinking he’s a failure because he doesn’t have a favorite type of math.”

She scooped another bite into her mouth and shrugged. “Your words, soldier.”

He chuckled. “Okay, well, not all of us are as excited about it. I just need to pass, not become the next Einstein.”

“You mean Pearson. Einstein studied algebra and calculus.” She rolled her eyes. “Everyone knows that.”

He gave her an incredulous look, and she burst out laughing. A full belly laugh that stopped him in his tracks. Maybe it was the combination of scrubs and sneakers, and the way her braids were draped over her shoulder instead of the usual tight bun she wore, but Nurse Pope,Sonya,laughing like that was like meeting her for the first time.

He watched her shoulders shake, and the dopamine receptors in his brain must have lit up like a Christmas tree. Warmth tingled down his arms and he felt his face stretch into a full grin. How long had it been since he’d made a woman laugh like that?

“Why are you here studying?” she asked. “Don’t you want to go home?”

“Uh, I like the noise. My place is too quiet.”

“And void of furniture?”

He laughed. “And there’s that.”

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