Page 35 of Saved
I laughed against his chest then patted the firmness. “Okay, I need to get to work. Your place tonight?”
He pecked my lips. “Yep. I’ll get food on the way. See ya tonight.”
I grabbed my tablet and headed back to the hall I was working in. Dr. Han was standing at the nurse’s station furiously typing on her tablet. “Dr. Stewart. Good morning. I hardly recognized you without a large man attached to your lips,” she said without looking up. She was a tad dry, but I appreciated her sense of humor.
“Well, it’s still all fresh.”
“Did you not tell me you dated in college?” She glanced up with only her eyes, her head still facing the tablet.
“Yes. Yes, I did. But that was a long time ago. Undergrad.”
“I see. Clearly you revived the relationship from the dead.”
“Huh?’
She stopped typing and looked up. “You said before it was damaged beyond repair and I told you unless something is dead, you can fix it. Although, I think we have both seen the last several weeks even the dead can sometimes be revived.”
“Well. We started over.” I pressed the button on my tablet to turn it on and login.
Dr. Han chuckled then looked back down at her tablet.
“What?”
“So, you ignored the problem? And he’s fine with this?” I shrugged and she raised her eyebrows. “You must have some good pussy.”
I gasped as my jaw dropped.
“I’m sorry, would you be more comfortable if I called it your vagina?”
“I–I’d prefer you didn’t mention it at all.” I shook my head and took a deep breath. Hopefully the flush in my cheeks would go away soon.
“Sorry, I didn’t realize a woman practicing medicine would be so offended by the use of the word pussy.”
I rolled my eyes. “Can you please stop saying that?”
“My apologies.” A few beats went by in silence as we typed. “Seriously, how long do you think it’ll be before whatever happened blows up?”
I turned with an exasperated breath. “Dr. Han, do you have friends?”
“Not really. But I’m a doctor and at the top of my class,” she deadpanned.
I almost bit back with a snide comment but instead felt a pang of solidarity. Lucy and Amy were friends, but while I knew everything about their lives, they honestly knew very little about mine and only ever saw what I wanted them to see. Between school and work I had kept myself busy, using it as an excuse to distance myself from everyone. Even Onyx, my own sister, barely saw me after I moved in with her. And I certainly had no boyfriends. I went out a few times for brief dinners, but always squirmed by the end and made up reasons I had to go and then was always ‘too busy’ to go out again.
Instead of a snide comment, I decided to be honest. “I don’t know how long it’ll be. We had a moment, a moment we both sort of broke down and stopped pretending we could be friends. We both agreed to start fresh, and I told him I couldn't discuss what happened before. He said okay, and I believed him.”
“But you obviously know that was in the heat of the moment,” she said, furiously typing.
I nodded. “I don’t know who will crack first, him or me.”
“You feel guilty.”
Looking down at my shoes, I bit my lip as the truth of her words threatened to choke me.
“Look, I amnotyour therapist, and clearly, I am not good at being friends, but if you need to get it off your chest, you know your secret is safe with me because you’re the only person who speaks to me besides the resident and the nurses. And they clearly don't want to talk to me but have to.”
“Thank you. I’m not ready to tell anyone yet. But I appreciate you, Dr. Han.” I put my hand over hers and she smiled. Well, the most smile I’ll probably ever see from such a stoic individual.
“Great. Now let’s get on with work. We have to meet the group in half an hour.”
