Page 7 of Anatomy of a Meet Cute
For a moment, Sam almost let herself believe that he wasn’t there. That the clipboard in his hands wasn’t actually happening to her. At least, until she heard his voice. That same velvety tenor. It had no sharp edges but gave no ground either.
“Hi, I’m Dr.Grant Gao, a senior fellow and an attending here at SF Central Hospital completing my specialist training in maternal-fetal medicine and emergency surgery. A little later today you will also hear from the head of our residency and fellowship programs, chief attending physician Dr.Howie Franklin.” Grant looked up from his clipboard briefly, and Sam felt herself sink to the bottom of her chair. Why did Duke have to pick seats so close to the front of the room?
“We’re just gonna get through a quick roll call to make sure no one is lost; then we will get down to business. Is Sophia Beck here?”
As Sophia raised her hand, Duke leaned over, oblivious to how much attention he was drawing to them, and whispered, “What are you doing? Are you all right?”
“Faith Choi?”
Sam fought the urge to shove him back toward his seat as she hissed, “That’s the guy from the plane.”
“You got in a fight with the senior fellow?” Duke said, his voice creeping above a whisper as his body started shaking with silent laughter.
“Michael Gordon?”
“Don’t laugh. I have to get out of here. Do you think it is too late to be assigned to the emergency—”
“Michael? There you are. Welcome, Michael.”
“This is too good. I gotta text Jehan.”
“Samantha Holbrook.”
Sam wasn’t sure that she had ever prayed so hard for a sinkhole to magically appear and swallow her whole. As the silence stretched around the room, Sam sat up and raised her hand, silently cursing anygod she could think of for failing to strike the building with lightning so powerful they would be left in complete darkness.
“Ah.” The single syllable hung in the air between them for what felt like one hundred seconds, making the lump in her throat turn over a few times, as a lazy smile crossed Grant’s face. “Hello again, Sam. Or should I say, Dr.Holbrook. Nice to see you.”
“Hello,” Sam croaked. Next to her, Duke was nearly falling out of his chair with the effort it took not to cackle.
“It looks like we’ll have plenty of time to work through all of the tools that can be helpful if anyone ever needs you on a plane again.” Dr.Gao chuckled, then said, “Right, moving on.”
Sam tried to swallow her humiliation and started coughing instead. Duke reached over to thump her back, still grinning and holding his phone. Risking a glance upward, she almost kicked herself. Of course Grant had the nerve to stand there looking dapper in scrubs, as if they suited him better than any tuxedo could. And of course he and his stupidly perfect bone structure would mention her failing in front of all her new coworkers.
Duke slid his phone in front of her, pulling her out of her mortification-induced trance, right as Grant called, “Duke Washington?”
Looking down at the phone, Sam read Jehan’s response to Duke’s text:
So, we are stopping on the way home for shame ice cream tonight, yes?
Sam nodded her head at Duke so hard that her ponytail shook. If nothing else, at least she had some friends to help her pick up the pieces of her dignity. The thought almost made her smile. In fact, she was halfway there when Grant said, “All right. We’re all here, so if you’ll just stick close to me, I’ll give you a tour.”
Pushing back from the chair, Sam stood up and gathered what was left of her pride. She was not going to let Grant make her feel useless. She had her mother for that. And she hadn’t spent the last few months calling her father only when she knew her mother was out just to let Grant scare her into failing now. Nope. Instead, she would prove both of them wrong. Trudging to the door, careful to look Grant in the eye and smile as she crossed the threshold. It should have been an act of defiance, but the smile he sent back made her face heat up all over again.
As soon as she was out of earshot, Sam turned toward Duke and said, “You better tell Jehan we’ll need to add wine to the list.”
Without missing a beat, Duke’s laugh rumbled behind her. “Already taken care of. Hang in there.”
Chapter Three
“Doctor?”
Sam turned around, smiling more at being calledDoctorthan anything else. The sensation never got old for her, and she loved it every bit as much as she’d dreamed she would. She knew she still had more patients to see, but Sam hadn’t mastered the art of the swift exit yet, and besides, Monica was six months pregnant, had higher blood pressure than Sam would like, and had missed several appointments leading up to this one. She could find an extra three minutes for her.
“Yes?”
“You asked if I was taking any classes.” SF Central was not rich, and neither were its clients. Sam hadn’t expected her patients to have gone to every birthing specialist in the country or anything, but she was surprised by the number of people she saw who hadn’t been informed that the local YMCA offered parenting-and-delivery classes.
“Yes. The nurse has some great resources about programs in the area.” Sam nodded.
