Page 64 of Cluelessly Yours

Her adorable ramble makes me feel like a hormonal teenager all over again.I’ve got one hell of a crush.

“I’d love to buy you lunch, and I know just the place.”

“You do?”

“Oh yeah. Have you heard of the award-winning, prestigious, incomparable St. Luke’s Café?”

She snorts. “You want to buy me a cafeteria lunch?”

“Listen, Sam, you might not know this, but their chicken tenders are adelicacy. They’re basically caviar. People come from all over the city just to eat them.”

“Stop.” Her giggle is fucking music to my ears.

“Oh, I’ll prove it to you if you’re willing to meet me.”

“I can meet you in the cafeteria—I mean,prestigious café with the caviar chicken tenders—in about fifteen minutes.”

“Can’t wait.”

“So, this is an on-call room?” Sammy questions as she pops the last bite of her chicken tender into her mouth. “I honestly never thought I’d get to see what a real one looks like.”

“A real one?”

“Oh yeah. I’m an expert in the pretend ones. When I was pregnant with Seth, I watchedER,Grey’s Anatomy,House, andGeneral Hospitallike it was my job.” She snorts. “As you can imagine, the second pregnancy with a two-year-old already on my hip went a little differently.”

“So, how does this one compare?” I ask with a teasing lilt.

With only a bed, small table with two chairs, a tiny kitchenette, and a basic bathroom, I’m almost positive this is lackluster compared to the ones on her shows. In fact, a part of me feels a little bad that this is where I brought her to eat our lunch.

She shrugs. “Well…itisbigger than the ones onGrey’s Anatomy. But they only served the purpose of sex, so that’s no surprise.”

I wince. I hope she doesn’t think I brought her back here with some pseudo-freaky idea of seducing her. For me, this place is about as unsexy as it gets. When I’m sleeping in here, I usually smell like vending machine burritos and have been on shift for twenty-four hours straight.

“In my defense, I only brought you back here because the cafeteria waspacked.” Packed with people I know—cough, Dale—who would never let me enjoy time with her in peace.

When he saw us in line to check out, his expression was already a mixture of “Holy shit” and “Hell yes” and “I’m ready to be a nosy dick and insert myself into your lunch.” I knew it would only get worse the longer we sat there, so I made the snap decision to take Sammy somewhere else to eat inside the hospital.

The thing is, if you’re not a doctor or a nurse or a someone with a strong stomach who’s not averse to bodily fluids and the like while you’re enjoying a meal, the options are kind of limited. My on-call room felt like the only viable place.

“I think you got too much food.” Sammy glances at me and then pointedly at the two half-eaten takeout containers sitting in front of us before she taps the top of the additional two takeout containers we haven’t touched.

“I just wanted to make sure you had options. It takes at least four lunches at the prestigious St. Luke’s Café to settle on your favorites.”

“Four whole lunches, huh?”

“I mean, I’m willing to put in the legwork of having those lunches with you.”

Her laugh is a cute, melodic giggle. “Your tune might change when I tell you that I only give the chicken tenders a six on a scale of one to ten.”

“What? Only a six?” I feign shocked eyes before tapping my chin dramatically. “You know, I think our usual chef is on vacation or something. That’s probably why they’re not up to snuff today.”

“Oh, okay,” she mutters with a knowing smile and stands up from her chair to toss her takeout container in the trash. She makes a pit stop at the sink to wash her hands, and I can’t stop myself from taking her in. Her full hips and strong thighs and the tiny bump of a stomach that’s carried and birthed two kids.

Sammy has the body of a woman, and fuck if I don’t love everything about it.

“What are you looking at?” she asks, her hip hitched against the counter of the sink now. Her brow is furrowed, and her eyes search mine.

I pause, wavering on my choice of words before eventually getting straight to the point. “You. You’re beautiful.”

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