Total pages in book: 21
Estimated words: 19358 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 97(@200wpm)___ 77(@250wpm)___ 65(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 19358 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 97(@200wpm)___ 77(@250wpm)___ 65(@300wpm)
Bobbie waved her hand. “People are always trying to set him up with different guys, but he’s never all that interested. Says he’s too busy with work, and I believe him. Man works impossible hours… kind of like you’ve been doing lately.”
I shrugged. “Maybe if they find a replacement for Khidhri, things will calm down a little. But it’s no problem for me. I like what I do. And if I have too much free time, my own parents will jump on the matchmaker bandwagon.”
I winked at her and turned back to my charts. Unfortunately, the slipup into mentioning my private business didn’t go unnoticed.
“And you wouldn’t want that?” she asked, clearly fishing.
I answered without looking away from the screen. “Hell no. I have no interest in dating right now. I just got out of a relationship in Atlanta. Moving here was a good chance to put it behind me, not replace it.”
“Mm. Well, if you change your mind, let me know. There are about a thousand nurses in this hospital alone who’ve tried to call dibs on you since you arrived.”
I closed my eyes and shook my head with a laugh. “Please don’t tell me who, or that will make tomorrow’s OR very uncomfortable.”
She said good night through her own laughter and took off toward the elevator.
I finished my notes and gathered my things, happy for once to be heading home to my own bed, even though my rental house was still half-empty of furniture and half-full of boxes.
On the way home, I stopped to pick up a grilled chicken salad I’d ordered from a local bistro that definitely hadn’t been here when we’d moved to Hobie my senior year in high school. When the hostess turned to reach for my order on the to-go shelf, I noticed the order two over from mine had the name Baptiste written on it in black marker.
“Is that Baptiste order for Honovi?” I asked.
The woman glanced more closely at the order. “Yes, sir.”
“Can I pay for that one, too?”
She shrugged. “Sure, if you’d like. That’s awfully nice of you.”
I handed her my credit card. “Not really. I made a difficult meeting even more difficult for him today, so buying his dinner is the least I could do.”
That wasn’t the real reason, but I wasn’t quite sure what the real reason was. To be nice? Hardly. To exert control over the man? No. So why did I want to buy his dinner? It certainly wasn’t to apologize for the colossal waste of time today’s meeting had been.
For some reason, seeing that Hon’s order was only comprised of a single entree made me feel both relieved and disappointed. Relieved because I didn’t want to imagine buying dinner for Hon and his date. Disappointed because I also didn’t want to imagine him going home to eat alone.
As I signed the receipt, I considered sticking around and asking if he wanted to share our meals somewhere. Maybe a bench outside or possibly a spare table in the restaurant if they were willing to let us have it. But then I pictured the look of disgust on his face from our meeting today and decided I wasn’t up for that kind of rejection tonight.
So I went home and ate alone with only the memory of Hon’s narrowed eyes and ruddy cheeks to keep me company.
3
HONOVI
I hadn’t known there was such a thing as angry-forking until I’d eaten my grilled salmon and steamed asparagus that night. When I’d arrived at the restaurant to find that Dr. Rhodes had paid for my dinner, I was both annoyed and impressed.
Annoyed that he knew any of my business, even if it was only that I was trying to eat healthy these days, and impressed that he’d gone out of his way to do something for someone else. Even if it had been the right thing to do after being a monumental shithead in our meeting.
“Stop thinking about this,” I muttered as I walked into the courtroom a few days later. For some reason, the infuriating surgeon was like a burr under my saddle.
“I hope you don’t,” my client said with a nervous laugh. “Not if you were thinking about my case.”
I turned to Janet Miller with an apologetic smile. “Sorry. No. I was thinking about an upcoming… dental procedure,” I lied. “Not my favorite.”
This wasn’t entirely a lie. Dealing with Xavier Rhodes was a lot like pulling teeth, after all. And I’d just found out our re-rescheduled meeting was set for tomorrow. I was already dreading it.
“Nice of you to join us, Counselor,” Judge Ricks said with a lifted eyebrow as Janet and I entered the courtroom. Her reading glasses were perched low on her nose as she peered over them at me. “Now maybe we can get this show on the road.”