Page 37 of See Me After Class

Now it was my turn to sympathize with him. "Not at all, sir. I am, as well. I've had patients refuse to talk to me if I couldn't name every Pokémon in existence. A preteen once bullied me because I'm not on TikTok. The generation gap is tough for me, too."

That got a little bit of a laugh, and even Dr. Sturry chuckled. "Bless their hearts, they don't know when they're lucky. Okay, well. All of you, off to your classes, then."

I had the feeling I'd passed a secret test of some kind and been found satisfactory. The intuition was confirmed by the nice woman who first made eye contact with me in the room. She caught up with me in the corridor and introduced herself.

"Hey, I'm Chelsea," she said brightly. "I'm on the junior research staff, so I don't know how much we'll be seeing of each other, but I can introduce you to some of the pediatrics peeps if you want."

Research? Perfect.

"Oh, so you work with Dr. Magnusson, then?" I said, pretending to be suitably impressed. "Wow, that must be something. I'm Dessie, by the way."

"I know," she said, grinning. "You're Dessie and you pulled up in a purple Lamborghini. You're famous, you know. Good for you."

Ouch.Did I want to be famous? I was really going to regret that fucking car, I could tell.

"I've got to head over to my first research lecture today," I said quickly. "Do you have the same one I do? Ethics of Medicine?"

"Oh, yeah, that's Dr. Galbraith's," she said casually. "Come on, hurry. He hates it when people are late."

I broke into a cold sweat. "Dr. Galbraith?"Oh, no, oh no, oh fuck,said a small voice in the back of my mind.

"Yeah, but he's not as scary as he looks," said Chelsea comfortingly. "Are you coming?"

I gulped. "Yeah."

It couldn't be that bad, could it?I hoped as I followed her into the lecture room. Into the yawning mouth of the beast. What could he possibly do to me in front of all those people?

"Ah, Desdemona," said a growling, all too familiar voice from behind me. "How nice to see you again."

15

Dessie

Iturned, and a stone dropped into my stomach.

"Hi, Dr. Galbraith," said Chelsea winningly. She had a very nice smile, I noticed. "Can't wait for the lecture!"

"Thank you, Chelsea," he said politely, though his eyes were on me, grim and watchful. "Settling in okay, Desdemona?"

A series of explicit images flashed before my eyes. Him on top of me, me frantically tearing his clothes off, the way he looked when he was fucking me on the edge of his desk...

"Yes, thank you, Dr Galbraith," I said politely, although it was an outright lie. If anything, I was profoundly unsettled and the total opposite of okay.

Chelsea shot me a curious glance as John Galbraith looked past us, up toward the rapidly filling seats in the room. I assumed nobody wanted to miss attendance when the Head of Oncology was lecturing.

"Good," he said, and the mere sound of his voice had the heat coiling between my legs so fast, it was unbelievable. "See me after class, Desdemona."

Oh, fuck. Oh, bloody hell.

"What was all that about?" whispered Chelsea in a furtive undertone as we hurried to a pair of empty seats in the back. "Did you piss him off already?"

You have no idea, Chelsea,I thought darkly, though I didn't reply out loud.You have no idea.

I thought of Googling the possible sentence for breaking, entering, and industrial espionage on my phone under the desk, but then refrained. If John Galbraith wanted me to be in prison, I had no doubt that I would have woken up behind bars this very morning.

And besides, I didn't want the phone screen lighting up my face like a spotlight from the back of the room. As it turned out, I had misjudged John Galbraith's teaching skills. He was an excellent speaker, and he made the most of his subject matter with very little apparent effort.

The room hung on his words as he began with the words of the Hippocratic oath.

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