Page 101 of Craving Cooper

The phone rings and I jump, answering it promptly.

“Cooper White’s Dental Clinic… how may I help?”

“I hope you can.” The woman on the end of the line sounds distressed. “I have a terrible toothache. I need to see the dentist.”

I check the calendar on my screen. “Doctor White has a slot on Monday morning at nine.”

“I can’t wait until Monday. I told you, I’ve got a toothache. It’s agony.”

I glance back at today’s schedule. His three-thirty appointment is already with him. He has another at four, and a further one thirty minutes later. The five pm slot has been blanked out for some reason, and I push my chair back from my desk, getting to my feet.

“I may be able to fit you in this afternoon. Can you just hold the line while I check?”

“Sure.”

I put the call on hold, and hurry over to the surgery, knocking quietly on the door, and waiting until I hear Cooper call out, “Come in.”

He’s perched on the edge of his stool, his head bent over his patient – Mr. Carpenter – who’s lying back in the dentist’s chair, but the moment I come into the room, Cooper looks up at me. He’s wearing a surgical mask, but I can see the smile in his eyes.

“Is something wrong?” he asks.

“I’ve got a patient on the phone who’s asking if you can fit her in this afternoon. She says she has a toothache and is in agony.”

Greta is over by the computer and switches the screen.

“You could see her at five,” she says, but Cooper shakes his head.

“I blocked that session out because you’re not here.”

“And you’re telling me you can’t cope by yourself?”

Mr. Carpenter looks up and smiles. “I’d call that a challenge, Doc.”

“So would I,” Cooper says, although he turns to me, with such disappointment in his eyes, I wish I could find a way out of it for him. I can’t, though… not when someone is suffering as much as the poor woman on the phone.

“What shall I do?” I ask. “She’s waiting on the line.”

He shakes his head. “Tell her she can come at five.”

I nod, and he copies me, his eyes twinkling, so I know he’s smiling. He can’t do anything more reassuring than that, and while I’d love for it to be enough, I crave his arms, and his soft words… and to feel his lips on mine.

That’ll have to wait even longer now, and I duck out of the room, closing the door before I return to my desk.

“The dentist will see you at five,” I say, sitting back down and picking up the phone.

“That’s great.”

“Can I take your name, please?”

“It’s Miss Pollock.”

I unblock the session that starts at five and type in her name.

“Can you give me your number, please?” She recites it to me, and I add that in the required field. “That’s fine then. We’ll see you at five.”

“Excellent.”

She doesn’t say ‘thank you’, which strikes me as a little rude, but I guess she’s in pain, and rudeness can be excused at times like that.

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