Page 4 of Doctor One Night

Maybe that’s why I don’t let myself get close to anyone. When I’ve already got so much on my plate, there’s no room for anything else. The last thing I need is another person depending on me, another responsibility to add to the list. It’s easier to keep my distance, to focus on the work, to keep my personal life—what little there is of it—compartmentalized and far away from the hospital.

I don’t know what came over me that night, though. One minute she was showing me some slides, excited about some studies she had been conducting, and the next I was fucking her like a rabbit.

She’s not the kind of woman you forget easily. One of those natural beautiful, no-frills, women. Something about her continues to pull me in. Those wide, intelligent green eyes, the way she speaks so animatedly about her research. Her passion and dedication is fucking hot.

That night, she looked at me like I was the only person who could understand what she was experiencing. Maybe that, along with the long and arduous surgery that preceded my visit, is why I lost control. Anyone who knows me knows that I never let myself get caught up in the heat of the moment.

Except with her that night.

It was quick, explosive, and over almost before it started. And afterward was awkward as hell. A couple of, “well, I’ll see you around,” and then I was out the door, running like I was trying to escape my own skin.

I’ve got to work on my exit moves.

Besides that, I’ve got these rules—I don’t sleep with colleagues, and I don’t sleep with anyone I might have to see again after. That was risky, going there with her. Luckily, I haven’t seen her since that night forever ago.

The sounds from next door are fading now, and I sigh, scrubbing a hand over my face. I need to get out of here, get some sleep, and stop thinking about a woman that could get me in trouble.

“You’re still here, Hunter?” The voice of Jonah Bellinger cuts through my thoughts. “You’re not satisfied with being the top surgeon on the East Coast? Now you want to work the most hours, too? Keep all us mediocre surgeons behind you any way you can?”

It’s kind of eerie how Bellinger can just glide into a room without making a sound. He’s like a ninja, popping up with some smartass comment before I even know he’s there.

The chuckle I hear as he opens the fridge is just barely audible because someone next door bellows, “Right there! Right there. Fuck, baby!” I guess things aren’t winding down after all.

“Who’s busting a nut now?” Jonah asks, shaking a bottle of juice as he comes to sit next to me on the couch. Like always, he doesn’t so much collapse on the couch as he does float onto it like a paper airplane coming in for a landing.

How someone who is so the epitome of cool tolerates this environment is anyone’s guess. It’s like the college quarterback hanging with a bunch of tight-ass nerds.

“Not sure. I’ve been too focused on this to care,” I wave the papers I’ve been perusing.

“Kind of quiet tonight,” he says with a mild groan, leaning back against the faded leather couch used by so many of us in this place over the last five years. The last one was nearly down to the frame when it was finally replaced. Hopefully, we won’t get to that point this time.

“Hey, earth to Hunter. What’re you thinking about now?”

I sigh, “Too much, like always. Long surgery tonight,” I sigh as I let my head fall to the back of the couch. “I need to get my ass up and head home, but I’m too intrigued by your handsome face.”

“Fuck you, dork. Whatcha reading that’s got you all hot and bothered?”

He holds his hand out, and I don’t bother hesitating to pass the report over. There’s enough medical jargon around here to keep us busy for a solid year if we read all of it.

“Hodgkin’s lymphoma case, eh? Sexy. Last I heard, it was curable.”

“Yeah,” I reply, crossing my right leg over my left knee. “It typically is. But there’s either a new strain out there, or there’s a miniscule tweak in the RNA causing a risk to several people that we don’t fully know about.”

“Oh, even sexier.” He continues to scan and seems moderately interested.

“This report was issued last year,” I point to the page he is on currently. “It’s been revised at least once. But so far, no one has nailed down the reason why the affected individuals are more susceptible and less likely to respond to treatment.”

“How long has this been an issue?”

“I’m not sure,” I say with a shrug. “I believe it’s a fairly recent phenomenon. This case just caught my attention a few months ago. Things have been busy, but I’ve been reading up on everything I can get my hands on. Everything is just coming out, like water out of a fire hose.”

I can almost sense his eyebrows raise, so I don’t bother looking. He knows when I’m lying or not telling the whole truth. But Jonah doesn’t grill me, which I appreciate.

“You mean Superman can’t hear around corners?” His low, sardonic whistle would normally make me roll my eyes, but not now. “Damn, man. I thought you knew everything about everything.”

“Eat shit.”

“Lick nuts.”

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