Page 48 of The Doctor's Simple Life

At home in Miami, my apartment is stylish, sleek, modern.

Out in the boonies in Silverbell, half the time I still can’t even get the internet to work.

The only ray of light is Sienna.

Every time I think of her, of leaving her, my heart twists in my chest. So I try not to. It doesn’t work. There’s no point in trying to pretend I won’t miss her. Because I will.

I slump down on my sofa and sigh. Days off are the worst around here. I’m trapped here in this stupid house, pacing and staring at the beige walls. Sure, I could go out, but where would I go? I’ve been to every single store on Main Street. I know all the waitresses’ names in the cafe.

If I had any friends, then maybe it would be better. But I don’t.

I don’t have anything here except Sienna.

Would she really be worth it to stay here?

Who am I to even think that? What a dumb idea. I wouldn’t fit in here. I would hate every second of it. Something truly weird is happening to me if I’m considering this for real. I can just imagine what the guys back home would say, and none of it would be good. They would probably be right; it is stupid to uproot my whole life for a girl I’ve only known for three weeks.

But then again, my time here has passed so quickly. It’s given me something that years of work at home haven’t, a kind of passion for work that I thought I’d lost. It’s made me want to be a better doctor, to be the kind of doctor who helps people and cares about them, not just because I’m a great surgeon, but because it’s my community, my people.

I could have that if I stayed here. So many people in town know my name. They smile at me when I pass them on the street.

I turn on the TV and stare as the loading screen on my streaming service goes round and round and round, almost hypnotizing me. This is intolerable. I can’t live here. I get no internet.

Sienna keeps teasing me about it because somehow, any time she’s here, she gets it to work. It’s like she’s some dark wizard of broadband and I’ve been cursed to live a TV-less life.

Though, if I’m totally honest with myself, high-speed internet is the only thing I do miss about the city.

But I’m not interested in being honest. I am going home soon. I will be leaving Sienna. I have to get used to the idea.

Sienna. Everything in my head keeps coming back to her. She’s on shift right now, but I need her. I need someone to entertain me, at the very least.

Anything more than that is a problem to think about another day.

I grab my phone while composing the message I’m going to send to her in my head:Hey, you busy tonight? Wanna hang?

Then I decide that sounds lame, and I should ask her out to the bar like a normal person. I unlock it, and to my surprise, I already have a message from Sienna:Meet me later, after work. Let’s go out x

My heart constricts as I take in the kiss at the end.

I know it’s a thing she does to everyone to be friendly — I’ve seen the way she texts her grandmother and her friends — but the fact that she’s doing it to me as well feels significant. This means that we’re at least friends. I mean, the sex should have made that obvious, but these things can be complicated.

Hell, there have been plenty of women I’ve taken to bed that I haven’t been friends with or even really liked that much. Some of them I’ve picked up for a night and never spoken to again, but some I already knew and wasn’t friends with, and still did it anyway. Those nights were never the best.

The repetition with Sienna — that’s what makes me think this is probably genuine. That, and the sex is really, really good. It doesn’t feel that good without an attraction, without a spark. Even if this isn’t going to last, it’s real for now. It means something now.

That’s all I can hope for, right?

As promised, I pick Sienna up at the hospital after her shift, and she flashes me that smile that I can’t help but be weak for. “Hey. How was work?”

She shrugs. “Same as usual.”

“You look tired.”

“Thanks, I think?”

I shake my head as we get into the car. “Ah, no, I didn’t mean it like that. I meant, let’s go out and forget all about it.”

She grins again, and we drive. She tells me about her day, and I commiserate with her over the hard stuff. It sounds like she had a rough one today with annoying people, tough cases, and stacks of paperwork.

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