Page 22 of Undeniably Enemies

She shakes her head. “I’m not talking to you about my sleep or lack thereof. And I’m trying very hard to be nice. So what do you say?”

“No.”

Her lips part, and her eyes go wide and incredulous. “You’re unbelievable. Why?”

“I already told you why.”

She shoots over to me and glares defiantly. “I happen to know you’ve allowed other students to do similar things when other specialties have come down. So this is about me, right?”

I shift in front of her even though my coffee is done brewing and I need to get to work. “Why didn’t you sleep last night, Wren?”

“Why don’t you fuck off, Jack?”

I smirk. “You know I’m your boss, right? I could write you up or keep you cleaning bedpans for your entire rotation for mouthing off to me like that. Though I don’t think you care. You like saying that to me too much. That and calling me an asshole.”

“I like a lot of things. I like saying fuck off and calling you an asshole because it feels good, and right now, I think you’re too tired and apathetic to bother with punishing me for it. I like the fall and football and ridiculous shoes that pinch my toes. I like baking without a recipe and looking up vacations I want to take one day. I like my coffee the same color as your heart. Black.” She reaches around me, picks up my cup, and without blowing on it, takes a sip. “I just don’t like you.”

She hands me the mug, and I stare down at the sticky spot where her lips just touched and the residue of gloss she left. Our fingers brush, and it’s the same as it’s always been. I’d just forgotten since it’s been so long since I’ve touched her. It’s the same crackling energy that hums between us.

It’s a vibe. A tingle up your spine or goose bumps on yourskin. It’s the promise of clothes-ripping, sweaty, great sex. It’s what I felt the first time I touched her at the party and every time I have since, and right now it’s fucking with me.

Like she does.

I pull my cup away from her, and just so I can get her out of my ER for a bit and away from me, I say, “If OB determines your patient is surgical and they say it’s okay, you can accompany them up to the OR. Considering it’s likely your father, mother, or Keegan coming down, I’m sure they’ll allow it.”

A smile lights up her face, and I feel it ricochet in my chest. “Thank?—”

“But you’ll return immediately after she is moved to the PACU and make up the hour you missed. I don’t give a shit if you came in early today. That doesn’t count as far as I’m concerned.”

“Sure thing, boss.”

“And Wren?”

She pauses, halfway out the door, but doesn’t turn around.

“If you tell me to fuck off again or call me an asshole in this hospital, I will, apathetic or not, make your next four weeks here hell. Now leave me the fuck alone and do your job so I don’t have to talk to you.”

Smartly, she leaves without a response, and I stare down at my cup, already trying to talk myself out of what I’m about to do, but knowing I’ll do it anyway. I put my mouth exactly where hers just was and take a sip even if I don’t like my coffee as black as my heart. I get a hint of her strawberry gloss, and for a second, it shoots me back to that night, to the flavor of the drink we shared.

I close my eyes, mentally berating myself.

It’s only been two days of her, and I’m already like this. Christ, that woman needs to go, or I’ll never make it through these four weeks.

8

“How’s your rotation going in the emergency department?” my adviser Joe asks, perched on the corner of his desk, giving me the intense look he always does.

“It’s going well,” I tell him. “I love the ER, and the intern I’ve been assigned to is great.”

“I’m glad to hear that. That hasn’t necessarily been the case with some of your peers so it sounds like you got a good one.”

I pause at that. Then I remember Jack hates me and wouldn’t intentionally give me a good intern. It has to be random as I initially thought. Right?

“What about your attending physician?” he continues as if reading my mind.

He’s a beautiful bastard who I wish worked anywhere but there so I wouldn’t have to see him every damn day. “He’s fine.”

“Which one were you assigned to again?” He turns to search his paperwork, but I make it easy for him.

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