Page 25 of Sinful in Scrubs

“I wanted to check on you, though. Last night?—”

“Last night didn’t happen,” Emma bit out.

“Last night was…” I stammered.

She unlocked her office door and tilted her head, indicating I should step inside. She closed the door behind us.

I wanted to hold her in my arms, brush the stray strands of hair away from her brow, touch her in any way I could. That was not this conversation, as much as I would have liked it to be. Emma’s body language and tone made it very clear that was not going to be this conversation.

She stepped in close, her voice low.

“Let’s get something cleared up right now.”

I nodded.

“Last night was a tragic loss of a patient,” she said.

I nodded in agreement.

“And the comforting of a colleague,” she continued.

My eyebrows went up.

“Last night did not happen,” she clarified. “In other words, last night did not happen at all.”

I nodded sharply. “I agree.”

“Last night was difficult,” she said, her tone professional. “And as far as I’m concerned, we handled everything appropriately.”

I nodded again.

“Professionally,” she added, her words clipped.

I understood that my presence was no longer required in her office.

“Emma—”

“Yes, Dr. Walker?”

The use of my title instead of my name made it clear how she wanted to proceed.

“Sorry, Dr. Chen. I just wanted to let you know that, should you need someone to talk to about last night’s surgery, I’m available for you.”

“Thank you, Dr. Walker, but I don’t think that will be necessary. I’m not sure if you were made aware when you were brought on to staff, but the administration has an on-staff counselor for our needs. Should you need to speak with anyone about the situation in regard to the patient, I can recommend that you head out to Terry Goldman. You can find her in the staff directory. I don’t think you and I need to further discuss last night. We were both there during the procedure, so our reports will be very similar. It’s not as if we need to get our stories straight, do we?”

I narrowed my eyes briefly. Her insinuation was very clear. There was no wrongdoing in the operating room, and we didn’t need to cover any misdeeds that resulted in the patient’s death. And that was it. The moments between us, if they were to be mentioned, ended after a brief moment of mutual support.

“No. No, we don’t,” I said.

She gave me a clipped nod, and I left her office.

So, we would act as if nothing had occurred between us and go back to being professionally distant.

It wasn’t the most ideal outcome, in my opinion. I would have liked to have continued pursuing this attraction between us, taken her out to dinner, and had a conversation that didn’t involve work.

I smiled to myself as I stepped away from her office. I may not be able to take her out socially, but we were still going to be working closely together on the intake protocols.

There was still an opportunity to win her over.

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