Page 22 of Roman

“Not at all, baby boy. I’ve even had my coffee and everything. Is everything okay? A phone call instead of a text makes me think someone died.”

“No, everything’s okay. Just don’t have the patience to type everything out. I…um…met someone?”

The shriek that crossed the phone line was just a decibel below deafening. “Oh! My! God! This is huge. Who is he? Where did you meet him? What dirty things has he done to your virgin body?”

Danny couldn’t help but laugh. “Chloe, honey, you know I’m not a virgin.”

“I’m sorry,” she said, not sounding sorry at all. “But I’m pretty sure you qualify as some type of born-again bearer of a V-card, I’m afraid. You definitely haven’t hooked up with anyone in the time I’ve known you, and I have been keeping my eyespeeledfor that shit.”

Danny huffed into the phone. “Maybe I have and I just didn’t tell you.”

“Please. Like you could keep that from me. You’ve had a case of what I’ve secretly diagnosed as stress-induced chastity.”

“Nurses aren’t allowed to diagnose,” he retorted in a know-it-all voice. “You’re going beyond your scope of practice.”

“Bite me,” she replied evenly. “Now tell me more about this someone.”

The thing was, Chloe wasn’t exactly wrong. Dannywasn’ta virgin—he’d crossed that bridge in nursing school, with a sweet guy he’d shared a bed with a few times but no real connection—but he hadn’t exactly been getting any regular action. Before nursing school, he’d had a few awkward, mostly clandestine high school hookups. And really nothing since.

His life since adulthood had been work and taking care of his mom, and while her moving to the facility had freed up his time, the cost of it meant he had to work more hours to make ends meet. He hadn’t had time to meet someone outside of the hospital, and he hadn’t been interested in meeting anyoneinsidethe hospital.

And then Roman had walked in, all delicious and broody and saving-him-from-muggers-y.

He tried to figure out how to tell a sanitized, vamp-free version of the story to Chloe. “He came into the hospital the other night. Not as a patient. Just visiting. But then last night, someone tried to mug me—”

He heard Chloe gasp on the other end of the line. “Oh my God, Danny, are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” he reassured her. “He stepped in, fought them off. He’s fine too.”

Now that she was comforted in knowing Danny was unharmed, Chloe’s voice took on a teasing tone. “Exactly howfineis he?”

Danny gave an exaggerated sigh. “I can’t even tell you, Chlo. He’s the definition of tall, dark, and handsome. Throw in these piercing blue eyes and a fantastic smell and freaking amazing body.”

Chloe gave a little squeal of delight. “And how up close and personal with this amazing body has my Danny Boy been?”

Danny blushed, grateful she wasn’t there in person to tease him over it. “I…took him home. After the mugging. He stayed the night last night.”

Chloe gave an actual whoop. “Yes! Yesss. Good work. Tell me more.”

“He made me food. We fell asleep. This morning we hooked up, and it was…mind-blowing, but when I woke up again this afternoon, he was gone. No phone number.”

She made a sympathetic sound. “Oof. That’s not ideal. You sure he didn’t put his number in your phone while you were sleeping or something?”

“No, he didn’t. I checked. And it wasn’t in the note.”

“So he left a note?”

“Yeah, he left a note to explain the groceries? He, um, he got me groceries.”

There was a pause on the other end, then, “I’m sorry. Hold up. The man got yougroceries? While you were sleeping?”

“He…um…seemed to think I wasn’t taking care of myself with quote, unquote, ‘proper food.’”

“No argument from me. I’ve never known anyone who was so good at taking care of others and so bad at taking care of himself.”

Danny made a noncommittal noise at that statement, not willing to jump into this familiar argument.

“Okay.” Chloe moved on. “Let me run this all together. You met a dreamy man at work. He rescues you from a mugger. Makes you postmugging dinner. Spends the night. Participates in a—mind-blowing, I believe you said?—hookup, buys you groceries, and leaves with a note but no number. I got it all?”

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