Page 12 of Just One Chance
Oh, man. He really was an open book. “You chose well this morning,” Avery said, looking over his outfit. “You look nice.” She hoped he sensed her sincerity. Hedidlook nice. His pants fit well, and the blue in his shirt made his eyes pop in a way that had fully kept her attention all morning long.
David looked down at his clothes. “Thank you. John told me to wear blue if I wanted to make a good first impression.”
Avery fought hard not to laugh. Notathim, just at his openness, maybe?
“What happens if you happen to meet a womaninyour ER?” Avery asked, a teasing grin on her face.
David scowled. “What, you mean, like a patient?”
“Sure,” Avery said. “Women do get sick and come to the ER, don’t they?”
“Of course they do. But I don’t see them as women, I see them as patients. It engages an entirely different part of my brain.”
“Even if she’s beautiful?”
“Especially if she’s beautiful. It’s important that I remain objective. Every woman in my ER deserves to be treated exactly the same, regardless of her appearance.”
Avery took the last bite of the triple chocolate cheesecake she’d ordered for dessert, impressed by how quickly he’d responded to her question. It wasn’t something he’d had to think about, and it definitely wasn’t just a line he delivered because he thought it sounded good. Even after only knowing him a short amount of time, Avery was positive about that. David wasn’t going to say anything he didn’t actually mean. “Doctor Daniels, that was an excellent answer.”
David shrugged. “I try not to bring my emotions into my work at all, if I can help it.”
Avery frowned. “But isn’t it good to engage with people? I like doctors more when they’re friendly.”
“Of course,” David said. “That’s part of the job. But I can be friendly and engaging without engaging my emotions. Think about it this way. Most of the time when people come to the hospital, they’re experiencing things for the first time so their emotions are running really high. Everything feels significant. But for their doctors, we’ve possibly seen dozens of patients that day. We’ve seen it all, heard it all, answered the same questions hundreds of times. We can’t afford to engage emotionally with every patient. It would be too exhausting.”
Avery nodded. “I’ve never thought about it that way, but I see what you’re saying.” She scraped her fork across her empty plate, wishing she had about three more bites of her dessert left. It had been delicious. “Still, I bet you at leastnoticewhen a woman is beautiful.”
David rolled his eyes, lifting his shoulders in a semi-defeated shrug. “I mean, I’m human. An awkward one, but still, human.”
Avery smiled. He wasn’t as awkward as he thought he was. There was something adorably charming about the way he just said laid all his cards on the table all at once.
David cleared his throat. “I, um. . .” He hesitated, taking a deep breath before continuing his sentence. “I would definitely notice ifyoucame into the ER.” The tips of his ears turned bright pink and he gave his head an almost imperceptible shake. “Not that I want you to get sick or anything. Or come to the hospital for any reason. That’s not, I mean, I wasn’t trying to say—”
Avery held out a hand, stopping his bumbling explanation. “I know what you meant. Thank you for the compliment.”
David slid the crumbs of his dessert around on his plate. He’d only eaten half of his and Avery felt tempted to ask if he’d mind if she finished the rest. He’d gotten something lemon, she thought. She liked lemon.
“What about you?” David asked, finally looking up and meeting her eye. “Are you always this confident and self-assured? It must make dating easy for you.”
If any other man had asked the same question, she’d suspect the guy was fishing, hoping she might reveal her current relationship status in a nonthreatening way. But David? She doubted he had those kinds of subtle moves. Still, that didn’t mean she couldn’t use the opportunity to her advantage, creating a defined friendship boundary before David asked her out. From the number of compliments he’d thrown her way, she was pretty sure hewouldask her out. She didn’t want to just shoot him down. He was too sweet a guy for that. But she maybe could use Tucker as an excuse.
She wasn’t totally sure she could call what was happening with Tucker an actual relationship. Not yet, anyway. Questions pulsed around in her brain about whether or not she actuallywantedwhatever was happening with Tucker to be an actual relationship, but she ignored them for the time being. In the context of defining her friendship with David, that part didn’t necessarily matter.
“Dating definitely isn’t always easy,” Avery said. “But things are going okay right now. I just started seeing someone again.”
David frowned. “Again?”
“He’s an old friend—an oldboyfriend.But we’ve been hanging out a little bit, and, I don’t know. Something might be happening.”
“A rekindling,” David said, not even trying to hide the dejection in his voice. “That’s too bad.” As soon as the words were out of his mouth, he started shaking his head. “No, that’s not what I meant. I’m . . .” His face turned bright red. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that out loud.”
That wasn’t the response Avery had expected, and yet, when she thought about it, it was exactly the kind of answer she should have expected from David. The longer she spent time with him, the more he puzzled her. No, that wasn’t right. He wasn’t puzzling at all. He was maybe the most genuine guy she’d ever met. There was no posturing, no trying to look cool. What guy admits to trying on six different outfits before leaving his house? She’d never met anyone who had such a complete lack ofgame.Andthat’swhat was puzzling. That even with all that, his compliments still made her feel all tingly inside. She couldn’t decide if she’d enjoyed being around him all day because she felt flattered by his unfiltered adoration, or if she liked being around him because she liked . . .him.
But Tucker was still a thing. And possibly a big thing.
“I guess it’s good you let me know you’re seeing someone,” David said. “I’m pretty sure I like you enough I would have wanted to ask you out again. You’ve just saved me from a lot of unnecessary anxiety.”
Avery smiled. “Can we be friends without you feeling any anxiety? Because I’d love to be friends.”
