Page 33 of Already At Risk
six months ago
NATALIE
I let him buy me a drink.
Sure, I might have said that I was only going out to Mulligan’s for one drink. And yeah, I might have already finished that drink.
But that decision was made before I found myself next tohim.
And I’d already rejected his offer of buying me a drink once. I couldn’t say no a second time, could I?
As a surgeon, I was never the biggest fan ofGrey’s Anatomy. You know, something about all the medical inaccuracies and how everyone always died felt a little repetitive. But sometimes, I didn’t mind tuning it out and just…appreciating. It was okay to just live in a fantasy land filled with hot doctors every once in a while.
I felt like I’d slipped into an episode tonight, being that this whole thing was a bit unrealistic and had the potential to end in an emotional wreck. But more importantly, this little pub might as well be a fantasy land. Because while the man beside me said he worked in law, he sure looked like Dr. Jackson Avery. Minus the eyes. Cam had warm, brown eyes that I seemed to be sinking further into with every sip of my beer. I should really, really stop looking at them.
“Have you been here before?” he asked. “They have a hell of a whiskey list, if you like that kind of thing.”
I shrugged.
If I kept evading his questions, did that make me seem cool and mysterious and less like I was just a little out of my depth when it came to flirting with handsome men?
“If I said I came here all the time, would you believe me?”
He raised a curved brow. “Why wouldn’t I?”
Because I haven’t sat at a bar like this in years,I thought to myself.
Cam chuckled to himself when I just shrugged again. “I wouldn’t. But I’d believe you enough to be coming back here every night after this, anyway.”
A breathless laugh left my lips. “Yeah?”
He was being over-the-top. A flirt.
But then his expression became stoic, his eyes flicking over me once and then dropping to his glass.
“Yeah,” he repeated into his beer as he took a sip.
And something about it all made me say, “You know, I wouldn’t mind seeing that whiskey list.”
Cam’s eyes shot to mine.
A grin appeared again.
“Coming right up, Sunny.”
CHAPTER NINE
cameron
“ALL FIXED,” I ANNOUNCED as I walked back into Natalie’s kitchen.
She looked up from behind an open pizza box with surprise on her face. “Already?”
Her surprise was warranted; I’d only stepped outside a few minutes ago after arriving at her house.
“It’s not exactly a long process,” I said with a shrug. “Do you have a scrap of paper or anything I can write the new code on?”
She nodded and then grabbed a notepad and pencil, slapping it down on the kitchen island, where she’d fallen asleep last night. Then, she spun around to start grabbing plates from the cabinets, calling, “Pizza’s here!” to Chloe.
