Page 28 of Dr. Off Limits

“Nothing?” Madison asked.

“Well, I didn’t get her to fill out a questionnaire and have her under interrogation by MI5 but there was nothing—it doesn’t matter.”

“So you’ve asked her on a second date?” Madison asked.

“No. She works at the same hospital as me,” I replied. “Not that I knew that at the time or I would never have gone on the date in the first place.”

“Ahhh,” Nathan said. “Could be messy.”

“Why would it be messy?” Madison asked. “Surely that makes life a lot easier. You all work so freaking hard.”

Nathan was shaking his head. “Dad has always been clear. You keep your private life private. ‘Medicine’s a very small world,’” he said, lowering his voice and doing his best Dad impression.

“But other than that, you liked her?” Madison asked.

I shrugged then took a seat on the stool next to her. I’d lost my strength to stand and my energy to avoid spilling my feelings. I took a breath. “I really liked her.”

I ignored the look that passed between Madison and my brother.

“I still like her, and now she’s been assigned to pediatrics as her first rotation. I’m not sure what to do. We have this connection or chemistry or something. It’s like my biochemistry changes when she’s around. I can feel her when she’s close.” I shook my head. “It’s weird.” I sighed, exhausted from thinking about it. “I’m sure it will pass. It’s just been a long week.”

“It’s a shit she’s in the same hospital. You think she’ll move when she passes foundation?” Nathan asked.

“I don’t know,” I replied. “She only started this week. She’s got a minimum of two years left.” I just needed to get through the next four months.

“You could kill two birds with one stone and hand in your resignation and come into business with me,” Nathan said. “Can I tempt you away from medicine and over to the dark side?”

I let out a half-hearted laugh. “As if.”

“Then I don’t know what to suggest other than cold showers. And try to fixate on something that irritates you about her. Like maybe she always interrupts you before you finish a sentence. Or maybe she wears too much makeup or—there’s got to be something?”

I couldn’t think of anything that wasn’t completely sexy about Sutton.

“Or maybe don’t do that and date her,” Madison said. “Call me old fashioned, but just because your dad advised you against something doesn’t mean it’s the law. I mean, unless the hospital has a policy or something?”

Nathan snorted. “Hospitals are basically huge dating pools. There’s no way any hospital could introduce a policy because everyone would just ignore it.”

“I think there is a policy, but everyone ignores it,” I said.

“So other than your dad disapproving—and he never has to know—I’m not getting why you just don’t ask her out.” Madison looked at me, just like an investigative journalist interviewing a source.

“Because my dad isn’t wrong. I’m trying to position myself to head up the program for foundation doctors. I can’t do that if I’m fucking one of them.”

Madison pushed her lips together. “Hmmm.” She folded her arms. “Unless no one finds out.”

“Someone always finds out,” I said.

“I guess you just have to figure out whether she’s worth the risk,” Madison said.

“Can we talk about something else now?” I asked. I didn’t want to think about the possibility of being with Sutton because it wasn’t possible. I didn’t want to start down the path of a dead-end street. I needed to put her out of my head.

“Oh, before we do, I’ve had an idea about the foundation program,” Nathan said. “An idea that will raise your profile among the candidates to take over from Wanda.”

He’d caught my attention. I hoped this wasn’t a joke. “Go on,” I said.

“You need an offsite,” he said. “It boosts morale. It helps teambuilding. You can do some hard-skills training in there. I even thought you might do a survey of the staff and ask if they could change one thing in the hospital, what would it be. Then you take that to the offsite and workshop the thing staff mention most.”

“That’s not really a doctor issue, though. More of an admin thing to figure out.”

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