Chapter 1
Whitney
If there were anything that I was sure of before the night of the Central General Hospital Christmas party, it was that I was a professional. I graduated from the top of my class in high school, college, and medical school. I was involved in every student organization possible.
My colleagues loved me. I was always the first doctor to arrive at the hospital in the morning and the last one to leave. I always wanted to be the best. That was something I learned from my mother. She was a skilled surgeon and I was proud to be her daughter. She was so good that I chose Internal Medicine instead of Surgery because I didn’t want to stand in her shadow. As a physician who treated patients for just about every illness and injury under the sun, I could hold my own, even as the youngest doctor in the practice.
At the age of twenty-nine, I was making a name for myself here. I found that my skills and knowledge as a doctor were just as good as the older doctors’ because all of my knowledge was up to date. I knew about all of the newest procedures and breakthroughs in medical technology from my recent time in medical school. Everything else I knew came from spending all of my free time reading books and journals. When it came to my job, there was always room for improvement.
So, when it was time for the Christmas party, I was ready to relax a little bit. For me, this meant having a few drinks and ditching medical talk for a few hours in exchange for conversation about our personal lives. Here, I would mostly listen to others talk about their spouses and kids. Since most of my free time was spent reading up on new research, I didn’t have much of a social life.
After the party, there was an after party that a lot of the younger employees went to. I had never gone before because things got notoriously wild every year, and that just wasn’t my style. I liked to dress up and sip cocktails with my coworkers, but I had left the days of hard partying behind in undergrad. Actually, I hardly participated in that at all.
Somehow, one of the doctors who was only a few years older than me had convinced me to go. He and his wife liked to have a good time, and he knew that I was frequently a little uptight. The combination of the drinks and their social pressure made me decide that I’d go for a little bit, have one drink, and then call a cab and call it a night. Besides, I had to get up early for rounds the next day so I couldn’t stay for too long.
The after party was being hosted by some nurses who shared a house. My friend Maria knew them pretty well and urged me to come along despite my protestations.
Maria worked in the lab at the hospital. She was brilliant, so I was glad she didn’t see patients like I did. I was competitive with others in my field, so I could appreciate her expertise as someone who made my job a lot easier. We started at the hospital around the same time and decided to share a little townhouse, as we both felt uneasy living in houses of our own.
We were both very serious about our professions, but that’s where the similarities ended between the two of us. Maria was outgoing and loved to be the center of attention. I was more reserved and cautious. Guys loved her and she went on tons of dates. Every now and again, I would get asked out, but I always had some excuse for why I couldn’t go. I knew that it annoyed Maria that I was always such a stick in the mud, so I hoped that going to this one event would be enough to get me off the hook for the next five or so. I felt much more at home at a cocktail hour for a medical conference than I did at a house party at one in the morning.
It always surprised me to find out that the people I worked with every day were such party animals. At the hospital, everyone was all business, all the time. When I walked in the house, I saw quiet, hardworking nurses taking shots at the kitchen table. It was strange, to say the least.
“Let’s get a drink,” Maria said, pulling me toward the refrigerator. She grabbed a bottle of wine and poured two plastic cups to the brim.
“That’s like three drinks,” I pointed out, but she didn’t seem amused by my observation. Not wanting to be a wet blanket, I said nothing more on the subject. I sipped the cheap white and felt guilty that I was drinking the wine of people who made far less than I did. Unless someone offered me a drink, I would just finish my cup and leave.
“So,” Maria said, pulling me to an empty spot in the cramped house, “if there were one guy you’d want to kiss at this party, who would it be?”
“I don’t like where this is going,” I groaned, to her delight.
“I’m just asking. I think I’d go for Michael, the cute receptionist.”
“I thought you already had gone for him. I saw him leaving our house one night.”
She grinned. “He’s such a good kisser. I might try to see if he’s been seeing anyone. I wouldn’t mind bringing him home tonight.”
I looked over at the guy she was talking about. He was cute, but probably a little too young for me. Plus, I knew that it was snobby of me, but I always saw myself with another doctor. Most of my free time was spent learning more about medicine, so it would be nice to have someone who shared that interest.
“What about Mark?” Maria asked, pointing to the anesthesiologist nursing a beer in the corner.
“Eh,” I said, giving a noncommittal answer. “I’m not really interested. Besides, I think he’s back with his wife. Or the mistress. I can never remember.”
“Okay,” she said, crossing him off her mental checklist of eligible bachelors. “What about Chad?”
I slowly turned my head toward the direction Maria was looking, hoping not to appear too obvious that we were talking about him.
Chad Brent had just started as a nurse at Central General a few weeks ago. I didn’t know him very well, but I knew his father. Paul Brent was the senior-most physician at our hospital. We spoke from time to time, and he was a good guy. He was about to retire soon, so that was probably why his son was starting now. He had the contacts to get his foot in the door, but he wouldn’t have to worry about working for his dad.
Chad was close to my age, but he looked like he just left the frat house. He had short, dark blond hair that he wore slightly spiked up in the front. His green eyes sparkled whenever he smiled, almost outshining his perfectly white teeth. He was average height, just a few inches taller than me. He was slender, but his toned muscles were on full display in his scrubs. A few times, I noticed my mind wandering off as I watched his perfect butt in the cotton pants. And as I found out this evening, he looked equally great in a suit.
I hadn’t told Maria this, but I had a little crush on him. Of course, it would be completely unprofessional to start up a relationship with an employee, especially one I would occasionally have to give orders to. But in my inebriated state, the prospect of talking to Chad didn’t sound too bad.
“Yeah,” I said casually. “He’s cute. But I can’t just go up to him and kiss him.”
“Why the hell not?” She giggled. “Everyone here is blasted. No one is going to remember any of this tomorrow.”
She was probably right. I was probably the soberest at the party, and I was already feeling pretty tipsy. But there were still too many people around. I couldn’t possibly make a move on him.
“At the very least, just go talk to him,” Maria urged. “I don’t know about you, but I’m going to get some tonight. I love you, but I can’t have you cock-blocking me.”
“Fine,” I said defiantly, walking over toward Chad. I caught him alone as he went out to the garage to grab a beer from the fridge. I chugged the rest of my glass so I would have a good excuse to be out there too.
“Hey,” I said cheerily, following him into the garage. “You’re Chad Brent, right?”
“Yeah,” he said brightly, handing me a bottle of beer. “You’re Dr. Saunders. I’m not sure if we ever formally met.”
I stuck my hand in his outstretched hand. His warm hand engulfed mine and my stomach felt jittery, like I was a kid again.
“How are you finding the hospital?” I asked.
“I really like it. I mean, I’ve been around before, with my dad and all.”
“Oh, right,” I said, feeling silly. “I guess I’m not the only one who’s working with a parent now.”
“I bet it’s different for you. At least you and your mom are colleagues in a way. I’m basically working for my dad, not with him.”
We stood in silence as he opened my bottle with the opener, then his. I had forgotten everything that I was going to say. I took a sip, feeling the drink’s effects almost immediately.
“I like your dress,” he said as I watched his eyes move from my eyes down to my shoes.
“Thanks,” I said, smoothing my suddenly damp hands on my snugly fitted dress. “I never dress up like this.”
“You should more often,” he said. “You look great.”
I blushed and hoped that the dim light in the garage obscured it. “You look pretty nice yourself. Although, you look good in your scrubs, too,” I blurted.
I immediately regretted everything. Not just what I’d said, but letting Maria convince me to talk to him, coming to the after party, and going to the Christmas party in general. If I had stayed home in my pajamas with a book, none of that would have happened.
“Are you flirting with me, Dr. Saunders?” he asked cheekily.
My face was burning. “You can call me Whitney,” I squeaked.
He took a step closer, flashing his wide smile at me. I think he knew exactly what he was doing to me.
“Do I make you nervous, Dr. Saunders?”
“N-not at all,” I stuttered. “Why?”
“I don’t know,” he said, taking another step forward. “It just seemed like you wanted to kiss me earlier.”
“What?”
“When I complimented your dress. Your eyes looked at my lips. Then you licked yours.”
I laughed. “Did you train in psychiatric nursing?”
“So you don’t want to kiss me?”
“Oh, no,” I said, feeling strangely giddy. “I definitely want to kiss you.”
He swooped forward, pressing his lips against mine. I wrapped an arm around his neck to steady myself. His lips were surprisingly soft, and I felt like I was lost in time for a moment. It didn’t matter that he was a nurse and I was a doctor and we would have to work together. I could worry about it tomorrow. This moment was too sweet to fuss over right now.
We sprang apart when we heard the doorknob turn. At least we still had enough sense to be discreet.
We walked inside the house like we hadn’t been out there for more than a minute, tops. From my quick recon, it didn’t look like anyone even noticed.
“Come with me,” Chad said softly.
“Where?”
“You’ll find out.”
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