Nice.
He shook his head.
He had no idea why he was even thinking about all the other couples today. Not having a significant other had never bothered him before. He always worked his way past the crowds without a second thought.
So what made the idea of a . . . someone . . . pop into his head today?
He got into his car and started the engine. Was it because he’d never heard back from Aubry? Why did that bother him? He pulled out his phone. It had been two days, since he’d texted her. He punched in her number, figuring maybe this time he’d call.
She didn’t answer, which meant she was probably at work.
Rather than heading home, he turned his car onto the highway in the direction of the hospital. He’d just stop in and see if she was there.
He was sure she’d be happy to see him.
IT HAD BEEN A GRUELING DAY ALREADY. SHE WAS nearing the end of her shift, and Aubry found herself watching the clock, counting down every minute.
Chen had ridden her ass about a case she’d worked this morning. A mother had brought in a child with a broken wrist. No matter what she’d done or said, the kid wouldn’t stop screaming. It happened sometimes. The little girl was four, in pain, and utterly inconsolable. And the parent was nervous as hell about her little girl’s broken wrist, so instead of being the rock her little girl needed, the mother had only added to the tension.
So Aubry had had a screaming child with a broken wrist, along with an extremely upset parent, and she was trying to set the arm when Chen had chosen that moment to walk in on her.
It wasn’t her finest moment.
Of course, her normally gruff and not-at-all warm attending physician had somehow managed an utter personality transplant. He’d gone all smiley and sweet and calmed the highly emotional mother and got the little girl to stop crying. How he did that she had no idea, because half the time Dr. Chen made her want to cry. He was intimidating as hell, yet in the room he had the little girl laughing and the girl’s mother in a state of absolute calm about the whole ordeal.
Aubry finally managed to set the arm and cast it without the kid screaming the entire time. And after they got the cast on the girl and the instructions relayed to the now-calm mother, Chen talked to her in the hallway.
“You didn’t handle that well.”
She lifted her chin. “I was handling it.”
“Not from what I saw. You were tense and nervous.”
“I’ve set broken bones before, Dr. Chen. I can assure you I knew exactly what I was doing.”
“Being a doctor is about a lot more than just the medical aspect of patient care, Dr. Ross. What you had in there were two people in severe emotional distress, one of them a child. And while the procedure might seem minor to you, to them it was traumatic. Your first priority was to calm both the patient and her mother. The medical procedure could have waited, since it wasn’t life threatening.”
No shit, Sherlock. She didn’t need him to point out the obvious to her. But he was her attending, and whatever he had to say, she needed to listen. “I understand, Dr. Chen. I’ll do it better next time.”
“See that you do.”
He walked away, leaving her standing in the hallway feeling like a total failure.
She knew her job, and she’d always thought of herself as completely empathetic to her patients’ needs, especially children. How had she so totally screwed that up today?
She headed back to the main station to update charts. It was change of shift, so she gave status reports to the incoming residents on patients who hadn’t yet been discharged.
“You have a visitor.”
She was charting notes and looked up at Marie. “A visitor?”
“Yes. Your hot baseball guy is in the waiting room.”
She cocked a brow. “Tucker?”
“Yes. He’s been here about an hour. I told him you were busy, but he said he’d wait.”
Interesting. So he ignored her for several days, then just showed up here, expecting her to drop everything and see him?
She was not in the mood for this—for him. Not after the kind of day she’d had. She should make him sit out there until he got bored or tired of waiting. That would send a message to him, wouldn’t it?
“So, do you want me to bring him back?” Marie asked.
“No. I’m due for a break, so I’ll take care of it. Thanks, Marie.”
She wandered out to the waiting room, which, fortunately, wasn’t too crowded at the moment. She searched the room and found him in the corner, slouched in the chair, sound asleep. She walked over and kicked his tennis shoe.
He opened his eyes and sat up straight in the chair. “Oh, hey, Aubry.”
“Tucker.”
He stood, yawned. “I came by to see you.”
“So I heard.”
“Are you busy?”
He was kidding, right? “I’m working.”
“When do you get off?”
“Not for a while.”
He shoved his hand in his pocket. “Oh. I thought maybe we could grab something to eat.”
“Seriously?” Since they were quickly gaining an audience of eavesdroppers, she motioned him through the doors and into a hallway. “You don’t call me for days, then show up here and expect that I’ll be available?”
“Hey. I texted you two days ago.”
“Oh, right. A text message. At eleven-thirty at night. I’m not some chick you banged that has nothing better to do than wait for you to call, Tucker. I have a life. A career. And no, I don’t have time for dinner. In fact, I don’t have time for you. So you can walk through those doors and take yourself home. We’re done.”