Total pages in book: 76
Estimated words: 76436 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 382(@200wpm)___ 306(@250wpm)___ 255(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 76436 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 382(@200wpm)___ 306(@250wpm)___ 255(@300wpm)
“Show me.”
He exhales sharply through his nose. “No. I think I’ll let you squirm a little.”
“Squirm? Why would I squirm? There’s no evidence because you don’t have any. Because nothing happened.”
Besides, even if he does have a photo, I can claim it was manipulated with AI or something. Who’s going to believe him? Jason and I will both deny it.
“Tell you what,” he says to me. “It won’t cost you a cent, Angie. All it will cost you is information.”
I drop my jaw. “Information about what?”
He grins. “So you do have something to hide.”
“I have absolutely nothing to hide. And I don’t even know what kind of—”
“Hey, guys!” Tabitha scurries up to us, Eli with her.
And I silently thank the universe.
“We just saw the note on the door that lab is canceled,” Tabitha says. “Of course I came all the way here before I realized that Jason had sent an email as well.” She shrugs. “I guess we’ve got a free period.”
“And I have to wait another week to cut,” Eli growls.
Tabitha turns to me, her expression sympathetic. “I guess that makes you happy.”
“Or does it?” Ralph says, arching his eyebrows.
Tabitha gives him a curious look. “What’s that supposed to mean, Ralph?”
“Why don’t you ask lover girl here?” Ralph smirks.
“What the hell?” Tabitha gives Ralph a punch in his arm. “Be nice. Angie’s my lab partner.”
“Oh, so you’re best friends now?” Ralph says.
“Maybe we are,” Tabitha says. “What the hell is your problem, anyway? You left our study session last night, and now it looks like you’re being a dick.”
“Ease up,” Eli says. He turns to Ralph. “You having a bad day, man?”
“My day is just fine,” Ralph says. “I’m going to go read up for my next class. Ciao.” He ambles off.
I’m still breathing quickly, but I force myself to calm down.
“What the hell was that all about?” Eli asks.
“I don’t know,” Tabitha says. “He’s your friend.”
“He’s my lab partner,” Eli says. “I hardly know him.”
I stare down the hall, making sure Ralph has safely ducked into the library. “He’s just a dick.”
Tabitha lays a hand on my shoulder. “What did he do to you, Angie?”
“Nothing. He’s a dick. He acted like a dick. That’s what dicks do.” I draw in a breath. “You want to get a cup of coffee?”
“Actually, I have to do some reading up for my next class as well.” She pats my shoulder. “This lab cancellation is actually a godsend. I’m so behind.”
Eli widens his eyes. “I’ll get a cup with you.”
“Sounds good.” I purse my lips. “But I don’t want the cafeteria coffee. Let’s go to Starbucks.”
“Crap,” Tabitha says. “In that case, I’m coming along. I’m a sucker for a triple mocha.”
The three of us leave the building and walk a block to Starbucks.
“I’ll have a grande dark roast,” I tell the barista, “and whatever the two of them want. It’s on me.”
“Thanks, Angie!” Tabitha’s eyes light up. “Grande mocha with an extra shot, please.”
“I’ll have an Americano,” Eli says. “And a blueberry scone.”
“You want that heated up?” the barista asks.
Eli grins. “Obviously.”
“Coming right up,” the barista says. “What’s the name?”
“Tabitha on the mocha, Eli on the Americano,” Tabitha replies.
The barista types the names into her console. “Those will be right up.”
I scan my card while the barista pours my coffee and hands it to me.
Some of the comfortable seats are open, so Eli takes a chair while Tabitha and I sit down on a fluffy couch. I take the lid off my coffee, and the steam swirls upward.
“You don’t take cream or sugar?” Tabitha asks.
“Nope. I’m a purist.” I set the coffee down on the table to cool, still watching the steam swirl into the air.
“Are you going to tell us what’s going on with Ralph?” Tabitha asks.
“Like I said, it’s nothing. He’s just being a dick.”
I grab my coffee, take a sip.
And fuck.
I burn my tongue.
The same tongue that was swimming in Jason’s mouth yesterday—the first day of lab.
Because what Ralph says is true.
We did kiss. We kissed hard.
And I have a feeling that moment may just haunt the next three years of my medical education.
Chapter Twelve
Jason
I sit in Dr. Louisa Matthews’s office, my nerves antsy under my skin.
A new technique for a nerve transplant.
Fresh hope.
Nerve conduction studies. MRI scans.
The nerve graft is extracted from a cadaver but reanimated using living cells from my body.
Science fiction.
Or just science?
Whatever it is, I need to hear Louisa and her colleague out.
“Jason!” Louisa swooshes into the room. She’s in her sixties but doesn’t look a day over forty, with light-blond hair and sparkly blue eyes.
Following her is a beautiful young woman with dark-brown eyes and light-brown skin. She smiles at me.
“Jason, meet Dr. Gita Patel.”
Dr. Patel barely looks out of her twenties. Somehow her white coat looks all wrong on her. She should be wearing lingerie on a runway somewhere. But Louisa says she’s a pioneer in her field.