“Nice of her to take up our time,” he grumbled and divided the rest of the electronics between the two of them.
“This isn’t like her. Something must have happened. Give me a second to check. Well, ten more messages from Tristan and one from Willow,” Clarissa scrolled through her texts on her cell phone and added another layer to his level of forces conspiring to interrupt their alone time. “She’s asking me to meet her downstairs at the coffee cart.”
“Tell her come up here. We have coffee.” Roan re-tucked his dress shirt into has pants and retrieved his white coat from his office chair.
“Like a psychiatrist knows how to get into the OR? Her badge might not even work. Are you coming with me?” She had righted her clothing enough to be presentable. “Besides, she’s prepped to cover for us if Tristan ever corners her. He hasn’t given up. Those ten messages are from last night.”
“Fine, she’s a saint. I’m buying.” He’d take whatever time with her he could get, even if it meant sharing his Clarissa-time with Willow.
“Us together? In a public MetroGen hallway? Do you have a fever?” His girlfriend was making an excellent point. He’d made no effort to publicly claim her in MetroGen or to his own department.
“I’m fine. We aren’t a secret here. It’s just that the second the news spreads through the OR floor, I’ll have to deal with time-wasting gossip,” he bemoaned. She had no clue how many nurse hours were wasted with Alex-Ortho-ER-ENT baby daddy speculation. They probably had an entire nurse-spy network following each of the major players and reporting back to Dee’s central command.
“Ohh, tongues might wag because you’ll be with two attractive residents from departments you’d never meet naturally,” she teased him. “Scandalous. The anesthesia’s newest threesome.”
“No one would believe you. Should anyone ask, I’ll say it’s my new public service initiative to feed caffeine deprived residents.”
“They’d be confused. Grumpy anesthesia chief turns nice.” She laughed, stepping out into the darkened wider offices of the department of anesthesia.
“Not so fast.” He caught her shoulder and pinned her to the wall. “Open wide.”
She sniggered as he put the thermometer in her mouth. They both patiently waited for it to beep, its lighted display reading a healthy 97.9.
“All good. Just need some coffee to warm me up,” Clarissa said, bobbing her chin, still beyond adorable.
“Got something better.” He leaned in and gave her another open-mouthed kiss. She didn’t fight him, tangling her tongue with his as she wrapped her arms around him.
“Oh. Hey… CHIEF?” The room abruptly brightened, and Drew Crozier’s voice was full of shock.
CHAPTER 15
Well, this was going well. Crozier and Intern Squires were gaping at them. They were part of the overnight coverage team and appeared to have come to the office to drop off Squires’ resident workbook.
“Clarissa! Um. Dr. Morgan…” Crozier had turned so pale, Roan might have needed to call the code team with the way his blood pressure must have fallen. “Wow. Whoa.”
Roan linked his hand with Clarissa’s. This spelled the end of their low profile. The news was going to spread through the ORs like wildfire. Probably could have put out an announcement over the PA system.
“Hey, Drew. Arnie. Up all night?” Clarissa beamed, remembering Squires’ first name better than Roan had.
“Yeah, emergency appendectomy on a lady firefighter.” Squires’ eyes were threatening to fall out of their sockets. “It is... was a surprise.”
“We were going to grab coffee at the cart downstairs.” Clarissa nonchalantly walked toward the door that would lead to the elevators, proving her familiarity with the office.
“So will we,” Crozier chimed in, despite his path walking him and Squires right by the coffee maker.
Fabulous. This elevator ride was going to be a ton a fun.
After they piled in, Clarissa released Roan’s hand to ask Squires about the workbook, since she’d spearheaded improving them during her anesthesia rotation.
This gave Crozier an opportunity to whisper. “Does he know?”
Roan shook his head slightly, well aware the ‘he’ in question was Tank. He didn’t like the way Crozier was staring at Clarissa’s animated discussion with Squires. “Not yet.”
“How long?” Drew’s gaze never left Clarissa.
“We met at mixer.” Roan added the last part to leave no question to Crozier that Clarissa had been his for almost a year. He had no desire to explain the situation further with a subordinate.
“The June mixer? Wow.” Crozier kept staring. “Hooked up there? Wow.”
