Especially when Seth replies, “In the end, I loved the sun more than the wife. So I stayed on here after the divorce. Life is so much more relaxed on the West Coast.”
Anna screws up her face. “I envy you that. Sometimes in the winter, I don’t see the sun for days.”
“Well, if you ever think about a change,” Seth says, “give me a call.” He slides a business card into Anna’s hand.
Anna laughs and takes it even as she sees Bradley frowning at his friend. “I’m not in the market for a job at the moment. But thanks.”
She drops the card into her bag as they reach the servers and turns her attention to the food. She needs to feed her brain if she is going to make it through the afternoon slots, but anything too heavy may well have her snoring in the back seats.
Bradley, Seth, and Rob surround her as she finishes. “I grabbed cutlery for you,” Bradley says. She finds herself shepherded to a table with their little group. Rob pulls out a chair for her, and like a queen with attendants, she takes her seat.
Bradley might be the better-looking, but Seth is obviously the more good-natured. “Bradley’s doing a talk this afternoon on addiction complications, if you’re interested.” Maybe this is his way of making it up to his friend for giving her his own number. “We’ll be there.” He indicates himself and Rob.
Rob leans over and undoes Seth’s good deed. “He’s got the graveyard slot, last thing today. We’re trying to drum up support. You wouldn’t want poor Brad to have no one but us show up, would you?”
“I’m sure it won’t be anything like that. I’ll see,” she gives a wry smile. “I’m here with my boss. I’ve been given an itinerary.”
“Oh?” Seth looks around as if he’s overlooked Anna’s companion. “Where are they?”
“AWOL,” she says and shrugs. But she notes Seth’s use of an ungendered pronoun and he goes up in her estimation.
“We won’t tell if you don’t,” Rob adds with a sly wink.
“I’ll try. No promises, though.” She spears a mouthful of salad and for a few moments, everyone is preoccupied with eating.
Seth swallows. “Are you planning on seeing the sights while you are here?” he asks. “You’ve come a long way. It would be a sin not to get out and about. Try our surf, maybe?”
“I’m staying on a couple of days after the conference. But surfing is not on my agenda this time.”
“Happy to show you around,” Seth offers.
“Thank you.” Anna is gracious. “But my cousin lives in LA and I’m sort of waiting for her to get back to me.”
“Well, if your cousin lets you down, you know where to find me.” He looks in the direction of the bag she dropped his card in.
“What does your cousin do here?” Bradley asks, clearly a little annoyed with his friend monopolising her time.
“Serena’s a location manager,” Anna replies.
“Is that like an upmarket janitor?” Rob asks as Seth guffaws.
“How to tell her you know nothing about movies without saying you know nothing about movies.”
Anna gives him a sympathy smile. “She scouts locations for production companies, gets all the permits they need sorted. That sort of thing.”
“The first part sounds great, the last part dead boring.” Brad flashes his amazing teeth.
“Like all jobs,” she says. “Ours included. There are boring bits.”
“That’s what residents are for,” Brad and Rob chime at the same time. They reach out and fist bump each other.
“I had one resident write ‘I hate this job, I hate this job’ all over a patient’s notes. I told him he should try radiology next,” Seth says.
“You think that’s bad?” Rob replies. “I had one recently set the operating theatre on fire.” Anna’s jaw drops as each of them tries to outdo the others with “bad” resident stories. She doesn’t feel she can contribute because she herself was a resident only a few weeks ago. But her input is not necessary apart from laughter. Brad and his friends continue trading resident stories until Anna has to scarper for her next talk.
As she walks away, followed by cheerful reminders of Bradley’s session, she is perplexed. All the guys – Bradley, Rob and Seth – are good-looking in different ways. Bradley is undoubtedly the most handsome, like an all-American boy next door, but lean and bearded Rob is no slouch. Even Seth, who might only have been just above average in New York, has a healthy outdoorsy skin tone and a laid-back attitude that pushes him up the rankings. Attention from any of them should have had her blood fizzing. But there was nothing. Nada. She is not even thirty. Surely her libido hasn’t gone missing already?
Fools Rush In
