“Two drinks after dinner, and a lap of the room, then I’m out of here,” he says in a low voice.
I tilt my glass to his and clink.
“We have the exact same plan.”
Companionable silence falls as we drink together, both dreaming of our escape. If more of the people I met at these events were like Dr. Kingman and the female surgeon I was seated beside, they might actually be enjoyable.
“How are the new upgrades coming along?”
I look at him in surprise.
“Your father mentioned you’re working on some?”
“He did? Oh, yes, we are. Trials are done and we’ll be upgrading the system soon. It’s been a huge project,” I tell him, glancing in my father’s direction. He’s standing with my mother, engrossed in a conversation with a group of people.
“I’ll look forward to it completing. My secretary said your system has been a game changer.”
“That’s great.” The team and I have worked hard to get the patient records program to what it is, and to hear firsthand from the medical professionals using it makes all the effort worthwhile. I was concerned we wouldn’t get the final injection of funding we needed to take it to completion. But it came from an anonymous donor while I was in South Africa. So it was all systems go once I returned.
“Good to see you, Jude. Wish me luck in making it out of here undetected.”
Dr. Kingman places his glass on the bar and throws me a cheeky smile like a naughty schoolboy skipping class, despite him being close to sixty years old.
I smile into my drink as I watch him skillfully exit the room without getting drawn into any conversations.
“Kingman one, stuffy awards, zero,” I hum under my breath.
I place my drink down, my confidence boosted by his successful departure. My father won’t expect me to say goodbye. This is how it goes at these things. As long as I stay for dinner, make some polite small talk, and don’t embarrass him, then he doesn’t say anything about me sneaking off early. Usually he andCallum are too busy to notice I’ve gone. Callum used to slide into bed late after these events, insisting he needed to stay and network. Maybe it was the stroke to his ego he got being around all the top players in his field that did it, but he'd always want to have sex when he got back.
I’ve never been so excited to be going home for a night alone after one of these events.
Stepping out onto the sidewalk in the evening air after collecting my coat, I look at the couple the hotel doorman is hailing a cab for. I step in their direction so I can be next in line.
“Jude?”
“Callum?” My stomach sinks as I turn.
His eyes drop over my black velvet dress and the thigh-high slit on one side.
“Are you leaving already?”
“Seeing as I’m about to get in a cab, I’d say your powers of deduction are impeccable.”
He ignores my sarcasm, stepping closer and lowering his voice so the people exiting the hotel behind him don’t hear.
“Can we talk?”
“About?”
“Us.”
“I think we’ve said all that needs to be said about where you’ve been sticking your dick lately, don’t you?”
He blows out a breath, pushing a hand back through his hair and looking suitably uneasy. “Jude.” He glances to the side, aware of the people nearby, before taking hold of my elbow and steering me to one side.
Shaking him off, I scowl at him as I lose my place in line and the people behind me get what would have been my cab.
“I don’t know what you want to talk about?”
