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“Can you believe that? My past nemesis and current nemesis sitting elbow to elbow. I swear I heard the theme music fromThe Twilight Zoneplaying in the background.”
“That is the stuff of nightmares,” Samiah said.
Taylor made aspeed it upmotion with her hand. “I have a long drive back home. Get to the part where you two start going at it like rabbits.”
“We are not going at it like rabbits,” London said. She tipped her head to the side. “Okay, maybe we are, but that’s beside the point.” She hiked her shoulders up to her ears. “I can’t explain what’s happening here. I’ve hardly thought about this man since high school, and the few times Ididthink about him in the last fifteen years, it was never in a positive light. Yet I’m probably going to text him once I get back to my car and ask if I can stop by his place on my way home to bone. It makes zero sense.”
“It makesallthe sense.” Taylor laughed. “It’s like Samiah said, you’re making up for lost time. You deserve this, girl.” She picked up her phone and swiped across the screen. “What’s his name again? I’m going to Google him. I need to see what Magic Mike looks like.”
“His name is Drew,” London said. “And you don’t need to bother with Google. I can show you.” She pulled up Tabitha Rawlings’s Facebook page and scrolled back to her pictures from last Saturday. The girl was not subtle at all. Drew was in just about every single snapshot she’d taken.
Obsessed much?
London found one that showed a full-on face view.Have mercy.She had to stop herself from licking her lips before turning the phone to Taylor and Samiah.
“Whoa,” Samiah said.
“My God,” Taylor said. “You weren’t kidding, were you? And he’s rich too? Not that it matters, but it also doesn’t hurt.”
London pulled her phone back and glanced at the picture one more time before setting the phone facedown on the table.
“It doesn’t matter. I own my house outright and am totally satisfied driving a Tinker Bell car, as my mom calls it,” she said. “I could not care less about Drew’s money. I only wish I felt the same way about his pipe-laying skills.” She shook her head, taking another sip of her drink. “It’s been a week and I still can’t believe that of all the hospital management consulting firms in the entire world, it’s Drew’s firm that is working at County.”
“Well, it’s not totally unbelievable,” Samiah said. “There can’t be all that many firms that specialize in this type of work, right? And hedoeshave a local tie.” She shrugged. “When you think about it, the odds are pretty high that his firm would be the one working with your hospital, especially if his firm has a good reputation.”
“You and your logic are raining on my pity parade,” London said.
“What’s there to pity?” Taylor asked. “This sounds like exactly what you’ve been looking for. I know you wanted to find a fuck buddy you wouldn’t have to see at the hospital every day, but it sounds as if this Drew won’t be there permanently, right?”
“No, he won’t be,” London answered. “Another three weeks or so.”
“Okay, that isbeyondperfect!”
“Exactly,” Samiah said, tipping her margarita glass at Taylor. She looked to London. “You may think you’ve had bad luck lately, but that glow indicates otherwise. It looks to me as if you’re one of the luckiest women in Austin.”
“The problem is, I don’twantto want Drew Sullivan,” London said. “I swear, I would be shitting rainbows and unicorns if this wasanyoneelse—”
“Except Craig,” Taylor said.
“Never that creep. But Drew isn’t all that far from Craig when it comes to men I’d consider being in a real relationship with.”
Even as she said the words, London knew they weren’t true. He did not belong near the same category as Craig Johnson, and it wasn’t fair to put him there. She didn’t know Drew well enough to decide whether she would consider being in a relationship with him. It had been a single week since they’d reconnected, and there hadn’t been much talking going on in the time theyhadspent together so far.
Much of her antipathy toward him was rooted in a grudge she’d been holding on to since high school. A grudge that, if she were being honest, didn’t have as much to do with Drew as it had to do with how Drew’s emergence as an academic rival had dulled London’s ability to shine bright enough to draw her father’s attention. Being number one in her class had given her dad something to brag about to the men in his golfing circle.My daughter is almost bestdidn’t have quite the same panache.
Maybe she should work on disassociating Drew from her messed-up issues with her dad. It wasn’t fair that she’d held something that wasn’t even his fault against him all this time.
Then again, he would be gone soon. Why did it matter?
She wasn’t looking to start a relationship with Drew. What they had going right now suited her needs just fine. He’d been at the hospital for a week, but she rarely saw him there, which was precisely how she wanted it. Once her shift was over, she drove the few blocks to his rented apartment with the ridiculously comfortable bed and spent several hours getting thoroughly fucked. Then she went home. Why couldn’t she be satisfied with that?
Shewassatisfied. As long as things remained exactly as they were, she would get her fill of Drew Sullivan and then happily bid him farewell once he was done with his work at County.
12
Drew sat in the exact chair he’d occupied at this time last Monday when he and the Trident team were introduced to hospital staff. In the week that followed, their team faced some skepticism, but for the most part Drew gathered that the people working at Travis County Hospital didn’t care whether their paychecks came from the state or a private entity. As long as the paychecks continued and their work conditions remained the same or improved, they were happy.
At least that was the consensus ofmostof the staff.
