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“She’s here for an MRI of the left shoulder,” Lincoln informs her.
“Okay, sure. What’s the name?”
“Quinn Walker,” he says. “She doesn’t have an appointment, but we’re going to need this completed today.”
The pretty young receptionist looks stressed and chews her lip. “Sorry, but we can’t do walk-ins for that. I’m assuming you’re the one who called earlier?”
Lincoln nods. “Yes, but we need this done today.”
My eyes bulge as he hands the woman a hundred-dollar bill. Her eyes also widen. She clears her throat and shoves the bill into the back pocket of her scrubs. “I’ll be right back.”
She gets up and disappears behind a door.
“You always bribe people?” I ask, biting back a smile.
“Only when I really want something,” he replies, looking down at me with those gorgeous eyes.
We wait in silence, and a couple of minutes later, she returns. “It’ll be about thirty minutes if you can wait, but we’ll be able to get her in today.”
Holy crap, I didn’t think that would work.
“That will be acceptable. Thank you for accommodating us.”
She hands me a clipboard with a bunch of papers attached and then a pen. “You’ll need to fill these out. Do you have an insurance card?”
“Yes—”
Linc cuts me off as I go to dig in my purse. “It’ll be a cash appointment.”
“Very well,” she chirps. “It’s one thousand, five hundred and fifty dollars.”
Without even blinking, he pulls out a black credit card and hands it to her. She takes it and runs it through the machine.
I grab Lincoln’s arm. “You shouldn’t do that. It won’t be that much once my deductible is met.”
He ignores me and signs the slip when he hands it back to her.
Realizing I’m getting nowhere with his stubborn butt, I take the clipboard and sit in the waiting room. Lincoln sits next to me and looks at his phone while I fill out the paperwork. It doesn’t take very long, and after I hand the clipboard and paperwork back to the receptionist, I sit down again.
Deciding to be brave, I ask, “Why the fuss over me all of a sudden?”
He sniffs and purses his lips. “I don’t think I’m making a fuss. I just want you to get that shoulder looked at. I visibly see on your face that you’re in pain. I don’t like it.”
“Well, I’m a hurtin’ gator for sure, but it could have waited, ya know. I’ve been taking over-the-counter stuff for the pain, plus some CBD salve. That bein’ said, I hope you don’t think I’m not appreciatin’ you doing this for me.”
He slides his phone into the pocket of his jacket and replies, “I don’t normally get this familiar with my employees, but I wanted to talk to you about something, so I may have had a bit of an ulterior motive.”
My eyes widen, but I try to remain cool. “What’s that, sir?”
He throws me an annoyed look, but I just wait for his response. “I was going to do this all official-like, in my office with my other CEOs, but as we have a few minutes to kill, I suppose now’s as good of a time as any.”
I look around the quiet waiting room where there is only one elderly couple who talk amongst themselves. I wish I could say it was quietly, but I doubt their hearing is what it used to be. So I wait for this gorgeous hunk to keep talking. He almost looks slightly uncomfortable, and I am here for all of it.
He clears his throat slightly and begins, “I wanted to talk to you about your career goals and aspirations with Silver Holdings, Quinn. Are you happy managing Silver Park, or do you think you would want something with increased responsibility?”
This takes me by surprise. “Well, I’ve never really thought about doin’ anything else. I mean, I really don’t know much else except bar and restaurant work.”
“I think you’re selling yourself short, Quinn. You aren’t just slinging food and drinks. You have a lot of responsibility, and you do it all yourself. HR management—hiring and firing, and payroll, customer service, bookkeeping, records keeping. Silver Park is our highest-earning restaurant and has the best ratings on Yelp, Google, and other sites due to customer service compared to the rest of our locations—which are still fairly good. Roman’s excellent at keeping up with that stuff.”
