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“Excuse me?” I sit next to her, staring at the board to see what’s going on in the emergency room currently and where we’ll need to pick up.
“It’s just funny that you can see me crushing on Clay, but you’re ignorant to your ‘best friend’ crushing on you.”
I roll my eyes. As long as I’ve been friends with Cooper, I’ve gotten the same reaction from people—that we can’t just be best friends, there has to be something that we’re denying. And honestly, it’s weird to have a sex symbol for a best friend. Of course he’s attractive, there’s no denying it. In college, it was a tamer version of what it is now with the women and the fame. But we started to rely on one another, and soon we didn’t want to lose one another. The only way to ensure he’ll stay in my life for good is for him to be my best friend—not my boyfriend or my lover.
“I’m dating Bradley,” I say, hoping this will shut down the direction of this conversation.
“And tell me why again?” Alice’s eyebrows raise.
I want to ask her when she finds the time to do beauty rituals like wax or pluck her eyebrows. I’d like to cover mine because I’m not sure the last time I looked at my own.
“What do you mean, why?”
The smell of salami passes us, and we turn to see Hayes plop down on a chair beside me with a sandwich. “I don’t want to hear it, I’m working a double tonight.”
We both put up our hands.
“Hayes, why do you think Ellery is dating Bradley?” Alice asks him.
He finishes chewing. If he wasn’t in a bad mood already, I’d tell him to close his mouth. “She’s in denial.”
They high-five one another and I groan, glancing at my watch, wondering when this shift change is happening.
“You guys just don’t understand. I’m friends with Hayes, yet no one says I’m denying some deep-rooted love for him.”
He puts his head on my arm and flutters his eyelids. “I’m yours whenever you’re ready.”
I push his head off me, and he laughs, continuing to devour his cafeteria sandwich.
“You don’t go on vacation with Hayes, you don’t spend holidays with him, you don’t spend the night at Hayes’s apartment, you don’t?—”
“I do those things with my other friends too. Doesn’t make Cooper special.”
“Are we done talking about Dr. Wallace’s love life? Which Grizzly is she dating this week?” Dr. Murphy stands by the board, eyes narrowed on me.
I suck in a breath. He’s such an ass.
“How about everyone stays out of my love life?” I look around at all the doctors and nurses.
My father, Dr. Wallace, doesn’t say anything for a moment but nods to Dr. Mendez to start on the rounds.
“Let’s walk.” Dr. Mendez isn’t one for getting into the personal lives of her doctors. She’s all business, all of the time. Rarely jokes or cracks a smile. So I’m sure my love life is of no interest to her. “We’re only at forty percent capacity right now…”
She talks while we listen.
It isn’t until she stops outside a room that her eyes find me. “Mr. Euing is back. Said he was mugged, and someone hit him on the head. There’s no head injury that we could see, so he’s having a meal and then should be on his way.” I fight the urge to go into the room, and she must notice. “Go ahead, Dr. Wallace, we’ve gotten nowhere with him in the past hour.”
“Okay.” I nod.
“See me after, and I’ll let you know who else you’re responsible for,” Dr. Mendez says in a surprisingly nice way.
I knock on the door and enter the room. “Mr. Euing?” I say, entering the room, and then I run my hands under the sanitizer.
“There’s the beauty.”
I approach the bed. “How are you?” I look him over, but there’s no visible sign of an altercation. He’s a regular and usually finds an excuse to come in here every week or so.
“How’s that big boyfriend of yours? Man, he’s the talk of the town. Making Chicago look good.”
