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I willingly followed, suddenly elated to be on this date and unaware of my textbooks back at the dorm.
“So, dental school?” Milo raised his eyebrows at me, lifting his drink to his perfect lips. “How did you decide to be a dentist?”
I rolled my eyes and lifted my drink. Everyone seemed to think that wanting to be a dentist was a strange choice, seeing as it was a feared profession. I never found it fearful; instead, I was always intrigued. “I’ve always loved the dentist, even when I was a kid. I always knew I’d end up being one, maybe even having my own practice someday.” I took a drink, watching him over the rim of my cup, hoping my eyes were as seductive as I thought they were.
His eyebrows twitched as his gaze locked on mine. “But dentistry…” he trailed off.
“Is fascinating if you think about it.” I set my drink down and leaned closer to him, placing my hand on his forearm. Even through his jacket, I could feel his muscles tense to my touch. “You only really hear about the bad things people go through. The terrible root canals or the hard wisdom teeth extractions. You never hear about the simple composite fillings or crown preps. Every tooth is different, each procedure is different. People are scared for no reason, really.” I picked my drink back up again to stop myself from word vomiting everywhere. I knew I could talk forever about what I’ve learned in the pre-dental world, butothers weren't so into it as I was.
But that was me. Once I loved something, everyone knew about it, whether they wanted to or not.
“I never said I was afraid of the dentist.” The corners of his lips tugged with a smile. “I’m an EMT. I see worse stuff than dentists do on a daily basis.”
“Oh, so it’s a contest?” I smirked, narrowing my eyes at him and removing my hand from his arm to rest my chin on my fist.
The smile on his lips grew as he took my tease. “Definitely. I save lives. What do you do?”
“I save…” I thought. Technically, I wasn’t a dentistyet; I wasn’t even in dentalschool. I still had exams to take and applications to fill out. I had worked at an office during the summers and had the chance to shadow and assist with multiple dentists, but I was still in the process ofbecominga dentist. “People from life-threatening abscesses,” I finally finished. “You can die from a tooth infection, you know.”
He lowered one eyebrow, keeping the other slightly raised. I could see in his eyes he didn’t believe me, but I could also tell that he was intrigued. “Next time I get a call for a toothache, I’ll let you know.”
“Okay, Mr. EMT.” I scoffed, slapping the table. “Tell me one of the craziest things you’ve seen, and then I’ll tellyouone of the craziest thingsI’veseen.” I had stories. I hadtonsof stories. I could creep him out with dental facts.
Milo wiggled his eyebrows and turned to face me, our knees bumping. “There was one call where this guy was complaining his foot was bleeding, and he couldn't get it to stop. When we arrived, we had to cut his sock off, and there were maggots in this large cut on the bottom of his foot. It was so infected there was nothing we could do, so we bandaged it up as best we could and took him to the hospital. Poor guy ended up losing his foot.”
My face grew with disgust with each word, and Milo could see it.
He laughed. “You said thecraziestthing, and that's not even the worst of it.” He took a drink, emptying his glass. “Your turnDr. Madeline.”
I inhaled sharply, trying to think of a story to top that. “Okay.” I shifted in my seat, acting as if I was going to present a PowerPoint to him.
Milo’s grin grew, and his eyes beamed.
“I was assisting this dentist one summer—”
“So, you’ve been an assistant?” he asked, interrupting me.
I narrowed my eyes at him. “Yes, pay attention,” I said sharply yet with a hint of flirtatiousness.
Milo chuckled in his throat, and a smile pursed on his lips as he lifted his drink to his mouth.
“There was a man who was working in construction, and he came in for an emergency. He was hit with some kind of equipment. His lip was banged up and swollen, and blood was everywhere. You could tell the accident had just happened.” I paused, twisting closer to him.
“And this was at a dental office?” he asked, leaning in.
“Yup. He said his only worry was his front tooth, number eight…” I gave him a cheesy smile and pointed to my right front tooth. “It was completely broken in half, but it was still attached.”
“How?” Milo furrowed his brow and dropped his jaw.
I grabbed my phone and flipped through my photos, suddenly very happy the patient let me take the photo of his tooth.
“It was nuts. When we looked at it, it looked completely normal, but as soon as we touched it, we could spread it apart.” I showed him the photo. The look of disgust on his face completely out-shined mine. I smiled, knowing that somehow my story had beaten his.
“He lost the tooth, right?”
I shook my head. “Nope, we were able to bond it back together, and then a year later he got a crown on it.”
“That’s disgusting,” he grumbled.
