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“Meet anyone in Africa?” I say, raising my eyebrows and catching Jo’s eye.
“Kind of,” she says, cheeks pinking and ducking her head. My eyes go round.
“Oh my God! Why are we only hearing about this now?” I look at my watch. “We’ve been here for twenty minutes! It should have been the first item on the agenda. Spill.”
Jo holds up a hand. “Before we launch into that, I have a suggestion for the wedding.”
“Who?”
She raises her eyebrows. “Fabian?”
“Who’s Fabian?” says Liss, while I start to laugh.
“He’s Janus’s best friend,” Jo whispers, and I shake my head.
“That’s an insane idea,” I say like it hadn’t already crossed my mind.
She leans forward with a wicked grin. “Yes, but think how much upset he’d cause.”
“Why would he do that?” Liss asks.
“He’s a bad-boy hacker, covered in tattoos, and he experiments on his body with unusual drugs,” I say, folding my arms on my chest and staring at Jo.
Jo puts her hand behind her ear. “I didn’t hear you say he’s also incredibly hot and you get on with him like a house on fire.”
“Oh, he sounds perfect,” Liss breathes, eyes wide and thrilled.
“You guys were setting sparks off each other when you came round for supper—just imagine what might happen over a weekend,” Jo says, grinning.
“I don’t need another car-crash relationship. One was enough.”
“Seriously?” asks Liss, like I haven’t spoken. “I’m gutted I missed this.”
“You can come and see the show next time,” says Jo. “They were flirting like crazy with each other, and Janus says Fab never even talks to women.”
Hope. It kills you every time.For God’s sake.
Jo turns to me. “And why would it be a car crash? Don’t you think you need a man like that? Someone to help you loosen up?”
I’m vaguely insulted by this, but Jo does just say what she thinks 90 percent of the time. I can imagine traveling with him to the wedding, right beside me in the front seat of my car, that lean body with those tantalizing tattoos. A whole weekend. I wouldn’t survive. What would he do to my parents’ blood pressure?
I shake my head. “Not going to happen.”
“Oh, go on,” says Liss. “Live a little. Have a hot fling, don’t take life so seriously … it doesn’t have to be serious.”
Could I ask him? I hardly know him! And I can’t believe he doesn’t have women falling all over him. I need to call my mom and just tell her that the guy I am seeing doesn’t want to come, or some nonsense that she’d buy into, or perhaps even be honest for once and say that I’m way too busy panicking at the hospital to be dating anyone.
“Stop, you guys, all right? I’m not asking Fabian.” I rap the table with my knuckles. “Moving on. We need the scoop on this guy of Liss’s.”
Later that afternoon, when Liss and I are back at the apartment, a text drops into my messages:
Looking forward to all the dorky doctor speak in three weeks!
Tod, my eldest brother. And where has this week gone? This wedding is only three weeks away now, and I have so little time to sort anything out.
You enjoying emergency medicine?
Goddammit. My hand hovers over the typing button.
