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“Yeah. I know. Three more weeks to the test,” Angela said as he let her go, and she wielded the wrinkle releaser. “Hold still while I spray you down.”
“You don’t want me to take off my pants?” He allowed her to mist his legs, tugging out the wrinkles.
“Very funny. You know where that’ll lead us.” She stood up. “We’ll end up with no dinner and no studying.”
“Best night ever.” He kissed her soundly, setting the wrinkle releaser behind her. “Wanna play dinner party hooky?”
Angela hummed deep in her throat, her ‘jump back in bed’ instincts running wild. “You can’t skip tonight. And I have to go get more lipstick. I think the ‘can’t be kissed off’ ad is a lie.”
“Trust me, angel, there is no such thing.” Michael gently pushed her toward the bathroom. “Though I’m happy to experiment several times.”
She stuck her tongue out at him. “Behave and put that scientific curiosity toward cardiac drug questions.”
He sighed. “Why don’t I get Taussig’s stuff packed? And you forget about my test tonight. I already have.”
“You’d better not. Sure you don’t want me to quiz you on the cardiac meds in the car?” Angela opened up the bathroom vanity, pushing aside the diagram again.
He poked his head back inside, tightening his tie. “If you say one more word about the exam, we’re skipping dinner, and I’ll use this to tie you to the headboard again.”
Angela shut up. Eliza would kill her if she didn’t show up—even if Michael’s threat might have been worth it.
Chapter 14
From the perspective of Raj Patel, this was the greatest dinner party ever.
He and his date, Nurse Tabitha Long, had front seats to whatever was brewing among the movers and shakers of MetroGen at Dr. Eliza Kandal and Kayla Varma’s nice house on the West Side.
Who would have guessed that ENT Stella Magi lived right next door? She was happily chatting away with her… lover? Alex Casserty, MetroGen neurosurgeon and father of her daughter.
Though, technically, Raj wasn’t sure if Casserty was the father of the baby. Reports had been murky after Michael had delivered the little girl in the parking lot back in June.
They hadn’t brought the baby, so Raj couldn’t compare Casserty’s looks. Strangely enough, Marcus Doyle, the assistant Chief of Emergency medicine, was in attendance as Dr. Elizabeth Kandal’s date.
Raj had no idea how that was even possible. From what he’d understood, Doyle had been one of Stella Magi’s possible baby daddies.
Hospital power couples might have very different rules than peons like him, Nora, and Michael—though Michael was married to a cardiology fellow and on his way to being half of a power couple in his own right.
Even with all these attendings, Raj felt he was doing a solid job of presenting himself. He’d hit the jackpot with the red-haired Tabitha, making her interest obvious after they’d successfully defended Angela and Michael at the internal medicine witch hunt in June. Totally worth blowing off the trip to India, breaking up with his other ladies by spending two weeks on a beach in Florida, and then contacting Tabitha when he got back.
Tabitha seemed cool and, unlike the other three ladies he’d been seeing, she was the one who would probably fit in best with the medical group. She’d been pretty excited to come, too.
Unlike Daniel Steadman, Kayla Varma’s billionaire plastic surgeon boyfriend, who acted like he was getting his skin peeled off piece by piece. He was standing by the living room couch, glowering while his girlfriend greeted the newest arrivals.
“I’ll take your coat... er... wrap,” Kayla Varma stumbled over the words because Nora Borenstin-Perez didn’t have a coat, nor did her husband.
“Thanks.” Nora handed over a thin shawl, revealing a three-quarter length sleeved, light-blue and yellow dress. This was the most summery outfit Raj had ever seen her in, and Barak had matched his tie to her dress’s colors.
Steadman, Raj noted, had not coordinated with Varma, though he doubted that explained the man’s sour expression.
Could it be the fact that Nora and Barak were running thirty minutes late? Or was the existence of other human beings irritating to him?
Possibly it was this particular set of humans that annoyed him, though it would be difficult for Raj to imagine a group of people who didn’t irritate Steadman.
Doyle didn’t seem bothered about it, so maybe Kandal had selected him for this purpose, successfully vetting out candidates who would lose their temper with Steadman.
Judging by how far away Angela and Stella Magi were staying from him, they’d opted for avoidance. Steadman had pretended not to recognize Raj from their past week on his service, which was fine with him.
Though, to Raj’s delight, one of the new arrivals decided a confrontation with Steadman was in order.
