Page 32 of Ashes

With a shrug, he handed me an empty plate. “You get used to it.”

“I doubt it,” I mumbled under my breath as I stacked afew pancakes on it, which I drowned in blueberries and syrup. In desperate need of coffee, I stood in front of the coffee machine, looking around to try and figure out where the cups were.

Seeming to read my mind, Kai directed me. “Right above you,” he said, pointing to the cupboard.

I muttered a “thank you,” picked out a large mug, and poured myself a cup. Then I stood across from Kai, preferring to eat standing.

“Have you known each other for a while?” I asked, picking up my fork and taking a bite.

Holy shit. These might be the best pancakes I’ve ever had.

“You could say that,” he simply said, not offering any more details.

Silence fell between us, and I continued eating. After a while, my curiosity sparked to know more and I asked, “Where did you guys meet?”

“We went to school together,” he said, reaching for his mug to take a sip.

“Valentina, too?” I questioned, curious as to how their arrangements came to be.

He opened his mouth to say something, but a voice cut him off.

“No.”

A woman appeared in the kitchen out of thin air.

She had long, dark auburn hair pulled back by a claw clip. She wore a black romper that hugged her strong, leanbody. It had a low scoop back with a straight neckline and she had long white socks and black slides on her feet.

She was petite and quite frankly stunning, but her aura was intimidating. Not in a way that meant she was mean but rather in a way that she would kill you in a heartbeat.

That single word was the only thing she said before leaving the kitchen, a cup of coffee in hand.

My brain finally caught up to the present. “That’s decaf,” I warned her, but she was already gone. I turned my attention back to Kai, only to find him watching her retreating form, a longing look on his face.

I wonder if she’s aware he has a crush on her.

“Was that…”

“Yeah,” he confirmed in a hushed tone.

The sound of a door slamming shut snapped him out of whatever trance he was in. He cleared his throat and brought his gaze back to me, giving me a wide smile. “So what’s it like to be a doctor?” he asked, changing the subject.

We kept making small talk about my journey through med school and the most interesting cases I’d seen while working in the ER. I didn’t like talking about myself, so I tried veering the conversation toward him, selfishly wanting to learn more about my husband, but every time I did, Kai would find a way to bring it back to me.

I guess I might have to go to the source if I want answers.

A few hours later, I was out the door. As Kai hadpromised, my old gray Honda CR-V was waiting for me in the driveaway, a sharp contrast to the three McLarens lined in front of it.

I climbed into my car, threw it into reverse after a few stuttering false starts, and pulled onto the long stretch of gravel, praying that today would be a good day.

Today was in fact not a good day.

As an ER resident, I thrived under chaos, but after everything that happened yesterday, I’d just wanted a simple shift.

Guess I jinxed myself wishing for a quiet day.

Barely an hour into my shift, I’d already treated a broken arm on a kid who fell off his bike, stitched a deep cut on a construction worker’s hand, and had to lead a code blue since I was the senior resident on duty.

And I had eleven more hours to go.