“Uh, sorry to bother you, Dr. Hood, but my name is Lori Court, and, uh, I’m your resident? I think?”
Dr. Hood leaned back in his chair and looked at me like I was having a stroke.
He was young and handsome, with dark black hair, a bit long and wild, pushed back and to the side. His face was sculpted, chiseled almost, with that absurd movie-star stubble that never seemed to drift into clean-shaven or into beard. He wore scrubs that fit his muscular frame like angel’s wings, and I couldn’t help but stare at his husky-blue eyes, piercing and gorgeous and really, really terrifying.
Monica did not tell me that Dr. Hood was absolutely, incredibly good-looking, and I really resented her for that.
“Who?” he asked.
“Lori. Your resident? Monica brought me over, she said—”
He rolled his eyes. “You must have the wrong office. Dr. Baker’s on the other side.” He turned his back to me and bent over his computer, reading some article.
I didn’t move, shifting from foot to foot. “Sorry, actually, I was told that you’re my attending.”
He slowly turned back and looked like he wanted to lift me up off my feet and throw me through a window. “I don’t take residents.”
“Sorry, but I think you’re supposed to this time?”
He gave me a withering look. I felt my cheeks turn pink, and I wanted to run and hide, or maybe scream at him, or really do anything but stand there like an idiot—but Monica warned me about this. She knew it was going to happen, and she tried to prepare me, except she could’ve told me Dr. Hood was also model-sexy on top of being a huge asshole.
“What’s your name again?”
I clenched my jaw. “Lori.”
“All right, Lori. I don’t take residents. I’ve been an attending for six years now, I was the youngest attending ever at this hospital, and not once in all that time have I ever taken on a resident. I’m sorry, I don’t know what sort of prank they’re playing on you, but I’m not interested, so march off and complain to someone else because I’ve got work to do.”
He turned around again and I stood there, hands trembling, feeling like a moron. Maybe he hadn’t been told about me, but there was no reason to be a dick about this. Maybe in his brain, he thought I was the problem somehow, even though I was only doing what I was told, and I didn’t deserve this sort of treatment—nobody did.
“Actually,” I said, trying to keep the anger from my voice. “Monica brought me here, she specifically said I’ve been assigned to you, so why don’t we both go find your boss and get this straightened out?”
He turned and for a second, I thought he really was about to get up and hurl me bodily to my doom. Instead, his anger turned to confusion, as he crossed his arms over his chest and tilted his head.
“You look familiar,” he said. “Do I know you from somewhere?”
Before I could answer and tell him to kiss my ass, I heard footsteps behind me. I turned as a woman with long brown hair approached. She had smooth, light brown skin, dark eyes, and a cheerful smile. She was pretty, in her early sixties, looked relatively fit, and wore a long white coat—which suggested she was high up in the doctor hierarchy.
“Hello,” she said. “You’re Lori Court, right?”
I nodded and forced myself to smile. I glanced at Dr. Hood, and I saw recognition bloom across his face, as a smarmy smile spread over his lips.
Oh, great. He knew my cousin, which almost wasn’t fair—I wasn’t close with Rees. He was my dad’s sister’s kid, and I saw him once or twice a year growing up, but he was a decade older than me, and ever since he became insanely wealthy, he sort of distanced himself from the family.
“That’s right,” I said.
“My name’s Dr. Gina Holt, head of the Surgical Department, please call me Gina, it’s lovely to meet you.” We shook hands and she beamed at me. I got a sense of warmth and kindness, which was a nice contrast to Dr. Dickhead over there.
“It’s nice to meet you,” I said.
She stepped into the office, slipping past me, and stood looking down at Dr. Hood. “I’m sorry I couldn’t get here sooner, Dr. Hood, but there’s been a change of plans with the new residents this year.”
“Let me guess, I’ve been assigned this lovely young woman.” He gestured at me like I was some kind of statue.
I had to bite back an angry retort.
“That’s right,” Gina said. “I know you’ve been the exception for a while now, Piers, but that ends with this round.”
He made a frustrated face. “If this is about Nil Tippett—”
“It’s not about any patient,” she said, cutting him off, her tone sharp. Something was happening there, but I wasn’t sure exactly what. There was definitely subtext I was missing, and I wondered how much that was going to affect my life.
It didn’t feel great, getting thrown into a situation where I was already feeling self-conscious and out of my depth, but suddenly I realized that it was worse than I could’ve possibly imagined. At least this wasn’t about me—that was a small consolation, but it helped take the edge off the sting.
“Then what’s it about, Gina?”
“It’s about you finally pulling your weight around here. We’re a teaching hospital.”
He snorted and shook his head. “Pulling my weight. That’s bullshit and you know it. You haven’t given me a resident because you haven’t wanted to pull your best surgeon and prized possession off the market for any amount of time. This little intern’s going to be a distraction, you know that, right?”
“You will be professional,” Gina said through clenched teeth. “Have some respect. You were in her shoes once.”
He smirked and tilted
