“So, which juice do you want?”
“I don’t think I should encourage bad behavior,” I stated.
“You look like you’re in desperate need of some bad behavior, Doc. Come on, live a little.”
“Apple, please.” I walked to him, and he placed the juice box in my hand. I sat in the chair that Reap had vacated. “This goes against all my better judgement.”
“You think too much.”
“Probably,” I agreed.
“Cheers,” he said.
We bumped our juice boxes together, and then I took a sip. “I haven’t had apple juice in years. It’s surprisingly delicious.”
“Glad you’re enjoying it.”
He took a drink of his cranberry juice. “So, Doc, what do you do in your spare time?”
“I don’t have a lot of spare time. I work eighty-hour weeks.”
“That’s insane.”
“Maybe,” I agreed. “But someone’s got to do it. I enjoy it, actually. I’m more comfortable in a hospital than I am anywhere else.”
“Your home away from home?” he joked.
“Something like that.”
“But when you are home, what do you do?”
“Laundry.”
“Laundry?” he repeated like he didn’t believe me.
I nodded. “And I go grocery shopping.”
“Come on. You’re not that boring.”
“I really am,” I assured him.
“Don’t you have hobbies? Interests?”
“It’s hard to have hobbies and interests when you work as much as I do.”
“So, you don’t spend your spare time with your boyfriend?”
“I don’t have a boyfriend,” I said before I could stop myself.
His smile was slow. Boxer took a drink of his cranberry juice and then asked, “Why don’t you?”
“Because I don’t.”
“I’m not trying to ruffle feathers here, Doc. I’m just asking a simple question.”
“Why?”
“Because I’m curious.”