I shake my head and toss her card in the trash.
“She had quite a recovery,” Nurse Vanessa says.
The other nurses chortle around me.
“That’s what you get for being named the most eligible bachelor in San Francisco,” says Georgie Cruz.
I shake my head. “It’s a curse, I swear.”
“One you enjoy very much,” notes Kiley Rose, my favorite nurse, as she walks by.
I suppose it could be flattering, but it’s also a little insulting. I’m not an object. I’m a professional, and I’ve worked hard for what I have. I put myself through undergrad and medical school through Navy ROTC and the Navy’s Health Professions Scholarship Program. I spent eight years in the Navy, five of them in Afghanistan with the Marines FORECON. It wasn’t easy.
The rest of the shift’s patients have legitimate complaints, so the time goes quickly. At the end of the day, as I’m preparing to leave, Lucy Chu, one of the older nurses, approaches me with mistletoe. She leans in and kisses me on the cheek. “How’s your day been, Clay?”
“Mistletoe already? It’s not even Thanksgiving.”
She shrugs. “With all the time off people take around the holidays, we decorate early. How was the shift?”
“Lucy, today’s shift is one for the record book. Besides the crazy woman, I’ve dealt with kidney stones, a broken arm, and a drug overdose. Thankfully, in twenty minutes, I’m out of here and off to meet some friends before I start this all over again tomorrow.”
Lucy stands back and shakes her head. “This is the emergency room in the largest hospital in San Francisco. Crazy comes with the job. What’s so unusual?”
“He had somebody ask for aninternalexam,” Kiley tells her.
Lucy winks at me. “I didn’t know you were a gynecologist these days.”
“I’m sure he knows his way around a vagina,” Georgie teases.
“What I can’t figure out is how they know when he’s here,” Vanessa says.
I nod. I work twelve-hour days here for one week a month. It’s grueling, but I find it works. “That’s what I want to know,” I say.
When nothing else comes in before I’m scheduled to be off at seven p.m., I wave goodbye to the nurses, use the locker room to change into jeans, my best Chukka boots, and a cashmere sweater, and I’m off to meet the guys.
I’m the first to arrive at the bar. It’s close to my place but also not far from Clear Security, my other job. They’re great guys over there, and I’ve known most of them since my days in the military, so I often hang out with them, even when I’m not at work.
I take a seat at the bar. The bartender is a fantastic brunette in a black leather bustier and matching mini skirt.
“What can I get you?” she asks in a voice that makes my cock hard.
“I’ll take whatever IPA you have on tap.”
“Coming right up,” she says. She eyes me as she pulls on the beer tap. “Looks like you’ve had a long day.” I smile and nod as she places the beer in front of me. “Eight-fifty.”
I pull a twenty out of my pocket and hand it to her before I turn to find an empty booth in the back.
I see a few women checking me out and then someone murmurs, “Most eligible bachelor in San Francisco…”
My stomach turns, and I’m about ready to give up and go home, despite my full beer. But then Nate Lancaster arrives with Jim, and Gage Easton is quickly behind them.
“Nice spread inSan Francisco Monthly,” Nate teases.
I groan. “The hospital convinced me to do it. It was good publicity. Had I known it was going to turn into a fiasco, I would have skipped it, though.”
“Oh no, poor Clay,” Nate mocks. “So many beautiful women are coming on to you, and they all want to be Mrs. McGrath.”
“Hey! It’s bringing weirdos into the ER like it’s a place to hook up. At the hospital, I’m a professional. And when I’m off, I’m not looking to do anything more than have some fun.”