“True. I guess I just have to remind myself sometimes why it’s better that I don’t have a social life. Why sleeping alone is the best option for the foreseeable future…even if it does get a little lonely sometimes. I can’t even get a dog or a cat to keep me company. I’d feel too guilty about how little time I could spend with it.”
Thinking about Liam sitting alone in her apartment less than twenty-four hours after he’d arrived to see her, Anne pressed a hand to her clenched stomach. “Um, Haley…”
James returned to the table at that moment, smiling at them both as he played the host. “Is there anything I can get for either of you?”
“We’d better get back to work,” Anne said, deciding the interruption had been well-timed. This wasn’t the occasion to spill her secrets to her friend. “We still have to go through the pathology slides. And we haven’t even started micro.”
Returning in time to hear her, Ron groaned and looked over his shoulder. “Better grab another cookie for energy, Connor. Anne’s got that slave-driver look on her face again.”
With a laugh, Connor slid into his seat and Anne pushed her personal issues aside to concentrate again on her schoolwork.
Afternoon was fading into evening when a quiet beep from Anne’s cell phone signaled an incoming text message. Looking away from a mnemonic drawing Connor had created to help them remember several terms they needed to know for pharmacology, she glanced at the phone screen.
Sry 2 interrupt. R U eating out?
No, she typed in response to Liam’s query. Almost done.
Connor had just commented that he had to leave in about twenty minutes to join his family for dinner, and James had said he had plans for the evening. He didn’t share what those plans were, but then they were used to not knowing exactly what James did when he wasn’t with them.
I’ll cook. Any pref?
Srprz me, she tapped back.
She could almost see the sexy smile he wore as he replied, Gladly.
She slipped the phone back into her pocket. “Sorry. What were you saying, Ron?”
He looked at her, one sandy brow lifted quizzically. “Making plans with your secret lov-ah?”
“Yes,” she replied without missing a beat. “We’ve just arranged an intimate dinner followed by a night of blazing passion.”
Ron grinned in response to what he took as a sarcastic retort. “Okay. Touché.”
Haley laughed. “I tried to talk her into going with me to a singles’ bar to raise a little hell next weekend after the test, but she said she preferred staying home and studying. How boring is that?”
“I said I preferred a bubble bath and a couple of hours of TV,” Anne corrected her, relieved her honesty had been rewarded—by everyone thinking she’d lied. “But I admitted I’d probably end up studying instead.”
Ron’s attention had turned to Haley, his expression uncharacteristically disapproving. “Were you serious? About taking Anne to a singles’ bar?”
“We were teasing. But why not? Surely we should be allowed some fun even in med school. We’ve got other classmates who make time to party between test cycles. Just because none of us particularly enjoy class keggers doesn’t mean we can’t let loose some other way every once in a while.”
“At a singles’ bar?”
Her smile growing tight, Haley shrugged. “It was just a joke, Ron. Let it go.”
Connor started gathering his things. “We made a lot of progress today. I think I’ll head on home to spend a little time with Alexis before she has to go to bed.”
Giving Ron a now-look-what-you-did frown, Haley reached for her computer bag. “I’ll finish looking through this stuff at home. Are we meeting tomorrow?”
“I have other plans for tomorrow.” James set his notes aside.
“Maybe we should all study separately tomorrow and then get together after class Monday,” Anne suggested.
Perhaps they’d been spending a bit too much time as a group. Even the best of friends needed a break from each other occasionally.
Anne walked into her apartment soon after leaving James’s place. “Hi, honey, I’m home,” she called out teasingly, assuming Liam was in the kitchen.
He stepped out of the room she used as an office instead. Wearing a gray sweater that brought out the gray in his eyes, a pair of faded jeans and socks without shoes, he looked quite at home in her apartment. He carried a perfect red rose that he presented to her with a flourish.