The Doctor Who Has No Ambition (Soulless 9)

“I’ll take the same.” I stacked my menu on top of hers.

“That’s romantic,” the waitress said. “You guys ordering the same thing.”

“Oh god, no,” Daisy snapped. “Yuck. Yuck. Yuck. This is my brother.”

“Ooh.” The waitress then looked at me totally differently now that she knew I wasn’t claimed. “Good to know.” She walked away.

Daisy turned back to me. “Am I what?”

I stared at her blankly. “Huh?”

“Earlier you asked ‘Are you’? Am I what?”

“Oh. Are you actually sorry for being late because you’re always late?”

She rolled her eyes. “Come on, you know how it goes. Office gets crazy. Like I said, I didn’t eat lunch today.”

“I know exactly how it goes, but I’m not late as often as you are.”

“Well, we both know I’m worth the wait.” She flipped her hair over her shoulder then took the drink from the waitress when she came back. “Thanks, girl. And yes, my brother is single.”

The waitress gave me a smile before she walked away.

“You don’t have to do that.” I watched my sister go after the basket of fries again.

“Do what?” she asked innocently.

“Throw tail my way.”

“Look, she was interested, and I was just helping her out.” She squirted the ketchup onto her plate then dunked the fries in it, getting them so soaked in ketchup there was no way she could even taste the fry underneath. “I was doing it more for her than you.”

Whenever I was with my sister, I didn’t chase tail or accept free drinks from admirers. It wasn’t that I was uncomfortable being myself around her. I just chose to spend all my energy paying attention to her because she was all I really cared about. “How was your day?”

“Insane. I had this patient come in with these weird symptoms, symptoms that are only indicative of a serious illness, but his scans and blood work are totally normal, so how is that possible? It’s not possible. There’s definitely something going on, but I can’t pinpoint exactly what it is.” She continued to eat, her mind working behind her eyes, running through everything all over again.

“You’ll figure it out, Daisy.”

“I know I will. I’m just not sure how long it’s going to take.” She stared down at her plate, wiping the fries through the remaining ketchup that was quickly being depleted.

My sister had followed in our father’s footsteps, but instead of becoming a practicing physician or medical researcher, she was a medical investigator and a brilliant diagnostician. She worked at a world-renowned clinic in the city, with a team of people who combined their minds to solve cases no one else could. “How’d your game go?”

“Killed it.”

I smiled. “Like always. How much was the pot worth?”

“A million.” She rubbed her fingers together like she felt the crisp bills in her fingertips.

“What are you going to buy?”

“I think a Bugatti. Jet-black.”

“That sounds like you.”

The waitress brought the food and set it in front of us.

“Oh, thank god. I’m starving.” Daisy unrolled her silverware and placed the paper napkin in her lap.

“You just ate a whole basket of fries,” I said incredulously. “How can you still be starving?”

“Because of this machine.” She tapped the side of her temple before she picked up her burger and took a bite.

“When’s your next game?”

“Next weekend. Atlantic City.” She was a professional poker player, her mind able to do statistical analysis in real time, calculate probabilities instantaneously. Other players had tried to get her banned a few times because they accused her of counting cards, but there was no way to prove it, so she slid by. There was no way they could prohibit her from playing just because she was too brilliant. That would be discrimination. “You wanna come?”

“I’d love to, but I’ve got to work.”

“Lame.” She kept eating.

“Count me in next time—no pun intended.”

She chuckled then turned quiet as she ate.

I ate too, enjoying the comfortable silence between us. We were only three years apart, so we’d always been close. She and Derek were ten years apart, so they didn’t click quite as well as we did. But we’d always been the three amigos.

“So…” She set down the uneaten half of her burger then went back to the fries.

“So?”

“Well, are we gonna talk about what happened or…?”

I sighed in annoyance. “You’re my favorite because you don’t make me talk about things I don’t want to talk about.”

“Well, a guy was shot in your building, and you saved his life. I mean, we should probably talk about that.”

“That’s not what happened. He accidentally shot himself.”

“Whatever,” she said. “A gunshot wound. It’s still pretty thrilling. Good thing you were there and not on a run or something.”

“Yeah.”

She continued to eat, staring me down.

I stared back. “What?”

“Okay, I’ve got a confession to make…”

“Oh no.”

“Dad asked me to talk to you—”

“Of course he did. How about you say you did, and we just not?”