Seven Groomsmen from Hell (Love by Numbers 6)

“Believe me, I will hardly have to play at it,” Khloe responded.

I decided to keep to myself that I was attracted to her too. I probably could have revealed some further information that would benefit me more, but it seemed more fun to just piss Luke off instead.

“This will be our little secret?” I said, holding my finger up to my lips.

Khloe sighed, still looking dumbstruck. “The secret is safe with me.”

6

Cody

It had been a long week at the hospital, so I was glad when Kent invited me out to lunch and, thank god, the A&E department was slow enough that I was actually able to take a break to go and meet him. After doing a final check-in with all of my current patients and checking in with the nurses, I packed up my things and left the hospital. Kent sent me a text that he wanted to meet at a small bistro that was one of our favorites. The rest of our friend group ate almost exclusively at restaurants where the women wore short shorts and cleavage-revealing shirts, so when we wanted to satiate our more refined palettes, we had to do it alone.

The sun was shining in the sky and it was a relatively warm day, so I decided to walk instead of drive. I hadn’t spent much time outdoors lately despite being an avid runner. I mostly had to settle for taking a few laps around the employee gym at work, so I was excited for the opportunity to get out and enjoy some fresh air.

Kent was a good friend. I wouldn’t know any of the other guys in our group if it weren’t for him, and really, I probably would be a lonely, workaholic loser with no friends.

“Dr. Williams, we have a concussion coming in. A football player that took a helmet-to-helmet.” The announcement from the trauma nurse in passing sent shivers down my spine.

I was new to the field, and new to the hospital, and I’d specifically been avoiding brain trauma. Those were one of those areas where patients tended to die on the table, and I was still leading an ignorant life of thinking that would never happen to me. I was on call for a doctor that was out on paternity leave, and got just unlucky enough that a brain-injury got called in while I was there. I was terrified, but something about seeing that poor man laying on the table when he came in, gave me all the confidence I needed to do my job with the professionalism that was expected of me. A few of the other doctors and nurses that were around kept saying that they were certain he would have brain damage, but my fresh eye to brain trauma proved otherwise. I ran several tests, even the ones not normally needed for that type of injury, and was able to conclude with certainty that, apart from a bad concussion, the man would be just fine.

That man was Kent, and when he came back to consciousness, mine was the first face that he saw.

“Are you the doctor that saved my life?” he asked.

“Well, I wouldn’t say I had to save it,” I responded. “It’s a nasty injury, but fortunately you shouldn’t suffer any brain damage. We’ll keep you for a couple of days for observation, and then we’ll monitor you closely for a couple of months after that. You’ll need to check in regularly, and unfortunately, you’re probably out for the remainder of the season.” The Hellraisers weren’t a Super Bowl team by any stretch of the imagination, but they were pretty good, so it was probably hard to hear that he’d be out for a while.

To my surprise, however, Kent started laughing. “Well, the girl I just started dating will certainly be pleased.”

“That can’t be true,” I said. “If she really likes you, she won’t be happy you’re in pain.” It made me slightly jealous to hear that he had a special someone. My job didn’t allow time for dating, and even if it did, I wasn’t actually all that great with women.

“No, she’ll be very worried I’m sure. In fact…” A mischievous smile found his face. “I’m sure I can convince her to be my personal nurse.”

I laughed. “Best of luck there.”

“It’s just that my job is very demanding, and I’m really close with a few of my teammates so she’s always complaining I don’t have enough time for her. She’ll be thrilled that I have a medically mandated reason to take a break from playing and spend some time with her,” he explained.

“I get that,” I said. “Certainly I know what it’s like to have a time-consuming line of work. Dating, doing anything fun, really relaxing of any kind are luxuries for me.”

Kent’s eyes got a little wider, and then squinted from the pain. “Ow.”