Read Online Notorious D.O.C. (Hope Sze medical mystery) by Melissa Yi, Melissa Yuan-Innes - Free Book Online Page A

turned.
    Tucker said, "Hey" and gave me
a crooked smile. He'd combed his bangs down into his face, Brit-rocker style,
and somehow it made him look more contrite.
    My heart thawed. I was supposed to be mad
at him for bossing me around, but it felt old. "Hey." For the first
time, I noticed his nose was slightly deviated to the left. Born with it, or
broken?
    "What are you staring at?" He
raised his voice to be heard over the news. An
armed robbery in Arlington, Virginia. The suspect is male, estimated to be in
his early twenties...
    I lifted my water bottle and took a sip.
It was a good excuse to break our gaze. "Nothing." I wiped my mouth
with the back of my hand.
    "Liar." He laughed softly and
stepped toward me.
    I felt trapped between him, the water
fountain, and the trapezius pull machine. It wasn't a bad feeling, except I was
totally confused about him, Ryan, and myself. Weren't Tucker and I fighting?
Sort of?
    "You're calculating how to do my
rhinoplasty, right?" He tapped the side of his nose.
    "Yeah. How much it would cost to
repair if I broke it again, if you started ordering me around again."
    He pretended to be shocked. "My
mistake. Some girls like that sort of thing."
    His last sentence rang out as the other
guy suddenly cut the volume on the TV.
    Ah. Masochism jokes. Way to undermine my
physician image. I glanced over at the treadmill to see how the one guy was
taking it. He was wiping it down and getting his access card out.
    I swallowed hard. The tiny room smelled
of old shoes and antiseptic spray. Not exactly romantic, but Tucker and I were
going to be alone.
    Always dangerous.
    I tried to shift the mood and muttered,
"Well, save your S&M moves for all your other girls."
    Beep. The other guy passed his card over
the reader. The door eased closed behind him.
    When I looked up, Tucker was smiling.
"I know. You're a tough nut."
    Why was everyone calling me tough
today?   Mrs. Lee had said I was
pretending to be tough, but still.
    "Tori and I were talking about
you."
    I grimaced.
    "—and if you can't beat
'em—" He paused slightly. I refused to meet his eyes.
"—you join, 'em, right? So how can I help you help Mrs. Lee?"
    Now I narrowed my eyes at him. "Are
you serious?"
    He shrugged and straddled the lat bench.
I felt both relieved and disappointed he'd moved away. "Why not?"
    I struggled to control a smile. "So
you admit I'm right?"
    "Never." He started pulling
down the bar. I watched the muscles in his arms. Unfortunately, he was wearing
a baggy T-shirt. I still admired his forearms. "But, as Tori pointed out,
if my chief complaint is that you're working too hard, my job is to cut down
your workload, right?   So we're going to
be your Scoobies."
    "Huh?"
    "Off Buffy . Her sidekicks are the Scoobies." He sighed. " Buffy the Vampire Slayer . You have no
idea what I'm talking about, right?   Let
your education begin."
    I laughed.
    "I'm serious. Once upon a time,
there was a blonde chick in Sunnydale, California, who discovered she had a
special talent for kicking vampire butt. And demon butt. And, well, evil in
general."
    I started doing my triceps. I could see
him through our weight stacks, since our machines were facing each other. Nice
leg muscles. Hairy but not gross. When I glanced up at him, he was smiling, but
he just said, "There will be a test, Buffy."
    If the test was on his legs, I'd probably
pass. I cleared my throat. "There probably is something you can help me
with." I glanced around one more time to make sure we were alone.
"I've never been to Île-Ste-Hélène. Do you want to check it out with
me?   Maybe this weekend?"
    The smile spread across his face. "I
was hoping you'd say that."
    My pager went off. I checked the number.
Emerg.
    I sighed. Tucker just waved at me.
"Later, Buffy."
    ***
    Nancy half-smiled as she pushed her own
chart toward me, swiveling in her chair. "More business. Reena
Schuster."
    My heart fluttered in my chest. No. No
more panic attacks. I took a deep breath. "Again?"
    "We