each date together, one by one. And I’ll learn what I need to know about you from spending the day with you—not from a piece of paper.”
“Great. You free tomorrow?”
“Tomorrow?” I question more to myself than him. What’s tomorrow? Thursday? “I think—” I almost say yes, but then realize I have a dreaded yearly with my gynecologist. “Wait…I—” And then I almost freaking tell him that I have an appointment with my gyno. Thankfully, I settle on, “Actually, I’m busy tomorrow.”
“Then Friday?” he offers, and I agree with a nod.
“Friday works great.”
“Well, Holley, it looks like you’ll be heading back to the ocean on Friday morning, then.” He winks and turns around to stir the pasta sauce that’s now starting to bubble on the stove.
Back to the ocean? Oh boy.
Jake
I’m just finishing up checking in at the front desk when the door to the office opens behind me. Curiosity is a human reflex, so I turn instinctively to see who’s coming in.
The results of my reflex, however, are anything but expected.
With brown hair tucked behind her ears and a makeup-free face, Holley Fields steps inside the door and shuts it behind herself without looking up. She’s wearing a simple white T-shirt, jean shorts, and strappy sandals, and despite a huge height deficit, her legs seem to go on for days.
I watch her without guilt or subtlety, but it still takes her almost a full minute and actual physical contact to realize I’m there.
“Oh,” she mumbles quickly as her hands, texting something on her phone, bump into the soft cotton fabric of my baby blue T-shirt. Our toes are nearly touching, which makes the action of her head moving from its downward tilt all the way up to meet my eyes even more dramatic.
Once recognition sets in, her eyes turn wide and surprised.
“Jake.”
“Let me guess, Holley, my homemade pasta sauce last night was so good, you decided to track me down today?” I smile so hard I feel it in the skin behind my ears. “Or wait…don’t tell me, you have to sit in on my doctor’s appointment too? I don’t remember that being in all the fine print.”
“What?” Her face is downright comical as her brain backpedals. “No, no. Wait. What are you doing here?”
“I’m here for my appointment,” I say with a laugh. When she still looks confused, I take my explanation a step further. “This is a doctor’s office.”
She stumbles over basic human functions, looking over her shoulder and around the room and back at me with little-to-no traceable rationality. When she lands back at me, I raise my eyebrows.
“I…I know this is a doctor’s office,” she stutters. “This is your doctor’s office?”
I laugh again and scratch a hand through my hair. My brain is starting to hurt a little. “Are we speaking the same language at all?”
“No, yes. I mean…sorry. It’s just… This is my doctor’s office. My…” She lowers her voice to a whisper. “Gynecologist. I… Do they do something for men now?”
I turn to look back up at the front desk window again, and a big typed-up sign is in the center of it.
Piper Gynecology and SoCal Family Medicine are temporarily sharing office space.
Please excuse the confusion and the mess, and sign in on the correct sheet.
Holley follows my line of sight and, apparently, reads to herself.
“Oh my Jesus.”
I laugh. I can’t help it. “I guess we’re doctor buddies today, huh?”
She looks ready to crawl out of her skin, leave the shell here, and slither out the door.
And hell, if it isn’t making me want to tease her even more.
“Doctor buddies,” she mutters with a fake giggle instead. “Great.”
“I doubt they’ll put us in the same room,” I joke. “Though, I bet we could request it.”
She shakes her head violently and grabs my arm as I pretend to turn to the receptionist. “No!”
“Relax,” I comfort with a laugh. “I’m just kidding. I’ll go get the broomstick of the witch in my room, and you’ll go do whatever it is you do in yours.”
“The broomstick of the witch?”
I nod. “Extremely powerful, but nearly impossible to procure. Isn’t that a requirement for Bachelor Anonymous? Everything else is.”
She bites her lip, and finally, as the panic recedes slightly, breaks into a small smile and shrugs. “I guess if it’s in there, you might as well grab it. Can’t hurt.”
“That’s what I figured. I also assumed I needed to get all this testing and such done as soon as possible, right?”
She nods. “We are working on a bit of