Until Autumn - Sheridan Anne Page 0,29

in a rental with about six other nursing students for a while, so we all had each other’s back. It was fun—but crowded. I moved into my apartment about a year ago. So, it’s really the first time I’ve ever been alone.”

Dr. Mayson’s brows crease as though the thought of me being alone physically pains him. “What about friends?” he asks, his hand pausing as he digs through the Chinese takeout container.

“I have my best friend, KC, who’s amazing. She has a beautiful little girl, Aalia, who’s adorable, and apart from them, I have the usual work friends, but now that I’m here …”

“You don’t see them as much.” I press my lips into a hard line and shake my head, letting him see just how much that really hurts. “And the guy who bought the PS5?”

“Ugh, don’t remind me,” I groan, covering my face with my hands as the humiliation haunts me. “I don’t even know what I was thinking dating a loser like that.”

“How long were you together?”

“About three months,” I tell him. “But if I’m honest, I gave up at the two-month mark. I just never really got around to telling him to get lost until last night.”

“Well,” Dr. Dick says with amusement shining brightly in his eyes. “He deserved it.”

“Understatement of the year,” I laugh.

Dr. Mayson watches me for a drawn-out second, not saying anything before finally indicating to the folder resting on my lap. “Come on, let’s try and get through this first folder before it gets too late.”

I nod and drop my gaze back to the folder. It’s going to take a week at least to get through each folder and I can’t help but wonder if this is his way of cutting the conversation short to try and keep some level of professionalism between us. Hell, maybe he simply just doesn’t give a shit about my sob story and was only asking to be polite.

I get back to work, making myself comfortable on the couch while picking at my food. Before I know it, I’m completely engrossed in what I’m doing, not even noticing the minutes ticking by.

I scan over a procedure and then instantly read it again, this time paying more attention. My brows furrow. What the fuck is this bullshit? It doesn’t even make sense. It sounds as though it was put together fifty years ago with the hope that no one would ever pay it any attention.

As I read over it a third time, I try to figure out what relevance this has to our practices today, and honestly, I’m at a loss. There’s nothing that I know of which could possibly be linked to this shit.

With my brows still furrowed, I grab the heavy folder and make my way across Dr. Mayson’s office. I round his desk and move in right beside him before placing the folder down. “Hey, take a look at this,” I say, still deep in thought. “I can’t work out what this is referring to.”

Dr. Mayson turns from his computer and instantly looks down at the folder, finding the procedure that my chipped manicure is adamantly pointing out. He scans over it in the same way that I initially had before his brows drop and he starts over. “The fuck is this bullshit? Who wrote this?” he grumbles, pulling the folder closer and flipping all the pages until he’s at the very last one.

He scans over the list of contributors and shakes his head, unable to figure out who had supplied this little piece of bullshit information. Dr. Mayson flips right back to the page and grabs a red marker, drawing a big asterisk over it to be sure this one doesn’t get missed. You know, when one of us can figure out what the fuck it’s supposed to be about.

“We’ll have to come back to this,” he tells me. “Let’s get through all of—”

A knock at his door cuts off what he’s saying, and both our gazes snap up to find Dr. Harding—my other assessing doctor—looking in. There’s genuine concern on his face until he takes me in at Dr. Mayson’s side, and suddenly that concern morphs into a twisted interest. “Well, well,” he says, his lazy stare roaming over my body. “What’s going on in here?”

A nearly inaudible sigh pulls from Dr. Mayson beside me as the chills from Dr. Harding’s stare sweeps through me. “Autumn, I trust you’ve met Dr. Harding,” Dr. Mayson says. “He’ll be one of the few doctors assessing