Jon rubbed his eyes and sat up in the giant bed, squinting at the alarm clock on the bedside table. 6:29. Still too early to head down to the conference, but at least it was late enough to get up. He’d been coming in and out of sleep all night; at midnight, he woke thinking he’d slept for hours, groaned, and slumped back into the pillow after seeing it’d only been forty-five minutes. At 2:15 he squinted at the clock and wondered if he should read until he dozed off again. At 4:08, he clicked the TV on and watched a very old episode of Match Game.
He grappled for the menu and looked it over for an opening time for the cafe in the lobby. Oh good; it opened at six-thirty. He swung his legs over the edge of the bed and gave his body a good stretch. He almost asked Alexa to read him his messages before he remembered where he was.
After a good shower and picking out his threads for the day, he whistled his way to the lobby, his stomach leaping for a good meal. No one should ever start the day without bacon, and Jon let his nose guide him toward it.
The early risers were scattered throughout the little restaurant, most sipping on mugs of their hot beverage of choice and flipping through phones, tablets, or laptops. All except for one table where a pair of familiar faces sat, and as soon as he caught sight of Cassidy’s signature glasses, bacon was the last thing on his mind.
“Hey, Bateman!” Julie called, locking eyes with him and waving him over. “Join us.”
Cassidy flicked her gaze over her shoulder, her messy brown hair up in a ponytail and just grazing her bare neck. He gulped, hoping he wasn’t a sweaty, nervous mess as he made his way over to them.
A smirk lifted her naked lips when he sat down, and she nodded to his torso. “Dressed at seven in the morning? Props, Doc.”
He shrugged and adjusted his tie. Breakfast in his pajamas hadn’t crossed his mind; this was a professional setting, no? But there Cassidy sat in the cutest set of candy corn pajama bottoms he’d ever seen, with a black tank top that read Are my jammies a bit corny?
“Maybe I’ll take a page out of your book tomorrow,” he said, reaching for her hem but stopping himself. Tugging at her pajamas probably wasn’t on the business side of things.
She snorted into her coffee mug. “That’ll be the day.”
His brows pulled in slightly, and a smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. He’d prove her wrong; he had a fun side when he let it out—and it usually found its way naturally when she was around. Did she not remember the party? He’d killed it that night—at least he thought he had.
He squashed the memory down so it wouldn’t rear its head again over breakfast. She obviously wasn’t dwelling on their night together.
The waitress came over and grabbed his drink order, and Julie propped her elbows up on the table and tilted her head, her tight, curly black hair bouncing with her movements. “So, you docs in the harassment class this morning, too?”
Jon choked on his coffee and had a nice long coughing fit. His eyes watered as Cassidy pounded on his upper back a few times.
“S-sorry?”
Julie lifted her brow, a wicked gleam in her eye as she flicked her gaze between Jon and Cassidy. “The sexual harassment class. Cass and I are in first thing this morning.”
Jon grabbed his water and took a swig. “Um… I’m not sure.”
A cool breeze replaced Cassidy’s touch as she slid her hand away from his back. “Bring a pillow,” she joked. “It’s the worst class of the week.”
“Nothing can beat out the class on hospital policy we had yesterday,” Jon argued. “The instructor read the manual. Got to page fifty-two before we were let out.”
“Okay, it might be slightly less boring than that.” Cassidy pulled a leg up onto the chair and rested her chin on her knee, and darn if he didn’t want to see her doing that at his place, this early in the morning, while he made her toast—the only thing he could manage without burning, and even then, there was a 50/50 chance of him breaking the toaster.
Julie cleared her throat, and he snapped out of his fantasy and ignored the red flames rising through his face. Her head was tilted, her eyes curious, and he purposely leaned away from Cassidy so there was no reason anyone could say he was acting inappropriately.
“Oh! Real quick…” Cassidy said, lightly tapping his arm. He snapped it away so fast he could see the shock on her face, but didn’t have much time to feel badly about it. “Um… I recovered some of the missing checks from Medicaid. Some of the EOBs in the returned mail were a few of your deliveries, so we’re going to try to get them to pay on those.”
“I’m going to pretend I understood that.” And pretend I don’t still feel your touch on my arm.
She playfully stuck her tongue out and fixed her glasses. “It just means that you’ll get paid. Fingers crossed.”
“Yeah, we’re all crossing our fingers for that,” Julie said, her attention now on the plates being brought out. Bacon sizzled from each of them, and it wasn’t lost on him that Cassidy had twice the amount. If it was just the two of them, and they weren’t at a conference for work, he’d definitely be swiping some.
He took a bite of crispy heaven. “You’re all still getting paychecks, right?” Finances were a mystery to him. The only way he knew it was payday was when his student loans went down.
“For now,” Julie said, eggs and bitterness soaking her tone. “A while back, before you were brought in, the providers considered letting go a person from every department.”
“Ouch.”
“Instead we invited another doctor to join the practice,” Cassidy said, her brown eyes meeting his. “So thanks for saving our jobs for a bit.”
“Yeah, Cass,” Julie said, pointing the fork at her. “Now save his money so we all don’t get screwed.”
“Working on it.”
“Maybe they shouldn’t be spending so much on these things,” Jon added, waving his bacon around at the hotel. “The room I’m in could probably feed everyone for a month.”
“What?” Julie said, tossing her hands up. “We have to share these teeny tiny rooms.”
“It’s been torture,” Cassidy teased. “She leaves crap everywhere and wouldn’t let me rent Ant-Man.”
“That thing will show up on our bill and cost like, twenty bucks.”
“Borrow my room for a night,” Jon blurted, then quickly added, “I’ll go wander around town, and you can watch Paul Rudd.”
Luckily Cassidy didn’t think anything of his word vomit. “If you let me borrow your room, you ain’t getting it back.”
“Noted.”
She smiled at him, stopping his world right then and there, and it took Julie clearing her throat yet again to snap him out of it. When he caught Julie’s gaze this time, it was obvious she was thinking it was a good thing they had a harassment class this morning. Honestly, he couldn’t blame her.