“Wow, looks like you really charmed him, huh?” Karen puts her plastic tray on the cafeteria table and sits down.

I give her a weak smile. “I’m not thrilled about him seeing me like this, though.”

Karen looks put together—clean hair tied into a ponytail, light make-up…

Me, on the other hand… I’ve been spending all morning worried that Gabe had smelled me before he’d seen me. In fact, when he first opened his mouth, I totally expected him to say something about my disheveled appearance.

My hair is a tangled mess that’s crisp to the touch, thanks to the copious amounts of hairspray I dumped on it last night. I put it up into an easy bun, but it’s… voluminous in a weird, unnatural way.

My make-up is basically the same as last night—in other words, it’s completely inappropriate for work. I managed to remove some smudged mascara this morning, though, and the whole thing has also kind of faded overnight. So I have too much and too little make-up at the same time, somehow.

“Don’t worry about it. He asked you out on a date, right?” Karen asks.

I nod.

“Then he still likes what he sees. Trust me.” Karen makes a face when she takes a closer look at the Salisbury steak on her plate. “Ugh, with the kind of bills the hospital charges our patients, you’d think they could afford better food.”

“It’s not horrible. I’m getting used to it.” I stab a piece of the brown meat and pick up some of the thick liquid pooling at the bottom of my plate.

“Yeah, the meat is maybe kind of okay sometimes, but this egg is made of something unholy. It tastes like Styrofoam.” Karen takes a bite. “And cancer. It tastes like Styrofoam and cancer.”

I laugh.

“So before you passed out, I take it you were about to…” Karen leaves her sentence unfinished, but the way she wiggles her eyebrows up and down tells me exactly what she’s talking about.

I can’t help the grin that’s spreading across my cheeks right now. I still can’t believe Gabe and I were about to do it last night.

“Way to go, Summers.” Karen returns my grin. “Like a scared little baby deer, you were so worried last night. But you slayed him like a majestic lioness. Well done.”

“Well, I’m glad that’s how you think of me and I’d love to maintain that kick-ass image, but that’s not exactly how it went down last night. I kind of made a fool of myself.”

“With that pretty face, you don’t have to worry about stuff like that,” Karen says. “Now I feel bad about letting you drink so much last night. If it weren’t for that, he would’ve—” she drops her voice “—he would’ve made a woman out of you.”

I giggle, even as a spark of excitement lights up in my brain. God, I’d love for something like that to happen.

As my gaze wanders, I realize someone’s watching me.

Gabe.

He’s sitting with another doctor—I can’t tell who his lunch mate is because I can only see the back of his head and his white coat. Gabe occasionally nods and I can see his lips moving as he speaks with the other doctor, but his green eyes keep flicking to stare at me.

“I was wondering why you went quiet all of a sudden,” Karen says as she looks back over her shoulder, following the direction of my gaze. “He’s totally still checking you out. What happened last night?”

I hesitate.

My whole life, I’ve put people in separate boxes and avoided mixing them together.

Gabe belongs in the “family” box because I met him through my brothers. But now he’s at the hospital, mingling with members of my “workplace” box.

Maybe it’s okay to let the two overlap a little. I mean, I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to talk to Gabe last night if it weren’t for Karen, so I kind of owe her a story.

Besides, it’s not like I can just stop Gabe from coming to the hospital.

So I tell Karen what happened last night, without mentioning about the history between Gabe and me. As the words flow from my mouth, I relive the magical moments, when Gabe and I met again under the moonlight on that balcony, as waves wash over sand and rocks.

It feels so long ago, so far removed from this bright, austere hospital. But Gabe’s still gazing at me across the cafeteria, so it must’ve really happened.

I have no idea what Gabe wants to do on Thursday, but whatever it is… I want it.