Accident Prone

"Oh!", a woman"s cry reached them, and they broke the kiss.

Liz glanced toward the door and her whole face exploded in a fierce blush. No matter how high she flew during that kiss, the embarra.s.sment pulled her back to Earth in a split second. She wished that she could disappear inside Max"s jacket, but she can"t hide. This is her office. She told herself to play it cool.

Max smiled at the sight of a friendly woman in her early forties looking at them like she caught kids in a mischief. The woman"s expression reminded him of how Foxy looks at him and he could immediately see that the woman is doting on Liz.

Rhonda tried to suppress her teasing grin (unsuccessfully). "I knocked. No one answered so I a.s.sumed that the office is empty. Pardon my intrusion."

Liz cleared her throat awkwardly. "Hi, Rhonda… This is my boyfriend, Max. Max, this is Rhonda... she works here."

A big smile bloomed on Max"s face. First a kiss in the morning, Liz accepted a lunch with him, she kissed him back, and now she introduced him as her boyfriend?! Woohoo! This day is getting better by the minute!

Rhonda smiled knowingly. "He is either your boyfriend or you are very intimate with your patient from 11:30."

"Why are you here?", Liz asked after Rhonda and Max exchanged greetings.

"I came to take care of your flowers.", Rhonda said grumpily. "Can you believe that not a single nurse is available? I wonder, where they all went?"

Only then Liz noticed that Rhonda is holding two vases.

"I"ve got a bigger and a smaller one, because you didn"t tell me how much flowers your boyfriend got you. Oh, we need a big vase…" Rhonda glanced at Max and then looked at Liz playfully. "Tall, handsome, and gives beautiful flowers. He is a keeper."

Liz clumsily grabbed her purse, almost spilling its contents in the process. "I"m going out for lunch. Please close the door when you settle the flowers…", Liz told Rhonda while walking out and pulling Max"s hand to follow her.

Max laughed seeing how embarra.s.sed Liz is. She is super cute.

"Have fun! Don"t do anything I wouldn"t do!", Rhonda shouted after them teasingly.

Rhonda hummed a tune and walked to the small kitchenette down the hall to fill up the large vase with water. Two minutes later, she returned and saw a person slip inside Liz"s office. Rhonda sped up her steps while cursing herself for not closing the door when she stepped out. That didn"t look like a nurse. Do they have an intruder?

"Dr. Snow?", Rhonda was surprised to see him in Liz"s office. He was observing the flowers on Liz"s desk. "Can I help you?"

He cleared his throat and smiled. "I came to look for Elizabeth, I didn"t see her in a while, and I thought to stop by and say "hi"."

In truth, after two occasions of Liz rejecting his flowers, he came to apologize in person or at least to find out what is needed for an apology to work because flowers are obviously not working. Dr. Snow waited for Elizabeth in the cafeteria, but since she didn"t show up, he a.s.sumed that she is in her office. Where else would she be?

"Dr. Williams went out for lunch.", Rhonda said while putting the flowers in the vase.

Dr. Snow understood that Liz went outside of Franciscan Medical Center for lunch. It"s not unusual for employees to go somewhere out for lunch, it"s just that Liz never did that so far.

Seeing that Rhonda is arranging the flowers, he frowned. Didn"t she reject all his flowers? Is she accepting flowers from her patients? Part of him hoped that Liz is allergic or something like that. "Are you sure that she wants to keep those flowers?"

"Yes. Dr. Williams told me to keep them in the water so that they don"t wither."

He looked at the flowers again and his frown deepened. "No card?"

"How much I know, they were delivered in person.", Rhonda responded smugly. Somehow, she liked pushing his b.u.t.tons. How dares he allow gossip about him and Liz to spread through the hospital when Liz is in a happy relationship with Max?

Dr. Snow snorted. Somehow, he had a feeling that these flowers are related to Max. He turned to leave. "I will stop by again after the lunch break."

Rhonda saw Dr. Snow ball his hands into fists and she could not hold back from saying: "I hope that you will not cause additional trouble for Dr. Williams."

Dr. Snow paused and looked at this middle-aged woman who is obviously hinting something. "I don"t understand. Please clarify."

"Are you going to deny being aware how everyone believes that you and Dr. Williams are in a relationship?"

Dr. Snow smirked. Yup, he heard it. What is wrong with that? He wants them to date, the gossip is only coming ahead of the time.

"I am not responsible for what others say.", he responded while waving his hands like it has nothing to do with him.

Rhonda was irritated by his aloof behavior. "Your silence is allowing it to go to the point of Dr. Williams being ridiculed behind her back and she was reprimanded at work. As a man, how can you find that acceptable?"

Dr. Snow paused. "What do you mean?"

The more Dr. Snow looked ignorant, the more Rhonda"s temper flared. "Dr. Snow… If you are trying to come in-between two people who are in a happy relationship, that is just mean. However, you are allowing it to impact her career and that is selfish and irresponsible. Do you know that your fan club of nurses is accusing her of playing hard to get? Do you know that your extravagant flower delivery from yesterday caused multiple complaints from the patients, which all got blamed on Dr. Williams and she was sent home early by Chairman Lee? Are you intimidated that she will outshine you and you are stepping on her before she gets a chance to show what she can do? Or you just can"t stand the fact that she is not interested in you romantically?"

"I would never jeopardize Elizabeth"s career. I didn"t know…", Dr. Snow said weakly while his confusion was obvious.

"Of course, you didn"t know." Rhonda sneered. "Men like you never think about the consequences for the other party. Dr. Snow, I work in this hospital for a long time and I saw many gossips about relationships between staff members and let me tell you: no one cares which part is true because at the end, women always suffer while men go on with their lives like nothing happened. If you care about Dr. Williams, you will show her nothing more than a professional courtesy and respect. And if you wish to pursue her, you should do that outside work hours."

Dr. Snow walked out of Liz"s office robotically. Rhonda said too much, and he needs to find a quiet place and think.

…

Down on the main floor…

When Max and Liz reached the main lobby, Liz glanced toward the reception and she saw at least a dozen nurses gaping in their direction. Liz thought that she will spontaneously combust.

Liz remembered Rhonda"s words how none of the nurses was available to take care of Liz"s flowers. Well, Liz found them. They all gathered at the reception to take a look at Max!

Liz knew that most of them live for gossip, but can"t they be more discrete about it? She was happy that Max"s arm is around her shoulders because like this she can stare at her feet and pretend that those nosy women are not there while Max leads the way out.

Max leaned closer and spoke softly to Liz while they walked: "We have quite an audience. Should I kiss you to give them something to talk about?"

"Not here! This is my workplace!", she whispered in panic.

Max chuckled. "OK. Not here."

…

Few minutes ago, in the wing of the general practice, on the main floor of Franciscan Medical Center…

Suzy came out of the doctor"s office unhappily.

She knows that the swelling on her cheeks subsided, but they are still aching, d.a.m.nit! Why is that doctor not taking her seriously? He told her to take over-the-counter pain medication and not to come unless it gets worse. This IS worse, it is aching!

Suzy suspects that doctor brushed her off only because it"s lunch time.

On her way out, she noticed an unusual number of nurses at the main reception looking toward the main door. Is there a celebrity in the hospital? Why else would they be so giddy?

Suzy"s head snapped toward the main door and she saw a familiar back. Hunter? No, no… That is not Hunter, that is Max. Is Max holding onto a woman? Is it possible that is the mysterious girlfriend Tyler mentioned? Suzy didn"t get a chance to see more than their backs for about two seconds before they disappeared behind double-doors toward the public parking lot on the ground level.

She wanted to dash after them, but then she heard nurses talk lively about the couple.

"Who is the hunk?", one nurse asked when Max and Liz were out of sight.

"I have no idea…", the other one said dejectedly.

"You know the woman?", Suzy asked.

Nurse looked at Suzy and understood that she is asking about Liz. "Yes. Do you know the man?"

Suzy smirked and responded with a nod.

The two shared a silent understanding that there will be an exchange of information.

"Dr. Williams. She is the neurosurgeon here.", the nurse said first.

"Maximilian Anderson. Look him up online. You will find plenty.", Suzy said smugly.

One of the nurses had her phone in her hand already and googled Max"s name.

"Well, there is not much other than he is working at Alpha group… a professional profile on LinkedIn.", nurse said unhappily.

"Alpha group is a Seattle based company.", one of the nurses said. "So, there is a big chance that he is local."

"Hmm… even his profile photo is handsome.", another nurse said with a sigh. "No wonder Liz is rejecting flowers from Dr. Snow. I prefer this hunk over Dr. Snow."

"Pft!", one of the nurses made a mocking sound. "Feel free to jump ships. There will be more of Dr. Snow for us."

"More for whom?", the receptionist rolled her eyes. "If you didn"t realize one hunk is Dr. Williams" boyfriend and the other one hopes to become her boyfriend. There is nothing left for any of us."

Suzy ignored their useless daydreaming. Who is that Dr. Snow anyway? There is no way he is better looking than Hunter.

Suzy leaned to see the phone of the nurse who searched for Max"s information. "Only a professional profile?"

"Yes. Should there be more?", nurse asked.

"Not really...", Suzy responded and walked out.

Suzy found it strange that nurses didn"t find anything related to Max"s playboy-lifestyle. Hmph, the woman probably searched wrongly. Suzy regularly visits number of those sites and is one of the main contributors. After all, Max is Hunter"s brother and she needs to stay connected to the Anderson family one way or the other. But Suzy is not interested in Max, her focus is on the mystery girlfriend.

She got her phone as soon as she got inside her car and went to the website of Franciscan Medical Center and under providers found Liz as a neurosurgeon.

Suzy was happy with this unexpected find. She thought that she should call Tyler. Or maybe the representatives of Max"s fan club, all of them are interested to find out more about Elizabeth Williams, a girl who carries the t.i.tle of Max"s girlfriend.

Suzy reminded herself not to rush. She should not give out this precious information for free. She needs something useful in return, something about Hunter and his girlfriend. Suzy gritted her teeth. Just thinking about Mia is making her cheeks throb painfully.

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