Chapter 13

Brianna was able to squeeze in behind Zoe’s seat, and I followed her directions to the bar and parked in a space out front.

The place was bouncing, but then it was a Friday night. The girls groaned and indicated a large group of thirty-year-olds at the bar.

Zoe said, “Crap, it looks like half the residents are here.”

A waitress recognized Zoe and Brianna, and she found us a booth. Zoe slid in beside me and Brianna took my other side. She took our drink orders and left us a menu.

“Michael, you’ve got to try the cheeseburger, they serve the best in Denver,” Brianna said.

I was fine with that, so when the drinks arrived, we ordered three cheeseburgers. There was the usual confusion as I asked for chips with mine. Why is it that Americans call chips, fries and crisps, potato chips? Honestly, America, the rest of the world, can’t be wrong.

Zoe whispered to me, “Mike, there are several people from radiology here, and they are looking in our direction. Do you want me to introduce you if they come over?”

I thought about it for a moment, “Just say I’m an old family friend, I don’t want to get into any office politics tonight. Which reminds me, I’m invited to dinner tomorrow night, and you can come as my guest.”

“Dinner with who?” She asked suspiciously.

“Just some of the senior university staff, the president, the dean, and so on,” I said dismissively.

She looked at me in horror, “Morals Clause,” she gasped.

“Not relevant as my contract doesn’t officially start until Monday,” I said.

She asked, “Can I think about it, please?”

“Of course.”

Brianna started as she saw someone approaching our table. Her face went pale, and she said, “Heads up, here comes doc perfect.”

“What,” I said

Zoe replied, “He’s a surgery resident who thinks he’s god’s gift to women!”

“I thought that was me.”

Zoe put her hand on my thigh, dragging her nails up my leg to the bulge in my pants. “You are, he just thinks it. But he has been giving Bree a hard time recently.”

A six-foot-two all-American hunk sat down next to BMianna without asking. He totally ignored me and started talking to the girls about a case and telling them he was going to present it at the grand rounds on Monday afternoon. The girls responded in monosyllables, but he didn’t notice.

Finally, he saw me looking at him, and he must have mistaken my look of annoyance as one of bemusement. He said condescendingly, “Oh, I’m sorry if you don’t understand any of this, I wanted to discuss with these medical students an interesting surgery case I’ll be presenting.”

I could sense Zoe tensing up beside me, and I gently kicked her foot and shook my head.

“That fine, “I said, laying on the Irish accent, “Way above this old man’s pay grade.” Zoe and Bree smiled. “I’m just an old friend of Zoe’s parents passing through Denver.”

He held his hand out, and I shook it, ignoring the tight squeeze, “I’m Neil,” he said.

“Michael,” I replied.

Neil stood up and waved to get the waitresses’ attention, and while he was distracted, I whispered to Zoe. “Guess who’s going to be at his case presentation!” She burst out laughing.

“Really,” she whispered back.

I passed her my phone and showed her the agenda the university had emailed me — 13:00-14:30 review panel surgery case presentation.

Neil sat down again and went to put his arm around Bree. I saw her flinch away, moving to the back of the booth closer to me.

I said softly, “Remind me, Neil, just when did we invite you to join us?”

“Cool, it old man, Bree, and I go a long way back.” And again, he tried to put his arm around her.

“Bree, do you want him here?” I asked. She shook her head. “Then I think it’s time you left,” I continued.

He stared at me, and I stared back.

He stood up, then he bent down and said to Bree, “Fine, I’m going, but just remember who’s doing your evaluation!” He smiled at me and then walked away.

Zoe slid out and went around the table and put her arms around Bree. They both looked at me with a worried expression on their faces.

I smiled reassuringly and said, “When is your evaluation due?”

“The end of next month, do you think he can cause a problem?” Brianna said.

I shook my head. “Nope, not after threatening you like that in front of witnesses.” Bree relaxed a bit.

“I am intrigued, though, both of you have had issues with supervising residents. Is there a general problem going on here, or are these very specific to you?”

Zoe said, “It’s not endemic; Tony was my first experience with it, and as far as I know, Neil being a dickhead is Bree’s first time.”

Bree agreed, “It is, he’s been a bit handsy the last few weeks, that’s all. But I’ve heard the odd rumor in the past. Female students being offered better grades for favors.”

Our food arrived then, so we settled down to eat. I hadn’t forgotten about Tony; there was still the issue of the missing purse. We’d decided not to get the police involved. There was only $20 cash in it, and we’d been able to cancel her credit and ATM cards. The biggest issue still was the missing ID and driving license. I was sort of hoping that he’d taken it by mistake and she’d get them back.

The food was splendid, and yes, it was the best cheeseburger I’d ever eaten. The large group of residents at the bar left and the atmosphere immediately lightened. Several of Zoe and Brianna’s friends arrived, and we moved to a larger table. I was definitely the odd one out by almost thirty years, and I kept getting glances from around the table. To Zoe’s amusement, I would field the ‘What do you do?’ questions by telling them I was a teacher - well, I would be, so it wasn’t a big fat lie.

I also got a lot of the ‘Gee, I love your accent’ comments to which I’d reply, “But I don’t have an accent - you do!” I could see that there was a lot of speculation from her friends about my relationship with Zoe. I’d told her earlier that I would take my lead from her. I knew she was nervous, not so much about what her friends would think, but more rather how the university administrators would react.

As the evening drew on Zoe grew much more relaxed, and she went from just holding my hand and little kisses to hugs and big passionate kisses. The story of how we met got told and you could see the change in her friends. When we left, we dropped Bree off at the University on our way back to the apartment. We arranged to pick her up the next morning.

In the lift, she wrapped her arms around my neck and buried her face into my chest and sighed sleepily. When we got back to the apartment, Zoe sat down, and she looked so cute. She could barely keep her eyes open she was so tired. She looked up at me and held her arms out to me. I picked her up and carried her to the bedroom.

Before I could put her down on the bed, she murmured, “I need to pee, bathroom, please.” I carried her to the bathroom and set her down carefully on the toilet.

In as little ; I voice, she said, “Help me, don’t leave me alone, please.”

I knelt down and fumbled with the button on her jeans and then unzipped them. She bent forward and kissed the top of my head

She whispered, “Oh, Michael, I love you so much. I wanted to stand on the table and announce it to the whole room, but I was too much of a coward. Will you ever forgive me?”

“Forgive you for what, for being in love with me or not wanting to announce it to the world.”

She pulled my head up. “I will never apologize for falling in love with you; I’m just scared what the University could do to me ... us when they find out.”

“It will be alright,” I promised her, and I heard a little sob.

Her hands pushed her jeans down her legs, “I still need to pee,” she said.

I undid her sandals and she kicked them off, and I pulled her jeans off completely. I hooked my fingers in the waist of her panties and slowly eased them down, stealing a kiss from her pussy as I did so.