Chapter 29
CHAPTER 29
MICHAEL
“Michael, what are we doing here?” Azara asked, her voice tinged with a mix of curiosity and a mild exasperation as I pulled her into her favorite closet and shut the door behind us.
I placed my hands behind me and leaned against the door. “Can’t I simply want to see you?”
“You’ve seen me all day,” she huffed, crossing her arms over her chest, but I saw the ghost of the smile she was fighting to hold back.
I pushed myself off the door and closed the gap between us. I lifted her gently as her gaze met mine. “True. But I haven’t been able to do this,” I murmured, before pressing my lips to hers. I hadn’t kissed her since the night of the exhibit, and I missed it. It hadn’t even been a week, yet I felt like an addict counting down the hours to his next fix.
It was only meant to be a swift kiss, but as it always was with her, the moment our lips met, nothing else existed. My mind always went somewhere where time, space and common sense disappeared and it was just us left.
Us and everything she was making me feel that I’d been ignoring. I knew it was stupid to dream of what-ifs and maybes, but whenever I was with her, dreaming didn’t seem as foolish.
I hadn’t seen much of her since that night at the gallery and I needed her all to myself, even if it was just for a few minutes. Although the hospital only needed one senior surgeon on call this weekend, I’d made sure we were both scheduled so I’d have an excuse to spend more time with her.
Things had settled for the evening and it was almost one in the morning which meant we deserved a break.
“We should stop. We’re at work,” she said softly against my lips, but made no move to pull away.
“Hasn’t stopped us before,” I replied with a smirk before kissing her once more. But I quickly reminded myself why I’d taken her here. Reluctantly, I broke the kiss, my hands trailing down her arms that had found their place around my neck. If I didn’t stop myself, we’d never get to the good part, even though this would be tough to beat.
“You’re right, we should stop,” I sighed. “But you have to promise to give me the next twenty minutes of your undivided attention,”
She leaned back slightly, eyeing me with a raised brow. “What for? Besides, what if there’s an emergency?”
There wouldn’t be, I’d made sure of it.
“Then we’ll dutifully do our jobs,” I replied, pressing a chaste kiss to her lips.
“Fine,” she grumbled, unhooking her arms from around my neck before she stepped back. “So, what did you have in mind?”
I quickly moved two boxes of extra supplies and arranged them so we’d be facing each other. I then retrieved the coffee thermos and cups I’d hidden on the shelf at the back. It was almost one in the morning and we’d had a busy start of our shift, and figured we could both use the fuel.
Once we were both seated, I explained my idea.
Her brows dipped. “So you want to play rock, paper, scissors?”
The game was just a pretext for what I wanted. More of her.
I chuckled. “A version of it, yes. It’s called ?????? 1 . I used to play it back with my cousins back home, but I’m changing the rules a little.”
She rolled her eyes. “Of course you are. What happens when you lose?”
“Every time I win , I get a kiss and an answer to a question.”
“That seems a bit one-sided, but I’ll play along,” she said, crossing her right leg over her left and resting her hands on her knee. “What do I get if I win?”
I shrugged. “Anything you want.”
I’d give her anything she wanted, if she ever asked me. I’d do anything.
With anyone else, I’d resent someone having this much power over me, but with Azara, I wanted to give it to her.
I poured coffee into two styrofoam cups and handed her one, all while explaining the rules and taught her how to enunciate the words for the game. It was adorable how hard she was trying to make sure she wasn’t mispronouncing them, and she picked it up easily.
I gave her a mock demonstration round before we dove into it. I won the first round, and asked her about her favorite color.
“That’s your first question?” she teased, leaning forward and planting a kiss to my cheek instead of my lips. “It’s red, but I thought you’d be a bit more original and make it more interesting,” she taunted before taking a sip of her coffee.
I pulled her face toward mine with one hand before she moved away, pressing my lips firmly against hers. “And you’re cheating.”
“It’s not cheating if you weren’t precise in your stipulations,” she pointed out. “You just said and I quote, 'Every time I win, I get a kiss and answer a question’.”
I shook my head with a grin. “It would take you to find a loophole.”
“You should know better by now.”
I laughed. “Alright, then, when I win, I want you to kiss me on my lips .”
She shrugged, a sly smile on her face. “That’s too bad, really. I had much more… creative plans for where I’d kiss you, but suit yourself,”
I opened my mouth to change the rules back, but she tsked. “You’ve already changed the rules twice, Michael Young. Besides, I’m not planning on letting you win again.”
And she didn’t for the next four rounds. For someone who’d never played before, she was absolutely destroying me. Unluckily for me, she’d chosen to stick to the original consequence and flicked my forehead everytime she won. I rarely ever lost as a kid, and I’d forgotten how painful it was.
We laughed, talked, and got to know each other as time seemed to fly by. From our favorite desserts ( bingsu ? 2 for me and sfouf ? 3 for her), to her favorite memory (the last birthday she’d spent with her mom) and why we’d chosen surgery and medicine which we had very similar reasons for.
The conversation was easy. Fun. Like we’d done this a million times before.
And as I watched her laugh, her eyes crinkle with joy every time she beat me, something inside me shifted. I realized that if I wasn’t more careful, I could easily fall in love with Azara Ziani.
That I would jump in head first if it wasn’t for all the obstacles in my way.
If I wasn’t holding a legacy that stretched back a hundred years on my shoulders, one that had been built to give people like us a rightful place when the world we live in was built against us, I would give it all up in a heartbeat.
Because even the possibility of being with her was more than worth it.
She was more than worth it.
But I had to remind myself once again that there was more than me and what I wanted at stake. It was three families who’d given up everything so we could have a better life.
And as much as I wanted this, her, us , this would have to end. I couldn’t afford being greedy after all of this was over, but for now, I’d give in until it was time for me to say goodbye.
Azara had just answered my latest question and leaned in to give me another kiss when a knock at the door interrupted us.
My intern’s voice came through the other side. “Dr. Young, I know you said not to bother you?—”
I checked my watch. Only ten minutes had passed from when we started, yet it felt like we’d been here for hours.
“Then why are you bothering me, Freddy?” I asked, hoping he’d take the hint and give me the next ten minutes like I’d carefully planned for.
The young trainee doctor cleared his throat and his discomfort could be felt from across the steel door. “I’m terribly sorry, Dr. Young, but we’ve got a 47-year-old male patient with a history of hypertension coming in from Orion with a confirmed aortic dissection and I couldn’t find Dr. Ziani.”
You couldn’t find her because she’s with me.
I hung my head back in disappointment that my time with Azara was cut short, before quickly formulating a plan. “Call the team and make them prepare Theater E,” I ordered, before telling him to collect all the information I’d need before heading in.
“Yes, sir,” he replied, but he didn’t move.
“I’ll meet you there, Freddy. Now, go.”
“Right, y-yes, sir,” he stammered, before I finally heard his footsteps retreat.
I turned back to Azara, only to find her laughing. “What’s so funny?”
“You really have to stop terrorizing these kids or they’ll quit and we need all the staff we can get,” she teased with a smile on her face.
“I was nice to him. If you think that was terrorizing, you should have spent a day with my consultant at Orion. That woman was a proper nightmare.”
Just the thought of Professor Guerrero sent a chill down my spine. She’d been an amazing teacher, but the simple thought of making a mistake and enduring her wrath scared me. And I wasn’t someone who scared easily.
“I’ll make it up to you,” I told Azara, pressing a lingering kiss to her lips. I grabbed the two empty coffee cups from the floor and the half-full thermos before standing up.
Azara followed suit, pushing the boxes aside. “You can make it up to me by letting me join the surgery.”
I was hoping she’d say that.
I gripped the front of her scrub top and tugged her close. She let out a surprised yelp as my lips brushed against hers again. “Deal.”
1 ? Korean rock paper scissors
2 ? Milk-based Korean shaved ice dessert
3 ? Moroccan treat