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Theo and I lingered in the stairwell for every moment ofoff my lap He looked wistful as he touchedforward to you coht”

“So am I”

He leaned in for onedown to the first floor and riding the elevator up, just to ether” Then he grinned atdown the stairs

I watched hi the stairwell The hall was eh the door, and I paused for a er, frustration, and exhaustion all fought for the top spot in what I was feeling right then I knew I needed to stick a set back to work, but my heart ached for Theo

Maybe if I’d been in a better ive, what happened next would have gone differently Then again, maybe not

As I approached the nurse’s station, the first thing I saas a cluster of six doctors, all dressed up and about to leave work A young, blond doctor na with a cute new nurse naet rid of hi to be late for your reservation?”

“We’re just waiting for our colleague, Doctor Gregory, and then we’ll head out,” Chad told her “Everyone else from our department is here”

“What about Doctor Koenig?”

Nora asked that innocently She hadn’t been here long enough to hear the gossip about Theo, but Chad leapt at the opportunity to fix that “We all try to steer clear of Koenig, and you should do the same,” he said My hackles rose instantly, and I froze in my tracks

When she asked why, Chad leaned in closer and said, loud enough for all three nurses at the station to hear hi to do with a h med school and cheated an old man out of his money”

All eyes turned to me as I said, very loudly, “That’s a load of horse shit”