In Too Deep(78)

"Nah," I replied easily. "I saw the security camera when I approached, and noticed that with the way the ambulance was parked in the bay, the pull was totally covered. There's no way they could have gotten a clear image of me, even if your security guards decide to investigate." I pulled her in tight and kissed her gently, her lips warm and welcome against me. "Besides, I think it was worth it. Who was that guy anyway?"

Sophie shrugged and waved it off. "Dr. Green, he's the senior attending physician. He's an * to a lot of people."

I let the subject drop, but remembered the name and the face, filing it away for later. "So, what would you like to do before you start your paid work? I'm not too familiar with what's in the area."

Sophie thought for a second and then grinned. "You like Thai food?"





Chapter 8


Sophie




I took Mark to a little hole in the wall Thai restaurant about halfway in between the hospital and the Gold Shamrock, the Irish tavern I worked at. For a guy who had looked so at home behind the wheel of his electric sports car the night before, it was great to see him also relax in the shotgun seat of my beater Civic. "I see you spent your money wisely," he joked, tapping the stereo. It is an impressive sound system, though I rarely use it. "How much did it run?"

"I don't know," I said as I turned the corner out of the parking lot of the hospital. "I bought this thing used. The stereo came with it. The guy who sold it was an old man, who said his grandson had used the car before he joined the Marines. So I don't think he knew just how good the sound system was. But, since my MP3 player pretty much sucks in terms of battery charge, I don't play it often in here. I save it for when I go to the gym."

"Where do you go?" Mark asked, "And please don't tell me you go to Planet Fitness."

"I said I go to the gym, not to waste my money," I replied with a snort. "I'm still a university student, so I have full access to the facilities they have. What about you?"

"Mostly on my own," Mark replied, "But I do have a membership at Downtown Sports. Maybe we can go together sometime?"

I smiled and looked over at him. "You don't want to see me sweaty and in workout clothes."

Mark's smoldering look in reply sent little butterflies through my stomach, and I had to tear my eyes away from him to look at the road. "I've seen you in less than that, and I think every bit of it is beautiful," he said, his words causing me to shiver and smile at the same time. "And I can't wait to see it all again."

I didn't really have an answer, so I just smiled. Of course I wanted to have sex with him again, but I wasn’t exactly used to being in this kind of situation.

Soon we were at the restaurant anyway. I glanced over at Mark, grinning sheepishly. "I'm sure it's not as glamorous as what you're used to, but it's good, and the owner is really from Thailand."

The restaurant was pretty quiet when we came in, since we showed up in that dead zone between lunch and dinner. Still, the hostess was polite, and we were soon seated at an orange booth covered in a blue plastic tablecloth, drinking iced tea from large plastic glasses. "I know the decoration looks pretty plain," I said, "it raised my doubts too. But, apparently the shop used to be a pizza place fifteen years ago, and when the owner bought it, he just kept the decor. It caught on with the university and hospital people, and he's been going ever since."

"It reminds me of the small town I grew up in," Mark said, and for the first time, I could hear a faint Southern accent in his voice. I guessed he hid it pretty well unless he wanted it to come out.

"Whole town had only nine thousand people in it, most of them country folks. We had only four different types of restaurants in the whole town. You could have Southern, fast food, your large chain family restaurant, a Greek place that doubled as our Italian place, and a single Chinese restaurant, converted over from a Dairy Queen. Good Chinese food, although they kept getting shut down by the health department, so take that for what it's worth."

I laughed and sipped my tea, a nice herbal peppermint blend the owner developed himself. "So how'd you end up in the big city?" I asked, trying to imagine Mark growing up in a small Southern town. He must have been the high school quarterback or something, he was such a great athlete. "Football scholarship?"

"Hmmm?" he replied, surprised. "Not at all. My family moved here when my mother died. I was twelve, and my father thought that he could make it better in the city than in South Carolina. So, just as I was getting ready for high school, he took me with him to Boston, where he had a new job lined up. I had to learn a lot, and quickly."

"I bet," I said, thinking of a country white kid from the South landing in a Boston high school. Even the private school kids would try and tear him apart. "Must have been better when you went to college."

Mark gave me that confident smile of his, with the right corner of his mouth quirked up as if I had said something funny. "I've never been to college," he said quietly, causing my mouth to drop open. "Everything I learned after high school I picked up either through reading or through my work. It's not exactly a classical education, but I've been able to make it work so far."