He needed a drink. Joe slid a scotch down the bar to him and he downed it quickly, motioning for another. It was going to be a long night.
He couldn't believe it. One day of celibacy was tribulation enough, but he'd gone an entire month. A month! And with what had to be the highest degree of irony, in the end, it wasn't even he who had broken the deal. He had spent his whole life running away from the possibility that he would have to expose himself, to give his vulnerable heart to another person's keeping, and right when he was on the brink of doing so, she'd pulled away. She obviously didn't want it. Didn't want him for any of the parts of him that really made him who he was. In the end, neither he nor Derek had been enough. Maybe it was his own fault, maybe it was hers; but it was the state of reality.
What he couldn't figure out, though, was whether or not he was going to miss her. The sex, yeah. It was what had first made him keep going back for more. The way she looked at him, yeah. She'd made him feel like he was something special. Sure she was pissed off at him most of the time, but there was that fiery energy there. But, curiously, one of the things that he would miss the most was her smell. Everything about her was spicy. He would have sworn that one night he had actually tasted ginger on the curve of her neck.
Yet, deep down, he had known when he'd made the bet that it was a risky proposition. The whole celibacy thing being daunting to him, obviously. But he'd known that Addison had an interest elsewhere. Why else would Karev have given up plastics to go consort daily with the drama that was obstetrics? He'd known. That was why he had told her she had to suffer if he did. It had been a hopeless deal, but he'd given it his all anyway. Why? Why bother with it? And why didn't it hurt as much as he would have expected now that she'd broken it?
He sipped the refill of scotch that Joe had put in front of him and glanced down to the other end of the bar. An attractive blonde sat on the last stool nursing a whiskey, staring blankly at a group of people across from her. He would have pegged her for a fruity drink type of woman, as the blondes he knew usually were, but this one was different. She looked as if she'd lost her best friend.
He contemplated going over to her. The memory of a month's worth of celibacy burned in his brain. She wasn't Addison, but maybe it had just been the idea of her that had kept him going. The idea that there was a woman out there who could sincerely know the real him and thought that maybe, just maybe, there was the possibility that he could be the one for her in the end.
He picked up his drink and moved to sit on the stool next the blonde. His eyes traveled down her body and he got a whiff of jasmine when she turned to look at him. He flashed his mischievous smile at her and was prepared to deliver his opening line when she cut him off.
"Don't even think about it. I'm not that kind of girl and I refuse to be. I date. I'm a dater."
He raised an eyebrow. "And you're straightforward too."
Running his eyes over her once again, he stopped and thought. Why not? He'd never tried it before. He was a risk taker. And he'd always been a sucker for jasmine.
"I can date. I can do many things, many of which I am sure you will come to appreciate. My abilities are never in question. So I can date."
It was her turn to give him a curious glance.
"Okay then. Lunch. Tomorrow." She finished off her drink and hopped off her bar stool, grabbing her bag in the process.
"Where should I pick you up?"
She stopped and put her hand on his back as she passed him on her way to the door.
"Seattle Grace Hospital.. Think you can find it?"
He grinned as he watched her walk away.
"I'll manage, Stevens. I'll manage".
He'd always liked jasmine more than ginger in the end.