She took a deep breath and entered the room. It was filled with at least 30-40 people, most of them men. All of them had their back to the door, and she was grateful to slip in unnoticed, as another man she vaguely recognized droned on from the front of the room. She quickly scanned the room for a familiar face and saw Grant leaning against the wall on the side of the room. She quietly made her way towards him, flashing him the briefest of smiles before easing herself against the wall next to him.
"What took you so long?" Grant said out of the corner of his mouth, angling his head ever so slightly towards her.
"Couldn't find the reflex hammers." She wanted to elaborate more. About how they were scattered over the place, and she had searched for several minutes for the tiny instruments. But she knew that when it came to Grant and his career, he didn't care about the details, so long as it was taken care of now. Closing and opening her mouth once more, she breathed out a final "but I found them in the end," Before Grant nodded and turned his body away from her and back to the front of the room.
Grant could be anal retentive sometimes, but he was a good doctor. And she looked up to him. He was several years ahead of her in terms of medical training, and was essentially where she wanted to be down the round. He was also completely gorgeous: he had the whole tall, dark, and handsome thing going for him. He was also among one of the smartest and nicest people she knew. And of course, he had a serious girlfriend.
As Grant turned away, the voice from the front of the room began speaking and there was a short burst of applause from the audience before Dr. Green briefly took the stage.
"I'm afraid that I'm not much of a talker," Dr Green chuckled from the front of the room. His green eyes twinkled, and whatever nerves she had were replaced with a sense of warmth and comfort. Dr. Green had a skill to make people feel comfortable. "But I would like to say a few words. I think this a fantastic team of world class players, and I feel privileged to be involved in your care. To be the team physician for the Pittsburgh Penguins is a dream come true for me, and I respect everything that you all do. You leave your heart, soul, and passion on that ice everyday, and I'm here to help you with that. I don't want to you think of me and my team as your trainers, I want you to come to us with health problems and concerns of any nature. We're here for you. And on that note, I want to wish you a very happy and health season and introduce you to my fellow, Grant, and resident, Joanna that will be helping me, and all of you, this season."
Grant stepped forward and raised a hand in acknowledgement before falling back against the wall. Joanna made to do the same motion. She lifted both of her hands in a lame wave, as her eyes scanned the room. All of the team's players had their eyes trained on her and Grant, taking them in. She was about to join Grant against the wall, when her eyes locked on a familiar set of brown eyes.
"Holy shit."
…...
6 months ago
Joanna jabbed the button of the lobby elevator up button aggressively. She had been waiting for a solid five minutes to go up to her hotel room, and still no luck. If she wasn't staying on the 14th floor, she would have taken the stairs. And somehow pressing the button extra times made it feel like the elevator would come that much sooner.
Ding. A herd of people slowly exited the elevator, as she made her way on. And just as the doors began to close, a hand suddenly shot out attempting to pause the elevator. The doors spluttered for a second, before slowly cranking open again.
"Sorry! 15 please." Said the man, while stepping onto the elevator. He nodded over to where Joanna stood, indicating that she should press the button for his floor.
Considering they were in Spain, she was surprised he spoke English to her. I must really look like a tourist, Joanna thought to herself. I guess staying in a hotel was the first tip off, that and the classic straw tourist hat she had on over her head.
Joanna snuck a peak at this English-speaking foreigner from the corner of her eye. Broad shouldered, short brown hair, dazzling smile. This guy was hot. Self consciously, she looked down at herself and noticed that she had a fine dusting of sand still stuck to her left arm. Just having returned from the beach, she had taken advantage of the beautiful weather in Madrid that morning. And of course, here she was covered all over in sand, while the hottest guy she had seen in a while was standing just a few feet away. Feeling her cheeks heat, she couldn't help but futilely fume over her poor choice of clothing – a flimsy transparent cover-up over her green bikini. In an effort to hide her nudity, she folded her arms across her chest as she watched the numbers above her head slowly churn upwards to their respective destinations.
Suddenly things began to shake and the entire elevator shaft came to a sickening halt.
Daring to take a deep breath, Joanna looked over at the handsome stranger. He looked just as shell-shocked as she felt, and probably looked too.
"Are you okay?" he asked her, when she nodded, he walked over to where she stood and began to punch at the alarm button. He knelt down at her feet and felt around until he was able to pop open the latch for the emergency phone.
"Hello?" he spoke into the receiver, "Yeah, hi, we're stuck in the elevator before floors… 10 and 11 I think." He paused and Joanna waited inpatiently for the response on the other end. "So you'll send someone to look at it? Great. Okay, well we'll be here." He chuckled and set the receiver done before flashing her a wide grin and straightening up. "Someone from maintenance will be up soon."
"Okay." Joanna breathed out, her initial panic having subsided. "Sounds good. I guess we'll play the waiting game now?" and she took a seat on the floor of the elevator as she said it
"Yeah I guess." Said the stranger, sitting down as well.
Well, no time like the present to introduce yourself she thought to herself. Seeing as they were both going to be trapped here until rescued. "Hi, I'm Joanna." She said, extending her hand.
"Hi. I'm James" and as he said so, his brown eyes twinkled back at her, almost as if he was enjoying his own private joke. "So what brings you to Madrid?" he asked, leaning his head against the elevator wall and stretching out his tanned legs in front of him.
"Vacation. Just graduated from school, so sort of like a present to myself." She lightly giggled, tossing her dark beach tossed locks from her shoulders.
She looked up in time to see James' eyes follow the shift of her hair, and then refocus on her face. "What did you graduate from?"
"Med school."
"Wow. Where from?"
"New York. I'm Canadian, but living in there right now." He winced slightly as she spoke, but recovered quickly with a gorgeous smile, one that lit up his whole face. He had smiled twice since she had met him, and she was beginning to love it. "What about you?"
"I'm Canadian too, from the Maritimes. Here on vacation with some friends." The way he said it with his eyes clouding over, she wondered if he was telling the truth. Or some variation of it. He was probably here with his girlfriend and that's why he was skirting around his words.
"Whereabouts in the Mari-" she was interrupted by the shrill ringing of the emergency phone, and quickly scooted over to the front of the elevator. "Hello?"
"Hi this is the front desk staff at the hotel." Said a voice in heavily accented English, "I Want to inform you that the elevator maintenance repairman has been notified, and he will be on his way shortly. But he likely will not arrive for another our hour. In the meantime, are you and your companion alright?"
Joanna looked over at James with a sad expression, "They said it's going to be at least another hour until the repairman gets here."
James couldn't help but take in Joanna's form as she crouched on the floor cradling the phone to her neck. This girl was beautiful, a doctor, and Canadian to boot. She was all tanned skin, gorgeous curves, dark hair, and a dazzling smile. He wouldn't mind being stuck in an elevator with her all day. He attempted to arrange his features into a neutral expression before looking back at her, "There could be worse things. Tell them we're happy to wait." And as she turned back to speak into the phone, he couldn't help but smile. Things were looking up.
