Hi guys,

I am no expert on New York, so please bear with my choice of neighborhoods, street names etc.

Oh, and please remember that English is not my first language.

Enjoy!

CHAPTER 1

Arizona looked up from her magazine. She'd been flipping through the pages without reading any of the articles. Reading a medical journal at a bar on a Friday night was probably the last thing she wanted to be doing, but since she'd only been in the city for a couple of weeks, she hadn't really made any friends yet.

She'd landed her dream job as head of the pediatric department at Willard & West Memorial Hospital in New York just a few weeks prior and since she was one of the best peds surgeons in the country, Willard and West had – in an effort to get her to New York as fast as possible – offered to take care of her living situation for the first couple of months while she was hunting for an apartment.

This meant that she was now living in a hotel room. A very nice hotel room. In a very nice hotel.

The Mazatlán was a five-star, top of the line, fancy-all-the-way hotel in SoHo.

Arizona had seen more lavish interior, diamond studded Rolex watches and designer outfits in the last few weeks than she had in…well…ever.

She made a fair amount of money herself. Especially with her new position. But she couldn't grasp the amount of wealth located in this one place. She chuckled to herself at the thought of the number of deer skin Fendi bags inside the plush hotel walls. The price of them alone enough to clear the state deficit.

She'd grown up on an army base outside of Omaha. A place where nobody had more than anyone else. Within the base everyone knew each other and there was never much talk about 'who wore what' or how much something was worth. She'd had a happy and carefree childhood.

Before coming to New York she'd worked in Chicago for six years and had her whole life there; friends, family, and a nice apartment, but the job offer and the move to New York had come as welcomed change.

Before getting the offer she'd had a year of trying to figure out what she wanted to do with her life. She loved medicine and she was very good at what she did, so career wise she was set but on a personal level she'd felt unfulfilled. The last boyfriend she'd had was a colleague at the Chicago Children's Hospital and their relationship had been a disaster. It started out nice. His name was Eric and he was charming. But it quickly turned ugly. He'd started acting possessive and threatening, and when she called off the relationship he'd turned really violent, roughing her up in the hospital parking lot. Luckily the security guards had seen it and managed to help her before anything worse could happen.

Eric got fired and he now had a restraining order. Arizona felt like maybe she'd seen him close to her apartment building a few times and also once in a café even after he got the restraining order, but she tried not to think about it too much. She didn't want that one poor relationship choice to overshadow any parts of her life.

New York was going to be her new place. A fresh start.

She'd been to New York a few times before but didn't have any friends there and didn't know the place very well. Since working as a surgeon often meant long hours and working at weird hours of the day, she hadn't had much time to do any sightseeing yet.

And now she was sitting on a bar stool, alone, in one of the best hotels in New York, looking at the people entering and exiting, wondering if she should just head up to bed or maybe grab another drink and try to make conversation with someone.

She had put on a dress, so she opted to stay.

Then a woman walked up to the end of the bar. She was dressed in business attire with a short black skirt and a black blazer. The white shirt she wore underneath the blazer was unbuttoned until right above the place where the cups of her bra connected, and a long gold chain with a key on it adorned her chest.

She was a beautiful, latin woman. Tanned skin, dark eyes, and dark hair that came down over her shoulders in cascading waves.

Arizona watched her closely.

The woman nodded towards the bartender who quickly walked over to the newcomer.

They exchanged a few words and the bartender brought the lady two shots and a beer. The latina quickly downed the two shots and took a sip of the beer. Then she sat down, ran her hands through her hair and finally leaned on the bar on her arms. She looked tired.

By the way the latina had spoken to the bartender it seemed like they knew each other well and Arizona thought that maybe the brunette came to New York often. On business. Or to visit family.

It was only the two of them at the bar.

Arizona hadn't spoken to anyone outside of the hospital for the last two weeks and she was missing having a conversation, so she ventured a courteous "Hi" towards the woman at the end of the bar.

The brunette lifted her gaze towards Arizona and, with a surprised look in her eyes, said "Uhm…hi".

"Long day?" Arizona asked when seeing the tiredness in the other woman's dark eyes.

"Yeah" the brunette said and let out a sigh. She looked at Arizona with both interest and wonder. Why was this beautiful blonde talking to her?

"Well" Arizona then said "I had a pretty awesome day. I'll buy you another shot if you wanna hear about it". The blonde flashed her dimpled smile.

The latina looked at her for a second. And then something flashed across her dark eyes. She stood up straight and took a step back from the bar.

"Listen" she said "You're beautiful and it really has been a horrible day, but I'm not interested. And you shouldn't be in here". Her voice was soft, almost comforting.

Then she gave the bartender a knowing look, tipped her head at Arizona, looked down at the ground, turned around and walked away.

As soon as the latina was out of sight, the bartender came over to Arizona and said "Excuse me ma'am, I have to ask you to leave this establishment now"

Arizona was confused. "What…why?" she asked.

The bartender leaned across the bar and whispered "I have every respect in the world for you. I mean, you gotta do what you gotta do, but we do not allow women to turn tricks in here".

Arizona's mouth fell open.

"WHAT? You…she…you think I'm a prostitute?" she asked in disbelief.

The look of absolute horror in her eyes and the way she asked the question made the bartender realize that she wasn't.

"Oh God, I'm sorry…I…you just…." he started.

"I live here!" Arizona said, her voiced now raised slightly. She was in shock.

"I…I…" the bartender stuttered.

"In room number 1573. I'm a doctor" Arizona continued. She couldn't believe what had just happened. And she couldn't believe the bartender hadn't noticed her coming and going in both the restaurant, the bar, and the lobby area the last couple of weeks. Like any other guest.

"This is all a horrible misunderstanding" the bartender now said. He had managed to collect himself enough to try to make things right. "I offer you my deepest apology and I will make sure that you are compensated for our indiscretions. Would it be alright if we send something to your room? 1573, right?". He was now very quickly trying to smooth things out.

Arizona didn't care about being compensated. "Did she really think I was coming on to her?" Arizona shook her head with incredulity and searched for her room key in her purse.

"It was my mistake" the bartender answered "Don't worry about what she thought. Just forget she was even here, okay, please!"

Arizona got up, looked at the bartender and sighed "It's okay. I…I just can't believe she would think that. All I said was 'hi'"

The bartender simply gave her a nervous smile, and then Arizona turned around and headed for her room.