"Wade Kinsella." Wade looked up from his phone and saw a blonde girl leaning over the bar. He stood up from the stool her was sitting on.

"What can I get for you Carrie?" Wade asked, putting his phone in his pocket.

"I heard you were back in town. Poor baby being in hospital for so long. Thought we could play doctor," she said seductively, rubbing his arm. He pulled his arm away.

"No thanks," Wade said simply, rolling his eyes and walking to the other end of the bar to help a new customer. Carrie stared at him and stormed off after not getting another look from him. Once he helped the patron, he walked back to his stool, sitting down and pulling out his phone.

Sorry, had to help customers. I'm so over this day! he typed quickly and sent it to Zoe. A minute later he got a reply.

It's ok, had to check on a patient anyway. Already? It's only 11 and your first day back!

I'd rather be with you...

Awww, you're so sweet. I have a 7 hour surgery soon. Zzzzz

Thought you'd like somethin like that?

Yeah but that's a long time of no texting

Someone particular you wanna be txtin?

No one you know, just this guy who got hit by a cab a couple months back.

He sounds awesome!

Nah, he's kinda boring:P

Oh yeah? So why you txtin him then?

Well he's kinda cute...

I don't think I like this guy ;)

Oh you'd love him... I have to go get ready for that surgery. Chat later x

That night after work, Wade made his way to Lavon's place to play video games. The Rammer Jammer hadn't been busy and Wally let him leave early.

"Man, what is going on?" Lavon asked throwing the game controller down. Lavon had been firing at Wade's avatar for ages and Wade wasn't fighting back. He turned to look at Wade to see him texting.

"Wade!" he said again and Wade looked up.

"Huh?"

"What are you doing? This has been the most boring game of Halo of all time!" Wade put his phone down and picked up his controller again.

"Sorry, I'll pay attention," he said sheepishly.

"Who are you texting?"

"No one!" Lavon gave him a look telling him he didn't believe him.

"Fine, Zoe if you must know."

"I thought you guys decided to not try long distance?"

"We're not. We're just talking every once in a while." Lavon jumped up and grabbed the phone before Wade could stop him. He scrolled through the messages, his mouth falling open.

"Are these all from today? You said once in a while!"

"There are not that many!" Wade insisted, trying to grab the phone.

"Not that many? There are at least 200 messages JUST from today! Oh man, you're in deep."

"We're just friends, we decided that we weren' gonna try this whole long distance thing so we aren'. Don' mean we can't talk now and then."

"I miss you. Wish I was there. New York doesn't feel the same without you," Lavon read some of the messages, using a girly voice.

"Shut up! Give me my phone," Wade said but Lavon held the phone out of his reach.

"Oh Zoe, my life is nothing without you. I love you," Lavon said typing.

"You better not send that!" Lavon laughed.

"Relax, Lavon Hayes wouldn't do that to his best friend." Lavon moved to hand him the phone and pulled his hand away just before Wade took it and laughed. His laughter stopped suddenly and he looked at Wade with wide eyes.

"Uh oh."

"Uh oh what? What did you do Lavon?"

"I may have accidentally sent it..."

"What? Tell me you're lyin'!" Lavon shook his head. "You're damn lucky I can't run cause I am ready to kill you!" Wade shouted.

"I am so sorry! I really didn't mean to! Just tell her it was me." Wade's phoned beeped and Lavon handed it to him.

What? it read. Wade quickly sent back a reply explaining what happened and apologized and breathed a sigh of relief when she responded that it was ok, she figured it must have been something like that.

"So you really doing the whole friends thing?" Lavon asked after a while.

"Yeah, no other option really," Wade sighed.

"So as her friend, you'd be ok with her dating other guys?" Wade swallowed hard.

"Uh... yeah... sure. She can date whoever she wants," he answered, trying to sound casual but his voice came out high and squeaky. Lavon patted him on the back sympathetically.

"You know I'm not saying she will date someone right?"

"I know. But it's inevitable that it'll happen eventually." Wade put his head in his hands and sighed again. "You were right."

"Right about what?" Lavon asked, confused.

"I am in way too deep." Lavon squeezed his shoulder and shook his head, feeling incredibly sorry for his long time friend.

The next 3 weeks continued in similar fashion. Wade and Zoe were constantly messaging each other whenever they had a spare moment. At first, girls tried flirting with him at the bar but he either ignored them or turned them down, going back to his phone as soon as he shot them down. Eventually, no one bothered to get his attention. Zoe went back to spending most of her time at the hospital with her residency ending in 2 months. She was waiting to hear about a cardiothoracic fellowship that she applied for and wanted to get as many hours in as possible to make a good impression.

"Welcome back Tucker," Wade said as George entered the Rammer Jammer one afternoon.

"Thanks Wade. It's good to be home. I brought you something," George said as he reached the bar, putting down a big box on the counter. Wade gave him a questioning look.

"What's this?"

"Don't know, it's from Zoe," George shrugged.

"You uh... spent time with Zoe?" Wade asked, balling his hands into fists on the counter of the bar but trying to keep his voice level, jealousy searing through him.

"We spoke a couple of times but she just dropped this off this morning before I left," George responded, not noticing Wade's demeanour.

"You spoke to her a few times? What the hell Tucker! You think after I left you could just zone in? What about Lemon?" Wade spat.

"Woah woah calm down man. We spoke TWICE and both times were about you. She asked if she could drop something off for you before I left and then she asked when would be the best time to come over," George explained, holding his hands up in surrender.

"Oh. Sorry," Wade apologized, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly. "I'll be in the back." Wade walked into the back room with the box George gave him. Inside was a box of her favourite black and white cookies, a box of bagels from Paymer's and a book in which there were recipes pasted in for sweet corn risotto and scallops. He recognised a few other names of things from the menu at Per Se. He chuckled, pulling out his phone.

"Hello?" her voice answered after a few rings.

"Thanks for the gift, Doc," he said sitting down.

"You're welcome. I expect those dishes on the menu when I come visit," she joked.

"Yeah sure and I'm Gordon Ramsay."

"You know who Gordon Ramsay is?" He could hear the surprise in her voice.

"What'd you think I did all day in the hospital when I wasn' bein' bugged by a tiny brunette doctor?"

"You mean you didn't lie around all day wishing I was there?" she responded with mock offense.

"Course I did but when I took a break from that, I watched his show," he laughed, putting his feet up on the desk. She giggled lightly. He heard a sudden rush of noise on the other end of the line.

"Um... a whole bunch of people were just rushed into the ER. I gotta go. I'll call you later," she said hanging up, not bothering to wait for him to say goodbye. Wade sighed and stood up to go back to work.

Zoe had been in surgery for multiple hours after the emergency. She got home at 5am after operating all night and was looking forward to a day filled with sleep. When she walked into her apartment, she remembered she had promised to call Wade later but never did. Not thinking about the time, she dialled his number.

"Yeah?" his groggy voice said on the other end of the line.

"Sorry, did I wake you?" she asked lying on her bed.

"Who is this?"

"Zoe."

"Oh hey Doc," he said clearing his throat. "Why are you calling at..." he paused, "4 in the morning?"

"Oops, I completely blanked out on the time difference and I've been up for like 36 hours so I didn't think about the time."

"It's ok. Is everythin' alright?" She smiled at his accent which seemed thicker than usual.

"Yeah, surgery ran till about an hour ago and I just wanted to make good on my promise of calling you back yesterday. I'll let you get back to sleep."

"No, wait. I'm up now, I wanna talk to you."

"Ok good cause I was enjoying our phone call yesterday. I can't believe we waited a month to call each other."

"Well who could spare a moment with all the textin'?" he teased.

"True," she laughed. "I like hearing your voice though, even when you're sleepy."

"I like hearin' yours too. Especially at 4 in the mornin'"

"Are you being sarcastic?"

"No, it's definitely my favourite way to be woken up." She smiled into the phone and was about to speak before he spoke again. "Actually, I take that back."

"You take it back?"

"Yeah, wakin' up with you in my arms was much better."

"You sure know how to make a girl blush, Wade Kinsella."

"Jus' speakin' the truth Doc."

They stayed on the phone for about another hour, both fighting to stay awake. Eventually, they both fell asleep, phones still pressed to their ears.