"Dr. Waterhouse, I didn't recognize you with clothes on." realizing too late what he had just said.
"I get that a lot" she laughed and sat down.
"Are you waiting for someone"
"How long do you wait to be officially stood up" he asked her
" Well, I've been at the bar twenty minutes waiting and decided to eat and go home."
He looked at his watch, shrugged and motioned to the waiter.
"Who would stand you up Dr. Waterhouse?" Jim asked between taking bites of the chicken he had ordered instead of the steak he had wanted.
"My brother, real hot date. He's been in town, business, for while. When he is working he is kind of hard to nail down. You?
"Ellie, my daughter. You met her at the hospital"
"Sorry." she said for two reasons. He shouldn't have been having to wait on her and she didn't seem like much of a daughter. If her father had been that close to death she would have stayed with him and not left the minute he seemed to recover.
"Well, I guess you could call our relationship strained" he offered.
"Sorry" feeling redundant
"And I'm sorry about the not "recognizing you with clothes on" comment. I meant in street clothes. You look completely different out of scrubs."
"I could turn that around on you and say you look pretty good with clothes on."
Jim realized that the woman sitting across from him had risked her own life to save his.
"I want to thank you. What you did that was crazy, crawling out to me like that."
"I wasn't going to get shot. The shooter was done"
"Yeah, Gris., told me you said that. How'd you know that?"
"My dad was involved in the military. I am the youngest of 5 boys, all in the military. I've heard it all. We did more before 8 am then most families did all day."
"How did you stay out of the military?"
"The boy's are a lot older then me, I am, as we say in the south a "late in life" child. Dad was 55 when I was born and mom was quite a bit younger than him and a second wife.'
"Military Brat"
"Not really. Mom and dad married after he had retired and strated a security company. "
"I am assuming Las Vegas is not home"
"No, New Orleans. What about you"
"Jersey"
"Do you think our accents give us away?"
"You don't have one."
"Yes ,I do, honey, Ah jus have to hide it so the folks don think ah have a low IQ" she put on a surgery drawl.
"How'd you end up in Vegas?" he asked trying to get the sexy sound of that accent out of his mind.
"Long story, You?"
"Even longer" He motioned for the check.
The quiet become uncomfortable as they waited for their cars.
"Jim, thanks, tonight would have been a lonely birthday if… Thanks" She said and leaned over and kissed him on the cheek.
"Happy Birthday. Huh, it's Ellie's too. Can I call you sometime? Do this again?"
"Well, you have an appointment with your surgeon soon, how about lunch afterward?"
"Sound's good" she said climbing into his car. She rolled down the window.
"Jim, you know, you looked great , but you looked pretty good in your little hospital gown too."