"So…what do you think, Lockhart?" He looked at her expectantly.
Oh shit. Now what in the hell am I supposed to say? She gave him a weak smile, "Um…ah, well…"
"You weren't paying any attention at all were you?" He gave her a knowing look and then smiled. "I was starting to wonder when I'd lose you completely. I think your eyes glazed over right around the time I said that there were Lovecraftian overtones to the subplot of the film."
Asshole. He was just screwing with me. "All right, busted. Happy?" She glared at him. "Do you always try to bore your dates to death?"
"Do you consider this a date?" He rested his chin on his fist as he waited for her response.
Abby blinked furiously, realizing that she'd just intimated that they were indeed on a date. "Um, a work date?" She winced.
"But still a date, then?" He looked like he was enjoying her discomfort.
"If you want to be a stickler about it, then yes…you can say that technically this is a date." She studied him for a moment and caught the glimmer of amusement in his eyes. "A very awkward date." Ha! Take that.
The mirth in his eyes disappeared at her last statement. Abby felt bad for that but then realized that she might as well crush his spirit now, rather than later. If he was even remotely serious about thinking they were on a date she knew she had to set him straight. She might not be serious about Jake, but they were in a relationship.
"Ah, you know that my boyfriend would have serious issues with this being called a date, don't you?" She watched as he looked off to the side for a moment. When his eyes met hers again he looked confused and then, maybe, just a little embarrassed.
"I ah, I didn't know that you were, ah, seeing anyone. Of…of course this isn't a date, I was just teasing you about your choice of words." Once more he seemed completely nervous as he answered her question.
Oh God, he did consider this a date, didn't he? Why me? Why do the weird ones always pick me? Okay so he's more of a geek than a weirdo, but still…"You didn't know? I thought that the gossip mill at County was more efficient than that. I've been being harassed for weeks about it down in the ER. And um, I'm surprised that Jake hasn't said anything during his rotation upstairs." Oh why the hell did I tell him who I'm seeing? Bright move Abby.
"I uh, don't typically make time for office gossip, not that anyone ever bothers to share anything with me in that regard." He was fiddling with the case file that she had brought with them. "Scanlon? You're dating a med student?"
Abby wanted to crawl under the table and die. Dammit, he's on how many hospital committees? And you just admitted to committing a cardinal sin of student teacher relationships? If he's the vindictive, petty type you are so screwed. She just nodded at him and thought about how to respond.
"Yes. Though we didn't start seeing each other until he started his surgical rotation and I had already turned in his evaluation so there wasn't any conflict of interest or anything like that going on. I didn't let our relationship influence my opinions on his performance…honest." She rambled.
Whoa there, Nelly. He smirked at the way she seemed to be justifying her behavior. I hope she doesn't think I'm going to get her in trouble, if people were hamstrung for dating med students during rotations I know a lot of staff members that would be in hot water.
Alexi did feel like a fool for getting his hopes up about the evening. He had no idea that Abby was involved with anyone. He wasn't surprised though; she was attractive and smart. Sarcastic almost to a fault and he found her fascinating so why wouldn't other men? He wasn't going to let her know that he had hoped she'd find him just as interesting, however. He'd save face and just write the paper.
"Um, okay." He didn't really know how to respond to the verbal onslaught from her. "I wasn't trying to pry. It's not really any of my business who you choose to date."
Abby furrowed her brows and pursed her lips as she seemed to consider his words. "So you aren't going to sic Weaver on me?"
He laughed at that. "Why would I do that to you? I don't feed friends to the wolves." He pulled the pen from the folder where it had been clipped and shuffled through some pages. "As I said earlier, this is pretty straight forward and really shouldn't take much time at all. I thought I'd help you work up the outline and general premise and you could fill in the details. I'll proofread it before you submit the article. Sound fair?"
"You consider us to be friends?" She sounded confused.
Dubenko looked up from the file and asked, "Don't you?"