"Thanks," Steve answered.
"You're welcome. Well, now I need to go see my other patients. I'll come talk to his wife when she arrives," Catherine told Steve.
"Thanks, Catherine," Steve replied.
"You're welcome," she said, and left the room.
"Catherine? What intimacy with my doctor!" Danny told Steve.
"She was the one who asked me to call her Catherine," Steve told Danny.
"Have you invited her on a date?" Danny asked.
"Of course not, Danny! I only had a cup of coffee with her at the hospital cafeteria."
"Well, that's a start," Danny replied.
"Beginning of what, Danny?"
"Steve, you need a date, you need kissing in the mouth, no one can stand your bad mood anymore," Danny said.
"I've been in this hospital for three days and this is what I get? Being called grumpy?" Steve told Danny.
"Come on, Steve! She's beautiful, and she liked you," Danny said.
"I'll tell her you look great and you can go home now. You're the same Danny as ever!" Steve said and left the room. He sat on the bench in the hospital corridor, leaned his head against the wall and closed his eyes.
Steve was thinking Danny was right. He had been alone for a long time and missed having a special person in his life, missed being loved.
"Steve, are you ok?" Steve heard Catherine ask, and she touched his shoulder gently.
Steve opened his eyes and saw those beautiful, expressive eyes staring at him.
"Yeah, I'm fine. It's just that Danny pisses me off sometimes."
"What did he do? Something like wanting to make a date between you and me?" Catherine asked Steve.
Steve put both hands to his face. He was ashamed. "He did that?" Steve asked.
Catherine smiled. "Yes, he did."
"I'm sorry, Catherine. He can be completely out of it, sometimes," Steve told her.
"That way, you offends me. Would a date with me be that bad?" Catherine asked.
"No! That's not what I meant," Steve told her.
"Really? So would you like to have coffee with me? I'm going to a coffee break now," Catherine told him.
"Sure, we can go," Steve answered quickly.
"So come on," she said, and Steve accompanied her.
Catherine and Steve ate and talked for a few minutes.
"Catherine, why does that doctor sitting by the window look at us so much?" Steve asked. He was feeling annoyed.
"He's the chief surgeon. I honestly don't know what his problem with me is. I don't think he likes me," Catherine replied.
"Or is it the opposite, and he's jealous of you," Steve said.
"Oh no! I don't think that's it. Well, I need to go now. It was nice talking to you, although only I talked about me and you didn't say anything about yourself. But I think if I want to know something about you I just have to ask my patient, the Mr. Williams," Catherine told Steve, and smiled.
"Oh no! Whatever you want to know about me, ask me, don't ask Danny," Steve told her.
"Fine. So I think we'll need a date of more than fifteen minutes," Catherine told him. She then smiled and left, leaving him feeling like a teenager who just met his first girlfriend.