EIGHT

Cuddy opened the door to her bedroom as slowly as she could, still not sure what she would do when she got in there. Ethan was waiting for her, sitting on the edge of the bed in his boxers and staring at the door. She gave him a weak smile and sat down next to him.

"Was someone here? I heard you talking to someone."

"Yeah. One of the doctors needed a consult on a patient," she lied.

"At four in the morning? He must have some nerve."

"Yeah, he does," she replied, giving a nervous laugh

"Well, I guess we should try and get back to sleep," Ethan said, moving closer to Cuddy. "We don't have to be up for a couple more hours." He gave her that perfect, white smile and leaned in to kiss her, but she turned away quickly and looked at the floor in front of her. A few moments of silence passed before Cuddy finally spoke.

"I think you should go," she said, looking back up to meet his eyes.

"It's 4:30 in the morning," he replied, placing a hand on her leg. "Is something wrong?"

Cuddy looked away from him and began to study her hands. She hated doing this to people; she had to think of the nicest way to say it.

"This isn't fair to you," she started slowly. "Whatever it is that you want from me, I won't be able to give it to you. The hospital will always come in the way. I mean, here we are. It's 4:30 and we're interrupted by hospital business. You don't deserve that."

"Lisa," he said slowly, dragging out her name longer as if it would somehow allow him to stay longer. He put his arm around her shoulder before she could pull away and pulled her against him. "Thank you for the warning, but I'm willing to work through that. I mean, I know we just met, but I definitely feel like this could be something special."

Cuddy bit her tongue to keep from laughing at how cliché his words sounded. This was going to be harder than she thought. After shooting down every idea she had about what to say to him next, she decided to use House's advice.

"You won't be able to make me happy," she started, hoping he would get the idea this time. She looked at him carefully and he just stared back, waiting for a better explanation. "Sexually, I mean." Finally, his eyebrows shot up and it was his turn to look down at his hands, clearly embarrassed.

"I get it," he said, pulling away from her with a small sigh. He stood up slowly and began to pull on his clothes. When he was finally dressed and he held his coat in his hand, he leaned forward and kissed her on the top of her head.

"Thank you, Lisa," he said, looking her right in the eye. She looked back at him in confusion. "For being honest with me." She just nodded with a small smile. House had been so right about that advice; it was difficult to keep the laughter in as she watched Ethan walk out of her bedroom.

She felt a wave of relief as she heard the door close behind him and his car start up. She climbed back under her blankets, hoping to finally get some sleep. Thoughts of House and the dance and the kiss kept creeping into her mind though, and she knew she wasn't getting any sleep. Damn him, she thought to herself as she tossed and turned in her bed once again. HouseH