Working on a Full House (7 page)

While Peter continued frowning at her, Valerie spied Cherise coming out of one of the examination rooms. With skin the color of pale chocolate milk, Cherise managed to make her bland nurse's jacket look like Versace.

So far this morning Valerie had managed to avoid Cherise. If she were quick, she could do so again.

"Next patient," Valerie said to Peter. "Gotta get to him." She whirled, saw a chart with her color poking out of the holder on Examination Room 6, and stalked determinedly toward it.

Valerie feared that Cherise would take one look at her and know what had happened in Las Vegas. Even dense old Peter noticed something.

Coming to work this morning had not turned into the balm Valerie had hoped for. She was still...
thinking
about Roy, still remembering and — and — wishing there could have been more.

Silly. And stupid. She didn't even know the man with whom she thought she wanted 'more.'

Valerie glanced at the name on the chart, raised her eyebrows when the name registered, then walked into the room.

"Nicky," she said, and smiled at the boy sitting on the examination table. Nicky Gordon, now eleven, had been one of her first patients when she came to Desert Valley Pediatric a year ago. If she could admit she had favorites among her patients then Nicky, bright and outgoing, was one of them.

"Dr. K.," he said with a grin, and held out his hand to give her a complicated handshake, one that Valerie could barely follow.

"I swear he changes that every time I see him do it," his mother complained from her seat to one side.

Valerie laughed and threw a smile at Mrs. Gordon before turning back to Nicky. "So, what are you doing here in my office this morning, instead of having fun at school?"

Nicky sighed and shot a long-suffering glance toward his mother. "It was Mom's idea. She thinks I don't have as much energy as I used to."

Mrs. Gordon's polite smile faded. "It's true."

Nicky lifted a shoulder.

"Not as much energy," Valerie repeated, and went to the sink to wash her hands. "What do you think, Nicky? Think you have less energy?"

"I dunno. Maybe."

"Maybe." Valerie dried her hands. Well, that was sufficiently vague. All the same, if a busy mother noticed something was different, it probably was. "I don't suppose you've run a twenty-six mile marathon lately or anything?"

Nicky chuckled as Valerie put her fingers under his jaw to feel his glands. "Nothin' like that," he said.

His glands felt normal, as did his abdomen when she checked. Valerie took out her light. "Open your mouth, sport."

Nicky obediently opened his mouth. His throat looked fine.

"How about late night movies? Playboy magazines under the covers with a flashlight?"

"Over my dead body," Mrs. Gordon said.

Nicky laughed. "Nah, I haven't been doing anything like that."

"Mm." Too bad. It would have been nice to have a reason to blame for the vague symptoms. Valerie took out her stethoscope. Nicky's heart sounded good, if a little fast. She took his wrist to time his pulse. Just a tad on the fast side.

Valerie took a step back and simply looked at him. Was his face paler than usual? Nicky came from a fair-haired, fair-skinned family, but perhaps... It could point to anemia, though that would be mighty unusual in a boy Nicky's age.

"Hm. Let's take a sample of your blood," Valerie decided. "Just to make sure you've got all the right stuff splashing around in there."

Nicky grimaced. "A needle?"

"Well...unless you'd prefer a dagger?"

Both Nicky and his mother laughed.

Valerie smiled. "I'll send the nurse in to do the vampire thing, and I'll let you know the results in a few days."

"Thanks." Nicky's mother sighed. "I'm probably overreacting, but we want Nicky to be his usual self."

"Well, I do, too." Valerie attempted to ruffle Nicky's crop of blond hair, hair that begged to be ruffled. But Nicky ducked out of the way, shooting her a reproachful look. For an instant, one terrifying split second of time, Valerie's heart turned over in her chest.

Because for one split second, the look in Nicky's eyes, part shy, part ferocious — and all innocent — reminded her of Roy.

Valerie's eyes widened at herself.
Innocent
? She was thinking
innocent
described Roy? Puh-leeze!

"Ahem. I'll call you as soon as I get the results," Valerie repeated. She grabbed the chart and whipped open the door. For goodness' sake, Roy hadn't been innocent!

Thus absorbed, Valerie walked out of the hall, and straight into Cherise.

"Girlfriend," said Cherise. Her smile was wicked.

"Cherise," Valerie squeaked.

Cherise tipped her weight onto one slim hip. Standing five foot ten in her stocking feet and with the face of an African queen, Cherise could make grown men quake in their boots. "Girlfriend," she repeated. "You did not call me when you got home Sunday." Cherise paused. "You
did
get home on
Sunday
?"

Valerie could feel her face turning a traitorous red. "Of course I did." It was the truth.

"Mmmm." The corners of Cherise's lips tipped upward. "But you're hiding something."

Valerie was on the verge of an automatic "no" when she caught the gleam in Cherise's eyes. She couldn't pull it off. Cherise was going to wrestle the story out of her, no matter what. "I'll tell you over lunch," she mumbled.

Cherise's lips pulled back into a triumphant smile. "Your treat."

~~~

When Valerie and Cherise wanted to have lunch privately, with no familiar faces from the clinic, they went to King Wong, a dark storefront in a strip mall that also housed a laundromat, check-cashing service, and donut shop. Despite its greasy spoon appearance, the King Wong served food that was fantastic.

"Okay, okay. We're here." Cherise sat at one of the fake wood tables. "Now tell me what happened in Vegas."

Seating herself, Valerie picked up one of the plastic menus. "Can I decide what I want to eat first?"

Cherise put a hand over Valerie's menu. "You order the General Tsuo Chicken lunch special every time we're here."

"But — "

"Stop dilly-dallying, girl, and spit it out. Did you sleep with him?"

Valerie drew in a sharp breath. "I — How did you
know
?"

Cherise removed her hand from Valerie's menu. "It's only written all over your face. Guilt. Sheepishness. And..." Cherise's expression grew thoughtful. "And talking to Peter didn't bother you. So it's true, huh?"

Valerie sighed. It was both true, and a fantasy.

Cherise leaned back. "Mr. Yummy. I was laughing at you, but you were being serious."

"No." Valerie could deny that much. "I wasn't being serious then. We hadn't even spoken a word to each other. I thought he didn't even notice I was in the world." But then he had noticed. Oh, boy, had he noticed. Valerie couldn't help feeling the wonder of that all over again. He'd walked across a room to meet her.

Cherise tapped a thumb on the tabletop. The gesture had an air of disapproval about it.

The waitress appeared, looked from one to the other of the seated women, and said, "General Tsuo Chicken lunch special, and Chow Mein Salad?"

Cherise turned to give the woman a sweet smile. "How did you ever know? And yes, thank you."

The waitress giggled, scribbled on her pad, and walked off.

"Okay," Valerie said, squinting. "What's with the tapping thumb?"

Cherise expelled a breath. "You jumped into bed with a complete stranger. I can't
believe
it!"

Valerie's eyes widened. "You're the one who told me to go to Las Vegas. You're the one who told me to see there were other fish in the sea."

Cherise widened her own eyes. "The operative word being 'see.'"

Valerie snorted.

"I sure didn't mean you should jump into bed with the first man you saw."

"He was
not
the first man I saw." He was the
only
man she'd seen, the only one who'd been worth noticing. Valerie shook her head. "It wasn't like that."

Cherise scoffed. "Oh, I think I know exactly how it was." Despite Valerie's warning look, Cherise plowed on. "You attended a staff meeting last Monday — Valentine's Day — wherein Dr. Peter Lindstrom, formerly your steady boyfriend, announced his engagement to the hygienist in the dentist office next door. With your ego battered, you decided now was the time to finally go see Las Vegas — "

"Hey, that was your idea!"

" — and once there," Cherise continued, "and with your ego still battered, you went absolutely wacko."

"I did not go
wacko
."

Cherise's eyes narrowed. "Tell me sleeping with some man you'd never met before isn't wacko."

"Not wacko." Valerie was getting seriously annoyed, particularly since Cherise was saying out loud what she'd been privately thinking, herself. "I chose to do it, and I'm not sorry." Really, she wasn't. Making love to Roy had been beautiful and wondrous. For a short time she'd been able to feel important to a man.

Cherise gave Valerie a stern look. "Not only could this guy have been an ax murderer, but God knows what social disease he might have given you — "

"None," Valerie returned crisply. "We used condoms."

"Nevertheless, it was stupid." Cherise shook her head. "If you went to bed with this guy, it's dollars to donuts you made up an emotional connection to justify the deed."

Valerie's mouth opened to provide yet another denial but nothing came out. She
had
made up an emotional connection. She'd given in to the fantasy that she was important to Roy, a femme fatale. She'd given in to the fantasy he was the man her imagination had made him out to be.

Temporarily, that is. She'd given in to the fantasy temporarily.

Cherise crossed her arms over her chest and raised one slim eyebrow. "You jumped from the frying pan into the fire, didn't you?"

"No."

Cherise sighed and uncrossed her arms to lean across the little table. "You did. You gave up your hopeless love for Peter only to fall hopelessly in love with this Mr. Yummy in Las Vegas."

Valerie's eyes widened. "Oh, no. That's not true."

"No?"

"I'm not in love. I...know it was all pretend." For heaven's sake, the guy was a complete stranger.

Cherise frowned at her.

Valerie took a deep breath. "I...allowed myself to believe the pretty things he was telling me. I let myself feel like I was beautiful. But I knew — and know — that it was only a dream, not real."

"A dream, huh?" Cherise's stern frown softened. "It was that good?"

A smile stole over Valerie's face. "Better."

One corner of Cherise's wide mouth twitched. "On a scale of one to ten...?"

"Um... " She wouldn't lie. "Twenty."

Cherise laughed out loud. Valerie laughed, too.

Still smiling, Cherise said, "Whereas Peter was only a...?" She tilted her hand back and forth.

Valerie pretended to think about it. "Five," she replied. "At the most."

Cherise slapped her hand on the table and guffawed. Valerie joined in, laughing all the harder because she, for one, knew it was actually true. Five, at the very most.

The waitress interrupted. "General Tsuo Chicken," she announced, and leaned down to place the plate in front of Valerie, who was wiping her eyes.

"And I'll take that Chow Mein Salad." Cherise snapped up a paper napkin from the holder beside the soy sauce. She used it to wipe under her eyes. "Thanks."

With an uncertain smile toward the both of them, the waitress nodded and backed away.

Valerie blotted her own tearing eyes. "God."

"You said it." Cherise plucked out another napkin. "Well, at least it was a
worthwhile
experience."

Valerie snorted back another outburst of laughter. "On that front, definitely."

Cherise shot her a sidelong look. "But on some other fronts?"

Valerie sighed. It didn't help that Cherise looked sincerely concerned. She'd be even more concerned if she knew how terrible Valerie felt about never seeing Roy again — even though she reminded herself, over and over, that she didn't really know him, not truly.

Slowly, she pulled her disposable chopsticks apart. "Look, I went to Las Vegas to forget about Peter, to forget about the humiliation of losing him to somebody else. To...make myself feel better." She shrugged. "Mission accomplished."

Cherise stabbed her chopsticks into her salad, meanwhile sending Valerie a penetrating look. "Do you feel better?"

"Oh, yeah." Valerie nodded emphatically. "I had a great time, Cherise. Honestly, it was one of the best times in my life. But it's also over. Finis. I understand that."

"And that's okay with you? It being over?"

Was it okay with her? An arrow slashed through her every time she recalled her last sight of Roy, the spent wolf, on the bed. But that image was part of the fantasy. The real Roy was probably somebody far different from the man with whom she'd spent the night. He had to be, right? No one-night stand could be as sweet and caring as Roy had seemed to be.

Valerie gazed down at her General Tsuo Chicken and shrugged. "Oh, sure. I'm back in reality now." She made herself look back up at Cherise with a carefree smile. "Nothing to worry about."

~~~

Yes, it was nothing to worry about. Valerie went back to work after her lunch with Cherise with this thought in mind. True, the memories were still potent, but they would fade. She'd be able to stop second-guessing herself, wondering 'what if.' With time and distance, she'd be able to set Roy into a comfortable drawer labeled, "great one-time experience."

Indeed, by the second week anniversary of her wild night in Vegas, the whole episode seemed almost unreal and Valerie felt...back to normal. Besides, she had other things on her mind. Nicky Gordon was presenting quite a mystery. His blood test had returned normal, but he'd come back to the office that Monday, continuing to complain of fatigue.

She was in her office after examining Nicky and pondering his chart when she pulled forward her calendar, checking the duration of Nicky's mysterious fatigue. Valerie put her pen on the date of the first time she'd seen him, then counted the squares forward to the date today.