“I nearly lost a lung laughing so hard,” Anna adds, and I squeeze her hand. She squeezes it back and says to the group, “And Panda, not losing her cool, justifies it by saying that after 20 years together, you got to spice things up.”
Victoria takes a sip of red wine, sending her sister a cheeky smile over the rim of the glass. “Classic! We’ll never forget that one, will we sis,” she nods to Anna who returns a laugh.
“Doc, how about you?” Victoria asks. “Tell us your story.”
I set my sparkling water on the table. Anna smiles at me somewhat curious yet encouragingly. “Well, it was one of the first operations I joined as a resident.” I chuckle self-deprecatingly. “A vascular surgical procedure in which some blood splashed on my protective glasses and I—” I drop my head and chuckle. “Fainted. Needless to say, I got so much shit for that months later.”
Anna’s smile at me holds no humor, it carries something else, something much more intimate.
“Lil’ sis?” Victoria moves on to Anna. Anna shakes her head with a smile.
“Go on, chicken,” the warm words of encouragement arrive from Pandora.
“Okay, okay. So, it was during a yoga lesson with a small group. We were doing poses that focus on the abdominal wall and it was quite intense, and—” She buries her face in her hands and laughs. Raising her face back to the room she says, “Well, I had beans before and ,well, my stomach was a little upset, and it was quiet and . . . ”
Pandora cracks up, and we all follow. Anna who’s a couple of shades redder joins the laugh fest.
The woman just told us about how she passed gas and all I want to do is kiss her sweet smiling lips. I swear I’m falling.
Victoria scans the room. “Ricky?” They stare at each other and Ricky shakes his head. “C’mon . . . ” She pushes his chest playfully.
Kevin, the other band member grins at Ricky. “I got this.” He slaps Ricky on his back. Ricky breathes a friendly curse to the mouth of a beer bottle. “It was on a trip to Vegas,” Kevin starts. “Ricky and I went to buy me some shirts. I didn’t have any clean shirts, but that’s a story for another time. So, we’re at this shop getting some shit and all the while a security guy keeps eyeing us suspiciously. Once we pay and are about to walk out he hurries our way and tells Ricky to wait.”
Kevin smirks, looking at his friend.
Ricky at this point avoids eye contact. “I show the guy our receipts and he insists that Ricky stole something which he clearly didn’t. We had no bags with us besides the ones we just got at the store. Getting pissed, Ricky tells him, ‘we showed you the bags. I didn’t take anything.’ Then the guy points at the bulge in Ricky’s crotch.”
“Dude,” Ricky warns his friend to no avail.
Kevin resumes with a shit-eating grin, “Ricky was wearing tight jeans and the guy keeps insisting that he shoved something down his pants. They go on for a few minutes in which Ricky insists he didn’t take anything, and the guy doesn’t relent.” Kevin cracks up. “Pissed, Ricky unbuttons his jeans, tugs down the zipper, and drops his pants to his knees.” Kevin grins at the room. “Music people don’t wear underwear. It’s a dress code.”
We all laugh.
“So, when the guy sees our friend’s endowed junk he apologizes profusely.”
People laugh and Ricky shakes his head, squinting Victoria’s way to which Victoria’s cheeks tint. I usually don’t notice these things, but even to me it’s quite obvious that something is going on between these two.
Anna leans closer to me, about to tell me something. Her sweet scent hovers near me and the roomful of people vanish. I raise my brows waiting and something vibrates and buzzes in my front pocket. I check the beeper. “Sorry, I got to get this,” I apologize. “I’ll be right back” I tell Anna, and walk to the hall.
It’s Jason, a resident who’s also a friend of mine. “Sure, no problems,” I tell him and return to the room. “Sorry, I need to get to the hospital,” I say to the room with my eyes on Anna’s. I give her an apologetic smile.
As I say goodbye, Anna eases to a stand and walks to me. “I’ll see you out.”
We stand facing each other at the door, stretching the moment. Reluctantly, I tell her that I need to get going. Telling her that Jason’s kid has stridor and he just had an acute attack. His wife is alone with the kid and asked him to come home, so he asked me to cover for him tonight.
Anna’s eyes drop to my mouth. I take in the little drop of her eyelids, the way her lips part, and swallow hard. Catching herself, she raises her hand to my chest and gently pushes. “Go save the world.”
I swallow again and take a deep breath. “Night.” I bend to leave a chaste kiss on her lips and walk out the door.
The Ultimate, Motherloving Homemade, Superfood, Chocolate Flapjack
Pandora to CHICKENS: Top o’ the mornin’ to ya, fellow hens! so I’m listening to the radio and this little gem from the eighties comes on and well, had to share. Dedicated to our treasured Anna. (link to the music video with the lyrics.)
Victoria to CHICKENS: Good one, Panda. “Oh doctor, doctor, is this love I’m feeling? Doctor, doctor, can’t you see I’m burning, burning.” Hahahaha.
Kayla to CHICKENS: Cutting a rug over here. Ha!
Anna to CHICKENS: Delightful. Significantly enjoying the middle school level humor.
I check my watch. “Oh, crap, I really have to go. My next class starts in twenty.” I grab my bag and smile apologetically at Jesse.
“Sure, no problem.” He sends his hand to cover mine. “Hope to see you again, soon.”
Don’t judge. Here’s the thing: life goes on even after you found The Person. Do I want to have a relationship with Liam, at this point, yes – more than anything. Am I falling for him? Yes, big time. Do I want to get naked with him? In a heartbeat. Does this thing go both ways? In a platonic realm, maybe. So, you see, instead of waiting for something that doesn’t seem like it’ll ever happen you give other people a chance.
Making my way back to the studio with that stupid song Panda sent this morning playing on repeat in my head, I call the chickens. I set up a conference call, adding each person to the line.
Vicky comes on. “Guys, I’m going to be muted, am on another call,” she whispers. “But I’m listening.”
“So, Liam is cool,” Kayla begins.
“Anna, he’s so sweet and, God is he yummy,” Panda says. “And he has this quiet sophistication about him. I love that in guys. And I think he’s really into you,” Panda says, the group’s official representative of everything optimism, romanticism, and smut-ism.
“I agree,” Vicky whispers.
“Guys, I know he likes me. I’m not blind. But he doesn’t want anything more than whatever we have right now. Meaning, nothing apart from a very platonic friendship.”
“I call bullshit,” Kayla says. “I give him a week. He’ll break soon.”
A message pops up on the screen. “Hold on,” I read the message. “Vick says, he couldn’t take his eyes off you. He flipping looked at you so smitten after your little fascinating gas expelling story. If that’s not a major crush, I don’t know what is.”