Adam woke up alone, in his apartment.
He had a splitting headache, and sat up with a groan. He ran a hand through his unruly red hair, before swinging his legs over the side of the bed.
Then he headed for the bathroom.
Flashes of the night before twisted and roiled through his mind. Had he really ended up leaving a gentleman's establishment to fuck a beautiful woman that he didn't know.
Of course, he had slept with women he didn't know before. But still, that had been a lifetime ago.
He had worked hard to let go of the playboy lifestyle, where he slept with everything in sight, and then forget their names.
Not that he had forgotten her name.
Aria.
It was beautiful. A beautiful name. And he had moaned it several times that night.
Heat washed over his face as he brushed his teeth.
She was perfect. Perfect for him that is.
Did you even get her number? A voice in his head asked him.
No, he hadn't. Although she had said she'd call him.
You didn't give her your number. There wasn't any time. You fucked then fell asleep. When you woke at midnight, she was gone.
Damnit! He swore, sending toothpaste flying across his mirror.
He rinsed his mouth and cleaned the mirror, before he washed his face.
Then he got in the shower.
New York was a massive city. There was no way he'd be able to find her. Maybe if he went back to the club, he could ask around…
But no, that would seem stalkery, and desperate.
He didn't need that kind of trouble right now.
After his shower, Adam got dressed in his only business casual outfit, and grabbed two sets of scrubs that he placed carefully into his backpack.
He wasn't sure if the hospital would be providing him scrubs, and he had made a habit of never leaving the house without it.
Being appointed the temporary Head of cardiovascular surgery at… Manhattan Presbyterian!
His distinctly remembered Aria saying that she was a neurosurgeon there.
Maybe he would find her there, and the rest would be history.
It was funny how strongly he felt about the woman who he had only met the night before.
She was beautiful; full-figured with dark, bronzed skin and hair darker than midnight.
Adam left the penthouse apartment that he was renting for the month, and headed for the street.
His Uber was waiting for him at the curb.
"Manhattan Presbyterian please." He said, and the driver gave a short nod before merging with the morning traffic.
Adam knew that he felt a strange kinship with Aria, because they were both doctors.
There was something about working in medicine that changed you. You couldn't remain untouched when you spent every day of your career helping people who were at might be at the worst point of their lives.
Aria and Adam had had a conversation just before he fell asleep and she disappeared.
She had spoken openly about the difficulties of her job. He had wiped away the unconscious tears that trailed down her face as she spoke about failing at surgery, because cases were too complicated, or her patients were too sick.
That conversation had been more intimate than sex, and it was the most intimate he had been with a woman in ages.
Not since Maggie anyway.
Adam shook his head roughly. He didn't want to think about Maggie. The wound was too raw, still gaping.
All he wanted was to think about Aria, and pursue something new with her.
If that was what she wanted.
And if she didn't? Maybe he could find another doctor to connect with at one of the largest hospitals in New York City.
***
She found him before he found her.
"Dr. Blake?" A nurse walked up to him with a pager.
"Yes Annie?" She smiled at him, but there was a sense of urgency in her eyes. It was an emergency, whatever it was.
"There's a page from Dr. Badhuri. Here. Needs you in OR 5. You need to put a patient on bypass!"
Annie practically shouted the last words, but Adam was already halfway to the operating rooms.
He scrubbed in quickly but thoroughly when he arrived, waiting as impatiently as the nurse put the plastic cloak around his shoulders and the mask on his face.
Adam stepped inside.
And there she was.
Aria, in her scrubs and cloak, her hair hidden beneath a cap. She looked up at him briefly.
"Dr. Blake. The previous cardiovascular surgeon was called away suddenly. I paged you here to put my patient on bypass. I will complete my surgery and then you can take them off bypass."
"Thank you for calling me on this case, Dr. Badhuri." Adam replied and jumped into action.
They worked in tandem, with Aria operating on the patient's head while Adam kept the heart healthy, outside the patient's body.
***
The surgery was successful.
An hour later, Adam was meeting Aria outside the operating room.
"How are you?" He asked her, stepping towards her.
He ensured that he wasn't too close. He could see several nurses gathered at the end of the hall.
They were staring at him. Or they could be staring at Aria. She was beautiful enough.
She smiled shyly at him.
"I'm good. Just tired. Luckily my shift is over."
"Cool. Uhm, would you like to grab a drink later?" He asked her. He made sure his voice wasn't too eager.
Aria's face changed, becoming devoid of any emotion.
"I don't think that's a good idea Adam."
"Why not? We had a good time, didn't we?"
"Yes we did. But I have a firm rule: I never sleep with my colleagues."