Chapter 65

A few daysafter the dinner at my parents' house, I take my father's credit card and make a trip to a large local bookstore to raid the shelves for anatomy texts. The bookstore has a full floor dedicated to medicine, and there is no shortage of overpriced textbooks and review books. Our second midterm is in a few weeks, and there's no time to mess around.

I pick out half a dozen books and lug them to the checkout counter. The act of carrying the texts to the counter is enough to make me gasp for breath. Wow, pathetic. When was the last time I've been to a gym? Oh well, no time for that now. I'll get in shape again after residency is over.

The girl ahead of me in the checkout line reminds me a lot of Sienna from college. She's tall—long blond hair loose down her back, great tits, great ass. This is the sort of girl my parents would have wanted me to bring home—someone who wouldn't embarrass me.

I hadn't even realized I was staring at her until she catches me. My face gets hot, and I quickly look back down at my stack of books.

"Got anything to read?" the girl asks me teasingly, gesturing at the two-foot stack.

She's interested. Go for it, Howard!

I flash her a smile dripping with charm. "I've got an anatomy exam coming up."

She glances down at the titles of the books. "You're in med school?"

"My first year," I confirm.

"I'm Erin," she says.

"I'm Mason."

"So what kind of doctor are you going to be?" Erin asks me.

"A surgeon."

Erin seems properly impressed by this. She then reveals she's a junior at DeWitt College, and she's majoring in art history. My mother would love this girl. They could have a blast discussing Monet or some crap like that.

I'm trying to decide if I should ask her out when she reaches out and touches my arm. "So when are you going to ask me for my number… Doctor?"

"Um," I say. Wow. I'm not used to girls being quite so forward—I think I'm going to like being a med student. "Can I have your number, Erin?"

Erin scribbles her digits on a blank page in one of the textbooks I'm buying, and I think to myself how perfect she is. She's beautiful, tall, reasonably articulate, and I bet anything she's really easy. This is the kind of girl any guy would be thrilled to have a date with.

So why can't I stop thinking about Sasha? What is wrong with me?