3. Amory

Amory takes the bus to the airport, leaving early in the morning. Her mom had offered to stay the night and drive her, but Amory refused. She already bought the bus pass over a week ago and didn't want it to go to waste. Plus, her mom has work today and Amory didn't want to risk her missing it.

It's a little awkward, taking the bus to the airport. This is not the first time Amory has taken the bus, but it is the first time she's taken the bus carrying so much with her. She's also dead tired and fights the urge to rest her head on her suitcase and take a nap. She decides that despite the desire, it's probably not the best idea. Their city is fairly safe, but she doesn't want to risk someone seeing her sleep and decide to take her backpack from beside her.

When Amory gets to the airport, she checks in her luggage and heads through airport security. All she has on her is a small backpack with a laptop and a travel pillow, so the journey through TSA is relatively painless. She arrived at the airport over an hour early, so there isn't much to do besides sit and wait.

Mom: Are you at the airport?

Amory: yeah.

Mom: Good luck. Have a safe trip.

Amory: Thnx. Love you.

Mom: I love you too

She opens her backpack and takes out her laptop to make the wait go faster. She opens a book on her laptop and starts to read. It's a steamy romance novel- The CEO by Emily Hayes. She might be a doctor, but her reading for fun material doesn't reflect that. And she's been addicted to romance novels ever since her and Natalie broke up.

They help ease the ache in her heart and desire for a relationship. Not by much, but while she reads about hot sex and happy ever afters, she can forget her own relationship status and that helps. She can imagine that she's in a whirlwind romance with lots of love and great sex.

She sits and reads while she waits for the plane to begin boarding. When it's her turn to get on the plane, she puts away her laptop and boards. There are no assigned seats so she finds a place next to a window and waits.

She has to sit next to a window seat, she has decided. If she doesn't have the ability to look outside, her head will fill with all kinds of terrifying ideas and the fear that they're going to crash. So she has to look outside to assure herself that they're fine. This is Amory's least favorite part of travel—flying. Planes terrify her. Just being on one gives her anxiety.

She's heard too many horror stories of planes crashing or a plane ride just being hell with the other passengers on board. She really hopes there isn't a screaming baby on board the entire time or some old lady who won't shut up the entire time. She just wants to be able to fall asleep during the plane ride and wake up at the airport in one piece.

When someone sits beside her, Amory inwardly groans and decides that she should be a polite passenger and greet the person sitting next to her, but when she turns to look, her heart stops and her blood boils.

Standing there, in a suit with a blanket over her shoulders is Amory's least favorite person–Dr. Blake Gold. Med school rival, residency enemy, the-one-who-fucked-her-girlfriend, yes, that Dr. Blake Gold.

"Fancy seeing you here," Blake says with a smirk, one that Amory wants to punch off of her striking face.

Dr. Blake Gold is tall and fit looking with short dark hair. She has big dark brown eyes and an overconfident smirk. Amory still hates her.

Amory really can't escape this woman or the painful memories. First it was finding the ring in her dresser and now this- it has been a rough 24 hours. She scowls and turns around, crossing her arms.

"What?" Blake prods.

"I have nothing to say to you," Amory says.

"Suit yourself," Blake says, reaching beside her to where she's put her own backpack. She opens it and pulls out a book.

Amory tries not to look, but she can't stop herself. Her very being is filled with anger at what Blake did to her, but she can't help her curiosity.

"What are you even doing here?" she asks.

"I thought you have nothing to say to me." Blake responds, smirking again.

Amory wants to punch her in the face, but manages not to.

"Shut up." Amory says, angry but dying to know why Blake is there. Amory's mind immediately goes to the worst conclusion, that maybe Blake is here for the same reason she is. She tries to reason with herself, that it's highly unlikely that Blake would also be going to Africa to help with the recent Cholera outbreak. But then Blake opens her mouth.

"I'm going to Zambia," Blake announces.

Amory's world stutters and she freezes for a moment.

"Shut up. No, you're not," Amory responds.

"Yes, I am," Blake says, "and I'm assuming by your displeasure that's where you're going as well."

"I can't believe this is happening," Amory says.

"Well, believe it, sweetheart," Blake says, "because it is."

Blake's brown eyes glimmered and sparkled. Amory couldn't help but admit to herself that she was very attractive. Why did she have to be so goddamn tall and good-looking?

Amory groans. "Why do you have to be here? Couldn't you have at least sat somewhere else?"

"What? And miss a chance to see your beautiful face?"

Amory blushes but groans again. "Shut up."

"You keep saying that," Blake says.

"Well I mean it," Amory retorts.

"Yet you keep talking to me," Blake points out. She runs a hand through her short dark hair, ruffling it. Even her messy hair is sexy.

God, I hate her.

"Fine," Amory says, crossing her arms and looking out the window.

Blake laughs and starts to read her book just as a flight attendant begins the pre-flight speech.

Amory is able to ignore Blake for the first hour or so of the flight. It's been years since she's been on a plane, and despite her fears, she's fascinated by how the clouds look and how tiny the city looks below them.

However, soon her curiosity gets the better of her and she can't ignore Blake any longer. She needs to know.

"So why are you going to Zambia?" Amory asks, pretty much already having assumed the answer, but she wants the confirmation.

Blake stops reading her book and smirks at Amory. Amory tries to ignore the heat and anger she feels under Blake's gaze.

"I'm on a work trip," Blake answers, but doesn't provide any more information.

It doesn't matter, though, because with a sinking feeling in her chest, Amory thinks she knows why Blake is going to the same place as her.

"Please tell me you're not with Doctors Without Borders to help with the Cholera outbreak," Amory says.

Blake looks at her but doesn't say anything for a moment. She flips a page in her book before she puts it down.

"So you want me to lie to you?" she asks, drawing back full lips from perfect white teeth.

Amory groans and puts her head into her hands.

"You have got to be kidding me," she says.

"Sorry, sweetheart," Blake says, but she doesn't sound sorry and Amory wants to punch her again.

She sees Blake's strong capable looking hands and can only imagine them fucking Natalie.

Oh for god's sake.

Amory groans again and looks out the window. She knew that she wouldn't be the only doctor coming from the US to help, but she never dreamed that one of her colleagues would be none other than Dr. Blake Gold, her old rival, hated enemy, the woman who slept with her girlfriend.

She can't believe her misfortune, and she swears that this must have been intentional by some cruel design. It's not a secret that she doesn't like Dr. Gold, and someone is surely laughing at her right now.

She doesn't know how she's going to be able to make it through this entire trip with her professionalism intact. Blake is infuriating as ever, and what's worse is that she is acting like she never wronged Amory. Did she somehow forget what she did to her, or does she just not care? Amory can't figure it out and it drives her crazy as the flight drags on.

She can't fall asleep like she had planned, instead analyzing her interactions with Blake. She can't get over how infuriating the other woman is or how her belly heats up every time she glances at her.

She then starts thinking of Natalie, for the second time this week, and she hates it. She has tried so hard to forget the woman she once loved, and she has been mostly successful over the years, burying herself in her work instead of thinking about her ex-girlfriend and how she can't trust anyone enough to date again.

But now she can't forget her. Dr. Blake Gold's mere presence demands thinking about her. She wonders what Natalie saw in her. She's obviously attractive, sure, but Amory can't get over how infuriating she is, how self-assured and overly confident. Maybe that's the appeal, because compared to Blake, Amory's never had much confidence.

Amory has always had to work so hard to be good enough as a doctor, she never had enough time for fun or the pleasures in life. Medicine always seemed to come naturally to Blake, everything was always easy for her including seducing women. All of them. Including the straight ones and other people's girlfriends.

No woman was safe around Dr. Blake Gold's infuriatingly perfect smile and easy charm, it was a well known fact.

Amory doesn't get it; what could possibly drive someone to cheat on or with someone's partner? She would never dream of it, always being loyal, but she wants to know what would drive someone to that. It's a self-destructive curiosity, she knows that. But it doesn't stop her from overthinking.

Maybe there was something wrong with her and that's why Natalie decided to cheat. Maybe she wasn't there enough or wasn't good enough in bed. What does Dr. Blake Gold have that she doesn't?

Amory can't stop thinking about it and it's driving her crazy. She opens up her laptop and goes to one of the downloaded books. If Blake can read while sitting beside her, then so can she. But she has trouble focusing on the words. Blake's presence distracts her.

The rest of the plane ride continues like that. Blake reading, Amory trying to read and failing. Amory just hopes and prays that wherever Blake is going, it's not the same place as her. There are surely over a dozen different clinics open to support the Cholera outbreak. After all, the plane ride could just be a coincidence. When they get to the airport, it could turn out that Blake is going to a completely different clinic, and that's what Amory hopes for.

Her hopes don't work, though. When they get to the airport, both of them are silent as they collect their luggage, Amory looks around for the driver that was promised would come for her, and she sees a cardboard sign with her name on it. Dr. Paver. Below her name, however, is another and she wants to cry. Dr. Gold.

Amory looks at Blake and sees that Blake is already looking at her. Beautiful eyes and face. Lovely broad shoulders and a natural elegance to her movement.

"I hate you," Amory says to Blake with as much venom as she can muster.

She can't deny the feelings of pleasure and guilt that she feels when Blake's expression changes to one of hurt. Blake doesn't say anything and the two of them walk over to the man holding the sign.

"Nice to meet you," Amory says, ignoring Blake, "I'm Doctor Paver."

"And I'm Doctor Gold," Blake says.

"Welcome," the man says, "I'm Rajan, and I'm here to drive you to your cabin."

"Wait," Amory says, "our cabin? we're sharing a cabin?"

"Yes, ma'am," Rajan says. "We usually have two to a cabin, sometimes three or four, but you two will be the only ones sharing your cabin."

"Great," Amory says, trying to not let her displeasure show as she looks at Blake. As if this day couldn't get worse. She doesn't know how she's going to survive this trip if Blake is going to be the first person she sees in the morning and the last thing she sees before she goes to bed.

"Come, come," Rajan says. "Let's go to the car and I will show you around."

Rajan talks as he leads them outside to a black car, seemingly unaware of Blake and Amory's animosity toward one another, and the dirty looks that Amory keeps giving Blake. But all Blake does is smile and smirk back, and it drives her crazy. When Rajan finds the car in the airport parking lot, he helps the two of them put their luggage in the trunk, and then Blake and Amory get inside, sharing the backseat.

Rajan gets into the driver's seat and begins to drive once everyone is situated and buckled.

On the way to their cabin, he shows them the city, pointing out markets and businesses that he thinks they will find interesting.

But what Amory really finds interesting is the clinic. Rajan informs them that it's only a five-minute walk away from where they're staying and she almost misses it, but when she sees the small building with people standing outside in a line she's excited to get to work.

Rajan drives for another block, and they arrive at an area surrounded by small cabins. Rajan points out their cabin and parks the car.

"Here we are," he says. "Do you need help bringing in your bags?"

"No thank you," Blake says.

"We got it, thank you," Amory tells him.

"Of course," Rajan says, unlocking the car doors and popping the trunk. He stays in the car, and once the two of them remove their backpacks and luggage, he rolls down the window to the driver's side. He reaches his hand outside, holding two metal keys.

Blake reaches forward and takes them from Rajan's hand. "Thank you," she says.

"I'm going to leave but I'm sure I'll see you two around," he says.

"Bye," Amory tells him.

"Have a safe drive back," Blake says.

"Oh, I live super close," Rajan says, "I'll be safe. You two settle in well."

"We will," Blake says, and Amory can't help the glare that she gives her.

Rajan drives away, unaware of the situation the women are in.

Blake holds the keys to the cabin in her hand and looks at Amory.

She is infuriatingly attractive.

"Shall we go in?" she asks.

"Okay," Amory says with a sigh, "let's go."