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"I thought I heard soht eyebrow raised in a question "I don’t hear anything" He jerked his head toward the station "Care to walk?"

While a doctor wasn’twith hih apart froether Even so, ladies returning fro sounds as alked by I wished there was a way to signal to them that no matter how handsome he was, I was not interested in him, nor would I ever be At all

"So hoas your first day?" he asked

"Interesting, except for the paperwork"

"I’ to get hazed every day I’ular clientele?" I asked in a way that I hed, maybe the first time I’d seen him pleased I wondered what it would be like to be hi water with all his ht

"As regular as the rising sun Why did you even apply for this job in the first place?" His eyes tried to read me as alked, even before I could respond

"If you’d told ation, I’d have walked on rin He snorted and I relaxed soht I wanted to take it easy, and the sleep clinic was great for that But easy gets dull" No need to tell hiends "Why do you work down here?" I asked instead

"If I don’t, ill?" He shrugged, taking his coat pockets up and doith the gesture

"Did you grow up here?"

"Nearby"

"Where do you live?"

His lips quirked up into a soft smile "Nearby"

"How many stations away?" I asked quickly, before he could evade me

"Past the station I don’t take the train"

"Oh" I kept on course, hoping I was on to so "Do you live alone?"

He drew up short and looked at " I indicated behind le and they’re ining the worst"

He almost rolled his eyes "I live alone You?" he asked in a tone thatto be polite But in my experience men didn’t ask questions like that if they didn’t want to hear the answers

"I have a needy Siamese," I told him I tried to sound a little cute Not that I was interested, but I could be flirtatious when the opportunity presented itself "Did you report that guy froh "I see how you are--try to get uard with personal questions, and then in for the attack"

I shrugged and gave hirin "There’s only one of ood cop and the bad cop"

He eyedhis head softly as if to say there were a lot of things I didn’t understand "You’d probably find a lot of bullets inside that storm drain too," he finally said, which still wasn’t a direct answer

"Why?"

"Because reporting things to the police won’t change anything Not down here You haven’t seen one yet Nor will you We’re off their nore But," he said, leaning his head forward, looking directly atto be very lax with rules"

"Heh" I hadn’t exactly been reaching for the phone yesterday I felt a little sheepish--he had a point "The place where I used to work, it didn’t always pay to ask questions"

"And yet here you are, interrogating ain

"You haven’t even gotten me started yet, really" We had just half a block left Noas my chance for the most important question--ere too close to the train station for him to abandon me "Eduardo drew some blood on my last patient, but you didn’t order lab work Did he make a mistake? Do I need to talk to hi to ed and shook his head, too fast "Don’t I’ll say so to him"

"He did tell me to ask you, when I asked him about it," I pressed

"We see a lot of patients each day Mistakes happen We should be lucky if they’re all so benign"

I regretted his choice of words It was too easy to slide in s that weren’t, currently growing inside my mo the look on an to explain, but saw erator full of blood-drawdoith my day-old boss over just yet For his part, he looked like he wanted to askhi lines Behind o--" I waved and started trotting backward