Precaution

In the locker room, I did my best to ignore Mark and Kat as they tried to figure out my plans for the night. “Want to hit Verns now? Best drinks and peanuts in Pittsburgh.” Lexie added with a smile, as Kat and Mark turned to look at me.

“Can’t.” I replied. “I have plans. I’m going out to dinner with some of the guys I met today.”

“Ughh” Kat groaned and handed over a wad of cash to Mark. I scrambled over towards them, hoping over the bench to snatch the money out of his hands. “No, no no. You are not winning yet. Nothings happening, just dinner with them all as friends.” I threw the waded up bills into my locker and grabbed my clothes.

It only took a few minutes for me to get ready. I slipped off my scrubs in exchange for dark wash skinny jeans, a white button down and over the knee black suede boots. I brushed my teeth and reapplied eyeliner, adding a spritz of perfume. My hair slipped free of it’s ponytail and cascaded down my shoulders in rich brown curls, earning themselves a quick toss before I ran through the door with my purse and coat in hand. The front had the faint brown stain of coffee, but it had dried out completely and my cream-colored scarf would hide it. The rest of the interns moved out towards the elevators and I rushed behind them.

“Hey, sorry that took so long.” I said towards the boys as I exited the elevator and said my goodbyes to the interns. It didn’t take that long, maybe six minutes tops, but I felt the need to apologize anyways.

“The ability to profusely apologize is reserved for Canadians only.” Jordan joked, and I shook my head.

“I could be Canadian, you don’t know.” I replied, which caused the rest of the team to laugh. “No way.” Benny replied. “You cut people open for a living, you’re not nice enough to be from Canada.” I giggled, running a hand through my curls as we exited the hospital.

“So where are we going?” I asked, not really noticing how hungry I was. I wasn’t able to finish my lunch because of the trauma and my stomach wasn’t able to handle breakfast this morning from all the nerves. Somehow though I had managed to stay standing through the day.

“It’s a secret. I could tell you, but then I’d have to kill you. And then we wouldn’t be able to have dinner together so it wouldn’t even matter.” Max said, his facial expression completely serious. I gave him a friendly tap on the arm, beginning to feel a little more comfortable with them around.

“Please. I’m a surgeon, you couldn’t kill me. I’d retaliate and make it look like an accident.” Max laughed and we stopped for the cars before making our way down the cold streets of Pittsburgh.

We arrived at the restaurant, which in all honesty could barely be classified as such, within a few minutes. It was a small pub, and the best part about it was probably it’s central heating. Pictures of Penguins stars dotted the wooden walls and lopsided pieces of sports memorabilia were hung next to the pictures. It had a sign outside that proclaimed itself as Pittsburgh’s best hockey bar and with the amount of people that crowded inside the establishment, it felt like it was one of those hole in a wall places that the locals thrived on. We wandered up to the hostess and she gladly seated us next to the bar, in a long table with seven chairs. I sat between Sidney and Kris, with Max and Jordan across from me and Benny and Flower perched next to them. The waitress came around with our drink orders and I eagerly asked for a diet coke, a selection mocked by Kris again.

“It’s the best. I’m sure it’ll give me an ulcer, but who cares. Those are operable.” I said taking a sip of my soda, giving Kris thumbs up.

“So Violet. Tell us all about yourself. Where did you move to Pittsburgh from?” asked Jordan from across the table as he took a long drink of water.

“I told you already. I moved here from California. I went to med school at Stanford and before that, I lived in Seattle. I got my bachelors from University of Washington. My parents still live there. “

“Do you ever go back to visit? Seattle is nice.” Sidney asked while the waitress placed down his plate of food. He ordered chicken and mashed potato’s, which for some reason struck me as cute and wholesome.

I made a face at his question, choosing instead to watch the waitress swing over with my order. I had a cheeseburger and fries and upon seeing it, I was practically salivating. “Not really. My parents and I don’t get along. Plus, Seattle is way too depressing to live in. Palo Alto was much better scenery. It’s really nice over there.” I said before beginning to eat.

“So then how did you get from California all the way to Pittsburgh?” Max asked, a question that was so logical, it surprised me that it came from him.

“My friend Lucy moved down from Toronto. She got a job offer taking care of the trees in some of the parks around the city and forests in Pennsylvania—she’s an arborist—and I needed something different so I applied for an internship at Allegheny Gen. It sort of all worked out.”
Marc and Jordan laughed at my answer. “A Canadian arborist? God, what a stereotypical job.” Marc said and Jordan nodded.

“Oh, because being a Canadian hockey player isn’t stereotypical at all. “

After dinner, the guys insisted on walking me home and so we all headed towards my downtown high rise. “It’s kind of like the buddy system.” Benny explained to me as we moved through the darkness and the snow. It was almost ten and I know Lucy would be home, parked on the couch with a bowl of Kraft Mac and Cheese on her lap. It almost made me wish that I had come straight to the apartment, but I couldn’t exactly pass up the opportunity of making new friends in a city I was so unfamiliar with.