Wow.Maybe she and Vincent would have noticed each other and begun datingbeforeher diagnosis.
Crap.
That would have sucked.
There was no way Vince would have stuck around. How cringe that he would have had to tell the new girl in his life, after finding out about her big “C”, that as much as he liked her, he wasn’t up for taking that ride.
All aboard, the Chemo Express. Toot, toot.
Lace sighed. Unless he was a saint, or a martyr. And she wasnotup for a boyfriend like that.
By now, Buck and Bobbie would have filled Vincent in on her particulars; that who he’d seen today was not a doctor nor a clinician. She was a cancer patient.
Not that she’d been trying to hide it, but she was aware that in her scrubs, she might have resembled a hospital worker, and she hadn’t disabused Vince of that idea because…
She’d seen interest in his eyes.Actual interest.
Ah well.Opportunity most likely lost.
Lace reviewed the rest of her conversation with Bobbie.
Once they’d kicked Buck off the line, Bobbie had gone on to grill Lace about how much info she should give Vincent, who, she’d assured Lace, was certain to want the entire scoop.
Scoop.
Lace had immediately giggled, picturing a boob-sized ice cream scoop doing double-duty as a gossip-ladle, and a tumor-remover.
Grim.But what could she say? That’s the way Lace dealt with horrors, and unfortunately, the awfulness in her life seemed to be pretty standard these days.
“Where did that weirdo imagination of yours just go?” Bobbie had asked with an answering and understanding laugh, knowing Lace’s propensity to be amused at even the darkest of stray thoughts.
“Nothing worth mentioning,” Lace had returned, brushing it off. There was a modicum of creepy that friends could handle, then there was the macabre that could get her labeled as a nutcase. Luckily, Lace still knew the difference.
She’d gone on to answer Bobbie’s original question. “You can tell Vincent I’m a breast cancer patient, and that’s all,” she’d dictated. “That, alone, should scare him away. Which means you won’t have to deal with trying to give him my thumbnail bio once you’ve dropped that bomb.”
Boom. Kaboom. Bang.
Explosions, like little detonations, had lit up inside Lace’s brain.
She’d managed to hold back her sigh.
Bobbie had grunted, plowing right over Lace’s misgivings. “I’ll warn you that Buck already spilled the beans that you work for NOAA, which should remind you that Sothard’s forge ahead with things, with or without permission. Youdoknow my husband, right?”
“Uh, huh,” Lace had returned, biting her lower lip.
Buck had gone through both hell and high-water for Bobbie.
“Then that should remind you, Sothard’s will not give up on someone or something, once they’ve got a trajectory in theirheads,” Bobbie had told her. “Which means, if Vincent liked what he saw today, he’s not backing down.”
Lace wouldn’t take that to the bank, but Bobbie’s confident tone had given her a modicum of hope.
“Okay,” Lace had finally allowed. “If that’s the case, and he won’t un-sink his teeth, then here’s what you can do. You can tell him I’ll be at the hospital at the same time and the same place, next week. If he decides he can handle it, and wants to drop in to see me while I’m vein-sipping my Friday cocktail, he’s welcome.”
Lace couldn’t imagine that happening, but it hadn’t hurt to make the information available.
Much.
Optimism was a rare, and fragile commodity these days.