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“He asked me out.” She says, curt and sincere and everything but sad.
He wishes he could burn a hole through her head right then and there. Maybe then he’d leave a sort of impression, in memoriam and all that jazz.
All he can do is quip, “I’m shocked.” But it all lands thin, as veiled envy often does. She shoots daggers with a resting face, only giving a squint and the satisfaction of eye contact. “—Shocked when patients don’t ask you out.”
It’s not quite funny nor rude. An odd in-between where most of their personal talks these past months have ended up, and suddenly Chase feels like he’s in primary school again. Stuck in the loop of a proximity crush that somehow wouldn’t break.
“You like him?”
Cameron exhales and spouts a laundry list of high qualities, more like stated facts than her own personal bias. She seems more entranced with the brain scan slowly etching out on her screen.
“I take it you said no,” he chides.
“You think I’m that hung up on rules—?”
“He’s not House.” It’s a barmy, selfish logic, more to soothe ego than directly hurt her. House he could deal with. He was one in a billion (hopefully more). But an attractive, single, well-meaning doctor? Any man could check those boxes. It’d be further salt in a reopened wound.
She couldn’t be over House, not unless she fell for him instead.
“There’s nothing there.” He adds, an affirmation if anything more.
He only feels half bad when she’s stone silent once again.