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Victoria concentrates on her form as she slows the horse from a gallop to a trot and then to a walk. Exercising her horse was one of the major agreements she'd made with her parents years ago when they'd bought Blossom for her. It had become harder and harder to do as she had gotten further and further in her education. At this point, she can only go about twice a week, and it's going to be even less when she matches. She doesn't want to think about that right now, though. Spending time with Blossom has always been very stabilizing for her.
Victoria enters the stable and starts tacking down and rubbing down Blossom. Out of the corner of her eye, as she's preparing to leave the stall, she sees a flash of someone she thinks she recognizes. Emma. The very pretty new nurse in the ED. What is she doing here? Victoria wavers about whether to go say hello or ignore her, but thankfully the decision is made for her when Emma turns around.
"Victoria! Hi!" Emma waves at her. Victoria waves back, and apparently that's all the invitation Emma needs to bounce over.
"Hi, Emma," Victoria says when the other girl makes her way over. She steadfastly ignores the way her heart pounds at their proximity. Especially with Emma looking so good. Riding pants have always been a weakness of Victoria's.
"Who's this beauty?" Emma asks, casting an approving look over Blossom.
"Blossom," replies Victoria. "I've had her since I was 9, as a reward for passing the exams to get into high school early." Victoria focuses her eyes back on the horse. "I was very into The Saddle Club at the time. You know how it is."
Emma giggles. "I loved that show!" She reaches a careful hand out to Blossom and pets her, cooing all the way. "She's beautiful."
Victoria swells with pride. "She is! I picked her out myself, you know." Victoria gives Blossom a kiss and smiles when her tail flicks extra hard. "I let the stable use her for lessons sometimes in exchange for her stall and a guaranteed amount of exercise each day." Emma hums affirmatively at that.
The two of them pet Blossom in silence for a few minutes, before Victoria breaks the silence again. "Do you have a horse here?"
Emma shakes her head. "No, but I used to ride a lot back home, so I've been coming the last couple weeks on my day off to visit the horses. Once I'm a little more established and have some extra money, I'd love to get an hour or so on one of the stable's horses."
Victoria chews her lip for a minute before hesitantly offering, "I'm not able to be with Blossom as much as I want, maybe you can come by and say hi, even give her a ride if she's not being used for lessons? I know she's not the most popular horse, so it would probably be nice for her."
Emma's eyes light up. "Really?"
"Yeah! Sure, she clearly likes you. I'll pop into the office and add your name."
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Over the next few weeks, Victoria doesn't run into Emma at the stable again, though the staff tells her that she's been stopping in a few days a week and giving Blossom a nice ride. It takes a full month before they cross paths at the stable again, though they have been seeing each other every day at PTMC. Victoria feels like she can't approach Emma about the horse there. It's just not something for the hospital to overhear, not least because she's already the nepo baby rich girl. Owning a horse would wash all the work she'd done to prove herself down the drain.
"Emma!" Victoria calls when she sees the nurse opening the door to Blossom's stall. Emma spins around, almost like she's been caught doing something wrong.
"Oh! Victoria! I didn't realize you'd be here today."
"Oh yeah, I switched my schedule around a bit to avoid a family obligation, you know how it can be with my parents." She waves her hand dismissively.
Emma grimaces. "Dr. Shamsi certainly has a presence."
"Well," Victoria says, extremely casually leaning against the doorway before she stumbles a bit. Emma giggles as Victoria straightens herself back up. "Well, then you have an idea of what it's like to be stuck with my extended family too. So I begged to work Saturday and fortunately, the psych department dislikes my mom enough that her attempts to demand my schedule be aligned to what she wants were unsuccessful." Emma nods sympathetically. "Anyway! I'm glad I got to run into you, because I was thinking we could go for a ride together. Would you be interested in that?"
"Oh!" Emma blinks. "Oh that sounds very fun, actually. I don't know if I have the money on me right now."
Victoria waves her hand. "Don't worry about that at all, my stable friend Amelia is away right now and said I could ride her horse, so I'll ride Thatcher and you'll ride Blossom."
"With an offer like that, how can I refuse?" Emma's enormous, face splitting, smile warms Victoria right up and makes something twist in her gut. It really feels like there could be something here— friendship or more— and Victoria really wants to explore it.