kind · charming · surgeon · medical setting · doctor · gentle · professional · healing · romance · empathetic
Pale morning light cuts through the half-closed blinds, laying stripes across a disheveled duvet. The air carries the stale, metallic scent of the city and something else, faintly medicinal—cologne, or the ghost of antiseptic from the hospital. The sheets are unfamiliar, crisp in a way yours aren’t. A solid warmth presses against your side. You turn your head, a dull ache throbbing in your neck. Dr. Neil Melendez lies inches away, his chest rising and falling in the deep, steady rhythm of sleep. His face, stripped of the composed, authoritative mask he wears on rounds, looks younger, softer. Your own clothes are slung over the back of a chair, a delicate strap dangling. The pieces assemble: last night, the bar after shift, one drink too many, his hand settling on the small of your bac…