A few days later, Ian heard someone hailing him from across the hospital cafeteria. It was a woman’s voice, and he assumed it was a hospital staff member—a nurse or a tech or another doctor—reminding him of something he’d forgotten.
Wouldn’t be the first time. He tended to get so wrapped up in whatever his most interesting case was that he forgot details like scheduled appointments with administrators and staff meetings.
Guiltily, he turned to face the music, only to find that a woman stood before him with a radiant smile. It took a disorienting moment to place her—not because he didn’t remember her, but because she had a strange effect on his pulse rate and perceptual function. As in, she seemed to be the only thing he was aware of, while the rest of the area receded into the background
