Rose peeled into the parking lot and hopped out of her car in a panic. She couldn't believe that on her first day working with the new physician she had made such a basic mistake. She sprinted into the private practice clinic and, after taking half a second to compose herself, walked up to the receptionist's desk. The receptionist, who looked to be her age, smiled at her.
"Welcome to the Gentle Hands Surgery Center, how can I help you?"
"Hi, I'm the new resident working with Dr. Alexander is, do you know where his office is?" Rose panted, still out of breath.
The receptionist giggled before giving her directions to the third floor, though Rose wasn't sure if it was because of her obvious lateness or something else. Rose took the elevator up so that she could give herself a chance to breath. Her long blonde hair was tied up in a messy bun. Normally she would have put more effort into her appearance before meeting a new attending, but in her crunch for time she had shown up in a simple blouse, and a pair of tight pants that accentuated her best asset.
Rose checked her watch, biting her lip when she saw the time. It was nearly 10am, almost two hours after she was supposed to arrive. Her new phone, a cheap android replacement she had bought less than a week ago, had died overnight and the alarm hadn't gone off. Normally she would have had a back-up alarm set, but her month-long Breast surgery rotation was in a remote Californian town, and she had only shown up to the rented apartment with the necessities. Unfortunately, she had only brought one charger, and she had been using it for something else.
The third floor, it turned out, was composed of two operating rooms, two clinic rooms, a break room, and Dr. Alexander's office. The office itself was gorgeous, with massive windows that looked away from the town and out towards the ocean. Rose stood at the door to the office, and peered inside to see if Dr. Alexander was at his desk. He wasn't, and the view from the office was so breathtaking that Rose walked right in. She was still looking out the window when she heard a polite cough from behind her, and spun around.
"You must be Rose, nice to meet you." Dr. Alexander said. Rose took a sharp breath. There had been a picture of him on the website, but he was far more handsome in person. The young attending was muscular, with light brown hair and a short beard. He was dressed in a tight-fitting dress shirt with the sleeves rolled up, and as he extended his hand to her all she could do was stare at his muscular forearms. After a second, Rose came back to her senses and shot out her hand to shake his, blushing a brilliant shade of red as she realized she'd been staring.
"Hi, yes, I'm Rose, I'm so sorry I'm late, it's nice to meet you too."
The attending raised his eyebrows in an amused way and shot her a smile. "No worries at all, you only missed a couple of patients. How was your trip down to Paradise Beach?"
"It was great, thank you Dr. Alexander. This town is really beautiful." Rose gushed.
"Please, call me Alex." Dr. Alexander responded as he sat down at his desk. "So, what happened this morning, it looks like you were in a rush to get in?" he asked gently.
"How could you tell?" Rose joked.
Dr. Alexander cleared his throat, looking slightly uncomfortable himself. He poked at his chest while looking at her, and Rose paused out of confusion. Eventually, seeing she wasn't getting the hint, he spoke.
"I could tell because you missed a button."
Rose looked down at her shirt in horror. Not only had she missed a button on her blouse, she had been walking through the clinic giving everyone, including the receptionist and Dr. Alexander, and clear sight of her lacy red bra. She had grabbed the lacy bra in her rush this morning, having only brought it with her in case she ended up meeting someone attractive on a dating app. It did a horrible job concealing her cleavage, which was ideal on a date, but was currently displaying her perfect D cup breasts to her new boss.
"I am so sorry." Rose apologized as she buttoned her shirt, almost in tears with how the morning had gone so far.
"Don't worry about it." Dr. Alexander replied, shooting her a grin. "It's a breast surgery clinic, it's not a sight I'm unused to, if anything it's a good reminder of perfect anatomy."
Rose blushed, flustered at his unexpected and decidedly nerdly compliment. Before she could say anything else, his computer pinged and he got up from the desk.
"Ready to see your first patient?" He asked, and she followed him from the room.
The patient, as it turned out, was a young woman named Melissa who was hoping for a breast reduction. She had been dealing with back pain for a while. Dr. Alexander did a physical exam as Rose watched, and then they got to discussing what size the patient was aiming for after surgery.
"As you are now, I think you'd feel a lot of relief by coming down to a D cup, or maybe a C cup." Dr. Alexander explained.
"What would that look like on me?" Melissa asked, clearly concerned. "I don't want to be completely flat."
"Well," Dr. Alexander responded, "Rose here is a D cup, so you can imagine your breasts as somewhat similar to hers, or somewhat smaller if you'd like."
Melissa turned to look at Rose, who had turned bright red after Dr. Alexander's comment, examining her shirt closely. "I can't really tell, I think that size would be right on me."
"Rose, would you mind giving her a better view?" Dr. Alexander replied. Rose opened and shut her mouth, caught completely off-guard. Melissa and Dr. Alexander both looked at her expectedly. Slowly, Rose unbuttoned her blouse, letting her perfect breasts bounce out, still barely contained in her lacy bra. Melissa nodded as she looked at them. "Those are perfect, I'd love to aim for that size."
"Excellent." Dr Alexander smiled. Rose rebuttoned her blouse as they finalized the surgery date.
Back in Dr. Alexander's office he turned to her. "I hope you don't mind that I used you as an example, I forgot to ask you if that was okay first."
"Oh no it's fine." Rose responded. She still felt uncomfortable, and never would have exposed her chest like that at her home hospital, but something about Dr. Alexander's demeanor put her totally off her guard, and she found herself strangely excited to be used as an example.
After three more clinic patients, Dr. Alexander let her know it was time for lunch. "I have a couple of surgeries this afternoon, let me show you where the scrubs and changing rooms are."
Rose followed him to the scrub lockers beside the OR, and he showed her the changing rooms. "We're having the changing rooms refitted, so right now the men's one is out of order but the women's one is still open." He knocked on the door, and after getting no response, pushed it open so Rose could take a look inside. They walked in and he pushed open the door to the OR suites.
"That'll be the OR we're in today." He said, pointing to OR 1. "Sometimes I use both at once, but the second one is mostly unused."
Rose stood beside him, behind the red scrubs-only line. He smelled fantastic, a blend of manly scent and a hint of fancy cologne. She found herself accidently leaning into him, and pulled back after brushing her chest against his arm. If he noticed he didn't say anything.
After a stress-free lunch, the first surgery of the afternoon went by easily, and Rose was beginning to feel more confident in her role. Dr. Alexander was a fantastic teacher, and she felt confident that her suturing technique would improve with him as a mentor. During the second case, he had her close the tissue layers, and stood back to watch. As she worked, she felt his presence over her shoulder.
Her breath deepened, and her mask began to fog up, making the suturing much harder. Her hands began to shake slightly, and that's when he stepped beside her and gently took her hands in his, wrapping his fingers over her hands, and directing her position. He moved with her, guiding her wrists to relieve unnecessary strain. Somehow the room seemed to be getting hotter, and by the time the case was done, Rose was sweating beneath her surgical gown. She could feel her heartbeat throughout her body.
"Great work today." Dr. Alexander smiled as they scrubbed out. Rose blushed beneath her mask, happy to receive praise from him. He left the OR to talk to the patient's family and she went to the changing room to change back into her dress clothes, making sure to button everything. Before she left the clinic, she realized she didn't know what time the first case would be tomorrow, and she headed to Dr. Alexander's office to ask.
She opened the door to his office without knocking, and took a step into the room before seeing Dr. Alexander standing to the side of the room wearing nothing but boxers. Rose froze, unsure of what to do.
"I'm so sorry, I forgot about the men's changing room." Rose blurted out.
"Rose, close the door." Dr. Alexander responded.
Rose quickly closed the door, and Dr. Alexander looked at her strangely.
"Interesting choice" he said.
"What?" Rose stammered.
"I meant close the door with you outside." Dr Alexander quipped, smiling at her. For the umpteenth time that day, Rose felt heat rising in her cheeks and couldn't think of any decent response. Obviously he hadn't meant for her to stay inside, he was changing, what was she thinking?