No New Friends

“I'm outside your apartment. Are you ready?”

“Yeah, I'll be down in a minute!”

I quickly grabbed my jacket and purse and ran out of my room. It was Saturday morning and Corey and I were on our way to the MRI research study.

Kadie must have woken up from the sounds of me thumping around the apartment. She stood at her bedroom door, in her Hello Kitty pajamas, rubbing her eyes.

“I made breakfast! It's in the kitchen! I'm so late! I gotta go! Bye!” I stuffed a bagel in my mouth and held another in my hand as I stormed out. I heard Kadie saying a delayed and groggy goodbye after I shut the door behind me.

“Hey, sorry you had to wait” I was out of breath from running down the flight of stairs. I handed the extra bagel in my hand to Corey.

“Thanks” He took the bagel from my hand “It really wasn't that long. Plus, I told you the research was 30 minutes earlier than it actually is”

I shot a look to Corey and he began to laugh “I didn't want us to be late! And it's just a few blocks away so I thought we could walk”

“It isn't at the school?” I had no idea what was going on.

“No, it's at a new facility that just opened. Apparently, one floor is all testing equipment and the other floors are all offices privately owned by different specializing doctors. It's suppose to be a new age hospital. You have the convenience of testing machines, but you have the independence of having your own practice. That way you can keep your patients and you don't have to refer them.” Corey's hands were all over the place as he excitedly spoke.

“Neat! So what's our research all about?” I couldn't have been more uninterested.

“The researchers are going to be testing the influences of different music genres on our brain activity”

As Corey was talking I suddenly remembered why I even signed up for these stupid researches in the first place, Emma! I was so consumed with living my ludicrously dramatic life that I had completely forgotten I'd promise to set her up with Corey.

Corey and I walked silently as we both ate our bagels. I tried to find the right words to ask him about his love life. We approached an intersection and our walking came to a rest. Corey's head was turned towards the oncoming traffic waiting for it to pass so we could cross.

I figured this was a great opportunity to ask. “Are you still single?”

Corey whipped his head down towards me and let out a slight laugh before stopping himself from fully letting a rip on a laugh attack.

“Is something funny?” I irritatedly asked.

“Are you interested?” Corey straightened his posture and his cheeky grin grew. His sudden confidence masked his otherwise nerdy characteristics.

I scrunched my nose at him “No!”

Corey seemed offended by my response “Good, cause you're not my type!”

I dropped my jaw and took in a sharp breath. My reaction didn't seem to entertain Corey. The traffic had passed and Corey began crossing the street. I had to chase after him since one of his strides equaled two and a half of mine.

I had a sudden realization “You're not gay are you?” To which Corey responded by stopping.

“Why would you think that?” He asked peevingly

“Oh, I didn't mean to offend you, it's just, I've had a few comical incidents happen recently that are begging me to ask.” I laughed to myself as I squirmishly continued “I mean those incidents weren't so funny when they happened, but I can safely say that it's hilarious now. The incidents, I mean, not the gay-”

Corey cut me off “Lynn!” he looked at me for a brief second before we started walking again. “Just because you aren't my type, doesn't mean I'm gay. And for the record, I'm not gay!”

“Well, in that case, just because I asked if you're single doesn't mean I'm interested!”

Corey grinned “Touche. So then, why were you asking?”

“Because, I have a friend who's looking, and I think y'all would be a great match!” I didn't want to give Emma's identity away.

“You don't even know my type. What makes you think we'd be a great match?”

“Well, what's your type then? Since it's obviously not 5'5”, brunette, perfect smile, and a killer personality?” I said sarcastically while pointing to myself.

Corey laughed “Look, don't get me wrong. You're a cute girl, but you're too social and it seems like you have a lot of drama in your life. Not to mention how high maintenance you are. I like sweet, quiet, simple girls”

My smile fell flat. I completely ignored the last part of Corey's comment “High maintenance?! I'm a simple girl! AND I'M SWEET TOO!” My tone was completely contradicting my words.

Corey grabbed both my shoulders and looked down at my Michael Kors purse, my Burberry trench coat, my Marc Jacobs watch, and my Tory Burch boots. (In my defense half of these things were given to me as graduation gifts.)

He furrowed his brows while giving me a half-smile as if to say, who are you kidding?

“Just because I like nice things doesn't mean I'm high maintenance!”

Corey laughed so hard he dropped his head back. I shook his hands off my shoulders and continued to walk “Whatever” I whispered under my breath while looking down at the ground. “So, do you want to go on a date with her or what?”

“If she's my type then I don't see why not?”

I quickly texted Emma to see if she'd be available to go out that night. She responded within seconds letting me know she was free.

“Tonight, 6 o clock dinner at Trivanti's. Make sure you dress nice. She's short, has red hair, and she'll be wearing a black dress”

Before Corey could figure out I was setting him up with Emma, I pushed him through the doors of the researcher's office.

We went inside and signed in. There was about 50 other people there. The researchers came one by one calling in different age groups. Once we were inside the lab we had to fill out consent forms before moving on. The researchers then split the groups into males and females. My group went first. The next couple of hours were spent listening to music while laying in a bed that kept pulling us in and out of the MRI machine.

When I came out of the testing room I saw that Corey's group had already went into a separate room. It looked like they were just about to finish so I decided to step out into the waiting room. An elderly woman approached me and handed me a check for fifty dollars.

“Here's your compensation for the day, dear. We need to clear this area for the next group. Would you please mind waiting in the building's lobby downstairs”

She practically pushed me out the office. I was too happy about the check to care. Corey never told me it was a paid research study. Sweet!

I walked out of the office staring down at the check, when I looked up, in the far distance, and I mean a good 100 feet away, was a gentleman examining a patient's chart. He was blonde, average height, and wearing a white lab coat with a light blue dress shirt tucked into gray slacks.

I gasped when I realized who it might be. I was so loud I broke his concentration. He looked up from his chart and I jumped behind the wall of the intersecting hallway before he could see me.

I waited a good two minutes before I peeked around the corner to see if he was still there. He was gone. I stealthy tip toed over to the door he was standing in front of. There was an engraved plaque mounted on the wall next to the door. It read:

Dermatology Specialists of Manhattan

Zain Ahmad, M.D

Connor Cassidy, M.D

Leo Spaceman, M.D

My eyes widened as I read Connor's name. My suspicions were confirmed. I was so busy the last couple of weeks trying to move on from Jonah that I had completely forgotten about Connor.

The door flew open so fast I didn't have enough time to run. Instead I stood there like a statue with my eyes tightly shut hoping that if I focused on being invisible long enough it would happen.

“Lynn? Are you okay?” Connor's voice echoed in the empty office behind him.

I slowly opened one eye and then the other. I awkwardly smiled as I stammered on “Yeah, uh, sorry I, uh, I thought I had to, um, sneeze”

“What are you doing here?” There was a small trace of a Boston accent in his voice.

“Oh!” I shot up my hand that was holding the check “I was actually just down the hall doing a research study!”

He stood silently starring at me as his body propped the door to his practice open. I get that leaving him at dinner was rude, but this silent treatment was so much more harsh.

“Soo...is this your new office?” I tried to lessen the tension as I looked behind Connor. He walked towards me shutting the door behind him.

He looked over at the plaque with his name as if to answer my question. Connor rolled his eyes and sighed “Anyway, I have a lot of work to get to” Ouch!

Connor walked out of the office and I stepped in front of him to block his way “Look, Connor, I'm sorry about dinner. I-”

“You know what? Don't worry about it. I was just looking to make new friends in the City, but it seems like you have too many to handle.”

My phone vibrated in my pocket. I took it out thinking it was Corey asking where I was.

“Case and point” Connor's voice drifted in the background as I snapped back into reality. He was still standing in front of me with the palm of his hands facing upwards.

“I'm sorry!”I slipped my phone back into my pocket “Let me make it up to you. We can have a redo of dinner? No phones, no friends, no distractions!” I sandwiched Connor's hands between mine. He let out a deep sigh and dropped his shoulders causing his head to roll downwards.

“Fine” he mumbled under his breath “So long as we don't have to crawl on the floor again”

I flashed Connor a smile. Just then Corey came walking around the corner. When he saw it was me he started waving his check in the air and shouted “Lynn? Hey, Lynn!”

Connor glanced over at Corey and then back to me. He gave me the most apathetic look ever “Don't make me regret this”

“You won't, I promise!”