One year later
Daphne woke to the usual sound of dishes clattering softly in the kitchen and the unmistakable scent of bacon. She rolled out of bed and pulled on a sweatshirt, padding out into the kitchen, where Henry was halfway into waffles, bacon, and what appeared to be eggs Benedict.
“Smells delicious,” she said, wrapping her arms around his waist.
“Morning,” he said, and craned his neck to kiss her. The angle was off and the kiss was brief, but it still made her stomach sizzle like a pat of butter dropped onto a hot pan. “Everyone’s off this morning, so they’re coming over for breakfast.”
“Weren’t you going to wake me?”
“You were up late last night on the phone with your patient. Figured you would need more sleep, but I would have woken you before they showed up.”
Daphne’s patient was a new mom, struggling with infant twins who had spiked their first-ever fever. She was stressed and overwhelmed, and when Daphne saw the panicked message the mother had sent at 11:00 p.m., she knew she needed to call her back immediately. It had taken longer than she thought to calm her down, but she was glad she’d taken the time because in the end, the patient had sounded exhausted but relieved. Next year she’d finally be done with her residency, just one year behind her friends, and she and Henry hadalready started talking about what the future might look like for them. There were a few clinics in the Twin Cities that she thought might be a good fit—give her the chance to actually help people while still providing enough variety to keep her interested each day. They were working on a way to visit Henry’s family too, although that would have to involve multiple portals and a not-insignificant amount of studying by Daphne to be prepared for (as she still insisted on calling it, mostly because it annoyed Henry) “Olden Times.”
“What’s the menu today?” Brittany asked, walking in with Ellie from their apartment across the hall, both of them still in their pajamas. “Smells good.”
Henry started explaining what he’d made, going off on a tangent with Ellie about a particular technique he’d recently learned for poaching eggs. One of Brittany’s sketchy exes had gotten him some forged identification so he could find work. His new job as a line cook meant he had terrible hours, but he was thriving; that much Daphne could see.
Pretty soon Vibol and Michelle arrived. Daphne buzzed them up, and when they walked in, it felt like everything was finally in place. Henry looked up from the stove and caught her eye, smiling warmly, like he knew what she was thinking.
Here, right now? Everything was perfect.
