Kim had been sitting in the restaurant for twenty minutes drinking a class of Shiraz. She had read through the menu more than enough times and Kerry was now ten minutes late, ten minutes later than Kim had ever known her to be. Maybe she had changed her mind and wasn’t coming. Kim, she’s ten minutes late. Give it a rest.

Her last real relationship had ended almost a year ago. Since then it had been a series of bad dates and disappointing starts to things that she quickly realized would never be long-term.

Kim wasn’t sure what the problem was. Granted she had never had the best of luck with relationships. She eventually found something wrong with her partner or managed to push them away before she could make the discovery.

Kerry had been different, she thought. It hadn’t mattered to her that Kerry was so stubborn, so rigid about rules. It hadn’t even bothered her, at first that Kerry wasn’t out. Kim was prepared to be so patient with her on that, but Kerry’s denial in the Shannon Wallace case had been too much. While Kim knew deep down that Kerry’s reaction had been about her own fear of someone discovering her sexuality, it had felt too much like Kerry was actually ashamed of the fact that Kim was a *****.

She was about to check her watch again when she saw Kerry making her way towards the table.

“I’m sorry, there was a multi-victim MVA and I …” Kerry explained pulling off her coat and sitting down.

“It’s okay, Kerry. I haven’t been waiting very long,” Kim lied, smiling at her companion. “So why does the Chief of Staff work in the ER anyway?”

“I pull a couple of shifts a month to keep my skills up,” Kerry said picking up her menu. “I may need to add a few more. I don’t think twice a month is really keeping me on the ball.”

Kim was about to take a sip of her wine, but returned her glass to its place on the table and stared at the woman across from her like she was a stranger.

“Kerry, on more than one occasion I heard you doubt yourself about whether you did the right thing in following a regulation or about whether you were as beautiful as I said you were but …” Kerry had put her menu down and despite her attempt to stop it, she was clearly blushing, “That is the first time I have ever heard you doubt your medical skills. Something else that Sandy did?”