Page 2 of Strictly Against Policy

A woman with a pin-straight, graying bob rushed out from the back with a stack of paper towels. “Dr. Lee!” she called out, her voice the same as the one I heard over the phone. She gestured to a door beside the one she had exited. “The restroom is over there; please go ahead and freshen up. I’ll clean this up.”

“No, it’s alright. I can do it,” I insisted.

“Nonsense! You go and take care of yourself.” The tech waved her hand dismissively.

“Thank you.” I gave her a grateful nod. I scurried to the bathroom and avoided any eye contact. I didn’t let go of the death grip I had on my insulated mug until I was inside. I placed it on the sink and observed the coffee splashed across the bottom half of my face, my chest, and my clothes. I sighed.

Today was going to be a very long day.

After I successfully cleaned up where the coffee had spilled into my bra, I turned to my blouse. I dabbed it with wet paper towels, doing everything I could, but half of it was still ruined. I refused to throw it under the faucet just to get the stain out, especially with no hand dryer in this bathroom. For me to be wearing a white blouse half wet at work would be wildly inappropriate. I was already late and had made myself seem unreliable and incompetent. Now this?

Nope.

I took a deep breath. I was ready to head back out when I heard a knock on the bathroom door. “Someone’s in here,” I said.

“Dr. Lee, Jonathan has a shirt you can borrow,” explained the muffled voice of the tech from earlier.

I opened the door, confused. “Jonathan?”

The tech beamed sweetly as she stood there. She glanced at my shirt just once before holding my gaze, offering me the neatly folded powder-blue button-up in her hands. “Our pharmacy manager. He said this should fit you, and that you can return it to him another day.”

I knew I looked like a mess. I didn’t want to admit it when I looked at myself in the mirror earlier, but I did. Unfortunately, everyone who witnessed my coffee-spilling mishap also knew I looked like a disaster. I accepted the shirt with a small thank you and closed the door.

When I finally walked into the back of the pharmacy, the patients waiting earlier were already gone. There were no new patients waiting in line or in the waiting area either. The atmosphere here was clearly slower than in the pharmacy I used to work at, but no less efficient.

The small team, comprised of three technicians, all turned to look at me. Meanwhile, the pharmacy manager was still facing the computer screen in front of him.

“Hi, everyone, I’m Lina Lee. I’ll be the new pharmacist working with you all. I’m so sorry about being late and for causing a scene earlier,” I greeted.

“It’s nice to meet you, Dr. Lee. I’m Grace, the senior pharm tech here,” nodded the woman who had been assisting me since I stormed through the door.

“No need to call me doctor. Just Lina is fine,” I quickly mentioned.

The other two technicians introduced themselves as Carmen and Sheryl. A big, inviting grin stretched across Carmen’s lips as she nodded too, and Sheryl had kind, green eyes. All the pharmacy technicians had the same warm energy. I smiled back, polite but nervous.

They looked like they wanted to say more, but the pharmacy manager finally decided to spare me a glance over his shoulder. Lips pursed. Eyes narrowed.

The stretch of my grin wobbled.

It was Jonathan Lo.

I couldn’t recognize his voice earlier, but I would know his face anywhere. Even if it had been a decade since I last saw him, the four years we had spent in our high school classes together had ingrained his features in my memories forever. Those observant, sharp, cat-like eyes; those wide lips that were always twisted into a coy, playful grin . . .

My academic rival from high school was now my manager. Unfortunately, from the way his lips were twitching and seemed ready to snarl, this wasn’t going to be a joyous reunion.

CHAPTER 2

Lina

Jonathan’s dark-coffee eyes met mine. Familiarity hazed over them, but no warmth was present there. “It’s nice to see you finally joining us, Dr. Lee,” he said coolly. “Today hasn’t been lucky for you, has it?”

A shrill cry rang from the phone before I could reply. Grace rushed to answer it with a sway of her immaculate bob; both Carmen and Sheryl suddenly ducked their heads and busied themselves with their own responsibilities.

“No, it hasn’t.” I straightened my spine. “But it’s great to meet you again, Dr. Lo. You don’t need to use such formalities when we’re familiar with one another. We’re old classmates, after all.”

Jonathan’s brows knitted together as he moved away from the computer. I took a deep breath as he approached me, footsteps powerful and heavy. He stopped only a mere step away from me and crossed his large arms across his chest, towering over me with his much larger frame.

“There’s a time and place for professionalism as well, Dr. Lee,” he said in a low, gravelly rumble. “You were late.” He enunciated the word so sharply it might as well have cut the tension between us in the process.