If Chad is reticent to drop in on Dr. Fortescue's big annual holiday bash without a date, imagine his horror when he arrives to discover the party revolves around a city-wide scavenger hunt with a two-to-a-team policy stricter than Noah’s. Worse, his efforts to pair up with his hunky doctor crush are thwarted, and he winds up being assigned the doofus with an elbow in the punch bowl as a partner.<br><br>It turns out scavenger hunts are hard -- were they really supposed to dognap the doctor's neighbor's dachshund and carry it around the mall all night? But running around with Jarek is easy. And kinda fun.<br><br>Even with help from an unsuspecting celebrity and Santa’s sexiest elf, it’s starting to look like a participation trophy might be the best they can hope for prize-wise, but Chad starts to wonder if losing alongside Jarek might not be its own kind of win.

Chad vs. the Holiday Hoopla

“Where’s your partner?” he asked.


“Yes,” Dr. Fortescue commiserated, eyebrows wagging away. “But, that means Chad here is a single for the scavenger hunt.”


“Sure am,” I piped up, upping the wattage on my smile.


“So I was thinking he’d be perfect…” Dr. Fortescue said.


Dr. Sabroso quickly concurred. “Perfect!”


To be honest, I hadn’t realized professional adults embarked on scavenger hunts at their holiday parties, but Marlys was right; I didn’t get out a whole lot, least of all in structured social settings. And lucky for me, because if I’d thought for one second that my solo status would land me in some kind of partner lottery, I would never have come tonight. I’d eventually knuckled under for the opportunity to stand across a different room than St Bern’s emergency one and ogle Dr. Sabroso,maybe work up the nerve to say Hi. And look how Karma was prepared to reward my efforts.


Chapter 3