ALISON
I'd known it was coming, but still, the hurt stabbed into my gut like a sucker punch. I straightened, planting both feet on the floor to center myself before I answered her.
"Okay. What do you want to know about Tom?"
"How did you meet?"
"Ahhh . . ." I ran the tip of my tongue over my front teeth. "He was a fellow in the program during my last year of residency. All of us were in awe of him because he was so incredibly intelligent and very intense. We used to joke that he didn't really exist outside the med center. He didn't fool around, he didn't make small talk, and he wasn't interested in our personal lives. But even so, we all respected the hell out of him. He was a genius."
"Sounds a little intimidating."
"Totally. But one day, he asked me to help him with a study he
