Amber poured coffee for Eric, adding the sugar he’d requested, and passed it on to him. She then held up her mug to her face, breathing in deeply the scent through her nose. It smelled even better up close. One more reason to love sex: it made everything else seem wonderful, even a simple cup of coffee. It was good to be alive. “I’ll take the cottage cheese.” This was nice. Amber didn’t mind letting her one-night partners eat breakfast before booting them out, if it didn’t interfere with her plans, but she didn’t eat with them. Was this what it was like for couples? Probably not. More likely it’d be a lot more drab, each person doing their own serving.

Amber sipped her coffee, contemplating her day. They probably wouldn’t have a new case yet, so House would either bail out altogether or decide he’d entertain himself with them. If he bailed, she could work the clinic, earning brownie points with Cuddy. She might not have much control over House, but she was powerful in other ways; might as well suck up to her, too. And if House wanted to play with his recruits… that’d be fun. She could mess with the others. She should wait before trying anything more with the oh-so-precious Thirteen, but there was still plenty of competition to weed out. She should take care of Cole: House seemed to be really intrigued by him.

She wondered what Eric would be up to. “So why don’t you have work today? Do all neurologists get Fridays off?”