chapter 24

Hilly didn't see it coming. How could she? With more than a year of stringent dieting and vigorous exercise, she had turned herself into a size 0 knockout. She was rail thin and totally toned. She had transformed herself into the Golden Girl of DePaul University Hospital. Now it was Hilly Przbylski who was the center of attention, who turned the heads of practically every man in the building, ANY building she walked into.

So it was only natural that she'd find some way to start dating Brad Brauner. He was 42, six feet four inches tall and a muscular two hundred pounds, magazine cover handsome, charming as all get out, attentive, thoughtful, kind, considerate. If Hilly had set out to build Mr. Perfect, she would have ended up with Brad Brauner.

Now, when you're Mr. Perfect, there are certain expectations that go with it, not the least of which is that you set incredibly high standards for yourself. That's why Hilly and Brad were "made for each other", at least in the minds of practically everyone at DePaul Hospital. Who else would be good enough for the "perfect" chief of staff but the Golden Girl who headed the Nutrition Science Department? So it was NO surprise to anyone at DePaul that Brad and Hilly became a "thing".

Well, there was ONE surprising thing about this match made in heaven. For the life of them, no one at DePaul could remember seeing Brad date ANYONE from work. He seemed to have an active social life. Every so often his picture could be seen in the Social News section of the Tribune and the Sun-Times with this or that beautiful woman, each one more dazzling than the other. But, over time, you stopped seeing them photographed together. And then the next thing you knew, he'd be dating yet another incredibly gorgeous woman. But everyone just assumed that Brad was the kind of bachelor who was seeking perfection in a woman and that "when the time came", Brad would settle down with one of his super gorgeous girl friends, get married and start a family of incredibly cute children.

Little did they know. But with Hilly Przbylski, they'd soon find out!