Dr. Stud

You’re just not supposed to live in them.

Chapter 40

Dillon

Emmet knocks on the door, but there’s no answer. He looks at me, shrugging.

“Well, she's got lights on in there. She's got to be home.”

“Yeah, but she's not answering her phone. She doesn’t want to answer the door either,” Emmet scowls. “Maybe we should just leave her alone?”

We stare at each other for a few seconds, pondering the idea.

“Well, we were going to uh, get together and fuck, though, right?” I venture. “That was the deal, right? After the boat and everything?”

I mean, I don't want to be petty or force anyone into anything, but she clearly agreed to that. That was the plan.

“Yeah, subtle,” Emmet mumbles, shaking his head. After another moment's hesitation, he raises his hand and knocks on the door again, just slightly louder than before. Not like FBI loud or drug dealer loud, but loud. I reach out and press the buzzer with my thumb again.

“Okay, if she doesn't answer now, then she really doesn't want to see us,” I say reasonably. “Like for real, real.”

Emmet scowls, leaning toward me conspiratorially.

“Well, our deal is done, right? I mean, maybe she's just… done? Like that's it? Finished with us?”

“Yeah, maybe…”

We look out in opposite directions, mulling it over. Could that really be it? Could she just turn it all off, just like that?

Man. Cold.

Finally I see a shadow in the hallway, growing larger. When she opens the door, she looks up at us with tears in her eyes, her makeup smudged into thumbprints on her cheeks, her nose red and shiny.

“Oh my God,” Emmet blurts out. “What happened? Are you okay?”

She waves her hand in the air, turning on her heel and shuffling back toward the livi

ng room. We follow her tentatively, careful not to make too much noise.

“I'm sorry we were knocking so loud,” Emmet mumbles. “We thought maybe you couldn't hear us or something… or like…”

She flops on the sofa and sighs. “I don't care about how loud you were knocking.”

Emmet stares at me helplessly. He takes a seat in the chair, leaving the sofa for me. I sit down gingerly, about four inches away from her knee. I don't want to get too far into her space. I’ve been around the block a few times and I’ve learned one thing: crying women can be a little dangerous.

“You want to tell us what happened? I thought everything was going so well. Did Hannah say something about the… um, the merger?”

Emmet shoots me a dangerous look and flinches like he's going to drag out his phone. Then he pauses, trying not to be impolite. We pass little bit of a look between us, promising to check for merger updates just as soon as we deal with this Bella situation, whatever this is.

“There will be other mergers,” Emmet says consolingly, and I'm almost convinced he means it.

“The merger’s done,” she sighs, sniffling loudly.

“Wait, what? How do you know that?”

“And I'm fired,” she continues, her lips drawing downward in a sudden, twitching frown. Oh my God. She's going to cry right in front of me.

“Fired, what? And the merger… start at the beginning, Bella!”