Off Limits (Secrets Kept 1)

GoodWithHisHands: Oh God, what’s wrong with us? We’re not only up in our feels, but we’re doing it together…ew…gross. Quick, talk about sucking dick or something else to distract us.

TheDoctorIsIn: Is this your way of trying to get a dick pic out of me?

GoodWithHisHands: Would I have to try all that hard?

TheDoctorIsIn: First, no. Second, it’s killing me not to make a joke about being hard…

While I was also trying not to acknowledge the fact that I already felt slightly better simply by having this ridiculous conversation with a man I could just jump on the elevator and go talk to in person if we decided to.

GoodWithHisHands: So…so…hard.

TheDoctorIsIn: I think there’s something wrong with us.

GoodWithHisHands: LOL. At least we’re in this together, then.

TheDoctorIsIn: Are you okay? After your hard day?

GoodWithHisHands: Yeah, just confronted with mistakes from my past and things I wish had happened differently. Are you okay?

TheDoctorIsIn: I’m better now.

GoodWithHisHands: Oh, wow, that sounded awfully sweet, Doc. Are you falling for me?

I couldn’t help laughing again. I liked his sense of humor. It fit well with mine. I’d met plenty of men online before, but that was all just random chatter before a quick hookup. It wasn’t like this, wasn’t anything like my mechanic and I were doing. This was more of a friendship that had come out of nowhere, like it hadn’t been there and then it just was, and it fit so perfectly into place, as if a spot had been carved out for it all along.

GoodWithHisHands: Did I scare you away?

TheDoctorIsIn: No, sorry. Was just thinking. Do you want me to be falling for you?

GoodWithHisHands: Oh, you’re smooth. How quickly you turned the tables on me. Have you ever been in a serious relationship?

TheDoctorIsIn: No. I haven’t found someone who makes me…I don’t know, feel as if I can’t live without them. Or that I don’t want to live without, I guess. I’m not anti-relationship, but I’ve never actively looked for one either. If it happens, it happens. If it doesn’t, it doesn’t. Until then, I quite enjoy sampling as many possibilities as I can.

I added a devil emoji for emphasis.

It wasn’t that I refused to settle down and grow up the way my father thought. I just…wanted to be moved, and no one had done that for me yet.

GoodWithHisHands: Hahaha. You and me both, man. About wanting to feel something special, I mean.

TheDoctorIsIn: Have you? Been in a serious relationship?

Seconds turned into a minute, then another and another. I was beginning to think he wasn’t going to reply, which made me all sorts of curious.

GoodWithHisHands: That’s a hard question to answer. Yes, in most ways, it would look like I have been… Okay, I have been for sure, but it was complicated. It’s not something I feel like getting into tonight, though. Rain check?

TheDoctorIsIn: Yes. But you don’t have to feel obligated to tell me later either.

GoodWithHisHands: I like you, Doc.

TheDoctorIsIn: I like you too.

Which again was part of the reason I didn’t want to meet him. Maybe the connection wouldn’t be there in real life. Maybe I’d realize he wasn’t who I thought. Or maybe—and likely, more realistically—I’d find a way to ruin it.

GoodWithHisHands: In my experience, reality isn’t quite the same…

TheDoctorIsIn: Yeah, I was thinking the same thing.

GoodWithHisHands: I knew we’d still be on the same page.

Yeah, I’d known it too…but damned if I wasn’t disappointed, if I didn’t wish my mechanic would have tried to change my mind.

6

Ryder

Doc and I had a date every night at eight. We’d meet on the app, never calling, texting, or video chatting, just…messaging back and forth for another week. Every time we spoke, I liked him more. Something about his blend of confidence and flirtation mixed with vulnerability called out to me, grabbed hold of me, and refused to let go. He got to me in ways no one ever had. It was both exciting and scary as hell.

In the grand scheme of things, it should feel like I didn’t know a damn thing about this man, yet somehow I did. He’d become my friend, my companion, someone I talked with and laughed with and searched the elevator and lobby and sidewalk for every day, thinking that if my gaze caught his, I’d know.

So basically, I’d lost my fucking mind because I sure as shit didn’t usually think things like that, nor voice them to anyone if I did. He’d fucked with my head, and I wasn’t even sure he knew how much, or how it happened, or if I wanted to make it stop or not.

Today was Sunday, and I was working at the shop even though it was typically one of my days off. We were booked pretty solid, and one of my employees was sick, so I had to cover. I was beneath a Honda, grease up to my elbows and loving the feeling of accomplishment I got being right where I was—but also thinking about my fucking doctor because, again, I’d lost my damn mind—when a feminine voice cleared their throat. Everything inside me tensed up. Hell, I was pretty sure I stopped breathing too.