“You wouldn’t be the first,” I admit. “I see it happen all the time.”
Raine asks me if I’d like to grab a coffee from the little cart out front. Given that I still have six hours left on this shift, I welcome the caffeine.
She enjoys talking about her sons and how busy they keep her. Between studying, work, and taking the older one to play sports, I don’t know how she does it. And that young as well. When I was her age, my biggest dilemma was what DVD to rent on the weekends. That and how not to annoy my new roommate.
We stand and wait for the barista to complete our order distracted by the sound of someone running.
“There you are!” Zoey runs straight toward me, her heels clicking loudly against the floor. If her face weren’t beaming, I would have fallen into a panic.
“Are you okay?”
“I’m more than okay. Remember that wedding venue I told you about that has a five-year waiting list down by the bay?”
Vaguely. More than often, I’ve been zoning out when it comes to wedding talk. It’s not that I don’t want to get married but because Zoey just goes on and on about it.
“Yeah, sure.” I lean in to kiss her hello. She kisses me back briefly before pulling away excitedly.
“They emailed me this morning. They have an opening six weeks from now. So, before you say anything, I know it’s expensive and short notice, but it’s the perfect location. You can’t top that place in San Diego. It’s like the dream wedding place,” she exaggerates.
“Six weeks?” I state, in shock. “Can we even pull off a wedding in that time?”
“Of course, we can. I have Mia, and even Gigi offered to help. Plus, Mom said she’d fly over next weekend. You won’t need to do a single thing besides get fitted for a suit.” She takes a deep breath, then finally notices Raine standing beside me.
“Sorry, how rude of me. Zoey, this is Raine, she’s an intern who’s just started.”
Zoey keeps quiet, eyeing her up and down until she breaks out in a smile, extending her hand. “I’m his fiancée.”
“Nice to meet you,” Raine replies. “I didn’t know Drew was engaged.”
Zoey wraps her arm around my waist squeezing tighter than usual. “Yep, and hopefully we’re getting married in six weeks.”
In an effort to have a proper conversation, I try to pull her arm off me. She gazes back, almost bitter. Have I done something wrong? I was trying to get my head around the six-week thing and the cost. “Zo, it seems impossible to pull a wedding off in six weeks.”
Her tone changes, eyes watching Raine while talking back to me. “I’m certain we can pull it off. When Slater and I had lunch yesterday—”
“Excuse me,” I interrupt, the same time mine and Raine’s pagers go off. Raine quickly says goodbye telling me she’ll see me in the ward soon.
I turn my focus back to Zoey staring at her with discontent. “You didn’t tell me you had lunch with Slater.”
“You didn’t ask. I have lunch with people all the time. It’s part of my job. And besides, it was a super quick lunch down at that café with those foot-long rolls. Oh my God.” Zoey laughs to herself, an inside ‘joke’ that no doubt has something to do with the man I’m slowly resenting every minute that passes. “Slater told the funniest joke. I can’t remember how it went, but I swear I laughed so hard I literally choked on my roll.”
“Sounds great,” I say with zero enthusiasm.
Her laughs slow down, the smile quickly disappearing from her face. “So, the wedding?”
“Let’s do it.” I surprise myself with the answer. I need her off the market now. None of this bullshit sexy-accent co-workers trying to take her out to lunch hoping to score because she isn’t ‘technically’ married yet. I know how a man’s mind works, and fuck if he ever tries to touch her!
“Wait, are you serious?” She jumps up and hugs me tightly, wrapping her arms around my neck. “You won’t regret it.”
Despite my reluctance to leave her, my pager goes off again. Our schedules are not in sync at all, but I promise to have an early breakfast with her tomorrow morning even if it means I will have no sleep, then so be it.
At least, it will drown out the nagging feeling that something’s brewing on the horizon. Something so big it could tear us apart.
Chapter Four
Zoey
It’s been happening a lot lately.