Perfectly Adequate

We haven’t seen this Julie in a long time. It’s great, right? I mean it should be everything. But it’s not.

“Yup.” I take another sip of my coffee, resting my elbows on the table.

“Your cast is off, yet your appointment to get it off is today. Want to talk about it?” She takes a seat next to me, setting a glass bottle of green juice on the table and her purse on the floor.

“Nope.” I move my attention from her to the window, not really focusing on anything in particular. That’s the problem. Nothing in my life feels in focus.

She rests her hand on mine. “What do you want, Eli?”

I grunt. “The impossible.”

She returns a half-hearted laugh. “Well, I taught you to reach for the stars. I guess I should feel some pride in your predicament. Can you define the impossible?”

I rub a hand down my face and blow out a long breath. “I want Roman every day. I don’t want to miss out on a single thing. And I want Dorothy. And I don’t want to hate Julie. And I don’t want her to hate me. And if I’m making a wish list, might as well add curing cancer to it.”

“What’s your plan B?”

Allowing a tiny smirk to grace my face, I give her side-eye. “That’s what I’m trying to figure out since Dorothy removed herself from the equation.”

“I’m sorry, Eli.”

“Yeah, me too.”

“So where does that leave you and Julie? She seemed pretty happy a few minutes ago.”

“Yes. She crawled into my bed last night and wrapped her arms around me, releasing this content sigh like all is right again in the world. This was after I told her Dorothy left me. I just lay there wondering how my life got so messed up. And I feel like something is wrong with Julie for wanting to be with me when she knows I’m in love with Dorothy. But then …”

I laugh a crazy man’s laugh. “But then it hits me. I’ve been the one for the past year, silently begging her to come back to me, love me, need me, raise Roman with me, while knowing all along that she didn’t want me.”

“Yes. It’s ironic. And painful. And I wish I had a brilliant answer for you, but I don’t. However, if Dorothy is truly out of the picture, then you need to decide where to go from here. You need that plan B.”

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

Goodbye

“Welcome back.” Dr. Warren glances up from the computer in my lab, giving me a faint smile.

“Thanks.” I planned on arriving a little earlier, but Roman woke up and I decided to have breakfast with him and my mom.

Warren’s gaze lands on my leg and my slight limp. “Sure you’re ready to be back?”

“More than you can imagine,” I murmur, swiping through a few charts and lab results on my tablet.

“Must have been hell, you know … being nursed back to health by Dr. Hathaway and sleeping with Dorothy Mayhem.”

I blow a laugh out my nose while glancing up from my tablet. “Alright, I suppose this is as good of time as any. Yes, I was involved with Dorothy. But I’m not now. And I apologize if you truly had real feelings for her that went beyond getting her under you in the on-call room.”

Warren crosses his arms over his chest and nods once. “What happened?”

“An apology. That’s the most I owe you. I’m not telling you what happened between me and Dorothy.”

He shrugs. “She’ll tell me. I’m not sure she can keep a secret.”

“Leave her alone.”

Warren holds up his hands. “Whoa … I’m leaving her alone.” He glances over my shoulder and nods. “Speak of the devil.”

I turn toward the window. Dorothy’s talking to Willa. She grins at something Willa says. It makes me smile. I love seeing Dorothy happy. But her smile falters as her attention gets pulled toward something past Willa. Julie passes them, giving Dorothy a wide grin and a nod before she makes a quick left, coming into my lab.

“Doctors.” She hasn’t lost a bit of her early morning cheeriness. “Keisha Eldridge’s biopsy came back. It’s malignant melanoma.” She shows me the results.

After looking over them, I hand them to Dr. Warren.

Julie smiles and runs her fingertips along my ear, messing with my hair. “You could use a trim, Eli.”

My eyes find Dorothy. She drops her gaze, tucking her hair behind her ears as she brushes past Willa like she can’t get out of here fast enough.

“Let’s take Roman shopping next weekend for a new Halloween costume. He’s already worn out his superhero costume. I knew he would. We should get costumes too. Remember we always talked about doing that?”

Warren glances up from Keisha’s chart, raising a single eyebrow as Julie messes with the collar of my shirt. I used to love her messing with my hair and my clothes—anything to feel her touch. Where did it go? Why does her touch feel so wrong?