“Don’t chicken out,” I tell myself. To me, sending a message instead of just going in person is a cop-out. He deserves more than a casually typed message that could be misinterpreted or received at a bad time. No, I’ll just go.
I can do this.
I shower, style my hair, throw on a dash of mascara, and get dressed. I don’t look amazing by any means, but I’m me, and that’s enough. That’s what he likes. He likes me for me.
I only hope I haven’t lost him.
I go outside, hop in my car, and drive across town. The clinic isn’t far and I honestly could have walked. I don’t want to be sweaty when I arrive, though. I hurry inside and when I get to the reception desk, I smile.
“Hello,” the woman says. “Do you have an appointment?”
“No, I don’t. I’m here to see Doctor...”
Shit.
I don’t even know this guy’s last name.
Fuck.
Me.
Leave it to me to become claimed by a guy whose last name I don’t know.
The receptionist raises an eyebrow.
“Doctor?”
“Doctor Rob,” I squeak out. It comes out like a question though, and her brow furrows. She looks at a piece of paper in front of her.
“Was your appointment for this morning?” She says. “Unfortunately, Doctor Rob had to cancel all of his appointments. I thought I called everyone to let them know...” Her voice trails off as she shuffles through a few different pieces of paper, and I slink out of the office unnoticed.
Well, shit.
So much for making up.
I pull out my phone and open Team Shifter. I’ll go ahead and send him a message, I guess. I go to the messaging portion of the app, but the place where our messages were is gone.
Deleted.
“What?” I whisper, and suddenly, my entire chest hurts. He unmatched me. He unmatched me because of what I did, and now I don’t have a way to tell him that I’m sorry, that this isn’t what I want.
I don’t have a way to move forward.
What do I do?
Flicking to my contacts list, I call Foxy. She answers on the first ring.
“Meredith? What’s wrong?”
“Nothing,” I say.
“It has to be something. You’ve never called me on the phone before.”
“I’ve called you.”
“Never.”
“He’s not at work,” I blurt out. “What do I do?”