The Best of Us (Love in Isolation 2)

“You have time to butter him up.” Piper flashes a wink. “If you get my drift.”

Rolling my eyes, I shake my head. “Yeah, I get your not so subtle hint.”

“Mom’s begging for grandchildren and since I’m waiting till I’m forty, you’ll have to take one for the team.”

“I’m not getting knocked up just to make our mother happy!”

“Well prepare for her to bombard you with ‘your internal clock is ticking’ reminders. I’ve been getting them for a year and I’m only twenty-one!” Piper flashes an annoyed smile.

“Mom knows better, I guess. Probably thinks you’ll be the first to have an oopsie pregnancy,” I tease.

“Absolutely not!”

I take a drink of my coffee and realize it’s starting to get cold, so I chug some more of it.

“Well, I better get back to my live stream so I can do my hair and makeup.”

“Where are you going?” I ask, confused. “Did you get snow there too?”

“Yeah, but not as much as you. The roads should be cleared before noon.” She flashes a shit-eating grin.

“Lucky.” I groan.

We say our goodbyes after I promise to keep her updated. I need to text Cami next but decide to wait until after I’m out of the bath.

Once the water cools, I drain the tub and throw on a fluffy robe. My cup is empty and I’ll eventually have to go downstairs for food.

Kendall: Your brother’s a jerk. Just thought I’d let you know.Cami: What’d he do now?Kendall: Snapped at me for no reason. So I told him off and walked away.Cami: I’m sure he didn’t mean to. He’s under a lot of stress.Kendall: That’s no excuse to be rude. He made it very known how he feels about me and it wasn’t good.Cami: I’m sorry. Just remember he’s reserved and doesn’t show emotion well. Just give him time to come around to the idea of being there with you. He’ll open up.I scoff.

Kendall: Doubt it, but I guess I’ll try because I have no other choice. If I’m gonna be stuck here with nothing to do I don’t want to argue with him the whole time. But he needs to put in some effort too! It’s not like I deserved his attitude. Well, I did say he had a stick up his ass…Cami: Kendall!Kendall: I was kidding! He can’t take a joke?Cami: I don’t understand why you two fight. Probably because he likes you and is trying to push you away.Kendall: HA! Now you’re just being delirious.Cami: You like him or you wouldn’t care what he thought.Kendall: No. He’s HOT. That doesn’t mean I like him.Cami: Whatever you say ;)Kendall: This is your fault, ya know. You couldn’t go to Hawaii for your honeymoon like a normal newlywed.Cami: Nope :) The paps can find me too easily there anyway. I want pure privacy and romance. You two will have plenty of time to make it super special for us now!Kendall: If he’ll help. Right now he’s set on being miserable.Cami: Like I said, he’ll come around.Doubtful, but I guess time will tell and it seems we’ll have plenty of it. I just hope he doesn’t think he can say mean things, then act like nothing’s wrong, like he used to do when I was a teenager.Chapter FourRyanFuck.

I screwed up. Kendall overheard me talking to Eli, and I regret what I said. I was frustrated about the weather and not being able to work, but I shouldn’t have taken it out on her. Especially since Kendall Montgomery is the poster child of happiness and has a genuine personality. She’s never snapped at me like that before, I hate admitting it turned me on a little.

As soon as Kendall walks away, I mentally slap myself. Those words hurt her and that’s the last thing I want to do. Once they left my mouth, I knew it was too late. Though she didn’t think twice about putting me in my place and marching off. I thought about running after her but I didn’t want to risk her smacking me across the face.

I pour myself a cup of coffee and sit down with my laptop. Between checking the weather updates and work emails, I do some paperwork. I prefer being the ER with my patients than trying to review results from afar. I love how fast a sixteen-hour shift flies by. I’m typically exhausted afterward but still struggle to fall asleep.

My life changed drastically two years ago when a pandemic hit. It turned my life upside down, but it’s still fresh in my brain. The things I witnessed still haunt my dreams, hell it haunts me when I’m awake too. Though the restrictions have lifted, I still take precautions since the vaccine is new.

Cami believes I have PTSD, and she might be right, but I’ll deal with it on my own terms. Working and knowing I’m saving lives gets me through the dark days.