Total pages in book: 74
Estimated words: 72892 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 364(@200wpm)___ 292(@250wpm)___ 243(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 72892 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 364(@200wpm)___ 292(@250wpm)___ 243(@300wpm)
I glance at the bag hanging over the back of the chair I was just sitting in. I choose a larger tote before I left home to head to Astrid’s because it’s just the right size for a ball of yarn and knitting needles.
I take another look around this almost empty café before I sit back down.
Inspiration can be found anywhere, so I’ll order another coffee, and get to work on a sweater that a regular customer ordered a couple of weeks ago.
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
Gaines
I did what I promised myself I wouldn’t do.
I circled the block where Eloise lives three times before I let myself into the building using the code I saved to memory after peering over her shoulder two nights ago.
I had no right to be there, yet there I was banging a fist on her apartment door, desperately hoping to find her there.
She never answered.
I tried again an hour later after swearing to myself I’d go home.
I made it an entire three blocks from her place before I stepped into a bar and downed two fingers of whiskey.
I spent the next ten minutes convincing a woman who approached me that I had no interest in going home with her.
Rewind to a few weeks ago and we wouldn’t have made it past the alley next to the bar.
I would have let her blow me before I fucked her, and that rendezvous would have left us both satisfied, albeit for me it would have been a temporary fix.
Now, the thought of another woman’s lips wrapped around my dick does nothing for me.
I don’t know where the fuck Eloise learned how to suck cock, but she’s in a class all her own.
After I walked away from a beautiful woman willing to drop to her knees for me, I went back to Eloise’s apartment again for another round of the torture of not finding her there.
I’m home now with a raging hard-on and a mind filled with all kinds of ‘what-if’ scenarios.
What if some guy is nailing her right now?
What if she’s blowing someone else at this exact moment?
What if I never know who she ran out to meet tonight?
“You’re so fucked?” I whisper as I pace the hallway in my apartment. “So fucked, Gaines. You can’t do this.”
I can’t fall for a woman.
I can’t want a woman to this degree.
A knock at my apartment door sends me in that direction in record time.
It’s not until I’m opening the door that I realize Eloise has no fucking clue where I live.
Berk does, though, and it’s him standing there.
“You forgot this.” He shoves a pink envelope at me. “That’s the thank you card Stevie wrote in front of you for the flowers you gave her last week.”
A light blue envelope appears from behind his back. “This is a new one. She wrote this after you left to thank you for the buttercups you brought her tonight.”
I take both and step aside to let him in. “Tell her thanks.”
“You could write a card and thank her yourself,” he jokes. “Sure, I’d love a beer.”
I laugh. “Who the fuck offered you a beer?”
“You were about to.” He pats my shoulder. “You’re not expecting anyone, are you?”
I scratch my head. “No.”
“I know you need to sleep.” He takes off toward my kitchen. “Doctors always need more sleep, so I won’t stay long.”
Since I could use the distraction, I shake my head. “You can stick around for awhile.”
He appears again with two open bottles in his hand. He hands me the water, keeping the beer for himself. “I noticed you didn’t have any wine at dinner, so I assume you’re on call.”
I’m not, which is why I pounded back the whiskey at the bar less than an hour ago. “Thanks.”
“I wanted to check in.” He makes himself comfortable in one of the gray armchairs in my living room. “I know that question about why you became a doctor isn’t as cut and dry as everyone thinks it is.”
I don’t want to wander down memory lane tonight, so I shut him down. “I think Stevie got what she needed for the assignment.”
He takes the hint. “She did.”
We sit in silence as he takes a pull from the bottle.
“Anything new going on with you?” He glances around my apartment, which hasn’t changed in years.
I don’t spend enough time here to have plants or a pet. My fridge has the bare minimum in it and I’d be right in assuming that every box of crackers or cereal in my cupboard has surpassed its best by date by months, if not years.
I live at the hospital and vacation at my office because my work there is a dream compared to the shit I see in the ED and the cardiac care unit.
That’s my life. It will always be my life.
“You know that drill.” I chuckle. “Work, sleep, repeat.”