I tucked my tablet under my arm and took a step backward into the hallway.Just outside of the door, I paused.Trying to put the past few minutes behind me, I psyched myself up for a new patient.But more than the humiliation, the unwanted resurfacing of my biggest failure lingered.
Regret was a weight on my chest, my lungs too tight to fill fully.It was coming home to an empty house, and a string of meaningless sex.Regret was missing one person too much to consider finding someone new.Being single could be lonely.It was okay, though.For now.But how much longer would now be?
Falling required a leap, and I hadn’t been brave enough to stray from the safety of my path for years.In so many ways, I’d never been more emotionally available in my life, but only with my existing relationships.Ones where the dynamic was set.Where I felt secure.
Someone unproven?
With the battered remains of my heart?
I didn’t think so.
Decked shoulder to ankle in tie-dye, having just turned down Lily’s advances and been chewed out for it, while having an existential crisis, I opened the door to exam room one.The tablet screen displayed the dog’s weight, and name, but little else.
There was a gasp from within the room before a plastic jar of dog treats scattered on the tile floor.The little dog startled at the owner’s feet and sniffed one of the Milk-Bones.I took a deep breath and blew it out between pursed lips.It wasn’t a big deal, but after the onslaught of the last few minutes my threshold for irritation was pretty low.
“Ugh ...”the woman groaned.A curtain of russet waves concealed her face, except for the point of her chin.Her fingertips pressed to her lips.There was something familiar about her hair.The color.The texture.
The memory loomed.As if there was something important I was forgetting.
My growing dread was calmed as realization dawned.My neighbor from this morning.The one that had stopped my heart looking so much like Alicia.
But it was never Alicia.
Sighing, I lowered to one knee.“It’s okay.”
I scooped up the treats, and they fell back into the jar with little thuds.The dog smelled the air, testing out my scent.I extended my arm to her with a little bone in my palm.“Hey there, girl.Want one?”
She sat back and began itching, looking up at her owner, who hadn’t moved an inch.
“Not for you?That’s okay, I’ve got better stuff.”I assured the dog.
Still on one knee, I offered my hand to the woman.“Would you take—”
My throat choked close.Gold spots speckled my vision.Tingles shot through my fingers and arms.
How?
And I was offering her a fucking dog treat.
I croaked a single broken word.“Leese?”
Chapter Five
Alicia
“Leese?”Therewerenewwrinkles at the corner of Remi’s eyes.But it was unmistakably him.His broad shoulders, his tall frame.The curl of his upper lip, and the peaks of his cupid’s bow.High cheekbones, and the sharp, straight hook of his nose.
This man.
Here?
Theman.
Here?
His eyes the color of the midnight sky, darted around the room.A room filled with the clean, sweet smell of tobacco from the soap he apparently still used.A dog treat rested on the familiar lines of his calloused palm.
“Yeah, I work here,” he explained.He dropped the Milk-Bone to the floor and pushed himself to stand.With unsteady legs he took a few steps backward.
