Atlas:
So?
Sutton:
So, that’s clearly a lie.
Atlas:
Gotta go. Practice.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
SUTTON
Turnedout I didn’t have to worry about living under the same roof as Atlas and putting my willpower to the test, because he was never home. Always gone before I woke up and never returned until after I was in bed.
But even without him being present, he was stillpresent. Sending lunch to the clinic on the days I’d been too slammed to grab anything, setting up profiles for Laurel and me on all his streaming services, even leaving a stack of romance books from the library on the counter for me.
Honestly, I was getting whiplash from it all. Worse was that I didn’tlikenot seeing him for the week. Yeah, he drove me up a wall most of the time, but I’d grown accustomed to our interactions. And now that they were gone, I actually missed them.
I was gathering my things after our last patient had cleared out of the clinic when Quinn cornered me in the back room.
“Not so fast,” she said. “I let last week slide when you avoided me like the plague. Even allowed you this entire week to give me every excuse in the book. But two weeks without answers? I’m not letting you dodge me anymore.”
Fuck.
“Dodge you about what?” I grabbed my bag, doing my best to pretend I had no idea what she was talking about. None at all. Certainly not about the beast of a man who was suddenly my pretend-but-real-to-everyone-else boyfriend I’d moved in with.
“Don’t even try it.” Quinn crossed her arms and stared down her nose at me, her unwavering attention making me shift on my feet. “Time to fill me in on whatever the hell is going on between you and Atlas.”
Double fuck.
“I want to fill you in. I do. But Alicia needs to leave, so maybe now isn’t a good?—”
“Alicia wants to hear this as much as I do.”
Our receptionist came strolling in, securing her locs back with a hair tie, and smirked at me. “Oh, Iabsolutelydo.”
“Well, Laurel’s waiting out front, so maybe we could rain-check this?”
“Oh, please.” Quinn rolled her eyes. “She’s got her earbuds in, completely oblivious to the world around her.”
“She didn’t even notice when I told her I was coming back here,” Alicia confirmed with a nod.
“See?” Quinn said. “No more dodging. It’s time to spill. You and Atlas are a fully fledged couple now? How did that happen?”
That was a great question—one Atlas and I hadn’t yet discussed. So, I figured it was best to stick to the facts as closely as possible.
“Things just kind of spiraled after that kiss in One Night Stan’s.”
Her brows inched up. “I’m not surprised. It was one hell of a kiss. Reminded me a bit of the first kiss I shared with Ford, actually, right there at that bar.”
“Really?” I asked.
“Yep. Well, except that we were tucked away in an alcove so no one would see, and yours was right there out in the open foreveryoneto see. And talk about.”
“Mhmm,” Alicia said with a nod. “Been hearing about it nonstop around here.”
