Which left liberty for creative freedom.
“Wow, try not to sound like you’re being held at gunpoint next time.”
“Don’t you have lives to save? An organ to stitch back together perhaps?”
“Nope.” He let out a grunt that slowly morphed into a deep sigh. “Got the next forty-eight hours off. Lucky me.”
Was it really luck if he’d been on a nine-day rotation before this?
While I admired Silas’s work and his chosen career path, the life of a surgeon typically sounded like torture to me. Even on the good days where he got to brag about attaching some kid’s limb back onto their body.
“Though, I’m sure you’ll be calling me your first night there,” he said, his tone slipping from that usual nonchalant tone to one that never failed to instigate me. “You’ll see one bug bite on your skin and end up losing your mind because you’ll convince yourself it was a snake bite instead.”
What the hell was with the stray balls?
I got that he was pissy I was leaving him for six weeks, but damn, he didn’t have to go for my jugular like that. At least Avery had the decency to sound happy for me, even if he, too, didn’t get my decision to go.
I wasn’t looking for understanding, I was looking for support. Simple as that.
“How much?” I said.
“What?”
“How much are we betting? Seeing as you’resoconfident I’m going to come crying to you on day one.”
“Night one,” he corrected. “And you definitely will. Or at least, in the first week.”
“How. Much,” I gritted through my teeth.
The other end of the phone was silent for a moment, allowing me to finish the rest of my packing while he continued to devise what was probably a very diabolical punishment for me if I was to actually lose this.
Ironic, seeing as how my toxic trait was being competitive as fuck. Turning it into a superpower for my job was the ultimate fuck you to the universe and subsequently everyone else who dared to think they’d be good enough to win against me.
Finances were a game played on a massive scale where the stakes were the difference between buying a second vacation home or getting evicted and kicked out onto the streets. The potential to ruin someone else’s life simply by making one wrong move was thrilling if not downright boner inducing.
But I digress.
“It’s an IOU,” he finally said.
Raising my brow, I repeated. “IOU?”
“You remember what it stands for?”
If only I could reach through the phone and strangle him. The worst part is that he’d probably like it.
“What are the parameters of this IOU?”
“The usual. One favor at any time, any place, anywhere. Winner gets to choose the timeline on when the favor needs to be redeemed by.”
“Fine,” I said, hauling my bag off of my bed in order to swing it around and dump it next to my door. “You’ve got yourself a deal. I look forward to proving you wrong.”
“Me too. Though, I doubt you will.”
Oh, he was so lucky he wasn’t standing right next to me. “Goodbye, Silas.”
“Call me before you lose service. So I know where to send the forest rangers when they have to come rescue you.”
Rolling my eyes, I slammed my thumb down on the ‘end’ icon and tossed my phone onto my bed.
